The Fire and Police Chief updated us on how our safety forces are doing related to COVID-19 crisis. Chief Film stated the police department is still sourcing PPE for police officers and so they have had enough PPE for the police officers. Chief Stone stated just in the past few days the fire department has received an uptick in COVID-19 related calls, and especially from some of our nursing and assisted living locations. This has caused an increase in PPE needs again, and specifically the need for more gowns. The fire department is currently looking at some alternate sources to find that type of PPE now. The firefighter who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 has recovered and returned to work.
There was also some information on the recent approval for City of Stow to use Silver Springs Campground to allow resident first responders to be able to stay in a camper or RV at the campground to isolate from their families. I have updated on this before, this was something that came up through a need and conversation with a resident in my ward. I had discussions with the administration and they were in favor of doing this, however, Summit County Health ended up stating we were not able to do this because the state would not allow it. I did not feel that our message of our purpose and use had made it to the state very well so I enlisted the help of State Senator Kristina Roegner to create a better dialogue with the State Health Department to get this moved forward. After several conversations and discussions on the purpose and use, we received approval to do this. I am appreciative of our service department, law department, and fire department for coming together quickly to create the documents and process to get this started almost immediately! There has already been one approved application for use and I hope that others that can use this will also come forward.
The city also introduced a banner program that will honor the 2020 graduation seniors. The banners will be sold through the city parks and rec department and can be purchased for Stow seniors and other seniors living in the city that attend private schools. The information is available on the city website and these will be sold through May 8, 2020. I will be happily sponsoring a senior banner myself and I will be encouraging other council members to also consider a sponsorship to make sure all of our seniors will be honored.
The Budget Oversight Committee had its first meeting at Council and Mr. Hailer gave an overview of the committee and how they are planning to move forward in gather information from the Finance Department and also reach out to former Mayors and Council Members to get their insights on dealing with difficult times in the past. In March the City had roughly a $200,000 shortfall, this amount is telling for how this pandemic will continue to impact us; we will continue to see the impact of this issue when we see how income tax withholdings from employers are shaping up over the next few weeks and months.
Council approved a new 55 unit townhome development to be built on Route 91. This development meets the current zoning of the property and will be located south of the cemetery and north of Clock Point office buildings. This developer is ready to move forward with this development which is good to see during this time of so much uncertainty. This development will also do a cash in lieu of setting aside park space in their development. This means that the developer will give $500 per unit to the City Parks for their use in our current park system.
Stow City Council will have a public hearing at 5:30 PM on May 14, 2020 regarding re-zoning of property to the west of Woodland Elementary on Graham Road. This public hearing will be done virtually. The Council Meeting will begin after the Committee meetings (to be announced) or at 7 PM, whichever may be later.