Council Meeting 4/25/2019

Tonight at Council we addressed several issues, funding for the roads program for this year and next year, the discussion regarding purchase of a property by the city, a proclamation for the Council Clerk regarding her retirement, and several appointments for public employees.

• The roads program that the city has put together and council has committed to is impressive–it is the largest program that has been done in the past.  The purpose of this is to eliminate the number of roads in the city that are at a “poor” or “failed” rating.  When the roads were rated based on their condition in 2017 there were approximately 10% of the asphalt roads rated poor or worse.  After the completion of the proposed 2019 and 2020 roads program would eliminate a majority of the poor or worse roads, leaving only about 1% with that rating.  This increase in spending and forecasting for this year and next year is a big commitment by the city and this council to continue to improve our infrastructure.  The amount of this program is realistically about all the city can handle completing in a season based on the time frame of road work season and the staff levels the city requires to support the work.  I am glad to see the roads that are being addressed and that many in Ward 2 are on the proposed agenda.  The city will be going out for bid on these projects and once that process is complete they will be able to finalize the roads and schedule for this work.  The work for 2020 will not be bid until next year, but having a plan of roads to address already will make the process of going out to bid easier for next year which will hopefully allow the process to start earlier.
• There was a lot of discussion regarding the purchase of a piece of property on Darrow Road north of the post office.  The discussion was two-fold and was regarding the actual land purchase and then potential use that this land could be used to create a private-public partnership for the development of a rec center/sports complex.  For me, these are 2 separate issues–the land purchase to consolidate into the city property already surrounding this land and then the potential for what could be developed here.  Right now, the idea of a city center, a downtown, a rec center, and everything else that has been thrown out for the use of the land has been very speculative–there is no committed developer, plan or drawings.  To me, the actually development is still down the road and there needs to be a lot more detail and information provided before council could move forward on any project, regardless of use, developer, etc.  I do however feel that the land purchase is an issue that we should address now–the City has wanted to purchase this land for a long time, it is already land locked by City property, and right now the owner is interested in selling.  The agreed to purchase price for the property was $231,000, a price that I did not feel was inflated based on the use of the property going forward as a commercial instead of residential.  We did vote on this issue and it failed to pass with a 3-3 vote, Costello, D’Antonio, and myself voted for this, Lowdermilk, Rasor, and Riehl voted against.  I think this issue could come up again in the future if more details and information are provided about the potential development that could take place on this property.
• Bonnie Emahiser, the current Clerk of Council, also served at her last City Council meeting. She has worked for the City of Stow for over 40 years and was honored tonight with a proclamation from the Mayor.  Bonnie is a wealth of knowledge about so many things and her retirement will be felt by all of council and city staff.  Many nice words were shared about her and I know all of Council wishes her the best in her retirement!
• City Council also confirmed the appointment of Brendan Mackin as Law Director–he will serve until a new Law Director is elected in November.  Council also approved the appointment of Jaime Syx as the new deputy law director to work with Law Director.  There were also two appointments in the finance department that were created by vacancy and retirement.