Council approved the purchase of 7 additional trucks for the City fleet last week, a few of which were trucks that were on the plan to purchase last year but with the shortage of vehicles were not able to be ordered. Typically, the City purchases vehicles from the state bid list from the state approved vendors. However, this year none of the major car manufacturers bid on the state bid for vehicles because of the current market of vehicles often selling for over MSRP. This means the City had to take a more proactive role to source the vehicles needed and hope that we can purchase them with some type of incentive or discount to be below MSRP. This past month this was able to happen and several vehicles that were budgeted for were approved for purchase.
The Law Department shared they are bringing back the neighborhood mediation program that had been defunct in the City for the last several years. This is a collaboration with Stow, Cuyahoga Falls, Tallmadge, and the University of Akron School of Law and aims to resolve neighbor conflicts without a legal proceeding. Additional information can be found on the City website here: https://stowohio.org/working-together-to-resolve-neighbor-disputes/
Council also approved the hiring of a replacement firefighter for the City at our meeting due to an upcoming retirement in the department. This means we have two current openings for firefighters in the City along with a police officer opening as well. The tests for these positions has closed and we look forward to seeing new candidates coming before Council for approval soon.
Last but not least, Council approved the hiring of a vendor to provide a roof for the new shelter and restrooms at Adell Durbin park. This project has been a long time coming with many pieces arriving last year, but still having a shortage of materials and labor to get it complete. This project should be underway in the next several weeks and I know the residents look forward to seeing this project completed.
Council will be meeting for a Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday May 5th for a presentation of the Parks Master Plan and will have our next regular meeting on Thursday May 12th with committees starting at 5:30 PM and Council to follow no earlier than 7 PM.