We had our first virtual Committee and Council meeting on Thursday April 9th. The agenda wasn’t super lengthy, but we did have a rather lengthy executive session regarding discussion of 2 potential hires and 1 potential promotion. These items did get added to the council agenda however, these items were only given a first reading. There is much uncertainty going on right now that is affecting not just Stow, but our nation. There will be significant impact on our city finances in 2020, this was re-affirmed by a letter from our Finance Department to all Council members earlier this week in which they out right stated “available General Fund resources will be significantly reduced for 2020.” In addition, other funding resources also will be impacted, as some rely on Gasoline Tax, Lodging Tax, etc. All of these are being impacted in our current state. With all that in mind, Council members agreed that at this current moment the uncertainty was too great to move forward with additional headcount to our city staff. We hope that as the next few weeks pass, we will have slightly better information to be able to make a decision on these roles.
We also received an update from the Fire and Police Chief on our current state of affairs. We were updated by Chief Stone that one of our fire fighters has tested positive for COVID-19 and has since been at home recovering. Chief Stone said he is recovering, and that this week was much better than the first being sick and he is looking forward to returning to work. We know that our first responders are on the front lines of this and that this is very unlikely to be the only first responder that will be positive for COVID-19. We wish this firefighter a continued recovery and pray for our other first responders that they stay safe while protecting our citizens. Chief Stone did state that they are feeling much better about the level of PPE available to our staff as several alternate sources have been able to deliver and keep up with the PPE needs.
We passed one piece of legislation on Thursday, this was a repeal of prior legislation that created a committee related to the city center project and the replacement of SKiP Park. There has been much confusion about this committee since its creation when it came to light that the Mayor had already selected an advisory committee to work on this project. Overall, this repeal was to end confusion over different committees. The administration shall handle the review and recommend to council any ideas they come up with related to SKiP Park and City Center. Council ultimately still has decision making authority on whatever will be built at City Center. A second piece of legislation was also suggested for repeal related to the Council matching of up to $75,000 of donations received by the City for the re-building of SKiP. In the times we are in right now, and with a freeze on all capital projects, it is hardly prudent to leave this legislation out there until such time our finances are better understood to see if there would even be money available to support a new playground. I have spoken to Mr. Hailer who is chairing the Budget Oversight committee and asked him to consider whether this is something that would 1. Be a priority to the committee and council and 2. If it would be feasible. I think with all capital projects and equipment listed in 2020, this item needs put on that list to be considered, however, until such time it is deemed feasible, the legislation should be repealed. It doesn’t mean we couldn’t do it in the future, it just puts it on the list for consideration with every other project we also have on the list instead of being already earmarked for spending.
We will host our next virtual Council Meeting on Thursday April 23, 2020, Council is planned to start at 7 PM, committee meeting times will be announced closer to the date. The Committee and Council meetings will stream live on the City of Stow YouTube Channel.