At this council meeting we had all 7 members present. This allowed us to vote on a charter amendment that had been held for several votes. The voted on charter amendment that will appear on the fall ballot is an amendment that starting in January 2, 2020 Planning Commission members will have term limits. The language proposed allows for Planning Commission members to serve for two 4 year terms, for a total of 8 years. I think this is continuing the trend of term limits already applicable to many of our city roles and allows for more people to get involved and know what is going on in our city. We will see how the voters feel in the fall as to whether this takes affect.
The second charter amendment discussed involved amending the City Charter to state that the Safety Services Communication Center would have to remain in Stow and specifically remain in the Safety Building. The idea behind this amendment is driven by the prior discussions of the City to enter into a regional dispatch center which would be controlled by a Council of Governments (COG). This was something that was heavily discussed in the past but after some digging did not seem beneficial and disappeared. Nothing our City does is more important than emergency services showing up in a timely manner when needed. I am not opposed to idea above, I do however think the language could be a little more specific as to the purpose of the amendment is really to keep the control of our Safety Services Communication Center specifically within our own city control and not to have services controlled by a COG. Overall, this amendment would define these services must stay within the City now, and if the City would want to enter a COG in the future it would again have to go to the voters before it would be possible. I will be reviewing the language to see if there is a good amendment that would accomplish the purpose stated above.
We also recognized citizens who entered photos into the “how do you picture Stow” photo contest. There were some really amazing photos and they will be displayed at City Hall for all who visit there to enjoy.
We also appointed a new member, Charles Obendorf, to the Board of Zoning and Appeals (this position was previously held by Jamie Syx who was recently resigned this position after she was hired as the deputy law director).
There are also several maintenance and road projects starting in the city with the nicer weather here:
- Baseball fields at Oregon Trail Park were updated
- Kid Station (the red park) is closed this week for repairs and upgrades to include shade sails and a picnic area
- Safety Town will be getting several new benches
- Graham Road paving will begin on Tuesday May 28th-one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction. This project is expected to last at least 5 weeks depending on the weather
The next Council meeting will be Thursday June 13, 2019 at 7 PM