Regular Council Meeting Thursday, May 6, 2004 Regular Council Meeting Mayor Dave France called the meeting to order. Roll Call: John Synodinos present, Dr. Robert Price present, Dave Smith present, Robert Martin Sr. present, Matt Parise present, Thomas Bottorf present. Officials: Mayor Dave France present, Solicitor Christopher D. Becker present, Clerk Treasurer Mike Payne present, Administrator Walt Ziemba. Moment of Silence Pledge of Allegiance Reading of Minutes Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Robert Martin Sr. to approve the minutes from the Regular Council Meeting held on April 15, 2004. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Persons Appearing Before Council Dennis Yurkovich, MS Consultants, addressed Council on the work that his company had done the past two years for the Village. He distributed handouts that described some of his company's findings. He said that his company's indings were not unusual for a system with the age of Wintersville's John Synodinos questioned the high cost of the repairs recommended by MS Consultants. Dennis Yurkovich said that the report stage of the costs often included contingencies and were intent on covering all fees. Matt Parise asked how long Mr. Yurkovich had been with MS Consultants and whether he had been with them during the entire time MS Consultants had been working with Wintersville. Dennis Yurkovich said he had been with MS Consultants for 2 ½ years and had been on the Wintersville project since the beginning. He added that he had worked for EPA for 5 ½ years prior to working with MS Consultants. He agreed with Matt Parise's comment that MS Consultants had charged the Village approximately $23,000 for their initial consulting fee. Matt Parise asked why the initial sturdy by MS Consultants indicated the Village would only have to append $150,000 -250,000 and the latest report showed that 1.4 million. Dennis Yurkovich said the he would have to review the reports to see what each include. Robert Martin Sr. asked if some of the problems could be handled through spot repairs. Dennis Yurkovich said that this could be done but might be more expensive in the long run because other problems would pop up. Robert Martin Sr. inquired about using liners to fix some of the sewer problems. Dennis Yurkovich discussed two types of liners that could be used, both types that would go from manhole to manhole, but they might be expensive because of access problems. He said he could discuss this with contractors. He agreed that this method eliminated interrupting street traffic. He also said that these liners increased the system life span similar to new ones. Walt Ziemba said that he had met with Mr. Campbell from the EPA to discuss the Village's plan to address EPA concerns. He said that he told Mr. Campbell that the Village planned to have a design estimate prepared and to go out for bid on certain sewer improvements. He also told Mr. Campbell that the Village planned to go after Issue 2 funding next year for projects not started this year. Dr. Robert Price asked Mr. Yurkovich if his experience with using liners to repair sewer lines had been successful. Dennis Yurkovich said that in numerous projects where this option was studied it was decided to go with the regular method. He said that the City of Canfield and Columbus had used this method successfully. Matt Parise said that the current contract with MS Consultants did not include design work to help prepare bid documents. He said that he would like to see the Village get an engineering firm list together to use for Soliciting bids for preparing design estimates. Dennis Yurkovich said that there was about $20,000 remaining in the budget for the work MS Consultants was now doing that would not be needed. Mayor Dave France said that Council was concerned about the high (1.4 Million) number prepared by MS Consultants for sewer repairs. Ordinances and/or Resolutions Resolution 2004-07: A resolution adopting the 2005 budget was read for the 1st time. Matt Parise asked why the budget was not attached. Mike Payne said that Council Members had been given a copy of this budget four weeks ago and that a copy of this budget would accompany the final Resolution as well as being available, as required, in the Clerk's Office. Ordinance 2004-08: An Ordinance changing sanitation rates, was read for the first time. Matt Parise asked if the sanitation committee had met on this ordinance since it was previously defeated to consider other options. Thomas Bottorf said that he did not feel this was necessary since the committee had met numerous times over the past year to prepare this ordinance and the only reason it was defeated was because of the makeup of Council the night of the vote on the Ordinance. John Synodinos asked if Kurt Vandeborne wanted to address Council on the ordinance. Kurt Vandeborne said that he had already addressed Council on this issue and had already e-mailed most of Council members with some additional information concerning this issue. He said he would approach Dr. Price individually to discuss his concerns. Resolution 2004-09: A Resolution to place a two-mill fire levy for a 5-year term on the ballot was read for the 1st time. Chris Becker explained that the levy language containing the term impose, meant that the levy would be imposed by the voters and not Council. John Synodinos said he was uncomfortable about a two-mill levy for the fire department until Chief Herrington presented something in black and white that showed they needed the funds. Mayor Dave France asked Walt Ziemba to contact Chief Herrington regarding this request. Ordinance 2004-10: An Ordinance to allow for advertising the sale of two police cruisers. Chris Becker said that Chief Laman asked that the 2nd and 3rd reads of this ordinance be waived. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Matt Parise to suspend the rules for the 2nd and 3rd readings of Ordinance 2004-10. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf nay. Motion passed 5-1. Ordinance 2004-10: An Ordinance to advertise for bids for the sale of two police cruisers was read for the 2nd and 3rd times. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Dave Smith to approve Ordinance 2004-10. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Reports, Announcements and Communications Mayor Dave France read the Magistrate, Police and Building Inspector's Report for the Month of April 2004. Mayor France said that the Chamber of Commerce dues had been renewed. Thomas Bottorf announced that the water and sewer committee had recently met and that Council Members had been given a copy of the meeting's minutes. Thomas Bottorf asked that Mike Payne review the management comments that had been prepared by the state auditors in their recent audit. Mike Payne reviewed these comments and offered to make copies of the report for any Councilpersons who would like to have a copy of the report. Mike Payne explained what expenses typically were paid from the recreation budget of approximately $13,000. Council members briefly discussed the budget of the upcoming Community Days. Mayor Dave France said he had no problem with the $2500.00 requested by the committee to be paid by the Village to subsidize the event. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Robert Martin Sr. to allocate up to $2,500 of Village recreation funds for the 2004 Community Days event. Discussion on the motion: Thomas Bottorf asked how the Village would be protected from any shortfalls of funds from the Community Days. Debbie Bottorf asked when the Community Day's event was scheduled. Robert Martin Sr. said that the event was set for August 13-15. Debbie Bottorf asked if the committee had a backup site in case the former Big Bear lot was not available. Matt Parise said everything was in the draft stage but they were looking at alternatives and would not be spending any money on the event if a location was not secure. Thomas Bottorf inquired about whether the committee would be using Village in-kind services. Matt Parise said that any Village related project had always used in-kind services in the past. He said that certainly they were expecting in-kind help for this year's event. Thomas Bottorf said he just wanted to be clear on the subject of in-kind services because last year some Council Members had been watching an event to see what Village employees were helping out. Mayor France said that much of the manpower would be on the employee's own time. Dave Smith said that the time spent by Village employees should be documented by Chief Laman and Perry Pool. He said that he felt that the Recreation Committee should meet to discuss some of these issues. John Synodinos said that moving this matter to a committee would look like someone was trying to sabotage the event. Albert Carapellotti asked if the Village was intending on having two events this year. He said that the Community is too small to ask businesses to donate to two events. Robert Martin Sr. said that some of the Community Days event donations would come from Steubenville businesses. Thomas Bottorf said that he was against a Councilperson running the event and using it as a political event. He said he was also concerned about a late bill arriving and being the responsibility of the Village. John Synodinos said that he did not understand why Council Members were saying that the event would be used for political purposes because it was really an event for the Community. Thomas Bottorf said that he thought that it had been the consensus previously that the Village was not going to have two events. Robert Martin Sr. said that even the Mayor had agreed to support this event and that no one would be out campaigning during this event. Matt Parise said that there were Council Members who worked on the Thunder-in-the-Ville event and he was offended by the comment that everyone knew why this issue of funding Community Days had passed since four Councilpersons had voted for the event. He said the Committee was only asking for a fair amount of the funds available. Mike Payne suggested that the motion be amended to say that the Village will only provide a "net amount" of $2,500 since funds will be received through fund raising and other sources that can be paid back out as additional expenses. John Synodinos agreed to amend the motion to be a net amount of $2,500. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 5-1. Chris France asked if the Committee did not find a place to hold the event would the Village get their money back. Matt Parise said that they would not spend any funds without receipts. Administrator Report Walt Ziemba presented a list of items for discussion. Walt Ziemba briefly reviewed the estimate to have Novak's Gardens spruce up the area around the Municipal building. Chris Becker discussed the liability issue of installing a crosswalk on Fernwood Road. He explained that the Village would have a little more liability if a crosswalk was installed since it was a discretionary action. He suggested that a traffic study be done before Council voted to install the crosswalk. He also said he would give Council a written opinion on this matter at the next Council meeting. Matt Parise asked that since the Village had been notified of this dangerous situation did that affect the Village's liability if nothing was done. Chris Becker said that since this project is a discretionary action the Village was exempt from being sued if they did not put up any crosswalk. Thomas Bottorf questioned whether the Village was more liable for streets with "Children Playing" signs. Kurt Vandeborne said there were still some remaining signs near the old Wintersville Elementary School. Dave Smith said that he questioned spending Village funds to aid a private business. Doug Zink said that his crosswalk would be used for kids crossing the street after getting out of the school bus. Chris Becker said that stopping for school bus traffic was covered under separate laws. Dave France said that he had been approached by BHJ regarding traffic counts. He said these accounts could be changed to include Fernwood Road. Matt Parise said he was in favor of installing the crosswalk but was concerned with maintaining it. Robert Martin Sr. said the crosswalk could be painted over each time to eliminate the maintenance issue. Walt Ziemba gave a brief update on the light pole issue on Grove Street and said he would get a few more quotes to finish the project. Walt Ziemba discussed briefly the issue on water drainage on Leonard Ave. He explained the options available and also the possibility of obtaining Issue II funds next year for this work needed. Matt Parise said that he had no problem using an inexpensive temporary fix as long as the project went on a list for future repairs. Albert Carapelotti stated that he had spent a lot of personal funds fixing similar problem near his home. Chris Becker said that normally these types of things are the citizen's responsibility unless the Village does something to create the problem. Thomas Bottorf suggested that digital pictures be taken in the future for these types of things. Walt Ziemba discussed the reasons and costs associated with moving water and sewer lines in the Jo-Ann Filed development. He also added that the time line to do this was important. Chris Becker told Council that this was private property that contained Village easements. Albert Carapellotti said that with WODA Developing in this area that a couple of additional businesses had expressed interest in also locating in this area and that is why the lines needed to be relocated. Chris Becker said that currently the property owners were prohibited from putting anything on top of the lines without Village permission. He said that the water lines were owned by the County and the Village owned the sewer lines. Robert Martin Sr. said that the County should be responsible to move the water lines. Beth Rupert, Susan Drive, said that the Village should contact Bill Gotchall at the Ohio Department of Development, because there may be funds available to help with this type of project, which would be similar to the Airport project. Matt Parise said that if money is available for this it should be investigated. Mayor Dave France said that all parties involved should get together to discuss this issue. Thomas Bottorf suggested having a water and sewer meeting to discuss this next week and that Jack Gilmore be invited. Beth Rupert said that all of the facts and figures needed to be in place when meeting with Bill Gotchall. Robert Martin Sr. said that the WODA developers should also be invited to any meeting on this issue. Matt Parise asked Walt Ziemba to contact WODA Representatives to attend a meeting on this matter. John Synodinos said he would like to see WODA Representatives bring any documents showing type of requirements for occupants. Dave Smith said that the Village needed to get moving on this issue since the WODA part of it had already been approved. Walt Ziemba said that John McDevitt has prepared the paperwork needed to move forward on annexation. Matt Parise said that when the annexation maps were prepared he would have an annexation committee meeting. Mayor Dave France asked Council if they wanted to continue the practice of having a Village clean-up month in June, since the sanitation fund was in poor financial condition. John Synodinos said that he did not think the Village could afford to continue this practice, but other things needed to be looked at if this was going to be cut. Robert Martin Sr. suggested charging a fee to all residents to cover the expense of this pick-up service. Matt Parise said he was in favor of stopping the pick-up this year, but he was not in favor of eliminating the practice forever. Thomas Bottorf suggested deferring this year's clean up until the sanitation finances were in better shape. Kurt Vandeborne suggested that residents have a central location to save costs. John Synodinos said that there may be residents who are not willing to pick-up the tab for this service. Diane Denny suggested using stickers for those residents who wanted to have a pick-up. Aratha Hallenball, suggested that people pay for the pick-up service through their water bill. Matt Parise said it would be difficult to know what to charge for this service until the numbers were all determined. Council agreed to not have a spring trash pick-up in June and to wait until later in the summer to schedule this. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Matt Parise to have Chris Becker prepare an ordinance to make the practice of granting a $15.00 credit on sewer bills for those residents who call in to say they need to top off their pool each year. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Motion by Matt Parise, second by Robert Martin to allow a $15.00 credit on sewer bills this year for residents who call the water office to say they need to top off their pools. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Council briefly discussed how many summer help workers should be requested from the Community Action Council. Most of Council members seemed to favor using as many workers as possible since there was no cost to the Village. Walt Ziemba briefly discussed some minor changes that Comcast would be making in their channels in the Wintersville service area. Walt Ziemba briefly mentioned a report that he had included with Councils packets that was titled MS4 annual report. Dave France said he would like to see the finance committee meet and discuss the New Administrator's work schedule including whether to compensate him for additional hours put in attending meetings. Matt Parise said that a report prepared by Dee Petrella from the Village's water system software showed that in a recent month 60% of customers used 3000 gallons or less and 75% used 4 gallons or less. Unfinished Business Mayor France explained that according to Roberts Rules of Order that this part of the meeting was the responsibility of the clerk to prepare a list of items that had been discussed but not resolved at the previous meeting. Chief Laman said that a stop sign would be put at the top of Sam's Way as soon as he had time to check with Perry Pool on whether he had any signs. Walt Ziemba said he would follow up with the businesses on Luray Drive that had signs that needed put back up. Matt Parise said that he had met with ODOT Representatives who were to get back with him. He said that one of the things they were to get for him was a traffic count on the proposed Sabina Drive Loop. Motion by Dave Smith, second by Thomas Bottorf to rescind the previous motion to take the Sabina Drive option off the table as an option in the Route 43 Project. Discussion on motion Matt Parise said that this decision needed to be in the form of an Ordinance that was prepared by ODOT for the Village. Matt Parise said that Council had previously told Sabina Drive residents that they would be notified when any discussion of this issue would take place. John Synodinos agreed that it would have been courteous to let the residents know about this vote. Vote: John Synodinos nay, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. nay, Matt Parise nay, Thomas Bottorf yea. Mayor France broke the tie by voting yea. Motion passed 4-3. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Robert Martin Sr. to prepare an Ordinance as prepared by ODOT regarding Sabina Drive. Vote: John Synodinos nay, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. nay, Matt Parise nay, Thomas Bottorf yea. Mayor France broke the tie by voting yea. Motion passed 4-3. New Business Matt Parise said that Perry Pool had asked him to discuss the issue of having a credit card for employees who go to seminars. He said that he and Mike Payne were checking with local banks to see if they could issue a corporate card. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by John Synodinos to obtain a corporate card. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price nay, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf nay. Motion passed 4-2. Matt Parise questioned a software purchase made by Mayor France for the Village web site. Mayor Dave France explained that the individual doing work on the Village's web site had not been charging for his time but the Village needed to reimburse him for the cost of the dated software that he had purchased for the Village. Matt Parise said that the proposed water and sewer contract with the County has been on the table for a long time. He said that our employees and residents don't know what is going to happen with the water situation and Council need to make a decision on this matter. He said that the issue is being rehashed over and over and that it was time to put this in the form of a motion and to vote on the issue after an Ordinance was prepared. Dave Smith said that Council could not vote on something that had blank lines for numbers in it. Matt Parise said there were no blank lines in the contract. Thomas Bottorf asked if the County had ever approved the contract. Chris Becker said that the County prepared the initial contract and the Dennis O'Toole had "tweaked" the contract and then if was sent back to the County who were waiting until the Village approved the contract before the commissioners voted on it. Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to have an Ordinance prepared that would allow a vote on the proposed water and sewer agreement with Jefferson County. Vote: John Synodinos nay, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 5-1. Chris Becker said that he had received a letter from Mike Simon. an attorney for Robert Cooper, regarding changing his status from terminated to resigned. Chief Ed Laman said that on March 21, 2003 Cooper was terminated because he failed to follow orders. He said that basically he was not putting in the time required by Village Ordinance for Auxiliary policeman. He said that he cost the Village $7,000 because he turned in the Village to the Government for the way the Village was paying Auxiliary officers. Chief Laman said that he was willing to have his termination be changed to a resignation if it would save the Village the time to dispute the matter. Matt Parise said that his employee had cost the Village $7,000 and also made the Chief change his scheduling of Auxiliary time. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by John Synodinos to change the termination status of Robert Cooper to resignation status. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price nay, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise nay, Thomas Bottorf yea. Mayor broke the tie by voting yea. Motion passed 4-3. Chris Becker said that the rental agreement for the Woodridge Property is set to expire July 31, 2004. Chris Becker said he would prepare a rental agreement with the tenants (Patricia & Gary Miles) that would be presented to them after the Administrator checked to see if they desired to have the lease renewed. Robert Martin Sr. left the meeting at this point. Chris Becker said that he and Attorney Dennis O'Toole had responded to the lawsuit with the City of Steubenville. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Matt Parise to approve the transfers prepared by Mike Payne. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf tea. Motion passed 5-0. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Matt Parise to pay bills as funds become available. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 4-0 For the Good of the Village Diane Denny asked what would be done by Novak's if their quote was accepted. Thomas Bottorf said that the new building needed to be kept looking nice on the outside. Kurt Vandeborne said that the Mayor might want to consider moving up the "Good of the Village" part of the meeting. He said that it was a shame that Council was still split on most issues. He said that an event held by the Village could only be successful if members supported each other. He said that he felt bad that the Vote on the sanitation issue had changed. Dr. Robert Price said that the Village needed somebody like Mr. Vandeborne to move in to the Village and run for Council. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Dave Smith to adjourn. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 5-0. Next regular Council Meeting is May 20, 2004 at 7:00 PM. Mike Payne, Clerk Treasurer Dave France, Mayor