Regular Council Meeting Thursday, June 3, 2004 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 Dr. Robert Price, second by Thomas Bottorf to approve the minutes from the Regular Council meeting held May 20, 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. Motion by Robert Martin Sr. second by Dr. Robert Price to approve the minutes from the special Council meeting held May 25, 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. Person Appearing before Council Pat Davis, Meadow Road, asked if the Village was enforcing the Ordinance on high grass. Lou Vandeborne said letters recently were mailed to property owners on this. Pat Davis asked about requiring property owners to rake up the grass. Chris Becker said that there was no Ordinance dealing with raking the grass. Mayor France said he would contact property owners again concerning cutting and raking the grass. Barb Davis said that one lot has had large tires lying in the grass for three years that are probably attracting mosquitoes. Mayor France said he would look into this matter. Pat Davis asked if anyone at the Village was responsible for writing grants for recreation, he said the Village was not listed on the grants awarded by the County this year. Robert Martin Sr. said that since the Village was awarded a grant last year that caused Wintersville to be moved down the list for an award in 2004. Pat Davis said that he had brought an outside visitor to the Municipal building who had complimented the Village on the building, but had commented that the front of the building needed to be spruced up. Mayor France said that the Village hoped to rectify this situation soon. Reading of Ordinances and/or Resolutions Resolution 2004-07: An Resolution adopting the 2005 County budget was read for the 3rd. times. Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to approve Resolution 2004-07. 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. Ordinance 2004-08: An Ordinance changing Garbage rates was read for the 3rd time. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dr. Robert Price to approve Ordinance 2004-08. Discussion on Motion: Matt Parise asked how businesses would be notified if their rates were changing. Walt Ziemba said he would be sending notices to businesses affected. Matt Parise said that he felt that businesses who did not have dumpsters should not be charged and overage amount until they exceeded 18 bags instead of 12 the way the Ordinance was written. Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to amend the Ordinance to not charge the overage to non-dumpster customers until they exceeded 18 bags of trash. Robert Martin Sr. asked that the amendment go further and reduce the overage to $2.50 per bag over 18 as well. This additional clause to the amendment was agreed to by Matt Parise and John Synodinos. Discussion on the amendment to the Ordinance: Chris Becker said that this motion would not significantly change the Ordinance and therefore if it passed would not require 3 additional reads to the original Ordinance. Thomas Bottorf said that this Ordinance had been discussed since November 2003, and he did not feel it should be changed because the number of 12 bags had been established to encourage customers who exceed this number to switch to a dumpster, which is actually called for in another section of the Ordinance for businesses generating more that 12 bags of trash each week. Matt Parise said that he thought that the $5.00 per bag charge was excessive and also there were businesses who did not have room to put in dumpsters. Thomas Bottorf said that the amendment would make someone generating 7 bags of trash pay the same as someone generating 18 bags. Matt Parise said he would be willing to increase the rates to adjust for this. Vote on the Amendment to the Ordinance: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price nay, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf nay. Mayor France broke the tie by voting nay. Motion defeated 4-3. John Synodinos said that the Ordinance placed too heavy of a burden on those living in apartments and that he would like to see the rate increase spread over all customers. Motion by John Synodinos to amend the Ordinance to increase all homeowners monthly trash rate by $2.00 to $12.00 per month and set the apartment owners at $7.00 per month. This amendment died for lack of a second. Thomas Bottorf explained that the purpose of the Ordinance was to make all residents pay the same monthly fee. Vote on Ordinance 2004-08: John Synodinos nay, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. nay, Matt Parise nay, Thomas Bottorf yea. Mayor broke the tie by voting yea. Ordinance approved 4-3. Ordinance 2004-09: An Ordinance to place a fire levy on the ballot was read for the 3rd time. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Robert Martin Sr. to approve Ordinance 2004-09. 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. Ordinance 2004-11: An Ordinance creating a sewer charge allowance for pool owners was read for the 2nd time. Ordinance 2004-15: An Ordinance approving Walt Ziemba to live outside the Village was read for the 2nd time. Ordinance 2004-16: An Ordinance that would allow ODOT to proceed with the Sabina Drive option was read for the 2nd time. Robert Laukert said that the water issue in Wintersville had been going on for several years and that Council needed to address this issue. Robert Martin Sr. said Council was still waiting on information to make a decision on this issue. John Synodinos said that this issue would be the most important one in the history of the Village and he wanted to make sure that the best decision in the interests of the residents was made. Mayor France said that currently there were two factions on Council on this matter. One group who wanted Wintersville to maintain the water and sewer system and one group who wanted to turn the systems over to the County. Robert Laukert said that the water bills were still outrageous and that many Councilpersons campaigned to deal with this issue. Matt Parise said that the news media had done a good job getting to the public the positions, Council members had on this issue. He said that a meeting was held last week that was open to the public that dealt with this issue. Mayor France said that in the end some residents will gain and some will lose on this issue. He said that either the people who are using the minimum amount of water or the larger families and businesses would lose depending on which direction Council takes on this issue. Matt Parise discussed a traffic study that was sent to him and the Mayor regarding Sabina Drive. He said that this study indicated that over 900 vehicles per day would be using the proposed Sabina Drive by pass. John Synodinos said that he felt that Route 43 as a five lane road would be safe enough without installing this by pass. Reports, Announcements and Communications. Mayor France read the Code Enforcement officers report for May. Administrator's report Walt Ziemba discussed items from an Administrator's report summary that he had distributed to Council. These items included the following: 1) Two Police cruisers had been sold 2) Request for Village to renew the ad for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department safety booklet. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by John Synodinos to approve the cost of the ad in the booklet in the amount of $125.00. 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. 3) Request for summer help from the Community Action Council (6-8 employees). 4) Replacement of Village Flags. 5) Meeting with Bureau of Workers Comp. representative about discount program. Walt Ziemba said that the Village needed to belong to the area Safety Council to stay in the Bureau's Discount program. 6) Walt Ziemba explained that ODOT Representatives told him that the reason that the Pre-Emption lights/signals were not installed on 43 was because no one from the 7) Village requested this. He said ODOT told him that originally this cost would have been minimal but new cost may be prohibitive. 8) Walt Ziemba said that Jim Zorbini from the County is proceeding with the telemetry project to allow the Village to purchase more County water. He said that Mr. Zorbini acknowledged that the County would pick up 50% of the cost. 9) Announced that Comcast was lowering their basic cable rate form $13.54 to $13.24. 10) Listed several other items that needed to be discussed at various committee meetings. He also said he was working on grants to help fund recreation projects. Thomas Bottorf said that he would like to have a finance committee meeting at 6:00 PM prior to the next regular council meeting on June 17, 2004. Unfinished Business Walt Ziemba said that the signs on Luray Drive had been put back up. Chris Becker said that he had a conversation with Dennis O'Toole and that the restraining order had been extended indefinitely regarding the water purchase from Steubenville and that a trial date for both the County and Wintersville's cases would be in September. He said that even though the two cases involved slightly different contractual issues that the judge would probably hold these together. Walt Ziemba said that the Woodridge rental agreement had been dropped off but not yet picked up. Walt Ziemba and Matt Parise were still working on the obtaining of a corporate credit card(s) for the Village. Walt Ziemba said that all parties were moving forward on the Jo-Ann Field relocation of water and sewer lines. Robert Martin Sr. reported that the post that had been sticking out on Main Street had been removed. New Business Motion by Matt Parise, second by Dr. Robert Price to have all sealed bids opened during Council Meeting in the future. 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. Matt Parise asked Chris Becker for an update on the lawsuit by Gary Smith regarding Sam's Way. Chris Becker said that Gary Smith was still claiming that the Village should not have accepted Sam's Way as a dedicated street and that a hearing was scheduled in Judge Henderson's Court at 9:00 AM on June 10, 2004. Chris Becker said he had a call into John Mascio about changing this date. Walt Ziemba said that Mr. Street was proceeding with developing plans and bid spec for Sam's Way and that the bid specs should be going out in August and the bids opened 2 weeks after that. Walt Ziemba said he had delivered letters to residents concerning the assessment that may not have given residents enough time to make plans to attend tonight's Council Meeting. He said he would send out certified letters to the residents before the next Council Meeting. Matt Parise said that he had spoken to representatives at Comcast and Indian Creek High School and both were still interested in broadcasting Wintersville Council Meetings. Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to have the Administrator send letters to Comcast and Indian Creek expressing the Village's desire to have the Council. Meeting tapes and broadcast. 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 John Synodinos, 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 6-0. Motion by Matt Parise, second by Robert Martin Sr. to approve the fund transfers prepared by the Clerk Treasurer. 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. Good of the Village Theresa Stull, 240 Rex Ave., said that the drain that runs on the side of her yard is causing problems and that she would like the Village to see what could be done to help drainage in that area. Mayor France said he would have the Administrator follow-up on this. Walt Ziemba said that an easement might be needed to get access to the property. Chris Becker said that this might not be the Village's responsibility. He suggested that someone check to see if an easement was in place for this property. Kurt Vandeborne, said Council should have taken him up on his offer to discuss the Sanitation Ordinance after it was defeated the first time. Matt Emery told Council members he was attending the Council meeting as a requirement for Boy Scouts. Betty Stinard, said that the grass cut on canton Road should be raked and that the ditch near Luray Drive is still full of trash. Mayor France said that the projects that the Village was working on would be posted on the website. Walt Ziemba said that Perry Pool's crews had numerous projects they were working on, but that maybe he could adjust the priorities to get after the area near Luray Drive. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Dave Smith to adjourn. 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. Next regularly scheduled meeting is June 17, 2004 at 7:00 PM Mike Payne, Clerk/Treasurer Dave France, Mayor