MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
January 14, 2021
6:00 p.m.

A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, January 14, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. via video conferencing. Present was Vice Mayor, Craig Harvey, who presided and members:
Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce, Rist – seven.

All persons stood for an invocation by Father Huffman of St. Joseph, St. Lawrence and St. Mary’s Churches, and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the Finance Committee Meeting of December 22, 2020, the Recreation Committee Meeting of December 22, 2020 and the Regular Meeting of December 22, 2020, stood approved as submitted.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Mr. Kline said last week the Mayor shared an email sent by Joe Unger concerning some issues he had with zoning in the downtown. He said he would like to have a zoning workshop to discuss various zoning issues that have been brought to our attention, along with the proposed zoning permit. He said he would like to have collaboration with Council, the Mayor, Susan Dooley and our Solicitor, to see if we could possibly come to some direction in which we want to go. He said he thinks it definitely needs to be addressed, and he agrees with a lot of the things that Mr. Unger said in his letter, as far as the types of businesses and what we are trying to do in our downtown area. Mr. Harvey said he told Joe after the Strategic Planning Committee meeting that he would gladly call together some of kind of zoning workshop to analyze large areas through town, not only to take a look at business districts, but also residential areas, because we all seem to echo the same things over and over again in Audience Participation about zoning concerns. He said the letter made it seem as if we can do something about zoning in one ordinance tonight, and that is unfortunately not the case. He said the reason they would need some kind of workshop is just for clarification for citizens, especially to address Mr. Unger’s letter. He said there is a process, and that process starts with legislation, then goes to a commission, then has a public hearing period, has a 30-day period to get public input, and then it goes to three separate readings and three separate Council meetings. He said that’s going to be at least a 4-month turn-around time if everything goes as planned, and there’s no objections and no stumbling blocks. He said it is not a short process which is why we have collaborated in our Strategic Planning Committee meetings about putting together a large-scale effort of doing something across town. He said he is fully committed to doing that, and he knows there have been several other councilmembers who have expressed interest in that, so they will get that underway very soon.

Mayor Cramblit said he wanted to give Council some updates concerning cleaning up properties in town. He said Jon Sites, our Environmental Compliance Coordinator, has been working his way from the south end of town in the 3200 block towards Hanging Rock. They have made it to the 700 block so far, addressing a lot of slum and blight issues in town in our alleyways. He said we have about 60 letters of violation going out warning the property owners that they have 7 days to get that addressed until we follow up with a citation. He said he wanted to let Council know in case they get any phone calls. He said they will continue to work their way to the north end of town towards Hanging Rock. He said on the positive side of things with this is our Smart.gov application that we talked about for Code Enforcement about this time last year, and now they have almost completed all the steps in the design and development of the app to cater to our needs. He said that should be up and running soon, and they are about to start the training in house so they can make things more efficient. He said this application and the ability to submit any type of complaints and fill out a form will be available on this for the residents and for our City workers. He said anyone virtually can use this to fill out any type of complaint that they have regarding slum and blight zoning, etc. He wanted to let Council know that they are close to having that capability on line.

Mr. Haney asked Mr. Kline if they need to include the Zoning Committee in the zoning workshop he was talking about? Mr. Harvey said no, we are going to discuss it as Council to identify areas and then it would need to go to the next steps after legislation. Mr. Haney said also, he mentioned to Jon Sites what they were talking about with the leaves, etc. and he put him on to a piece of machinery, which is an industrial leaf collector that is a tow-behind. He said he wanted to make Council aware that Mr. Sites did bring up this option, and he (Mr. Haney) is going to email the company and get some information to pass along to Council to see if that could be an option for us.

Chief Wagner said she wanted to reiterate something and add on to what the Mayor was talking about with Jon Sites and the blighted property. She said they have also started on their nuisance letters. She said Brigham had helped her, and they had sent some out; and they will be sending more out.

COMMUNICATIONS – None

REPORTS – None

ORDINANCES

ORDINANCE NO. 21-01 – AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR THE EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF IRONTON AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was read.

Mr. Cleary stated that this ordinance had been given a favorable recommendation in Finance Committee this evening. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No.
21-01 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-01 was given second and third reading. Mr. Harvey said Finance Committee he potentially cut off anybody that wasn’t on the Finance Committee. So if there is any clarification that any of the other councilmembers need. He said he also failed to mention in Finance that is one of those ordinances that has a February 1st start date, so it is something that has to be passed as an emergency so that our employees are covered by their health insurance. Mr. Pierce moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-01. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

MISCELLANEOUS

Mr. Cleary said he noticed something that he would like to have and some of the other councilmembers would like to have, too. He said they are talking about these letters that they are sending out regarding the slum and blight properties, and he would really like to have a copy of one of the blank letters. He said he thinks there are two different letters. He said Chief Wagner was talking about one, and he thinks there was another one mentioned earlier in the meeting. He said so many times these people get these letters, and they call him and ask what is going on. He said he hasn’t even seen the letter so he can’t really give them any official thoughts on it. Mr. Harvey asked Chief Wagner if she could take care of sending him one of her letters, and asked the Mayor if he could send out the slum and blight letter. Mayor Cramblit said yes, he could send a blank one. He said he had a list of all the people who are getting the letters, and it’s mostly couches, mattresses, tv’s, etc. sitting on their property by the alley. Chief Wagner said theirs is somewhat different because they have to legally list what is is. She said there a lot of bars unfortunately over the last year has been drug overdoses, loud music calls, etc. , but she will send a sample of it. Mr. Cleary asked if we still have a person that takes care of barking dogs? He said he has had a lot of people complaining to him about how their neighbor’s dog is outside barking all night. He asked if the Police still handles that like they used to? Chief Wagner said if it is in the middle of the night, they can call the Police and they will send an officer down and try to get somebody to come to the door, which very rarely happens. She said they forward any complaints on to Melissa at the Dog Pound, and she works 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adjourn.

Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.

In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit.