MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
December 22, 2020
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, December 22, 2020, 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 Rev. Kim Gabbard of Impact Church and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes of the Regular Meeting of December 10, 2020, stood approved as submitted. Mark Dickess said, regarding the Finance Committee Minutes of December 10, 2020, about ten rows from the bottom of Page 1, it states “Mr. Dickess said yes, there will be expenditures in 2020”, but it should state “. . . there will be no expenditures in 2020.”
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Haney said he had an issue regarding one of the houses which they had discussed previously with zoning issues. He said he received another text, and he told the person he would follow up tonight. He said yes, there has been some construction going on, and he told the resident that we have to know when the person is there in order to go up and check everything. He basically reiterated that if he sees it happening, he has to call down to the office in order for our Zoning Officer to come up and check it out. Mr. Cleary asked Mr. Haney if he could tell them what address that is. Mr. Haney said it is the 2600 block of South 12th by the old Muth Lumber. Mr. Cleary thought there were some activities going on there on 5th Street in one of their usual places, the Hager property. Mr. Haney said that was the only zoning call he had received since the last meeting.
Mayor Cramblit said he needs an Executive Session after this meeting to discuss real estate and personnel.
COMMUNICATIONS – None
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES
ORDINANCE NO. 20-78 – AMENDING THE PERMANENT BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2020 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. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-78 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-78 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-78. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-79 – AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO THE ATTACHED CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH IBI GROUP ENGINEERING SERVICES USA, INC. AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was read.
Mr. Cleary said this ordinance was also given a favorable recommendation in Finance tonight. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-79 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-79 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-79. Mr. Cleary said he would like the minutes to reflect that there are no expenditures in 2020, they will only be in 2021; and they said it would be a 9-month contract. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
MISCELLANEOUS
Mr. Harvey said he wanted to mention that on everyone’s desks this evening is a season’s greeting card to all Council from Mayor Sam Cramblit.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to receive, file and make a part of the minutes the November 2020 Financials. Motion passed unanimously.
Mr. Pierce said since it is the end of the year, he is wondering where we stand on a few things. He said Ordinance No. 20-55 permits the use of all-terrain vehicles, and there were inspections and permits involved. He asked if that was set up and functioning yet? Mayor Cramblit said yes. He asked if people can go to the Police Department to get information about how to do that? Mayor Cramblit said yes, they do it at the Police Department in the back parking lot. Someone would just have to call the Chief and set that up. Mr. Pierce said the next thing is, are we set to go with the SLWA, the water line warranties, that we passed? Mayor Cramblit said yes, he spoke with them on the marketing agreement, and they will be sending out letters to residents about the options they have. He said they told them that would be in February. Mr. Pierce said Ordinance No. 20-39 was the mini cell towers that they talked about some time back. He asked if there had been any movement on that? Mayor Cramblit said no, they haven’t had anyone come forward looking to put any up yet. Mr. Pierce said lastly, Ordinance No. 20-19, collecting mitigation fees for our emergency services. He asked if that was set up and had they collected any fees? Mayor Cramblit said they have just executed that contract. He said they had to have them make some revisions to that contract to meet our standards. Mr. Pierce said last spring they had discussed that someone was going to be creating a Welcome to Ironton sign at the foot of the new bridge. He asked the Mayor if he had heard anything further about that? Mayor Cramblit said that is Ironton in Bloom working on that, and he hasn’t heard anything lately.
Mr. Haney said he wanted to mention that he did see some kind of construction going on at the Brumberg Building. He said that is a positive sign.
Mr. Harvey said he saw Brett Thomas’ number on the call, and maybe he can speak to this. He just wanted to remind all of our citizens to check their utility bill because US Bank has been having a difficult time getting their act together in 2020, and he thinks it probably doesn’t have anything to do with the pandemic. He said two different months this year US Bank somehow managed to not get the online bill pay that he had entered with a confirmation number to the City of Ironton for the utility bill. He just wanted to remind all the citizens in Ironton who use online bill pay. He said he knows there are a few different banks that are bad about it, and apparently, US Bank is one of them. He can speak to that first hand. He said they use a third-party vendor to send the checks. He said it has nothing to do with our local branch—they are more than helpful to try to get answers. He said everyone should check their utility bill and make sure to call the office, because the ladies there and Brett are understanding when that happens, especially when you have a screen shot of your confirmation that you have attempted to send that in. He said he got a heads up that his water was going to be shut off because he hadn’t paid. He said it can happen to anyone, and he just wanted to warn all the citizens to check their utility bill and don’t just assume that your bank is taking care of it even though you have entered it.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to go into Executive Session to discuss real estate and personnel, with the Mayor, Solicitor, City Engineer and Brett Thomas for real estate; and the Mayor for personnel, immediately following that, with no action to follow. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit.