MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
March 11, 2021
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, March 11, 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 from Rev. Rob Hale of First Nazarene Church, and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes of the Parks & Recreation Committee Meeting of February 25, 2021, the Finance Committee Meeting of February 25, 2021, and the Regular Meeting of February 25, 2021, stood approved as submitted.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Harvey said included in their agenda packet tonight is a communication from Lacey Delawder of 151 Scherer Road concerning the condition of Scherer Road—potholes and water leaks. It mentions that she has contacted the Mayor’s Office via calls and emails and is very specific about dates that she has done so and encourages us to go out and drive that road and look at it. Her said it mentions some things about lawsuits, so he won’t delve into any kind of answer. He said he received this on behalf of Council, and it was on his desk and was addressed to the Ironton City Council and the Solicitors. He said she requests that they get back to her with some kind of plan and remedy for that road. He said he did, per her request, drive up there, and he did not notice any water leaks; but there are some quite sizeable potholes not unique to Scherer Road and what you will find on any city street in Ironton, Ashland or Huntington or on the highways at this time of year. He said they are there, and there are some places where they have gone onto the berm and you can see the berm starting to wear out on one side or the other of that road to avoid those potholes. He said he knows they have priority to take care of State routes and roads that the EMS and First Responders travel first to make sure they are passable, and then they get to the others in some other kind of priority with the Mayor and the Street crew. He said he will let the Mayor address that if he wants to. He said the other issue that had been brought up numerous times since their last meeting is about the status of the Memorial Day Parade. He said the Mayor may want to address either or both of those issues. Mayor Cramblit said he received the information about Scherer Road last summer. He said he won’t go into how the letter was written, but they did take it upon themselves to at least address the issue temporarily as they can. They went out there and did some patching. He said they were wanting a long-term paving plan for their road within the next couple of days at that time. He said that is something they can work on long-term. He said the way it was written was very condescending towards the citizens of Ironton, but he didn’t feel like that was a reason to not still address the issue, so they did. He said he hasn’t been back out there since they have done that, so he will go check it out himself, and get with the Street Department on getting some patches done out there. He said if Council wants to address the long-term and they can get the money together in their long-term paving plan, that would be fine by him. He said the Memorial Day Parade as of right now will go on as usual. He said if there are any specific questions, he would urge them to contact a member of the Parade Committee. He said Lou Pyles does a great job with this and plans it a year ahead. He said he would reach out to her for any specific information on anything else. Mike Pemberton said Lou contacted him yesterday and said the Parade Committee is going to purchase their flags again this year, which they do every year. He said the flags have been ordered.
Mr. Kline said he would like to discuss the road conditions. He said in discussion with other councilmembers, he thinks there is a desire to have a large paving project going in place. He said he would like to see some planning going into that project, because he feels like they are going to invest a considerable amount of money throughout the City and borrowing money to make this happen also. He said he would like to see them as a City invest in a plan to tackle those high-need areas where they really want to focus their attention. He said Kevin Wood is on here tonight and is going to talk to them about some of the projects coming down the pike, but he thinks it would really be worth their money to commission a mapping plan as far as need based on the amount of traffic traveled, the condition of the road, what is underneath that needs repaired and take all of those things into consideration. He said also with the fly-over pictures that they had commissioned, he thinks it would really give Kevin a great tool as far as nailing down actual cost estimates once they have that lined up and those areas identified. He said they have some money budgeted in their Street Paving fund now, and he would like to see those dollars dedicated to that plan and the overall grading of our streets and roads based on need. He said he would also like to have some conversations as far as that borrowing with Baird coming here and discussing their future and their financing options. Mr. Haney said he agrees with the plan. He said one thing he did want to mention is that he has been out Scherer Road before to check it out. He said one thing that he noticed on some of the more rural roads is the presence of spring water or run-off from the hill, and when you get out on 141 or Deep Cut, there’s always some type of water run-off. He noticed that on Scherer Road as well as some other places that he checked out. He said they may want to ask the Solicitors if the property owner is responsible for that run-off to divert it. He said the problem seems to be run-off, and that speeds up the deterioration of the roads. He said also, he has been contacted over the last couple of weeks about parking situations in three different areas. He said the first one is between 7th and 8th and Pleasant Street, the corner of 5th and Scott and between Pine and Spruce Streets on 5th. He said the one that is on Pleasant and the one on Scott are blocking wheel chair access for special needs. He said on 5th Street and Pine and Spruce, they are just pulling up on the sidewalk. He talked to them, and they felt strongly that they need to use the streets, and he doesn’t see why they are blocking the sidewalks, especially for special needs and wheel chairs access. He said on 5th Street they were worried about the water lines, because they said there were some pretty bad divots that the cars were pulling up over the curb onto the sidewalk between Pine and Spruce. He said he doesn’t know if anyone else has heard questions or comments about that, but they seemed pretty adamant about it. Mayor Cramblit said on 5th and Scott, isn’t that a parking lot though to that house? Mr. Haney said it sounds like on those two areas they are not pulling up far enough, and they are blocking the access for a wheel chair. But the one on 5th between Pine and Spruce, they are just pulling up over the curb. He said he doesn’t know if there is any ordinance about blocking a sidewalk with a driveway. Mr. Cleary said there is an ordinance out there that says if you drive across a sidewalk to get to your driveway or your garage, you cannot park with the car on the side, it has to clear it. He said that was passed about 10 years ago, because they had a situation where somebody had an electric wheelchair, and the car was constantly blocking it. The property owner said that there was no law against. So about six weeks later they passed an ordinance that says you can drive across the sidewalk to get to your garage or backyard, but you cannot park with the back end of the car blocking the sidewalk. He said then he thinks they may have eased up a bit on that and said that if a little bit of the car is hanging over the sidewalk, as long as long as the motorized wheel chair can go behind it on the sidewalk, that it would be legal. Mayor Cramblit asked Mr. Haney to give some more specific details on where these areas are. Mr. Haney said he will get him some specific addresses.
Mr. Pierce said he wanted to thank Mike Pemberton and all the crews who worked on the flood gates during this last episode. He said it was done quickly, and the residents on the north end were very appreciative of having someone from the Fire Department at the railroad crossing on McPherson. He said he heard a lot of compliments as to how that was handled this time.
Mayor Cramblit said they have Kevin Wood here to give his quarterly update on their projects they have going on. Mr. Wood said the first project on his list is the North 5th Street Bridge replacement. The preliminary studies were all submitted and approved by ODOT. He said this will be a similar steel truss to what is there with a separate utility truss to the north for the water line. Stage 1 plans are being developed and will be submitted by the end of this month; and after the approval of those, the second part of the contract will need to be authorized, which includes right-of-way plans and acquisitions. It is still on schedule for 2022 construction date. He said next is the sewer general plan, which is related to their consent decree. He said they are continuing to work with that. The big push right now is to continue to gather information, but also to have some additional flood monitoring done. He said he spent Tuesday with one of the vendors and Dennis Gumbert and Jon Sites, going around and looking at the sites. He said it is a complicated task for them to figure out how to meter some of those locations, but they are pushing, given the deadlines they are working under, to try and get some of that information moving along. He said next is the Pine and 1st Street project. They worked with the City to submit a grant request last year, and recently learned that that was awarded. He said that was a grant of $204,240, with a local fund match of $87,532; and that is for some repair on Pine Street and 1st Street and repaving. He said they submitted last week to the Ohio EPA a nomination form for funding. Mr. Harvey asked if the Pine and 1st Street was the railroad access? Mr. Wood said yes, it starts at 3rd and heads toward the river on Pine and then south on 1st. He said it crosses both railroad tracks. Mr. Wood said next on the list is the Vernon Street Pedestrian Path that they are working with the City and Ralph Kline to prepare an ODNR application, and those are due April 15th. He said they have been working with the Mayor and ABM on putting together sizing and specifications for an emergency generator at the Water Treatment Plant and are currently looking at the high service pumps. He said they are continuing to work with the City and Ralph Kline on an EPA grant application for 3rd Street water line, as well as repair and repaving. They are doing a project out at the proposed sports park for LEDC. He said the botanists were out there today to do a wet lands delineation, and they will be preparing the storm water permitting so that the technical school can get out there in the spring to start moving some dirt. He said he is also working with Ralph Kline, who is preparing ODNR grants for Storms Creek parking for the boat launch in that area, as well as a new boat launch on the riverfront, and some additional parking and restroom improvements. They are working on an ODNR grant application for that project as well. He just picked up from Ralph yesterday an authorization from LEDC to do a due diligence on a parking deck downtown, which will include looking at the previous information that has been developed on that project, developing a site layout and cost estimates, and then assisting with the pursuit of some funding for that project. He said, as Nate indicated earlier, the City had authorized having an aerial survey flown or an aerial photography flown of the entire City, including some areas outside the current City limits. He said that was actually flown last Sunday. That will give them the capability, for example on the sports park, to have some survey mapping done, which will be current and more accurate than what is currently available through ODOT or the County. He said going forward, as the City does specific projects, they can have them map them. He said last but not least on the list, they provided information to the Mayor this week in order to prepare an income survey. They received the OK from the State to do an income survey on everything on the south end of town from Center Street south. He said the purpose for that is to try to qualify that area for Federal grants. He met with Terri Smith to walk through that process. He said they have a cover letter that will go out explaining why the City is doing this, and the actual income survey form that will be mailed out. He said they have about 2,500 residents in that area. He said for the State requirements they got the list of residential street addresses from the Auditor, and they had to randomize that list so that they are not just pursuing certain areas of that neighborhood. The City has to collect 400 income surveys out of that 2,500, and they have to start at the top of that randomized list and make three attempts at each address. They can do that by mailing these survey forms out, which Terri will work to get done. He said if they are able to get the number of surveys returned that they need and get the results that they need, which is basically to show that at least 51% of the area is considered low to moderate income. He said that will open the door for potential of several different Federal grants. Mr. Haney said regarding those surveys, a lot of people think things are scams anymore, so how can they market that to get the responses that they need? He asked, is there anything that they need to do in order to get the 400 responses in his experience with that? Mr. Wood said they had done that for the last couple of years in Coal Grove and South Point and other communities north in Ohio. He said there is a standard one-page simple survey form that the State uses, and that form asks the person filling it out, and if it is a rental, it is the renter who fills it out, not the property owner. They want the information from the actual people living the residence. He said they put in their street address, but no name, and list how many people are living in the household, and then there are a series of ranges of income and you put a checkmark next to the range that meets what your household’s gross income is in the current year. He said those are the only things that are required. He said so Mr. Haney’s question is good because a lot of people are going to get that and think that it is a scam, and some people probably won’t even open it. He said they try to make it look official, and the cover letter that he put together that they have used in other communities is signed by the Mayor and says they are doing this because they want to make some infrastructure improvements in the area, and the State requires that we complete this income survey—and it will be confidential. He asked Terri to include in the envelope the cover letter, the survey form and a stamped envelope addressed back to them. He said they have to make three attempts at each one so they have to start at the first 400 on that list and make three separate attempts. He said in normal times pre-COVID, they would do a mailing and then the second and third attempts could be door knocks. He said the State is now allowing three mailings, which will be easier in some regards. But after we have made three attempts for each of the first 400, then they can go further down on the list. So he has asked Terri to mail it to the first 600 initially because they know they won’t get all 400 even after three attempts. He said they can’t say that we’re trying to do this to get grants necessarily—they have to be careful on the wording. Mr. Kline said he wanted to say thank Mr. Wood for attending tonight and filling them in. He said he thinks Mr. Wood can tell that our city is ambitious and wanting to move forward. He said he appreciates Mr. Wood’s efforts, and he thinks this line of communication on a quarterly basis is informative not only to our Council members, but our residents also. Mr. Wood said one more thing, which is big news to them, they found out Friday that regarding the Ironton roundabouts, ODOT solicited qualifications for design; and they found out Friday that IBI has been selected by ODOT to design the Ironton roundabouts. He said they are super excited about that. He said he worked with their transportation staff, who would work on that project, and when they were putting their proposal together, they incorporated into that proposal to ODOT that they were working with the City of Ironton on all of these other projects. He said storm water is certainly an issue and they are aware, but that is not to say this project will not redirect all that storm water in other areas, but they can at least work to try to make it the least impactful as possible. He said ODOT is going to drive the project, but they will stay in close communication with their transportation staff. He said they were excited about being involved in that project. Mr. Pierce said he wants to thank Kevin for his efforts.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. Harvey said they have a letter from Lacey Delawder regarding the condition of Scherer Road.
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES
ORDINANCE NO. 21-08 – ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH THE SALARY OF COUNCIL MEMBERS was given first reading.
Mr. Cleary said he wanted to mention that Ordinance No. 21-08 was given a favorable recommendation by the Finance Committee. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-08 second and third reading by title only. Mr. Harvey said they discussed this in Finance, and Mr. Pierce asked that Mr. Harvey reiterate what he had said about this ordinance. Mr. Harvey said this is an ordinance regarding Council salaries to increase Council salaries to the minimum earnable allowed to receive one service credit for OPERS, and no one currently seated on Council will benefit from that until they are either newly elected or re-elected. He said the last time they did this was probably about 6 years ago, and Bob, Beth and himself were on Council; and it was done in their first year of Council, and they had to wait until they were re-elected in 2017 to see any kind of increase. So it doesn’t currently benefit any seated Councilmember unless they are re-elected or anyone newly elected. He said the last time Mr. Waldo did that was to increase interest in Council. He said this to benefit the people who serve so they get credit for their service when it comes to retirement and the OPERS system and their service interest. He said it did spur interest, and hopefully that spurs interest because the more people who are interested in city government, the better ideas they get and the more diverse opinions they get, and he thinks that is a good thing. Motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-08 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-08. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 21-09 – AMENDING THE PERMANENT BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2021 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Cleary said that this ordinance was given a favorable recommendation in Finance. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-09 second and third reading by title only. Mr. Pierce asked Mr. Elam to briefly explain for the audience what this ordinance is about. Mr. Elam said this originated from discussion that was in a budget workshop, and it provides for critically needed equipment for the City of Ironton. He said most of the items that are included on here are under State contract pricing. He said he and the Mayor had met with all of the Department Heads, and they found out through questions what their most critically needed equipment was. He said they responded, and this is the result of the inquiry and also the budget workshop. Motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously, and Ordinance No. 21-09 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-09. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 21-10 – AUTHORIZING THE DETACHMENT OF 33.89 ACRES OF LAND SITUATE IN THE SOUTHWEST QUARTER OF THE SOUTHEAST QUARTER OF SECTION 21, T 1, R 18, OF THE OHIO RIVER SURVEY SITUATE IN THE TOWNSHIP OF UPPER, COUNTY OF LAWRENCE, AND CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey said there was no emergency language in that ordinance so it will go three readings. He said he knows all of Council has been contacted by that property owner. He said he was copied in those emails as well. Mr. Kline said he wasn’t going into great detail until the third reading, but he wants to make sure that everyone received correspondence from Ms. Waldo on that matter. Everyone said they received it. Mr. Elam asked on this type of ordinance, doesn’t it have to go three readings because there is no option to suspend it? Mr. Harvey said it does not, according to the opinion they received. It does not need to go to three readings, and it also does not have to go to the Annexation Committee. He said it can, but it doesn’t have to. Brigham Anderson said that is correct, there was just no emergency language contained in the ordinance. Mr. Cleary said he knows this property well and has been over most of it because they dealt with Jenna Waldo building a home at the end of the road; and they had to get a sewer line and water line over to her. He said to Mr. Haney that he knew Mr. Haney had gone out there and saw the potholes. He said if you go out to the very end of her road as far as you can go, there is gate there and a fire plug there, and that’s it. He said if you go on up the holler, he said he would like for the Councilmembers to go out there and look at what they are talking about. He said he went up the holler a little way and looked at it while they were building Jenna’s house, and he thinks it would be the most undesirable property to build on. He said he doesn’t have a bit of a problem with Council de-annexing it, because there are two steep hillsides and nothing else. Mr. Haney said he has been out there and basically grew up across the road from there, so he has navigated that property quite a bit and is familiar with the area. He said Mr. Cleary was talking about desirable, but he has seen people build houses on the side of hillsides, riverbanks, flood plains—they make it work. So he doesn’t think any land is undesirable, and you’re talking about 33 acres and that is a chunk of land. Mr. Cleary said he has been out there numerous times and looked at what development they did for Jenna. He doesn’t want Council to think that this is a beautiful building site because to him, it is not. He said he would like everyone to go out there and look before the next reading. Mr. Pierce said he went out there and drove up that road all the way to the end, and there is a road that turns to the right, and he thinks it is Murdock or Echo, he is not sure. He has also looked at it on satellite. He asked Mr. Cleary exactly where he was talking about because he saw a fairly large plain out there that could be developed. Mr. Cleary said when he was out there, the road ends at Jenna’s house on the left. He said up from her house she has a nice side yard. But what he is talking about is once you get beyond Jenna’s house, he thinks Jenna’s property is on a totally separate deed than the rest of it. He said he didn’t see how you could build anything without a tremendous amount of money. Mr. Pierce said you can look at this parcel on the County Auditor’s website, but you can’t see a lot of definition from the satellite view. Mr. Cleary said he agrees. Brett Thomas said he just wants to note, as far as the water goes out there, they do have water up to the end of the roadway. He said the last service feeds Jenna’s house. But as far as servicing anything else out through there, the City would have capabilities to service anything that would be out there if that is the case. He said all those lines on that side are on their pump station, so they wouldn’t have any issues servicing anything else out that way. He said sewer may be a different issue, but servicing water out there wouldn’t be any problem because of the pump station. Mr. Haney said he also wanted to mention that they take on their storm water off of that property, so they are treating their storm water that comes through that property. He said if anybody wanted to de-annex that property, you’re saying that the City is still going to take care of all of the water that comes off that property; but it is no longer a part of the City. He would think if anybody would really want to de-annex this, he doesn’t think that is acting in the best interest of the City. So he would like to declare an emergency and give this ordinance second and third reading by title only. Mr. Hock seconded Mr. Haney’s motion. Mr. Harvey said he did want to hear from Dennis Gumbert, because Brett Thomas spoke on the water but not the sewage. Mr. Gumbert said looking at Jenna’s, the last manhole, certainly a little bit of work would have to be done in the culvert where Jenna is to get a gravity feed system across the ditch. He said he is no engineer, but he thinks it could be done with a wider, shallower ditch there at Jenna’s. He said everything else is uphill so he believes if you could traverse across that, then everything else could be gravity feed to anything that would be built out there with no additional cost. He said a lift station addition would be a great interest to the City, not to have to pump the sewage. If they can traverse across the creek, it would be a complete gravity system and would be in the best interest to the City.
Roll call on motion to suspend the rules: Ayes: Hock, Kline – two. Nays: Cleary, Haney, Harvey, Pierce, Rist – five. Mr. Harvey said they will have some additional weeks to analyze that
ORDINANCE NO. 21-11 – ORDINANCE CREATING AN R-1A SINGLE FAMILY DISTRICT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was read.
Mr. Haney moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-11 second and third reading by title only. Mr. Cleary said he could not find a map in his agenda packet to see if it outlined the area where they were talking about. Mr. Harvey said there is no map. He said this came out of one of those planning meetings that they subdivided to talk about the problems they are having with R-2’s and things moving into R-2’s that aren’t desirable, and they had a zoning workshop. He said they wanted to rezone some areas R-1, but the only thing they didn’t really like about rezoning those
R-2 areas to R-1 was the coverage area and the setbacks. So on the advice of the solicitors, they just created a new zone, R-1A, which has all the stipulations of R-1 with R-2 setbacks and coverage areas. He said this doesn’t outline any areas to include in R-1A, all it does is set forth that zoning. Mr. Cleary asked, does that mean anybody can fit into this description? Mr. Harvey said after this legislation is decided, if it is passed, then they would then go and identify the areas that they would like to see as
R-1A. Then that has to follow the zoning process. Mr. Cleary said he knows it is pretty complicated doing an R-1 zone; and what you are saying is, this is another option, but it’s not going to force an
R-1 on a neighborhood where no one wants it, is that correct? Mr. Harvey said that is correct. He said right now if you look at our zoning, they have R-1, R-2, R-3, I, B; he said they are just adding zoning code R-1A. He said they haven’t identified any areas yet—that will follow the zoning procedure with the public hearing, all those steps they have to go through, three separate readings. Mr. Haney said in order for them to get anything out of the two or three hours or whatever they spent at that zoning meeting, this is the first step in order for them to take any action if there is any. He said they spent hours at that meeting for zoning purposes, so basically what Craig did was create a new zoning section that allows them to take the next step in what they are trying to accomplish. Motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously, and Ordinance No. 21-11 was given second and third reading. Mr. Haney moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-11. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 21-12 – AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO FILE FOR ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION FOR A COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION, TO BE KNOWN AS IRONTON COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was read.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-12 second and third reading by title only. Mr. Pierce asked Mr. Kline, for the sake of their audience, if he could explain a little bit about this community corporation and what it will do for our City? Mr. Kline said they had a lot of discussion regarding condemnation and demolition of unsafe structures and blighted property in their City. He said they reached out to their Solicitors for ways to address that as a city, and they gave them a playbook as far as how that needed to be done to condemn those properties, demolish and either recoup the demolition costs or put a receiver lien on that property, thus trying to control that vacant lot. He said the City would retain those empty lots. There is a process that would be needed to get those lots back to market or liquidated, if the City owned it, which would require a bidding process, which is quite extensive, a publication of the bids and it would be a very drawn out process. He said establishing the Ironton Community Improvement Corporation would give the City a vehicle to transfer empty lots, once they get to that stage, to the Community Improvement Corporation so that they can market the empty lots or either residential or commercial development as seen with that. He said with the Community Improvement Corporation formation, the idea the Director has been designed to have a major oversight by the City, not outside sources. He said that is the need for developing the Ironton Community Improvement Corporation. He said pending this ordinance being passed, he would ask the Mayor and Mr. Harvey to coordinate a Meeting of the Whole to discuss that process of condemnation, demolition, liens, etc. and the resources needed by our City to do that. He said in that meeting he would like to have Brett Thomas, Susan Dooley, Jon Sites, Chief Mahlmeister and Jeff Joseph, along with our Solicitor. He said also at that meeting, the organizational meeting for the Community Improvement Corporation, pending passage, for the Board and appointment. Mr. Cleary said a few years ago they had the Ironton Port Authority, which did similar type purchases and demolitions, and then about six or eight years ago they dissolved the Ironton Port Authority and gave it to Bill Dingus and joined the Lawrence County Port Authority. He said this seems like it is going to be a very costly project. He said they used the CDBG money to do the demolition on blighted properties right now, and he thinks they get $30,000 or $40,000 there. They also have the Land Bank or the LEDC that comes in and tears down properties and they do a similar thing as to this. They take dilapidated or blighted properties, tear them down, level it out and try to resell it for development. He asked, with this are they duplicating the Land Bank and the LEDC? He said from what he has read, it is going to take quite a bit of resources to do this. He said if you find a house that needs to be torn down, who is going to pay to tear it down? Mr. Kline said no, it would not act in the same manner as the LEDC or the Port Authority—it’s organized with the same purpose of advancing, encouraging and promoting the industrial economic commercial and civic development for the City of Ironton; but the actual function of it will be to act as a pass-through entity to be able to get those lots back to market. He said right now the role would be simply to do that, get those empty lots back to market or back out to be developed. He said he wouldn’t consider it to be in competition with any of those organizations. He wouldn’t consider it to be in competition with the Land Bank, because the Land Bank operates in tearing down structures that are tax delinquent. So this would not be tax delinquent, this would be property that is dilapidated and being condemned based on those regulations that the Solicitor cited. He said they could be paid up on their taxes, and the Land Bank would not have any ability to target those properties for demolition; and there are several of those out there that are current and in need of attention. He said as far as CDBG, he doesn’t think that has been done quite so much recently, but he thinks there will be an opportunity to partnership with those dollars along with what they are doing, and put that money together. As far as the cost, he thinks it would be costly to some degree, but he thinks you could control that cost based on how many structures you’re looking to budget to take down in a year. He said he knows the Mayor is working with Susan Dooley and Brett Thomas as far as budget numbers and coming up with that dollar amount and then go with the number of structures you want to target for that amount. Mr. Pierce asked Mr. Kline, with the Land Bank, doesn’t it take about three years to get those lots turned around? And under this entity, you could turn those around in just a few months, right? Mr. Kline said it would still be a process for them to turn that around because as Mack and Brigham laid out in the game plan, it would require replacing a lien on that property for the cost of demo and maintaining, it would require foreclosure and the sale through the Sheriff’s Sale, all to get to that process. But he said, yes, it still would, in his opinion, be a lot quicker. He said he knows some of the tie-up with the Land Bank is based on the funds that they receive and from the State to tear down, and he thinks for that to be recouped, he thinks it is a 3-year process for that. Mr. Pierce said that is what he thought, and they would cut that time down considerably. Mr. Cleary said they still have to have the money to pay for demolition up front. He said it has to come from some place, either out of their budget, etc. Mr. Kline said that is correct, they would have to pay for it. Or work to get CDBG dollars to get some bang for their buck. Mr. Haney said when this starts growing and you start obtaining properties and selling them, would it generate revenue at some point possibly or at least pay for itself at some point? Mr. Kline said yes, he thinks there are a lot of different ways you could recoup that. He said you could sell the land outright, you could sell it with restrictions on it as far as the bill—it would have to be a certain value, that way you could secure future income tax and user dollars out of that guaranteed. And property tax levels would increase also. He said overall it is a good thing. He said if they went that path, it would spur a lot of communities. He said the idea is for it to be self-sustaining at some point. Mr. Haney said it sounds like a lot of fringe benefits as well, with the income tax, etc. Mr. Kline said yes, there are a lot of unseen benefits. He said an empty lot sitting there does no good as far as income tax dollars and generating that. He said when people say, how do you stop the slow of the fees, he says you have to have a bigger income tax base. He said this is a solution to get a bigger base. Mr. Haney said he agrees.
Motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-12 was given second and third reading. Ms. Rist moved, seconded by Mr. Kline, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-12. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
Mr. Harvey told Mr. Kline that he heard Mr. Kline’s request for a Committee as a Whole meeting pending adoption of that, so Mr. Kline doesn’t have to repeat it again in Miscellaneous.
ORDINANCE NO. 21-07 – REPEALING ORDINANCE 06-28 SETTING A FLAT FEE OF $10.00 PER MONTH FEE FOR STORM WATER UTILITY FOR VACANT RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES NOT OTHERWISE BEING BILLED THE STORM WATER UTILITY FEE was given second reading.
Mr. Harvey said he ask Mr. Kline at the last meeting to refer that to Public Utilities Committee, but it is his understanding that it does not need to be referred to PUC because it is a redundancy of a new ordinance that they passed which replaces that. He said this is just a repealing of a redundancy so it does not need PUC recommendation. Mr. Kline asked Mr. Harvey if he wanted to address any language in that? Mr. Harvey said no. He said it is a repealing. He said he read it quickly and didn’t get the repeal part. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-07 third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-07 was given third reading. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-07. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
RESOLUTIONS – None
MISCELLANEOUS
Mr. Kline said he would like to call a Park & Recreation Meeting for March 25th. It was decided to have this meeting at 5:00 p.m. He said the purpose is to discuss recreation league expansions for the fall and also development for a long-term plan for our Recreation Department.
Mr. Haney asked if Mark Dickess or Jon Sites were on here. Mark Dickess said he was on. Mr. Haney said he sent someone to Mr. Dickess, and it was a health code situation. He said he didn’t really know who they should contact. He said he thinks they had already contacted the County Health Department, and also contacted the City. He didn’t know what department that would have been. He asked Mr. Dickess if someone contacted him about a house on 8th Street with health concerns. Mr. Dickess asked if it was about cats and rats? Mr. Haney said yes. Mr. Dickess said yes, they did contact him, and he actually had a conversation with the owner; and it is being taken care of as we speak. Mr. Haney thanked him for handling that situation.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to adjourn. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit, Brigham Anderson