MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
March 25, 2021
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, March 25, 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. Steve Harvey of Sharon Baptist Church, and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes of the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting of March 11, 2021, the Finance Committee Meeting of March 11, 2021, and the Regular Meeting of March 11, 2021, stood approved as submitted, with the following corrections made by Mr. Harvey: Mr. Harvey was present at the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting of March 11, 2021; and on Page 7 of the Regular Minutes Meeting of March 11, 2021, regarding discussion of Ordinance No. 21-10, Mr. Haney was an Aye, and not a Nay.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Harvey said there is a letter that he will submit under Communications at the next meeting from the Lawrence County Land Bank, signed by Stephen Dale Burcham. He said it is in regards to the COVID Recovery Relief Bill, which Mr. Elam just mentioned in Finance. They asked if we wanted to allocate any money towards the Land Bank. They are more than willing to receive that money to help with blighted properties around our City and County. He said he also received an email, which he thinks he forward to the Mayor, that was about stop signs on 12th Street. Mr. Haney said he also received that email from Mike Eastham, asking if we would consider installing a stop sign at the intersection of 12th and Jones Streets. He said people drive at very high speeds through there, and it is very dangerous. Mr. Haney told Mr. Eastham that he would pass this along to Council and the Mayor’s Office. Mr. Harvey said this is a 3-way stop and is also in the curve on 12th Street. He said in his opinion it is a difficult place to have one. Mayor Cramblit said he and Mike (Pemberton) will take a look at it, and that would be putting one back-to-back. Mr. Harvey said the third thing is he received an email that he forwarded to the Mayor and Chief Wagner regarding drug activity. He said he asked the person if they would like to submit their letter under Communications, and so far they have not reached back out to him to say yes or no. He said they were concerned about drug activity in their neighborhood. They told Mr. Harvey that they had also reached out to Ms. Rist. Mr. Rist said yes, they did. Mr. Harvey said if they want that letter to be public record, he will submit it under Communications; otherwise, he will forward it to the Mayor and Chief Wagner.
Mr. Haney said he had someone that wanted to mention something, but they did not want to state their name. They told him that there is a couch on the tree lawn between 4th and 5th Streets on Pleasant. They said that cats are also a problem there, and they congregate on the couch. They asked if we had any ordinances in place regarding this. They also asked if someone could drive by and check and see if they could get rid of the couch on the tree lawn and possibly talk to the home owner about that issue. Mayor Cramblit said he assumes they are part of the affidavits that are out there pending, and they are working with Brigham’s office to get those in. He said he thought during Audience Participation that it was standard protocol that the person had to state their name and address whenever they address Council. He said someone brought that up to him recently, and he wanted to mention it. Mr. Harvey said that was correct.
Mr. Cleary said as a point of clarification, if a resident lives in a rental property and they put the water bill in their name and they have been living there for several years, and they paid the deposit, was never late, and then moved to another house, would they get credit for the first deposit they paid and then only pay the difference? He said he thinks it used to be $125 or $150 to put the bill in the tenant’s name, and he thinks now it is $200 or $250. Do they just pay the $100 difference to transfer it into their name at the new residence, or are they going to be charged a full deposit? Brett Thomas said for property owners, it is a $125 non-refundable deposit; and for renters, it is a $200 non-refundable deposit. Mr. Cleary asked if this person would have it put in their name, just as a renter, and they paid $200 deposit, with a perfect record of payments, and they moved to another residence and wanted to put it in their name there, does that $200 deposit follow them to the new address, or do they just lose the $200? Mr. Thomas said the deposit is refundable up to a year with good standing payments. So if they are in good standing, they will get that deposit back. He said he doesn’t have the ordinance in front of him, but he is pretty sure that’s the way it reads. Mr. Cleary said he doesn’t know if the Water Department is telling this or not. But he wanted to know if that $200 deposit would move with them to the new residence. Mr. Thomas said he does know that they do not transfer money to a new account, so if they had credit there, they don’t get credit if they move to another account. He said he would get the ordinance and get back to Mr. Cleary.
Mr. Harvey said they had an invited guest tonight, Nate Davis from RCAP. Mr. Davis said he wanted to thank the Mayor, Brett Thomas and Ryan Watts, who have been instrumental in helping him put together this plan and giving him the information that he needed. He said he also wanted to thank John Elam and his staff, who were very helpful and polite and provided him what he needed. He shared his screen and presented to Council a summarization of the Ironton’s Water Asset Management Plan. Mr. Elam asked if the Median Household Income changed over that 10-year period? Mr. Davis said it very well could, but he did not, for the purposes of this plan, because that would be a total guess on his part. He said he thinks the only way to really get a hard-core accurate Median Household Income for your community would be for your community to do a survey on its own. He said those are hard to do because it is hard to get people to participate in them and be honest. He said right now, according to American Community Surveys data, whether you believe that is accurate or not, their 2020 number had Ironton at about $35,000. Mr. Elam said what he wanted to point out is if that Median Household Income does rise, then those percentages drop; and he would anticipate that the Median Household Income going up so where we might be going from 1.31% to 1.78%, he really doesn’t anticipate it being that because the Median Household Income would also increase. Mr. Davis said he agrees with that. He said he is giving them a 10-year projection, and it is something that would need to be looked at each year to be completely accurate. Mr. Kline said Mr. Davis said the strength of the City is we are putting $210,000 into our Water Fund to our Water Treatment Equipment Replacement, and that money is actually going to cover debt payment services for those improvements, so he asked if Mr. Davis took that into account also? Mr. Davis said yes, he did. He went back and shared his screen again to explain. Mr. Kline said just for clarification, this is built in for 3% inflationary cost each year? Mr. Davis said yes.
Mr. Haney said Andrew Mains, who lives on the corner of 7th and Pleasant, Bartram Street side, says there are multiple cats, and he doesn’t have an idea where they are coming from. He said he wonders if there is any ordinance in place regarding cats. Mr. Haney asked what our procedure is for cats so he can tell him who to contact, because this seems to be a problem all over town. The Mayor said there is no ordinance against cats, but the animal shelter recommends an ordinance. Mr. Harvey said the animal shelter will not come and get them, but you can them drop off and they will charge you to drop them off. He said the last time he called there, he thinks it was $25 per cat. Mayor Cramblit said there were some example ordinances he got from Denise Paulus. He said they could possibly have her at a meeting to discuss it. Mr. Harvey asked the Mayor if he could possibly invite Ms. Paulus to come to the meeting after the next meeting and ask her opinion on sample legislation that she was considering bringing to us so we can ask questions. He said at least a couple times a year someone addresses Council about Ferrell cats in their neighborhood.
Mr. Kline said he would like to thank Nate Davis for his presentation this evening. He said he thinks the health of our Water Fund right now is in dire straits, and with some of those things Mr. Davis said needed to be addressed, he would like to have a PUC meeting to discuss some of those things and some of those needs. He asked if they wanted to have an outside meeting for that? Mr. Harvey told Ms. Rist they will coordinate with the Mayor, Brett Thomas and Mr. Haney and get a date for next week.
COMMUNICATIONS
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES
ORDINANCE NO. 21-13 – EXTENDING THE CITY INCOME TAX FILING AND PAYMENT DEADLINE TO MAY 19, 2021 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-13 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-13 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-13. Mr. Harvey said someone in Finance did mention that the Federal Income Tax return is part of the City filing, so in order to be compliant with what the Federal Government is doing, this is necessary on our part. Motion to adopt 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 second reading.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 21-10 second reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 21-10 was given third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-10. Mr. Haney asked if they could get some clarification on this ordinance because he said is an obscure ordinance. Mr. Harvey said this is the detachment of the property they had discussed at the last meeting. He said they have received emails from the property owner about it. He said it is a matter of public record because it was in the minutes of the last meeting. He said Ms. Waldo is the person requesting the detachment because her land is forest land that is undeveloped that she would like to see utilized in a manner that is outside of the city limits. Mr. Haney said at the last meeting both Dennis Gumbert and Brett Thomas said that it wouldn’t be a problem for City services to reach that property. He said also, he found that Ms. Waldo had inquired about the development of the property she was requesting to be de-annexed while Rich Blankenship was the Mayor. She was told that she would have to follow City guidelines and ordinances and pay to get this completed. He said so basically for the letter to state that she isn’t attempting to develop this property, history determines that that is a lie. He said he has seen the property, it’s prime real estate for development. He said you could make even more housing on it. He said they have talked before that their job as Council is to encourage growth in the City, not shrink it. He said they just had a long discussion about increases in water rates that would deter citizens from moving in. He said he would guess that with those houses, the children would be attending the Ironton City Schools or Ironton Catholic Schools, and they would not be paying the school portion as part of the property tax but would still be attending the schools. He said by de-annexing this property, they would still be taking care of her waste water, and that has been a big discussion lately about the treatment of waste water; and they would still be treating the waste water coming from this property. He said he doesn’t know why anybody would think that they need to de-annex this property with the City services being available and the possibility of population increase, tax base increase, etc. He thinks it is a bad move if someone would vote to de-annex this property, and he thinks it sets a terrible precedent for the future of the City and future Councils. Mr. Harvey said Mr. Haney was referencing waste water, but he thinks he meant storm water. He said that is a valid argument that there is some run-off because it is a forested steep holler, but that ground is permeable so he doesn’t think it is as big a deal as some of our highways and the run-off they get from Campbell Drive and those places that they still have to treat. He said the characterization of how you vote on whether to de-annex a piece of property is generalization. He said he agrees that it is probably a bad thing for the City of Ironton, but it is also a case-by-case scenario when you’re talking about a forested area in the City limits. He said he specifically asked Ms. Waldo when she presented this, did she have any plans to develop that, and she said no. He said he knows Mr. Haney presented some things about her approaching Mr. Blankenship when she was married to Mr. Waldo, and approached the idea of having some kind of development out there that they felt was cost prohibitive. He said he will take her at her word. He doesn’t think there is any intention to utilize that land to develop, it is a forested holler; and he doesn’t have any problem doing what he feels is right on a case-by-case scenario. He doesn’t feel like her request was out of the ordinary for a piece of property like that. Mr. Haney said he thinks they could consider the development on Hog Run Road. He said that was forested land, and they have seen the development of that and the houses out there.
Motion to adopt Ordinance No. 21-20: Ayes: Cleary, Harvey, Pierce, Rist – four. Nays: Haney, Hock, Kline – three. ADOPTED
RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION NO. 21-14 – RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE APPROVAL OF THE CONTRACT FOR SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH THE IRONTON-LAWRENCE COUNTY AREA COMMUNITY ACTION ORGANZATION, INC. (CAO) was read.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to adopt Resolution No. 21-14. Mr. Harvey said this Resolution received a favorable recommendation from Finance this evening. Mr. Kline said he will abstain from voting on Resolution No. 21-14 for possible conflict of interest. Mr. Hock said he was also going to abstain from this vote for possible conflict of interest. Ayes: Cleary, Haney, Harvey, Pierce,
Rist – five. ADOPTED
RESOLUTION NO. 21-15 – RESOLUTION OF AUTHORIZATION TO FILE AN ODNR COOPERATIVE BOATING FACILITY GRANT APPLICATION was read.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Resolution No. 21-15. Mr. Harvey said this Resolution was also given a favorable recommendation by Finance Committee this evening. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
MISCELLANEOUS
Mr. Cleary said he wanted to mention that they have received the February 2021 financials and moved, seconded by Mr. Harvey, to receive, file and make part of the minutes these February 2021 financials. Motion passed unanimously.
Mayor Cramblit said he talked to Denise Paulus, and she is also on the Coal Grove City Council and they meet on the same day that we do. He said they will probably have to call a Special Meeting. He said she said she could do any night but Wednesday. He said she would bring a representative from the Humane Society to discuss Ferrell cats. Mr. Cleary said maybe they could make it the same evening as the PUC meeting. Ms. Rist said that was fine with her.
Mr. Pierce said he was hoping someone could address the Council Meeting not being recorded last time. He said he has had a few citizens ask about this. He asked if anyone had any information on that? Mr. Harvey said after the last meeting, he had asked Dave Lucas if they were on there, because there was a user and DLC usually shows up as a user; and then he found out from another councilmember that the user was their Zoom Officer and not DLC. He said Dave Lucas said it had not been recorded because the tech could not get logged in. He said he had no idea what happened, and they had similar issues in Greenup County.
Mr. Hock said he wanted to call a Strategic Planning Committee Meeting at 5:00 p.m. before their next Council meeting on April 8th to discuss sanitation cleanup, dumpster costs and sanitation rates.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist to adjourn. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit, Brigham Anderson