MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
April 9, 2020
6:00 p.m.

A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, April 9, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via the internet. Present was Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce, Rist – seven.

A prayer was given by Rev. Steve Harvey of Sharon Baptist Church. Mr. Harvey pointed the camera to the flag, and anyone who wanted to stood for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 26, 2020, the Finance Committee Meeting of March 26, 2020, the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting of March 26, 2020, and the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting of April 1, 2020, stood approved as submitted.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Mr. Harvey said they have an invited guest, Michael Williams from E. L. Robinson, to talk to Council about the feasibility study.

Mr. Williams said he wanted to give an update of where we are with the feasibility study. He said they were on track and had promised to have it completed by March 31st, but with the virus situation, they have had some delays. He said they’re basically down to the end where they need outside people to come in and give them some cost estimates on equipment. He said their engineer from Charleston hasn’t been able to walk through the plant. He said they are working through that now to try to get that done, even though they can’t travel, they’re trying to use the plans and work with their outside supplier to get the cost estimates they need to finish, if possible. He said he talked to the Mayor last week, and they are trying to work through that as quick as they can to get that finished up. He said right now they’re looking at three options. The first option is always do nothing, which would be to run it as it is and do the maintenance to get it back to 1984 standards. He said from what they have looked at, that is not a good option. He said the other option is to do some partial upgrades, use what they can and retro fit some of it; and that is a lot of why they need some outside suppliers estimates at this point. He said the final option is to just do an entire new plant. He said most likely the option he will recommend will be an upgrade—Option #2 with some upgrades and use some of what they have there and do maintenance on it. He said that is looking like it will be the most cost effective, but they are trying to get the numbers in without being able to come up and visit the site and travel there to get the estimates we need to give them a price that is good. Mr. Kline asked Michael if he had any anticipation of when they can get those people in to give those estimates for that equipment. Mr. Williams said as of right now, he doesn’t, but they’re trying to work with them to see if they will be allowed to travel here in person, but everything keeps getting extended; and he doesn’t know if that will be possible or not. He said as of the past couple of weeks, they haven’t been able to, but as soon as they can get them here, they are probably going to be looking at probably a couple of weeks at the max to get that done. He said if they can work something out where everybody feels comfortable with the plans and the information we can provide them, hopefully they can get that finished up well before we get out of the current situation. Mr. Kline asked if there was a plan for going forward and is there communication with the EPA, because he knew they had some expectations about having that feasibility study moving forward? He said considering everything he would hope that they would be able to work with us. Mr. Williams said they haven’t had any official communications on pushing back dates. He said they did have a conference call with them a couple of weeks ago, and mentioned then that it was going to have an effect on the date, but they have not provided them with any updated time on it. Mr. Kline said with the separator that they went ahead and purchased because there was an emergency to purchase it, are there any updates on that being delivered and installation of that in the sewer plant? He said Dennis Gumbert might want to answer that. Mr. Gumbert said he talked to E&I Corporation today about the bar screen. They said they were still on schedule with a slight delay because of this situation and that the bar screen should be delivered to us around the end of this month. He said he also talked to Rebuild-It about our clarifiers. They have one of those that they took back with them rebuilt and working on the other one. He said they also have had about a 2-3 week delay because of splitting staffs and having to work on it with split shifts. Mr. Pierce said they probably can’t comment too much further until they get that report in hand and discuss the particulars of it. He asked if we can expect the completed report in a couple of weeks. Mr. Williams said yes, that is what they’re working towards right now. He said he thinks they will be able to get the numbers they need in, but obviously it’s easier if everyone could show up, have an in-person meeting and visit the site in a situation like this; but he thinks they have enough information. They’ve been working this week trying to get all that worked out, and he thinks they should be on the right track and have that finished up very shortly.

Chief Pam Wagner said she wanted to thank them for giving Resolution No. 20-24 a favorable recommendation in Finance. She said she assumes Mr. Elam has already told Council a little about this, but this is what is called an Equitable Sharing Fund through the Department of Justice and the United States Treasury. She said at the first of the year when she gives her yearly stats to everyone, she had told Council that their Drug Task Force had been working with the DEA on some things. She said this is the fruits of that labor. She said this was a fund that was established in 1999. She said she had no knowledge of this fund. Missy Schreck and John Elam worked diligently trying to find out where this money went. She said after several phone calls and a lot of detective work, we finally found it, and it was in the General Fund. She said everyone should have attached to their agendas what is called a “Guide to the Equitable Sharing Fund”. She said in Section 5, Paragraph A, that she wanted everyone to be aware that when they get this money, they can’t have funds come from anything else in the budget. But what it’s saying is that if they have funds that have already been budgeted over the years, then those funds cannot be taken away from their budget just because they’re getting Federal monies, because Federal monies are not anything that is steady—they just have to work on them as they get them. She said in the budget amendment that John has put on the agenda, on the Drug Task Force, she doesn’t know if it’s a typo or what, but on Line 01-15-5-0060-0125, there are no monies allocated there to the Drug Task Force. She said that is going to put them out of compliance. Mr. Elam told her that there is Drug Task Force money in the General Fund, Police Department. He said they do have $13,000 in their General Fund account. He said no money has been taken out of that. Chief Wagner said her guys had worked very hard on this case, so they are looking forward to future endeavors with their Federal partners.

Mr. Harvey said he had a couple of questions for the Mayor and one for our Solicitor. He said the first question is from a few residents who wanted to know if they could contact his office to donate a City Christmas tree. The Mayor said they could contact his office, and they would go and check out the tree. Mr. Harvey said the second question is regarding the Proclamation the Mayor delivered on Tuesday about a Community Happy Hour, which was a suggestion brought to them by one of our physicians, who is a resident of Ironton, and a collaboration between the Mayor and City Council. He said this has been very well received. He said has had numerous questions about why we didn’t call it a tail gate, and whether or not people are allowed to drink adult beverages during Community Happy Hour in their yards. The Mayor said he didn’t have an answer about the tail gate; but as he understands it, as long as they are in their yard, they can drink the beverages. But if they step out onto public property is where they would run into an issue. So technically that is a way to keep them from going out past their yards. Chief Wagner said yes, as long as they are on private property, but they cannot come out onto the sidewalk and take them out to the street. Mr. Harvey said the final question he had from audience participation is a solicitor question about the City State of Emergency and the Ohio State of Emergency, and the questions are from people who have seen on the news teachers driving in a car parade around to waive at their students and honk; and they want to know if this is something that they are legally allowed to do or if that is something that is forbidden. Brigham Anderson said to drive around in the car does not violate the Stay at Home order, but that really is more of a question for the Department of Health instead of City Council. Mack Anderson came on and said he agrees that it is a question more for the County Health Department for them to determine that. Mr. Harvey said apparently he is getting the overwhelming majority of the calls, but again he wants to reiterate for citizens to feel free to reach out during this time. He said the reason that they are broadcasting these meetings on Facebook and OU’s media channel and all the outlets they can do is to provide transparency, but also to encourage the citizens to reach out to a Councilmember if they do have questions, and that Councilmember will gladly translate their question.

COMMUNICATIONS

Mr. Harvey said they received the letter from Mayor Cramblit for his veto of Ordinance No. 20-11, and by charter, they are supposed to enter those into the minutes. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to receive, file and make a part of the minutes the communication from Mayor Cramblit regarding Ordinance No. 20-11. Motion passed unanimously.

REPORTS

None

ORDINANCES

ORDINANCE NO. 20-25 –       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 given first reading.

Mr. Cleary said this ordinance was favorably recommended by the Finance Committee. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-25 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-25 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-25. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

ORDINANCE NO. 20-26 –       RENAMING LINE ITEMS FOR FUND 42-00-8-0099-0054 AND FUND 01-15-5-0099-0054 AND AMENDING THE ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Cleary said this ordinance was also given a favorable recommendation by the Finance Committee. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-26 second and third reading by title only. Mr. Pierce said he read Mr. Kline’s email referring to this as a one-time endeavor, but there’s nowhere in this ordinance where he sees that it says “one time”. Mr. Kline said it is signifying that it’s a one-time transfer because it’s identifying the dollar amount that the fund is coming from and the fund it’s going back to, as far as the transfer to banks. He said it is not open-ended in that manner. Mr. Pierce said to be clear, because it states a specific dollar amount and two specific funds, that makes it a one-time event? Mr. Harvey said, yes. Motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-26 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-26. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

ORDINANCE NO. 20-19 –       AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING AND IMPLEMENTING A PROGRAM TO CHARGE MITIGATION RATES FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY SERVICES BY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR SERVICES PROVIDED/RENDERED FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON was given second reading.

Mr. Harvey asked Nate Kline if he had found any previous legislation because that seemed to be the question that came up last time on this. Mr. Kline said he has not found any previous legislation. He said he has not had a chance to talk to Brigham, but he has been on our legal site and wasn’t able to locate anything. Mack Anderson said they checked through the codified ordinances and couldn’t find anything. Mr. Kline said Chief Mahlmeister is here now, but out of committee the recommendation was three separate readings to give opportunity for residents to give feedback questions, etc. He asked Chief Mahlmeister if he knew of anything in the past where the Fire Department has billed insurance companies. Chief Mahlmeister said as far as he knows, there has never been any issue or any kind of ordinance. He said he knows it was discussed several years ago, and Tom Runyon had mentioned that it was discussed; but there was never anything that was put in place as far as he knows. So to his knowledge, this is something brand new that they’re going into.

 

ORDINANCE NO. 20-17 –       AMENDING THE TEMPORARY BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given third reading.

Mr. Cleary moved to adopt Ordinance No. 20-17. Mr. Elam said at one time if they had to make a repair for Dennis’ plant before the Permanent Budget had been adopted, that’s why that was submitted; and it was submitted about the same time that the Permanent Budget was. So this ordinance just needs to die—it was for the Temporary Budget. Mr. Cleary rescinded his motion to adopt.

RESOLUTIONS

RESOLUTION NO. 20-24 –      CREATING AN EQUITABLE SHARING ACCOUNT was read.

Mr. Cleary said Resolution No. 20-21 was also given a favorable recommendation in Finance this evening. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to pass Resolution No. 20-24. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

MISCELLANEOUS

Mr. Haney said they have had some discussions about the downtown area. He said he has talked to a few of the guys about possibly making some of the non-essential side streets one-way in order for the downtown to basically have more parking spots. He said he talked to Mr. Harvey, and the Council doesn’t really have everything to do with it, but there is a part that (inaudible) or something like that in order for the Mayor and City employees to move on with that. He said he has discussed with the Mayor some of the side streets they thought could possibly be changed to one-way, and they talked about in between 3rd and 4th on Vernon and one side of the street on Washington closest to Auto Zone, making that one-way. He said it would basically double, if not more, the parking on those two streets. He knows they have to do something, so he would move to look into the situation on those streets to possibly allow more parking for some of those new businesses moving in. He said he thinks to bounce back from this, everyone is going to come out in droves to support the local restaurants and local businesses once the coronavirus mandates are lifted. He said he would say that they as a Council and the City would have to go ahead and move forward with this before everything opens back up, we would have the parking necessary and have the construction done, if there needs to be any. He said he thinks it would be smart for them to go ahead and do this while everything is at a slower pace. Mr. Harvey said he didn’t think Mr. Haney had to move on anything yet. He said when they were talking, Mr. Harvey said the only time they would be involved that he is aware of is if they needed to widen that and there needed to be some kind of easement. He said maybe Mack could address whether Council has any involvement in that or if that is strictly a Mayor’s decision to make a street one-way and create parking spaces without having to do any infrastructure change. Mack Anderson said if they want to make a one-way street, that has to be done by ordinance because it has to be against the law to go the opposite direction, so you would have to have an ordinance that you can only travel in a certain direction on a street. He said as far as parking places or no parking places, that would be up to the Mayor—he can do that without Council. He said if he would want to make a handicapped zone or he wants to make no parking on this side of the street or something, but if you are going to make a street one-way, it has to be done through an ordinance.   Mr. Haney said so basically what they would have to do in order for the Mayor and City to go ahead with this, is for Council to try to determine which streets they want to make one-way so the Mayor can move on with the painting or anything else construction-wise that would need to happen. Mr. Anderson said the first thing you would have to do to make a street one-way that is now a two-way street, an ordinance would have to be adopted by Council and signed by the Mayor; and then the Mayor would implement it by painting the stripes and putting up the signs, etc. Mr. Cleary said he thinks when Bill Sheridan was Mayor, they made Park Avenue one way from 9th down to 3rd Street, and then Vernon one-way all the way back out to 9th. He asked Mack if he recalled that. Mack said he does kind of recall that years ago, and he thinks it would have been done by ordinance. Mr. Cleary said maybe that’s something they could research. Mr. Haney said they would probably need to stay away from the ODOT portion of our streets—they don’t want to mess with Park Avenue or 2nd or 3rd, but they could do side streets. He said they obviously would need to do some research on this, but it could be something that could be beneficial to us during this time.

Mayor Cramblit, touching on what Chris was just talking about, said they had that conversation in an Economic Development Committee meeting last month, and they did follow up about this today with that group, which Craig and Nate were both a part of. He said he is working with Ralph Kline, and KYOVA has done a parking study for our downtown area, which has all the evidence they need already. He said they were discussing maybe updating that study today, but they are also working with the transportation planning group that does these kind of projects and get them funded as well. He said that the KYOVA parking study also addresses the intermodal parking deck, which would alleviate the problem of having to put a one-way road in because we would have parking instead. He said the other thing about getting this done during this time is they are on a limited staff because of the shift work they are doing to avoid exposure to each other, plus all the other projects they have going on at the moment. He said depending on how long this thing is going to last, he doesn’t know that they would have the time to get this project done if they’re being liberal and optimistic about how the time frame will be. Mr. Harvey said he was trying to think of what committee that might best involve, and offhand, he thinks that maybe that would be best suited for Industrial and Commercial and a discussion about where those businesses are and the location and proximity to some of those side streets and the need for parking there in-corporation with that study. He said he thinks the Industrial and Commercial Committee is Bob, Jacob and Mike; but needless to say, since this is Mr. Haney’s passion, he would want to be a part of that. He said since that is not something that is urgent and pressing that the Mayor is going to be able to accomplish immediately, he asked Mr. Cleary if he at some point could call an Industrial and Commercial Committee meeting to discuss the possibility of moving some streets in close proximity to those businesses to one-way. Mr. Cleary asked Chris to call him and fill him in and show him any drawings he might have, and then they can call a meeting for the whole committee. The Mayor said he would also send them the KYOVA parking study, and they could also go online to KYOVA’s website and find that parking study pretty easily. He said he would also request to invite Ralph Kline to that meeting when we have it.

Mike Pierce said they had discussed the purchase of a grader a couple of months ago, and he has had some residents on the north end complaining and asking if there is a way we can get the alleys graded. He said they are in terrible shape, especially where the gas company has gone through the alleys with an excavator-type machine and really dug some deep mud holes in the alley. He said he was wondering where they are on the grader and if we could get anything done to the alleys. He said he also wanted to know about the purchase of the police vehicle and wanted to ask Chief Wagner if that had been obtained yet. Mr. Harvey said Chief Wagner is off the call now. He said he would forward Mr. Pierce her information so he can ask her the status of that. Mayor Cramblit said Mr. Elam could probably answer that. Mr. Elam said right now there is a hold on those vehicles since the automobile manufacturing plants have been converted to produce equipment for COVID. He said when he had spoken to Pam about that a week ago, she told him that she could not even get a vehicle now. He said as soon as she is able to order one, he feels comfortable in telling Council that she will let them know and will be placing the order. Mayor Cramblit said, regarding Mr. Pierce’s first question, yes, they budgeted for the alley grader. He said with it being estimated over $50,000, they have to put it out for bid. So they have to first find it and then find somebody to bid on it for them to purchase it, as far as he understands it. He said also that this is something that Council was pretty adamant about, being careful with capital equipment expenditures. He said this is obviously probably his top priority because every alley, not just in the north end, is in bad shape. He said they will continue to work towards finding one that would fit within that $80,000 allocated for it, and hopefully, get these people to bid on it once they open up the bid. Mr. Pierce asked if there was any chance that they could utilize some of the County entities to get some of the alleys graded or perhaps borrow or rent a grader to do that. The Mayor said the County owns the City’s old grader because they sold it to them, and everyone can see how that is working out for our alleys right now. He said he thinks their best option is to purchase one. He said a lot of people don’t have them for rent because it’s not typically something that people do rent. He said most municipalities own them. He said they were going to check with C. J. Hughes to see if they would because they do a lot of paving projects, but he hasn’t heard anything from that yet. Mr. Pierce asked that they stay on it. Mack Anderson said he wanted to interject that if Columbia Gas has caused some of this problem, they are supposed to put those alleys back in the condition they were in before. He said any utility company that digs and tears up a street or alley are required to put it back in the condition it was in. He said maybe they could get Columbia Gas to go down there and do something right now to those alleys where they worked. Mayor Cramblit said primarily they didn’t dig up the alleys—he thinks they were traveling through these alleys–and people are saying these big trucks are what is running the alleys down. He said they are down on that end of town to do some digging and relining. He said he thinks Dennis has been around some of the projects they have. Mr. Gumbert said yes, they have kept up with the line locations and monitored their work, and a lot of their travels have used the alley, which have caused a lot of the damage. The Mayor said it is not necessarily actual work, such as gas lines in the alleys, they are on the streets.   Mr. Anderson said they might still want to contact Columbia Gas; and as a good neighbor, they may come in there and do something if they’re the ones who have caused the damage by using it so much. Mr. Elam said he wanted to confirm with Mr. Anderson that if the Mayor could find a municipality who has a grader for sale, that it doesn’t have to go out for bid? Mr. Anderson said that is correct, you can buy from another governmental entity without bidding. Mr. Haney said he thinks the reason they sold theirs to the County in the first place was that it was too big to fit down most of their alleys. The Mayor said they sold it to the County because it wasn’t getting used enough, and he thinks they took a big loss on it, but that was a long time ago.

Mr. Kline said they usually invite Dr. Dingus or Jeremy Clay to come to their first meeting of the quarter to give an update for economic development in the City, and he was wondering if they could extend that invite to them at our next regular Council meeting just to give an update with the spec building, the Columbia Gas yard and the new hotel. Mayor Cramblit said yes, they can.

Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to go into Executive Session to discuss contracts, with the Mayor, Brett Thomas, John Elam and Mack Anderson; and a second Executive Session to discuss personnel with just the Mayor, with no action to follow. Mayor Cramblit said he would also like Mark Dickess to be in on personnel. Motion passed unanimously.

Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.

In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Brigham Anderson and Mayor Cramblit.