MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
May 14, 2020
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, May 14, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via video conference. Present was Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce, Rist – seven.
A prayer was given by Rev. Jeremy Sherrill of Greater Faith Apostolic Church. Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes of the Regular Meeting of April 23, 2020, stood approved as submitted.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Harvey said he had a couple of things from residents. He talked at the last meeting about the parade. He said he had referred those questions to the Parade Committee and to the Mayor’s office. He said the Mayor may have more information since he was on the Parade Committee. He said he wanted to commend those people on the Parade Committee for making it happen and trying to do what is in the best interest of the public under the guidance of public health. He said the big thing he keeps getting a lot of feedback on is about all the stop signs that are going up in town. He said he has heard about this from a wide variety of people. He asked the Mayor if he could address these issues. Mayor Cramblit said regarding the parade, he said everyone is saddened because we can’t have it in the usual way. He said it is unfortunate because of the sacrifices we are having to make this year. He said it is mostly all a matter of health under the current order. He said even though the Parade Committee and the Health Department have worked hard on putting this together, and with the current order they are under, they would not have been able to have the parade as normal anyway. He applauds the work they have done so we can have something. He said first and foremost it is great that they will keep it continuing so they don’t lose the record, because if they didn’t have it, they would have to start over at one next year whenever they would ever be allowed to do it again. He said it is to memorialize veterans, and that has been their main goal in putting this together. He said whenever they can have it as normal again, the plan is to make it bigger than ever. He said as far as the stop signs, the reason the stop signs have went up is they have been doing assessments as they can to look at where they are warranted. He said some are warranted and some are not. He said where they are warranted, it is because people have brought it to their attention; and there are some out there that are no longer needed, because maybe there was a school there that is no longer there, or a slow traffic area. So they are looking at the necessity of where that stop sign actually is. He said the ones that they have put up are all warranted, and they were all for safety reasons. He said he doesn’t like stop signs any more than the next person, but there are many factors that go into whether or not it is warranted. He said the main goal is to control the speed. He said Ironton is primarily residential neighborhoods other than our truck routes and business routes, and where they have put them up they found them to be warranted. He said they have also taken a couple of them down. He said they will continue to do the assessment on what needs to be removed as well. Mr. Harvey asked him if he had any more updates to provide to Council. He said the bar screen was installed today and completed as of 4:30 p.m.
Mr. Harvey asked Mr. Elam for any updates he may have on finances. Mr. Elam said they have had two more audits in between their main State audit—those audits were for the Revolving Loan Fund and the Community Development Block Grant Fund. He said both audits were clean, and there were no findings on either one of them. He said he wanted to inform them that he will be meeting with the Mayor and Department Heads, individually, tomorrow to go over their budgets through four months and to allow them input and see where they are on the projections and if they will need to make budget adjustments; and if so, are they warranted to make them.
Mr. Pierce said he had a couple of people comment on the street crew patching 3rd and 4th Streets on the north end, and that is much appreciated. He said also, he wondered where we were on the purchasing of a grader? He said he has had several people on the alleys on the north end requesting that they be graded, and he knows they had looked into that and wondered if they were any closer to purchasing a grader. Mayor Cramblit said they are working pretty hard to get all of their patch jobs done around the City. He said they have been running into the issue of a lot of rain, and that halts things because they cannot pour asphalt in the rain. He said with the grader, they are on the right track. He said they have been looking at one that is local within the budget that is fairly new with little hours on it. He said he would like to discuss contracts in Executive Session following this meeting, if possible. But they are close to getting an alley grader. Mr. Harvey asked who the Mayor needed in the Executive Session for contracts. Mayor Cramblit said he would need Mr. Elam, Mike Pemberton if he has joined the meeting, Brigham or Mack, and Council, with no action afterwards.
Nate Kline said he would like an update on the Sewer Plant with the clarifiers, the thickener and the feasibility study. Mayor Cramblit said the feasibility study should be completed any day now. He said regarding the clarifiers, he asked Dennis Gumbert to provide an update on the thickener and the clarifier. He said he thought that one was being rebuilt at the present time. Mr. Gumbert said they are scheduled for next Thursday to have the secondary clarifier replaced, weather permitting. He said they did get the bar screen in today. He said they wanted to do the south primary clarifier also, but there was too much happening. He said that will be scheduled after they get this clarifier replaced next Thursday.
COMMUNICATIONS – None
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES
ORDINANCE NO. 20-32 – STORM WATER MANAGEMENT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey said this ordinance was given a favorable recommendation by Public Utilities last week. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-32 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-32 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Kline, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-32. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-33 – AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH MULLINS CONSTRUCTION CO., INC. FOR THE BRUMBERG HISTORIC RENOVATION PHASE 1 PROJECT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey asked Mr. Kline if this was an RLF Fund. Mr. Kline said yes, it is, and Ralph Kline was invited on this conversation to expand further with the Phase 1 of the Brumberg Building renovation. Nate said he would like to direct those questions to Ralph Kline as far as the intricacies of that and the funding. Ralph Kline said basically they have some RLF dollars—the amount they are asking to go up to $50,000 of it. He said the balance of those funds are from three other grants: $200,000 HUD Opportunity, $250,000 ARC and $100,000 finance fund. He said the balance of it would be made up by cash that LEDC would be bringing in on it. He said LEDC is the third party to the contract. He said this is a design/build contract, and they will be completing all of the exterior work, everything they need to do to meet this scope of the grants that were awarded to them. However, they would be looking at additional phases to complete the interior of the building. Nate Kline said he wanted to add that this is a $1.3 million improvement based on the majority of funds from ARC and government grants and the LEDC. He said the cost of this has ballooned to redo this building primarily because of bureaucracy of state and federal government in getting those ARC grants and rising construction costs. He said he is very happy that they are getting ready to move forward with this because it has been very much anticipated, and he feels like it is going to be a big asset to downtown. Mr. Harvey said even though this is an in and out, is it still something that has to be favorably recommended by the Finance Committee or just given recommendation one way or the other. Brigham Anderson said if the City is spending money, it has to be favorably or unfavorably recommended by Finance. Mr. Harvey said that doesn’t appear to be the case, and asked Ralph Kline if that was correct. Ralph Kline said basically these are all grant dollars, and he doesn’t believe there is any City allocation. He said he thinks those grants are already in the budget and budgeted out, as well as the program income dollars. Mr. Harvey asked Mr. Elam if he was in agreement with that. Mr. Elam said yes. Nate Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-33 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-33 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-33. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-34 – ESTABLISHING FEES FOR UNOCCUPIED STRUCTURES AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Nate Kline said this ordinance received a favorable recommendation from Public Utilities, and he would also like to request that this ordinance has three separate readings to give additional time for residents to give feedback and review if needed. He said the only addition to this ordinance was an effective date of August 1, 2020, and that was based on discussion from the Mayor, Brett Thomas and Jeff Joseph, as far as when they will be able to implement this. He said Brigham gave his opinion that there would not need to be additional recommendation out of PUC with that implementation of that effective date. So he said he would like to request three separate readings of this ordinance. Mr. Pierce said he believes in earlier discussions they spoke to the matter of adding in Section 1, “storm water at a minimum of 1,000 gallons” for the fee; and he doesn’t see that in the legislation as it stands. He said he was wondering what happened to those thoughts and revisions that they had spoken about. Nate Kline said that did not hit Section 1, but if Mr. Pierce would look forward in that in Section 5, the storm water fee is addressed in that section. He said it just did not make Section 1 as an add-on for that. He said they could make that amendment, and if Mr. Pierce wanted to make that motion to amend, he would be happy to second that with him. Mr. Pierce said he would like to make the motion to add in Section 5 of this ordinance, “for storm water a minimum fee of 1,000 gallons”. Mr. Kline said he would second Mr. Pierce’s motion. Mr. Harvey said he thinks the motion is incomplete. He said they addressed Section 5, but didn’t address Section 1 where it still needs added. Mr. Harvey told Mr. Pierce to add storm water into Section 1 as well. Mr. Pierce moved, seconded by Mr. Kline, to add into Section 1 to storm water, a minimum fee for 1,000 gallons. Motion passed unanimously.
ORDINANCE NO. 20-35 – AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT WITH GREAT LAKES COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIP AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey asked Mayor Cramblit if he wanted to give Council an update on this. He said they spoke last night about whether this ordinance needs urgent attention from the Finance Committee and Council prior to May 28th. Mayor Cramblit said he could explain what this is for those who are unaware, but there is no urgency to have it passed right away. Mr. Harvey said for time sake, he said they can discuss the intricacies of this in Finance Committee, and they can refer it to Finance. He said unless he hears otherwise of a sense of urgency from the Mayor that it needs to be passed prior to May 28th, he said they will have a Finance Committee Meeting at 5:30 p.m. prior to their next meeting on May 28th to discuss Ordinance No. 20-35.
Mr. Harvey said before they go to Amended Ordinance No. 20-31 for second and third reading, he wanted to explain why this is on the Agenda. He said in their Special Meeting on May 4th, they suspended the rules to give it second and third reading, but they didn’t actually read it. They adopted it without reading it the second and third time. He said the Clerk brought it to his attention when she was working on the minutes of the Special Meeting. He said he went back and reviewed the video, and he verified that they didn’t actually read it. He said the rules have already been suspended to give it second and third reading, so he is going to ask the Clerk to give Amended Ordinance No. 20-31 second and third reading by title only, and then he will entertain a motion to adopt again.
AMENDED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-31 – SETTING RATES FOR THE SALE OF WATER FOR CUSTOMERS OF TANKER TRUCKS AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given second and third reading.
Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to adopt Amended Ordinance No. 20-31. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
RESOLUTIONS – None
MISCELLANEOUS
Mr. Harvey said the Finance Director asked him to make sure he mentioned in Miscellaneous that they all received an amended copy of the Five-Year Plan, and he asked that everyone review that.
Mayor Cramblit asked Ralph Kline if he could talk about the parking to accommodate the Brumberg Building project. Mr. Kline said for this construction it is probably not as critical, but after they finish the exterior, they are trying to come up with a financing plan in order to build out the interior. He said they are looking at the first-floor space, but the top floors of both of those buildings, they are looking at a combination of 15 condo units. He said with the condo units, they feel that in order to have the market prices to where they need to be, condo owners will expect a dedicated parking spot. He said long term they are looking at a parking deck there, and they are proceeding to go ahead and do some preliminary design work on that; but by the time they would get that funded, it will be years down the line. So what they would be asking of the City, if at all possible, for parking on Vernon Street to be rearranged to where you could make it one way—the Unger side of the parking would stay the same as it is, but there would be angled parking on the Brumberg side. He said he believes that based upon the plans he has seen, that would give us 12 parking spots that could be dedicated to residents. He said in addition to that, the CAO has the parking lot on the other side with Park Avenue Apartments, and they would squeak out another 3 parking spots over there, so each of those residents could be assured of a parking spot. He said he talked to the Mayor to see what would need to be involved to make something like that happen. He said it goes along to help this building, but he knows there are some other buildings, such as Mr. Hankins’ building across from the City Building, that will have the same issues. He said the City might want to discuss whether this is some kind of an accommodation that they could work with with various building owners who are wanting to build those units on the upper floors until they can come up with a long-term parking answer. He said they see the long-term answer as putting a parking deck as shown on there. He said the parking deck would then take care of all of the transient vehicles, which they are having challenges with, as well as secured parking for the residents of Park Avenue and the Brumberg and some of the other properties. He said the lower ground level would just be made available for additional public parking. He said that is the question they have for the City, and hopefully that would be given some consideration in order to help them develop that out and have a true market for those condos. Mr. Haney asked Ralph Kline, if they would make Vernon Street one way, are there any pros and cons to having the straight-on parking on the Unger side, or would it help even more if they made those angled spots also? Ralph Kline said he had some people there measuring that out based on standards, and he doesn’t think that there is adequate room to have angled parking on both sides in order to have a good clear lane that goes through there for straight-through cars. He said if that could be developed, maybe they can get somebody to go through and actually lay it out. He said they might have to infringe on some of the sidewalks like they are doing on Vernon Street at Frisch’s, where you can infringe on the sidewalks because they are wide sidewalks. He said the challenge they have on the Brumberg side is that there are a couple of outside entrances into those basements, which have to remain there for fire codes, so it restricts how much sidewalk areas that you do have. Mr. Pierce asked Mr. Kline if he had an overview or sketch that they could look at. Mr. Kline said yes, he can get those for Council.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to go into Executive Session to discuss contracts, with the Mayor, Mike Pemberton, Brett Thomas, John Elam, Brigham Anderson and Council, with no action to follow. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, and Mayor Cramblit.