CITY OF PICKERINGTON

SAFETY COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007

7:30 P.M.

REGULAR MEETING

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Sabatino called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M. with Mrs. Riggs, Mr. Sabatino and Mrs. Hammond present. Mr. Wisniewski was out of town. Others present were: Judy Gilleland, Chief Mike Taylor, Steve Carr, Ed Drobina, Paul Lane, Mike Stacy, Sgt. Delp, Stacey Bashore, Lori Stewart, Sean Casey and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MARCH 5, 2007, Regular Meeting. Mrs. Riggs moved to approve; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Riggs, and Mr. Sabatino voting "Yea." Motion passed, 3-0.

Mr. Sabatino stated if there were no objections, he would address the item regarding Fox Glen Drive West so residents who wanted to speak to that issue did not have to wait until the end of the meeting.

Mr. Sabatino asked if there was anyone there to address Safety Committee regarding Fox Glen West. Lori Stewart stated she lived on Fox Glen Drive West and one of her concerns was a speed problem. She continued that this was something that has come up in their Homeowner's Association meetings and the discussions revolved around being neighborly. She further stated that one of the issues was the speed of the drivers, but also the way the other neighbors were reacting to it. She stated they are yelling at each other, throwing things at cars, and because of that kind of interaction there is recurring vandalism to the mailboxes. She further stated her greatest concern was that there may be an automobile accident or a child involved in an accident. Ms. Stewart stated that she lived on a curve halfway down Fox Glen Drive West and there are approximately 25 to 30 kids in about eight homes directly on that curve. She further stated they have already had one car come up into a yard this past winter and they fear that could happen again. She stated it is very difficult to see cars when they are coming from around the curve from the back of the neighborhood, and they are coming at such a high speed that they have to almost make an immediate stop when she is backing out of her driveway. She stated there was one occasion with construction traffic that laid on their horn because she was backing out of her driveway. Ms. Stewart stated her first thought was coming to this group to see if there was something they could do. She stated she thought of speed bumps. She suggested speed bumps and putting stop signs and cross walks at the bus stop at Carson Court to slow down traffic coming in from Diley. She stated that may be a good starting point and the safety of the children and the neighborhood is what they are trying to bring up. Mr. Sabatino asked Chief Taylor if the Police Department could give it more attention and help get things under control. Chief Taylor stated we can patrol the area more frequently and he will take a personal look at it to see if and what improvements can be made. He further stated he would personally get back with Ms. Stewart. Ms. Stewart stated she noticed officers patrol the area and they are very proactive to address things. Mr. Sabatino requested a briefing on this matter at the Safety Committee meeting in May.

3. DEPARTMENT REPORTS

A. Parks and Recreation:

(1) Director's Report- Mr. Carr stated he had provided a written report to the Committee and he would be happy to answer any questions.

(2) Skate Park Noise Complaint - Update Mr. Sabatino stated the Huntworks were not present and asked Mr. Carr for a brief update on the things being considered. Mr. Carr stated we considered putting a material that is used on foundation steel plates under the metal transition plate, because we have observed that the loudest noise is when the boards hit that metal transition plate. He stated that unfortunately we have done that on one side of the park and have not noticed any difference in sound, so that experiment has failed. He continued that the company that has the spray-on insulation is trying to schedule an experiment with the product around smaller jobs that they may have, so hopefully we may be able to get that done in the next few weeks. Mr. Carr stated we consulted with the Building Department and we cannot figure out a way to keep sand in the ramps without a floor, but at the City's Manager's suggestion, we will look at using sand bags. He further stated that maybe the combination of the spray-on insulation for the surfaces of the ramp and the sand bags that would fill the void may work. He stated that we are down to one experiment and we have exhausted a lot of other suggestions, but we will continue to look at everything that is suggested to us to see if we can't reduce that noise. Mr. Sabatino stated this would be continued on the agenda.

B. Building Regulations Department:

(1) Building Department Report (Mr. Lane) Mr. Lane stated as of March 28th we have issued 19 residential permits, and last year at this time we had issued 70 residential permits. Mr. Sabatino asked what the total number of residential permits were for last year and Mr. Lane stated approximately 220 residential permits. Mr. Sabatino stated he thought we all anticipated it would be somewhat less this year, just due to the market conditions in general. Mr. Lane stated it is picking up and he has received several zoning applications in the past two to three weeks. Mr. Lane stated staff has communicated with several different insurance companies regarding the Insurance Services Office rating and the regression from a Class 3 to a Class 4 will have no monetary impact on the citizens. He continued that State Farm doesn't use the ISO report. He stated there is a vast difference between where we are now and the improvements we could make to get to Class 1. Ms. Gilleland stated that our fire department is a Class 3 and they use that rating more than anything.

(2) Chief Building Official's Report (Mr. Stacy) Mr. Stacy stated he had provided a written report and an update on the Notice of Violation Order that had been issued to DiCarlo's Pizza and he would be happy to answer any questions.

C. Service Department:

(1) Traffic Engineer.

a. Review and discussion regarding Drug Mart access issues. Mr. Drobina stated he had nothing to report this month.

D. Facilities Operations:

(1) Update of City Hall Renovation Project- Ms. Gilleland stated we are nearing the end and anyone can feel free to take a tour of our new addition. She stated our conference room is now working and will fit all of Council, staff and then some. She continued that for the most part we are pretty much finished now.

4. POLICE:

A. Chief's Report- Chief Taylor stated his report was pretty self explanatory except for the solicitation report and any questions on that can be referred to Sgt. Delp. He stated this should be our final draft as long as Council is on board. Mr. Sabatino asked the Chief if there was anything that he would like to add regarding the Council Packet delivery discussion. Chief Taylor stated he would like to come to a compromise with delivery of the packets and possibly find an alternative to personal deliveries of packets. He suggested leaving the packets in waterproof containers at Council residences, because at times we spend a lot of man hours trying to personally deliver the packets. He stated some of the homes do not have screen doors, therefore we can't leave it on the porch in inclement weather. Chief Taylor stated he would like to find an alternative solution to the Council people picking up their own packet vs. the Police Department delivering them. He further stated it was time consuming and his staff was very busy on the weekends. Mrs. Hammond suggested plastic waterproof envelopes. She further stated she had a screen door, so she had no problem with it being left in the screen door. Mrs. Riggs stated she had an overhead porch and the packets have been left there before and were fine. Mr. Sabatino stated for himself he had no problem picking up his packet at the Police Department and once again it is Council's decision on how we want to deal with it. He further stated he would support a move if it was everyone else's desire to pick them up at the Police Department and if the majority still wants them delivered to their homes that is their choice. He requested his packet be left at the Police Department and he could come pick it up. Mrs. Riggs asked if the issue was waiting and trying to redeliver the packet and Chief Taylor stated that was correct, but if you don't mind getting the packets at 10:00 or 11:00 at night, that would be okay if we could just drop it off at the house vs. making personal delivery. Mr. Sabatino stated in his personal instance, he would feel better if his packet was left at the Police Department because it would be more secure there. Chief Taylor stated we would have better control in keeping them as we are a 24 hour facility and we could have a separate area for the Council people to pick their packets up. Mrs. Riggs asked if the information in the packets was public record and Mr. Sabatino stated sometimes there is attorney client privilege information in them. Ms. Gilleland suggested leaving them at City Hall. Mr. Sabatino stated he didn't like having the responsibility of opening the building and setting the alarm, but if it is not a problem he would like his packet held at the Police Department. Sgt. Delp suggested attempting to make personal service on Friday night and if it didn't get there it would be the responsibility of the Council members to come get it at the station. He stated that if people have screen doors we can leave them there, but if they can't make personal delivery the Council member knows where it's at. Mrs. Riggs stated that was fine, but she was more than comfortable with it being left on her stoop.

5. CHAIRMAN:

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending Chapter 852 of the Pickerington Codified Ordinances regulating peddlers and solicitors and declaring an emergency. Mr. Sabatino stated copies of the latest version were distributed, and the only change was the inclusion of a time limit for a permit not to exceed one year. Ms. Gilleland asked if we talked about this going through as emergency, because she didn't know that we necessarily needed to do that. Mr. Sabatino stated there was no emergency language attached to it. Mrs. Hammond stated there was language stating that we need to comply, but it doesn't sound like it needs to be immediately. Mr. Sabatino stated we need a motion to send to Council and leave off the emergency language. Mrs. Riggs moved to forward this item to Council without emergency language; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Riggs and Mr. Sabatino voting "Yea." Motion passed, 3-0.

B. Review and discussion regarding proposed amendments to Ordinance 89-20 regarding Hotel and Motel Excise Tax - Mr. Sabatino stated he has had discussion with Mr. Hansley and Mrs. Fersch and he still has some ideas, so he will leave this item on the agenda and continue to talk about it.

C. Review and discussion regarding Council Packet delivery procedures Mr. Sabatino stated this item was discussed earlier.

D. Review and discussion regarding "Adopt-A-Road" Progam- Mrs. Monebrake stated that their family has been one of the families that has adopted a road and that her husband spends a lot of time picking up trash, but they have noticed lately it is getting excessive. She stated that Jeff wanted to open up for discussion some ways to possibly enforce littering with signs and letting people know what the penalty is for littering. Mr. Sabatino stated there was some discussion in one of our other meetings about this same issue, not particularly Diley Road, so there is more than one person's observation that we have a lot. He stated he didn't know what we could do and asked the Chief for ideas. Chief Taylor stated we can post a no littering sign, but we would have to see a violation occur before we can enforce it. He stated that it may let people know that someone is watching if there are signs posted for littering. Mrs. Monebrake stated her husband suggested community clean up days, ways to make builders more responsible and retail establishments' trash. Ms. Gilleland stated we can have our Code Enforcement Officer do extra patrol for trash and talk with the commercial establishments. She stated she spoke with Jeff and couldn't recall whether he said he had witnessed trash coming off of the Waste Management trucks as well and if that was part of the problem. Mrs. Hammond stated that some of it is unfortunately as the City grows everything about it grows, including trash. Mr. Sabatino asked about putting something in the water bills about being responsible to our Community. Mrs. Monebrake asked what the fine is and Ms. Gilleland stated we will need to confirm it. Ms. Gilleland stated we will do some brainstorming with staff and talk with our Code Enforcement Officer.

E. Review and discussion regarding speeding issue on Fox Glen Drive West- Mr. Sabatino stated this was discussed earlier in the meeting.

6. OTHER BUSINESS: Mrs. Riggs suggested communicating as a courtesy to our citizens, the new curfew law that is going into effect for young drivers. Mrs. Hammond asked if the new law was different from the curfew law that was already in place for Pickerington and Chief Taylor stated Pickerington has a curfew law in place whether they are in a vehicle or not.

7. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mrs. Riggs moved to adjourn; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Riggs, and Mrs. Hammond voting "Yea." Motion carried 3-0. The Safety Committee adjourned at 7:59 P.M.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

Stacey L. Bashore, Deputy Municipal Clerk