PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

 

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

 

1.         ROLL CALL, INVOCATION, AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. Council for the City of Pickerington met for a regular session Tuesday, March 2, 2010, at City Hall.  Mayor O’Brien called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M.  Roll call was taken as follows:  Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mayor O’Brien were present.  No members were absent.  Others present were: Chief Mike Taylor, Lynda Yartin, Phil Hartmann, Chris Schornack, Ed Drobina, Greg Bachman, Chet Hopper, Susan Crotty, Nate Ellis, Rachel Schofeld, Vicki Green, Carol Carter, Pastor Jeff Myers, Alexa Libert, and others.  Pastor Myers delivered the invocation. 

 

2.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 16, REGULAR MEETING.  Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Blair, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

3.         COMMUNITY COMMENTS. 

 

A.        Vicki Green.  Ms Green stated she has lived in Pickerington for 15 years and recently purchased a home in Preston Trails.  She stated she would like to address Council regarding raising the speed limit on Diley Road.  Ms Green stated she lives at the northernmost entrance to Preston Trails so she gets a bird’s eye view as far as what is going on on Diley Road as far as speed.  She stated she is a registered professional engineer and she has ODOT experience as a design engineer, and her fiancé is also a Deputy Sherriff, so they are pretty good observers and fairly good at judging speed.  Ms Green stated the road is posted at 35 MPH but nobody observes that and they go 45 to 50 MPH on a regular basis and 60 to 70 MPH late at night.  She stated further they call this stretch of road a drag strip.  Ms Green stated her concern is that the road will handle 45 MPH based on ODOT’s functional classification for that type of road, it was designed for that.  She stated, however, that if you raise it to 45 MPH people are going to go at least 7 MPH over if not more.  She stated she understood that on paper it looked good, 45 MPH would work, but from a practical standpoint there are a lot of different factors going on.  She stated when you increase your speed, your reaction time is worse, and if the speed is increased she felt there would be a risk of something happening.  Ms Green further stated the bike path is located there and it is very busy with a lot of activity, and if the speed limit is increased she felt it would create a lot more issues. 

 

4.         COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS.  Mr. Barletta stated he would like to remind everyone about the Big Brothers and Big Sisters having a Bowl for Kids Sake event on March 13th and 14th, and this is for a very good cause.   

 

5.         APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA.  Mayor O’Brien stated there were two consent agenda items this evening.  Ordinance 2010-14, an ordinance to accept a donation from Schottenstein, Zox, & Dunn to be used for the City’s K-9 Program, and Ordinance 2010-15, an ordinance to accept a donation from the Pickerington Lion’s Club to be used for the City’s K-9 Program, First Readings, Safety Committee.  Mr. Fix moved to adopt; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

6.         APPROVAL OF AGENDA.  Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

7.         REPORTS:   

 

A.        MAYOR.  Mayor O’Brien administered the oath of office to Sergeant Steven Snyder of the Pickerington Police Department.  Mayor O’Brien further stated the Monthly Mayor’s Court Report had been distributed.   

 

B.         LAW DIRECTOR.  Mr. Hartmann stated he had no report this evening.   

 

C.        FINANCE DIRECTOR.  Mr. Schornack stated income tax revenues are down 4.7 percent over 2009, and the next two months will be critical.   

 

            D.         SERVICE MANAGER.  Mr. Drobina stated he had no report this evening. 

 

E.         CITY ENGINEER.  Mr. Bachman stated he has an ordinance on tonight’s agenda to award the contract to Floyd Browne for the sanitary sewer master plan.  He stated they would like to get some of the flow monitors into the sanitary sewers while we are in the wet season.  Mr. Bachman stated further he had presented a concept plan on S.R. 256 safety improvements to Service Committee and he would welcome any input or comments from council members. 

 

F.         CITY MANAGER.  Chief Taylor stated he had provided a written report and he would try to answer any questions. 

 

            G.        SERVICE COMMITTEE.  Mr. Wisniewski stated Service Committee met on February 17th, and the contract Mr. Bachman just briefed on came out of that meeting.  He stated they had also discussed the concept plans for S.R. 256 and Long Road improvements. 

 

            H.        SAFETY COMMITTEE.  Mrs. Hammond stated Safety Committee also met on February 17th, and the two items just approved on the consent agenda came out of that meeting, as well as the ordinance recommending increasing the speed limit on Diley Road.  Mrs. Hammond stated the Committee had also discussed bicycle riding in the City and texting while driving.  

 

8.         PROCEDURAL READINGS:

 

            A.        ORDINANCE 2010-13, “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH FLOYD BROWNE GROUP FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES ON THE SANITARY SEWER MASTER PLAN PROJECT,” First Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski stated this project will give us a much better idea of where our sanitary sewer lines are and help to identify areas where we might have problems.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            *B.      ORDINANCE 2010-14, “AN ORDINANCE TO ACCEPT A DONATION FROM SCHOTTENSTEIN, ZOX, & DUNN TO BE USED FOR THE CITY’S K-9 PROGRAM,” First Reading, Safety Committee.  Mr. Fix moved to adopt; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0.  (CONSENT AGENDA ITEM)

 

            *C.      ORDINANCE 2010-15, “AN ORDINANCE TO ACCEPT A DONATION FROM THE PICKERINGTON LION’S CLUB TO BE USED FOR THE CITY’S K-9 PROGRAM,” First Reading, Safety Committee.  Mr. Fix moved to adopt; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0.  (CONSENT AGENDA ITEM)

 

            D.        ORDINANCE 2010-16, “AN ORDINANCE TO INCREASE THE SPEED LIMIT ON DILEY ROAD,” First Reading, Safety Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he has been a council member since the beginning of the Diley Road project and there were many residents who came in concerned about the speed limit and that the road would turn into a drag strip, the noise, etc.  He stated not many residents were in support of the project, and many concessions were made during that time for a variety of reasons.  He stated that speed was a concern because there are several driveways that exit onto Diley Road, there are two large schools right off of this road, and there is a heavily used bike path.  Mr. Wisniewski stated during the construction of Diley Road several residents had come in requesting traffic signals because of safety concerns exiting subdivisions, and if the speed is increased he agreed that it would only increase the speed issues that we have on the road right now.  Mr. Wisniewski continued that there are a great many school bus routes that go through the Cherry Hill subdivision and are turning onto Diley Road on a regular basis.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt an increased speed limit would only increase the chances of accidents occurring and he is quite concerned about the busses that turn onto Diley Road from Cherry Hill.  Mr. Fix asked Mr. Bachman to address the justification for increasing the speed limit.  Mr. Bachman stated he had done a speed study in accordance with ODOT criteria for warrants and it came back for 45 MPH.  Mr. Bachman stated he understood there were two sides to this issue, but from an engineering perspective and in doing the speed study, it came back with 45 MPH.  Mr. Wisniewski clarified that Mr. Bachman did not have figures based on what percentage of people were speeding during the speed study.  Mr. Sauer stated while he understood Mr. Wisniewski’s point of view, he felt there were other roads in the City that have more driveway cuts, such as S.R. 204, and it is 45 MPH there.  He stated a number of subdivisions access onto that road and he did not recall a number of accidents in that area.  He stated he drives Diley Road every day to and from work and in driving 35 MPH he is passed repeatedly or he is tailgated.  He stated he felt this created another dangerous scenario because if someone is flying around a car they will have an even more difficult time seeing someone trying to cross the road.  He stated he would support this increase in the speed limit.  Mr. Barletta stated he lives in Cherry Hill and he has spoken to several residents in this subdivision and throughout the City and people feel that 35 MPH is artificially low and they are overwhelmingly in favor of raising the speed limit.  Mrs. Sanders stated she has had conversations as well and the issue of the busses has come up several times, however, people do feel that we are artificially keeping it at 35 MPH for revenue purposes.  She stated the majority of the people she has spoken with are in favor of increasing the speed limit and she would support this.  Mr. Blair stated he supported this in Safety Committee and he would still support it.  Mr. Blair stated during the campaign this was mentioned several times and people were in favor of seeing the speed increased.  Mr. Wisniewski inquired if we had any accident data as to how many accidents have occurred so far on that stretch of road and Mr. Bachman stated we do not have that data as yet.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to request we track that and he would like to see the results after six months with a 45 MPH speed limit.  Mr. Bachman stated the police may be able to gather that information as well.  Mr. Fix moved to adopt; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski voting “Nay,” and Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 6-1. 

 

 

            E.         ORDINANCE 2010-10, “AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING THE RULES AND REGULATONS FOR THE CITY OF PICKERINGTON, OHIO, PERSONNEL APPEALS BOARD,” Second Reading, Finance Committee.  Mrs. Sanders stated the Personnel Director has requested the final two readings this evening in order to get these Rules and Regulations in place.  Mrs. Sanders moved to waive the requirement in Charter Section 2.06 that the ordinance be read on three separate meeting dates for the purpose of the final readings; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Suspension of Rules passed, 7-0.  Mrs. Sanders moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            F.         ORDINANCE 2010-11, “AN ORDINANCE TO ADOPT A NEW CODE OF PERSONNEL PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES (FORMERLY PERSONNEL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL,”) Second Reading, Finance Committee.  Mrs. Sanders stated she would ask for the final two readings this evening.  Mrs. Sanders moved to waive the requirement in Charter Section 2.06 that the ordinance be read on three separate meeting dates for the purpose of the final readings; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Fix, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Suspension of Rules passed, 7-0.  Mrs. Sanders moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

9.         LEGISLATIVE READINGS:

 

            A.        ORDINANCE 2010-04, “AN ORDINANCE TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH NEPTUNE EQUIPMENT COMPANY,” Third Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Blair voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0.

 

            B.         ORDINANCE 2010-06, “AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 2009-25, AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT WITH BEHELER EXCAVATING, INC., FOR OLDE PICKERINGTON VILLAGE OUTFALL CONSTRUCTION AND EAST STREET AND FANCHERS STREET WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT,” Third Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            C.        ORDINANCE 2010-07, “AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 2009-47 AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CHANGE ORDER WITH BEHELER EXCAVATING, INC., FOR THE EXTENSION OF TOWN SQUARE DRIVE,” Third Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Blair, Mr. Barletta, Mrs. Hammond, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            D.        ORDINANCE 2010-08, “AN ORDINANCE TO ACCEPT A DONATION FROM KEY BANK TO BE USED FOR THE CITY’S K-9 PROGRAM,” Third Reading, Safety Committee.  Mrs. Hammond moved to adopt; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0.  

 

10.       DISCUSSION.  Mr. Fix requested the Development Director Report be added to future agendas.  There being no objections, this will be added to the report section of the agenda.   

 

11.       REFERRAL TO COMMITTEE.  Mayor O’Brien stated there were no committee referral items. 

 

12.       OTHER BUSINESS.  Mrs. Sanders stated she would like to commend the police department on the DARE program and the culmination ceremony was a very nice event.   

 

13.       MOTIONS: 

 

            A.        MOTION FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION UNDER SECTION 121.22(G)(3), MATTERS INVOLVING PENDING OR IMMINENT COURT ACTION.  Mrs. Sanders moved for Executive Session under Section 121.22(G)(3); Mr. Sauer seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0.    

 

Council adjourned into Executive Session at 8:10 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 8:23 P.M.

 

14.       ADJOURNMENT.  There being nothing further, Mr. Wisniewski moved to adjourn; Mrs. Sanders seconded the motion.  Mr. Barletta, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Sanders voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 7-0.  The meeting adjourned at 8:24 P.M., March 2, 2010. 

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: 

 

 

_______________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk

 

 

ATTEST:

 

 

_______________________________

Mitch O’Brien, Mayor