SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100
LOCKVILLE ROAD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010
REGULAR MEETING
6:30 P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Fix
called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M., with Mr. Fix and Mr. Sauer
present. Mr. Wisniewski was on
vacation. Others present were: Mayor O’Brien, Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Ed
Drobina, Greg Bachman, Lance
Schultz, Susan Crotty, Tony Barletta, Ralph Hicks, Jim Kopp,
Larkin Dotson, Kathy Smith, Alexa Liebert, and others.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF June 16, 2010, Regular Meeting. Mr.
Sauer moved to approve; Mr. Fix
seconded the motion. Roll
call was taken with Mr. Sauer and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0.
3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS:
A. Kathy Smith stated she is a resident of
Fairfield Square Condos and they have attended past meetings to discuss Postage
Drive and had presented their situation to the
Committee. Ms Smith stated she had met
with Mr. Vance last week and now she would like to know where they go from here
with this situation. Mr. Fix stated that
will be addressed later in the meeting and Ms Smith stated she would be happy
to answer any questions the Committee might have.
4. DEVELOPMENT:
A. Development Director’s Report. Ms Crotty stated she had provided a written
report and she would be glad to answer any questions.
(1) Annexation – Update. Ms Crotty stated the petition has been
withdrawn; however, it is not the intention of the petitioner’s to withdraw it
permanently. She stated based on some
comments that were made by the County Engineer after reviewing the petition
some revisions need to be made to the survey, and also there needs to be
further discussion for future maintenance of a couple of the roads. She stated in order to have time to work through
that the only option was to withdraw it and they plan to refile it once the
issues have been worked out. Mr. Fix
clarified that the timing of the resubmittal will be dependent upon the City as
our law director is following up on the maintenance agreements and researching
the issues on the road right-of-way.
(2) Development Process – Update. Ms Crotty stated she had no update this
evening.
(3) Economic Development Marketing Plan –
Update. Ms Crotty stated she had
provided the Committee a draft marketing plan and she is basically looking at
analyzing what the City has to offer and how we can best position ourselves to
attract the type of development we are looking for, and in order to do that we
need to assess what the community has and our assets and how we might improve
those so that we are more attractive to the types of industry we are
targeting. Ms Crotty stated based on
past studies, the assets that we do have, and the type of development that
would generate revenue for the City and would create jobs for the residents we
have determined that our target industries would be professional offices,
health care, financial services, and technology research and development. Ms Crotty stated she had proposed some
strategies that we could use to do some outreach and reach out to developers,
realtors, etc., who have those contacts and who are looking for the sites. She stated we need to generate some material
and create those connections through the web site to do some additional
outreach. Ms Crotty stated the plan she
had presented was in draft form and she is open for comments, discussion, or
clarification. Ms Crotty stated she
would answer any questions anyone might have, or if Council
members wanted to send her questions or comments by e-mail or by a phone call
that was fine. She stated she would like
to move forward in the near future and appropriations are on the next Council
agenda because she does need a budget in order to proceed with the
strategies. Mr. Sauer questioned if Ms
Crotty has a budget to attend any of the regional conferences to attract
businesses that may be looking for locations.
Ms Crotty stated she has signed up for a conference later this
year. She stated there are trade events
and she has had success at some and not so much at others. She stated that is something to look at and
she needed to research and see what the best event would be for the type of
uses we are looking for. Ms Crotty
stated we are also participating in some joint efforts through the 33 Alliance
and through MODE. Mr. Fix stated Refugee
Road is a part of our development plan and the Refugee Road corridor study was
asked for an begun when the City did not have an Economic Development Director
or the current City Manager and he would question if that is something that is
being done simply because Council asked for it
or did Ms Crotty and Mr. Vance think it is the right thing to do. He further questioned if we were going about
that in the best way possible or is there a better way to get this study done. Mr. Vance stated right now he has asked Mr.
Schultz to give an update on the Refugee Study this evening so those very
questions could be analyzed to see where we need to go and what kind of
resources we should commit to the completion of that study. Mr. Fix clarified that Ms Crotty does feel
the Refugee Road Corridor Study should be completed. Ms Crotty stated the Diley Road Corridor
Study has been very helpful and it is good when you plan for the future while
you are not dictating how the properties are going to develop, it is very
helpful when you are talking to developers and others who might be interested
in developing those sites. Mr. Vance
stated staff is also communicating with different businesses with different
issues and growth management has been key with their Tuesday afternoon meetings
geared toward the same goals. Mr. Fix
stated this has been extremely well received by businesses in the area.
(4) Business Retention Project –
Update. There was no further
update.
(5) Long
Range Economic Development Plan –
Update. There was no further update.
(6) Implementation of the Diley
Road Corridor Plan – Update. Ms Crotty stated she had no update this
evening.
Mr. Fix stated if Mr. Sauer had
no objections, he would take Item 7.B.(2), the Discussion regarding Postage
Drive at this time. Mr. Sauer concurred. Mr. Fix stated at the last meeting there was
discussion regarding private streets that have public uses and there was a
question about the cost of assuming this street as well as what other streets
are out there that might be in a similar situation. Mr. Bachman stated if he recalled correctly
it would cost about $5,000 per year to maintain that street, and no maintenance
needs to be done on that road for this summer.
He stated he had been given direction to work with the law director on
what we need to do to make that a public street and to work out some issues
with Kohl’s because we would like to have the connection from their parking lot
to the businesses to the south. Mr. Vance
stated he had met with Ms Smith at Postage Drive
this past week and it does appear to be a street the City should pursue
ownership of and in the short term he felt we could assist the residents with
these issues and over the long term he and Mr. Bachman could work on what it
would take to actually propose the specifics associated with the City’s
ownership of that road. He stated he
hoped to bring that back to Committee in the fall. Mr. Fix stated then the short term issues are
maintaining the street lights and plowing in the winter. He stated other than street repairs that is
what the Condo association is responsible for right now. Mr. Fix clarified that Mr. Drobina has
replaced street lights and plowed this road in the past and he does not need
any council action to continue doing that until the long term issue of the
ownership of the road is resolved. Mr.
Fix and Mr. Sauer both stated they were comfortable with Mr. Drobina continuing
these actions. Mr. Vance stated he would
request Ms Smith to send him an e-mail requesting the City’s assistance with
these items so we would have the legal right to help out and would have
documentation on this. Mr. Fix stated he
would return to the agenda at this time.
5. PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT:
A. Planning and Zoning Director’s Report.
Mr. Schultz stated he had provided a written report and would be happy to try
to answer any questions.
(1) Planning and Zoning Representative
Report (Mr. Sauer) Mr. Sauer stated he
had no report.
B. ACTION
ITEMS:
(1) Refugee Road
Study – Update. Mr. Schultz stated
Planning and Zoning Commission held a work session on June 8th to
review existing conditions, influences, and target areas that was well
received. Mr. Schultz stated the next
steps are to prepare a draft land use plan, a draft concept plan, and draft
guidelines for each target area and having public meetings depending on what is
appropriate in late summer or early fall.
Mr. Schultz stated work on this project has stalled somewhat in the past
month with the new City Manager
coming on and trying to understand the processes and priorities. Mr. Schultz stated he had told the Committee
in November that this would take a year to a year and a half depending on work
load, etc. He stated since then we have
had personnel changes and staff needs to discuss this internally if this is
achievable in that timeframe and what other priorities we may or not have
moving forward. Mr. Fix stated then that
due to staffing changes and changes in what is being asked of Mr. Schultz it
may take longer than originally planned.
Mr. Fix stated everyone agrees having a corridor plan makes sense and
questioned if this was the best way to go about it or is there a better, more
efficient, more productive way to accomplish it. Mr. Vance stated the plan is to have Mr.
Schultz brief on this project at the next Planning and Zoning meeting and then
take a close look at this project and discuss some of the specifics and then
come up with some specific information as to where we are going and what the
timeframe would be if this Committee has no objection. Mr. Fix stated he was trying to understand
how Planning and Zoning Commission is involved at all until we get to the point
where we are doing something. Mr. Sauer
stated he felt this fell under the “planning” part of the Planning and Zoning
Commission. Mr. Sauer stated Mr. Schultz
laid out a process to the Committee last November and at this point he is
comfortable with that as long as staff knows if they want to make a change after
they’ve had a chance to review it. Mr.
Vance stated the Manager’s position is that we need to get it done and wrap it
up and have a draft of that plan to come back to Service Committee and Planning
and Zoning and see if it entails the mechanisms and resources that were
envisioned upon its proposal. Mr. Fix
stated he totally agreed and his question was could it be wrapped up shortly
and appropriately using the current resources and current timeline or is it
better to do it a different way. Mr.
Vance stated he had hoped for time between now and the next Planning and Zoning
meeting to present such a game plan.
6. SERVICE DEPARTMENT
A. REPORTS:
(1) Service Manager’s Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written
report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Fix clarified we have not violated our
TDS limits yet this year. Mr. Drobina
stated that was correct and the results he has for July right now, we are very
close as the limit is at 1632 and we are at 1626. Mr. Fix stated we have not had a TDS
violation 2010 and if we were not to have a violation through September it is
his understanding that we would probably make it through the year without a
violation. Mr. Drobina stated that is
possible because historically from October through December we do not violate
our limits. Mr. Drobina stated our
limits could be changed by the EPA when we get our next permit also. Mr. Vance stated in meeting with the EPA it
was discussed that the City did have some previous violations and they are
continuing to process those violations and could not predict when or if any
penalties associated with past violations would come up formally and they did
encourage us to move forward with the project as planned. Mr. Fix inquired if he could get information
on how many complaints we have had on the hardness of the water and Mr. Drobina
stated he had received less than 10 in his office and the would have to check
with the utility billing department to see how many they had received. Mr. Drobina stated also that as people put in
more home water softeners the TDS limit will continue to rise.
Mr. Barletta asked if it was appropriate to talk about
dead trees because there are some dead street trees. Mr. Drobina stated if he would send him an
e-mail giving him the location of the trees he would take care of them. Mr. Barletta stated he would do that. Mr. Vance stated the quickest method is to
send him an e-mail and he and Mr. Drobina would coordinate getting it taken
care of.
B. WASTEWATER
(1) Wastewater Plant Expansion –
Update. Mr. Drobina stated the
contractor hoped to start putting flow through the new treatment plant next
week.
a. TDS – Update. Mr. Bachman stated he has had proposals from
three engineering firms to design the reverse osmosis project and the firm he
is recommending is URS. He stated he,
Mr. Drobina, and Ms VanCleave had reviewed the proposals and URS clearly had
the best proposal with regard to approach, timeframe, and cost. He stated he has asked URS to work on a draft
contract for the City to review so final details could be ironed out. Mr. Bachman stated he would like some
direction from this Committee to negotiate that contract and bring it back at
the next meeting. Mr. Bachman stated the
timeframe he is looking at is to have the RO operational by May of next
year. He stated that is an aggressive
schedule and he isn’t sure if he can meet it, but the sooner we get started the
sooner we can get the system in. Mr.
Barletta inquired if they would predict what the TDS might be after the system
is installed and Mr. Bachman stated they did and he could provide that
information to Council. Mr. Barletta stated if the EPA is going to
change the limitation it would be a good idea if we knew where the design is
going to come out. Mr. Bachman stated
with reverse osmosis you will have basically no TDS from it, you will have some
bypass water, but the TDS problem should go away with the reverse osmosis. Mr.
Fix moved to authorize the City Engineer to negotiate a contract with URS for
the reverse osmosis project design; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer and Mr.
Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0. Mr.
Bachman inquired if this was something that needed to come back to Committee
before it went to Council or would it be
possible to have a first reading at Council
before the next Committee meeting. Mr.
Fix stated that would be possible.
C. WATER. No report.
7. ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT
A. Engineer’s Report. Mr.
Bachman stated he had provided a written report and would be happy to answer
any questions. Mr. Bachman stated with
regard to the street resurfacing program we have a process of coming up with a
list of streets for resurfacing and this would be the time for Council
members to give him input on streets around the City they feel need
resurfacing. He stated he will review
the streets to see where the priorities are.
Mr. Fix clarified we have $350,000 in the budget for resurfacing and
about $20,000 for crack sealing. Mr.
Bachman stated he would take a look at the streets and bring it back to the
Committee and then we may set priorities.
Mr. Fix stated it is getting late in the season and the money has been
appropriated, so he felt Council should trust
Mr. Bachman’s professional judgment on what streets need to be fixed. Mr. Fix stated he did not see the need to
come back to this Committee for input.
Mr. Sauer stated he agreed with Mr. Fix.
Mayor O’Brien questioned if there would be a problem with getting a
contractor this late in the year and Mr. Bachman stated he did not feel that
would be something to worry about this year.
Mr. Vance stated he and Mr. Bachman would coordinate to ensure that
everything necessary is done to make sure this project is done responsibly, and
if activity needs to be discontinued to avoid wasting valuable City resources
due to weather conditions, they will work together to do so.
Mr. Bachman stated the water tower had the second concrete
pouring on the foundation and that project is moving along. Mr. Bachman stated Town Square Drive is
complete and open and he is working on a few incidentals on the East
Church Street closure.
Mr. Fix inquired if the Diley
Road punch list had been completed and Mr. Drobina
stated he does not have that answer right now.
Mr. Drobina stated he and Mr. Bachman hoped to hear this week if they
were complete. Mr. Fix inquired if by
the next Service Committee meeting they could get that information. Mr. Bachman stated he is also trying to get
the final bill from ODOT so we know where we are financially.
B. ACTION ITEMS:
(1) Water Master Plan and Sewer Master Plan
- Update. Mr. Bachman stated these
projects are progressing.
a. S.R. 256 Safety Improvement Project -
Update. Mr. Bachman stated he had no
update this evening.
(2) Review discussion regarding Postage
Drive. Mr.
Fix stated this had been dealt with earlier in the meeting.
C. TRANSPORTATION
(1) Review and discussion regarding ODOT
controlled traffic signals. Mayor
O’Brien stated we still have the right to take back the control of these
signals and it was his understanding that last fall ODOT was going to put in
for funding to get the ACS lights software and hardware and tie them into our
system. He stated they were supposed to
hear about that in April and we still have not heard if they were approved for
funding. Mr. Bachman stated it is his
understanding that was put in their budget but they have had a lot of personnel
turnover in the District and they are struggling to find where that funding has
gone and it would be his recommendation that we continue to work with ODOT to
get the ACS system on the signals they control.
(2) School Speed Zone Study – Update. Mr. Bachman stated he hoped to have something
to report next month.
8. CHAIRMAN. Mr. Fix stated he had nothing to bring
forward.
9. OTHER BUSINESS:
A. Ms
Crotty stated we received a request from someone in the downtown who was
looking to sell their property. She
stated that property is currently zoned C-2, and we have encouraged rezoning to
C-2 downtown for converting residential properties to commercial uses. Ms Crotty stated the owner had a buyer who
wanted to have their business on the first floor and live on the second floor,
however, that request has now been withdrawn.
Ms Crotty stated currently that is prohibited, however, residential uses
are permitted as non-conforming existing uses but if you have not used it that
way for at least a year that non-conforming use expires and he entire building
must be commercial. Ms Crotty stated we
might want to consider looking at the code because she feels the live/work type
arrangements are fairly typical and even if someone wants to rent the upstairs
that would bring people to live downtown and generate income for the property
owner. Ms Crotty stated we wouldn’t want
to allow it to be converted back to residential easily because we want to
encourage the economic vitality of the old downtown, but she just questioned if
this was something we might want to have Planning and Zoning look at. She stated there are a lot of specifics we
would want to look at before we just changed it. Mr. Fix stated he would say that is not a
high priority, but he would encourage Ms Crotty to look at the ordinance and
see if it needs to be updated. Mr. Vance
stated if the Committee has no objection it was his understanding that Growth
Management would be initiating some sort of overall review of all the land use
regulations, starting at the beginning and just going right on through
them.
B. Mr.
Schultz stated MORPC has requested a letter of intent for a grant they are
applying for for Franklin County, Delaware County, parts of Fairfield
and Licking Counties.
He stated this is to create a sustainable development plan and HUD will be
awarding $100 million in grant monies.
Mr. Vance stated they are not requesting a financial commitment, but a
letter of intent from the municipalities.
Mr. Fix stated he felt we should know about this before we sent a letter
of intent and he would like to hear more about it. Mr. Schultz stated MORPC is still scrambling
because the grant application deadline is August 20th and they need
the commitments by August 13th to go with the application. He stated they have not outlined the goals
and objectives of the study as yet. Mr.
Vance stated this is our regional planning organization in central Ohio
and they want to participate and pursue federal funds, and in turn if they
receive the funds they will invest them into regional initiatives. Mr. Vance stated he felt if we did not pledge
our support then we would be left out of initiatives that could be very good
for the City. He stated he would
recommend that we pledge our interest in support of their efforts. Mr. Sauer stated the draft letter the
Committee received contains a sentence that concerns him that almost commits us
to follow everything that is in it. He
stated for example energy use and climate change are referenced and that could
end up being something that is expenses for the City. Mr. Vance stated he would recommend that
staff put together a draft correspondence that would be to the satisfaction to Council
as far as representing the City’s interest and also providing flexibility for
the City as we move forward in concert with MORPC and their investigation of
these potential resources. Mr. Fix stated
he does agree with Mr. Sauer that making any long term commitment to following
their recommendations on sustainable development might be far reaching. He stated if Mr. Vance would draft something
that left a lot of leeway as they secure federal funds he could support
that. Mr. Vance stated he would draft
something and get it back to Council. Mr. Fix stated if Mr. Vance would prepare the
correspondence and e-mail it prior to Council
it could be put on the next Council agenda for
approval by motion.
C. Mr.
Drobina stated the Committee had received a packet of information on property
where the City put a sewer through several years ago. He stated that agreement has never been
completed and he has the opportunity to settle the agreement and he would like
to get authorization for the City Manager and himself to settle this. Mr. Drobina stated the City ran a sewer
through Eleanor Willard’s property out on Long Road and with this agreement the
City was going to remove a whole tree line, pay for the crops, repair any
waterways, field and or drainage tiles that were cut or damaged. Mr. Drobina stated in 2004 we did some
grading around the drainage ditch and we did offer her a sum of money for the
crop damage. He stated Mrs. Willard was
never happy with the sum of money or the amount of work the City did. Mr. Drobina stated Mrs. Willard met with
former City Manager Gilliland and Ms Frommer from Stilson, and this was given
to Stilson to handle. Mr. Drobina stated
several calls were made and several meetings were set up with Mrs. Willard to
try and get this resolved, but for some reason or other the meetings were
cancelled so it kept getting delays. Mr.
Drobina stated he has spoken to Mrs. Willard and we can settle this without
cutting the trees and without any further conversation for under $5,000. Mr. Fix and Mr. Sauer both stated they felt
Mr. Drobina and Mr. Vance should pursue this settlement.
D. Mr.
Sauer stated everyone had received the draft ordinance and annexation agreement
with Violet Township
on the Eichhorn property. Mr. Fix
clarified this agreement was proposed by Violet Township in a desire to discuss
the annexation of 47 acres proposed to be annexed into the City of Pickerington
by a committee of two representatives from the Township and two representatives
from the City. Mr. Vance stated there
are some maintenance issues to be discussed if the Service Committee and Council
saw fit to delegate two members for this purpose. Mr. Fix questioned if this committee could
also be used to explore the more global picture of cooperative development that
has eluded us, and Mr. Vance stated he would recommend that we utilize such an
opportunity to enter into such discussions to talk about the long term
cooperation between the City and the Township. Mr. Fix clarified that Service Committee could
make a recommendation to Council for
consideration as to who should be appointed to this committee. Mr. Vance stated it would be his
recommendation that the two representatives by the City Manager and the Mayor. Mr. Sauer stated he would be fine with that
and the agreement states the members would be one staff member and one elected
official. Mayor O’Brien stated he would
like to see who Violet Township
would be appointing before it went to Council
and Mr. Sauer stated it was his opinion that with every election names could
change. Mr. Barletta stated he would
suggest the appointments be made for positions, such as we are recommending
City Manager and Mayor. Mr. Sauer stated
he would not want to dictate to them who they choose as much as he would not
want them to dictate to us who we should choose. Mayor O’Brien stated he felt Section 4 should
be stricken as we have a pre-annexation agreement with the property owners and
we already perform the services listed.
Ms Crotty stated she felt the only reason that was in the agreement is
because a portion of the road right-of-way is in question. Mr. Fix stated he did not see any harm in
leaving it in there since we are already doing it anyway. Mr. Barletta stated it could be that this is
not in writing anywhere and even if we are doing it in reality maybe no-one has
ever seen it in writing. Ms Crotty
stated the law director is researching right now that there is some indication
that some of that property was dedicated to the City and is not owned by the
property owners anymore, however, she does not have the information on which
specific properties that includes as yet.
Mr. Vance stated he would coordinate with the law director, Violet
Township, and staff to see if the
wording in Section 4 should be changed. Mr. Sauer moved to forward to Council with the changes discussed and with the
positions of City Manager and Mayor being appointed to the committee; Mr. Fix
seconded the motion. Roll call was
taken with Mr. Fix and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.”
Motion passed, 2-0.
10. ADJOURNMENT. There
being nothing further, Mr. Sauer moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the
motion. Mr. Fix and Mr. Sauer voted
“Aye.” Motion carried, 2-0. The Service Committee adjourned at 8:05 P.M.,
July 28, 2010.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
________________________________
Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk