THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

REGULAR MEETING

6:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mrs. Hammond called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Fix were present. Mrs. Sanders was absent. Others present were: Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Chief Mike Taylor, Ed Drobina, Becca Medinger, Greg Bachman, Joe Henderson, Chris Schweitzer, and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF September 22, 2011, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS: There were no community comments.

4. POLICE:

A. Chief’s Report. Chief Taylor stated he had submitted a written report and would answer any questions anyone might have. Mr. Fix clarified the training Commander Delp and Sgt Annis were attending would focus on enhanced incident management.

5. DEPARTMENT REPORTS:

A. Building Regulations Department.

(1) Code Enforcement Report. Mr. Vance stated a code enforcement report had been submitted and he would answer any questions. Mr. Fix ascertained that since our Building Regulations/Code Enforcement Officer is out on leave we are using our contract inspectors and that is working out fine. Mr. Vance further stated he has met with the Township and will meet with the Township Code Enforcement Officer next week to discuss their assisting with our code enforcement efforts as we go forward.

a. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending Chapter 618 of the Pickerington Codified Ordinances entitled “Animals” adding a new Section 618.19 entitled “Feral Cats.” Mr. Vance stated it was his understanding this legislation was put together utilizing comments from the prosecutor’s office with consultation with the judge who was providing us some assistance with that situation that did not get resolved in court. Mr. Fix stated then the prosecutor’s office feels that if these changes are made they will be able to prosecute that case. Mr. Vance stated they felt the chances of success would certainly increase. Mr. Fix further questioned if they would prosecute it not settle or push it back and Mr. Vance stated it was his understanding they would move forward. Mrs. Hammond stated it was her understanding that having added this to our code they would be able to do that. Mr. Fix moved to approve and forward to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Fix voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.

B. Service/Parks Department

(1) Recreation Administrator’s Report. Ms Medinger stated she had provided a written report and she would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Blair asked if we were ready for the Haunted Village event and Ms Medinger stated we have added quite a few things to it this year and this is our biggest event of the year. Mr. Blair ascertained that last year we had about 2,000 people attend the event. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt it was nice that we provided a safe venue that allowed the kids to come out in their costumes.

a. Review and discussion of pool items to consider for 2012. Ms Medinger stated she has been working with the Finance Department and also the law director to ensure that we have all of the guidelines and standards that need to take place. She stated there may be a possibility that we do not need one of the ADA requirements. She stated she is still working with Finance on the other items. Mrs. Hammond inquired if we had ever investigated or considered the possibility, if we were going to be forced to take out a loan, of enclosing the pool with some sort of dome or something and then being able to utilize the pool on a year round basis. Ms Medinger stated she started to look into that last year and it had looked like it would be pretty expensive. Mrs. Hammond stated it might be something we could recoup by offering water aerobic classes and the sorts of things we currently don’t have by using it year round. She stated she didn’t know if was an answer or not, she was just wondering if we had considered it. Ms Medinger stated she would look further into this and see what she could find. Mr. Fix stated he was okay with looking at, but he could only imagine the cost of heating that water all year long.

b. Review and Discussion regarding park rental policy and beer garden location and permits. Mrs. Hammond stated the Committee had been provided a draft prepared by Mr. Hartmann. She stated Mr. Hartmann had planned on attending the meeting this month to discuss the document, however, since the meeting day was changed he could not make it this month. Mrs. Hammond stated she further understood there were some further revisions to be made to the draft and she would like everyone to look it over and if they have any suggestions or input if they would provide them to Ms Medinger they could be considered and included in the final document for the next meeting. Mr. Fix clarified that suggestions provided by event users as well as staff were being evaluated to be included in the policy. Mrs. Hammond stated she would have this item continued on the agenda for the next meeting.

Ms Medinger stated further that the Parks and Recreation Board had brought to her attention their interest in providing on-line registration for parks programs. She stated the Finance Director has asked that she get this Committee’s thoughts regarding on-line registration. She stated she has looked at the possibility of absorbing the transaction fee which is currently three percent. She stated the thought was that because this is a customer service type of thing that we are offering it was hoped that a lot more people would use credit cards. She stated people have left her office because they do not have cash or a check with them and that has hurt our registrations. Mr. Fix clarified the average cost for registration for a program is between $40 and $60, so the fee would be $1 to $2. He stated he did not have a problem absorbing that amount. Ms Medinger stated it is hard for a lot of parents to get to City Hall during duty hours, and they do a lot of things in the evenings on-line, so she felt it would be a good thing for our programs. Mrs. Hammond questioned if we have the capability to do this, we just need to start doing it? Ms Medinger stated there are different modules you can get and we would purchase the on-line module and the cost for the initial set-up of that is $3,000 and then an annual maintenance fee of $750. Mr. Fix clarified this had been included in the budget for next year. Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Fix both stated they felt this would be something we should pursue and the City would absorb the transaction fee.

(2) Service/Parks Maintenance Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Drobina stated with regard to the ash borer, he was using two companies for this project and we should see results from that next spring. Mr. Drobina stated further at the Parks & Recreation Board meeting last night they had discussed the $7,500 in Capital and they were recommending purchasing a swing set for the Hilltop Shelter. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt that was a good idea because people have missed the ones that used to be there.

(3) Parks Board Representative Report (Mrs. Sanders). No report.

C. Engineering Department:

(1) City Engineer’s Report. Mr. Bachman stated he had provided a written report and would answer any questions.

(2) Recommendations regarding traffic calming issues on East Street. Mr. Bachman stated he has not received any follow-up from the resident requesting this.

(3) Review and discussion regarding Diley Road Landscape Plan. Mr. Bachman stated the Parks and Recreation Board would like to see landscaping on Diley Road and he had been asked to get a proposal from a landscape architect, which he had done. Mr. Bachman stated the proposal to prepare a landscape plan for the whole Diley Road corridor would be about $11,000, and to do the area between Long Road and W. Columbus Street would be about $4,500. He stated he was bringing this to the Committee to consider. Mr. Fix stated he understood the cost of the actual landscaping was usually ten times what was spent on the landscape plan, and Mr. Bachman stated that was probably fairly accurate. Mr. Fix stated then for $5,000 spent on a plan would cost about $50,000 to do the landscaping. Mr. Fix inquired where the money would come from and Mr. Drobina stated nothing had been included in the budget for this; they had wanted to get this Committee’s feeling on the issue. He stated they just wanted to get some kind of plan together so they could start budgeting at some point in time to get it done. Mr. Fix stated he felt this was a lot to spend on a landscape plan and Mrs. Hammond stated if she recalled when doing the Diley Road project they talked about the green spaces in the center of the road and were told it would cost something like $50,000 to have the ornamental grass like on the Canal Winchester portion. She stated she understood that was ODOT’s price, but she didn’t know if we were ready at this point in time to do this. Mr. Fix stated he understood this was to make it a more appealing corridor as we are bringing developers in, and Mr. Drobina stated that was correct. Mr. Barletta stated he felt it was expensive for a plan and we would have to give up something else in order to do it. Mr. Fix stated $50,000 would almost pay for a police officer and Mrs. Hammond stated it would certainly pay for a car. Mr. Blair stated he felt it was too expensive and he could not support doing this. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt it was something we could look at down the road, but at this point she did not feel we could justify doing this.

6. CHAIRMAN:

A. Strategic Plan Goals – Update.

(1) Drug Awareness Program. Mr. Fix stated the Lancaster based group would be meeting on November 14^th. He further stated Tyler’s Light held a meeting this week and about 150 people attended their first meeting and he would like to see if there was a way the City could work with them to raise opiate awareness in our community. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt that would be very good if we could work with this group.

B. Discussion regarding Pickerington’s Bicentennial Celebration. Mrs. Hammond stated she had no discussion items this evening.

7. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward.

8. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Fix moved to adjourn; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Fix voted "Aye." Motion carried, 2-0. The Public Safety & Community Affairs Committee adjourned at 6:55 P.M., October 20, 2011.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, City Clerk