Documented by Max Swartout on June 8, 2022
Village of Garrettsville
Budget Public Hearing and Regular Council Meeting
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
7:00 PM
8213 High Street, Garrettsville, Ohio 44231
An audio recording of the meeting is available here.
Attendance
Tom Hardesty, Council President
Sheri Johnson, Councilperson
John Chambers, Councilperson
Mark Brady, Councilperson
Chris Knop, Councilperson
Tara Beaty, Councilperson
Rick Patrick, Mayor
Deb Wordell, Assistant Fiscal Officer
Michele A. Stuck, Solicitor
Ben Coll, Vice President, Bureau of Public Affairs; Reporter for The Villager
Keith Whan, Sergeant, Garrettsville Police Department
Timothy Vecchio, Sergeant, Garrettsville Police Department
Ashley D’Angelo, Portage County Resident
CJ Wood, Portage County Resident
Documenter Summary
Before the regular council meeting began, the village officials held a public hearing for the ordinance which would set the permanent budget for 2023. There was no comment from the public or members of the council. Later during the regular meeting, the council approved the budget for 2023.
Compared to last year, the village is up $75,000.
Ordinance 2022-24 was introduced to the council. The ordinance would increase minimum side yard widths along property lines in the R-2 zoning district from five feet to 10 feet. This would allow for 20 total feet along a property line of two adjacent lots for the city to complete any required work. The ordinance will receive two more readings and a public hearing in August.
The council accepted a bid from Woodford Excavating, LLC for $221,761 for a storm sewer improvement project along North Street.
An electric vehicle charging station is coming soon to Garrettsville. There was an idea to memorialize Tom Collins because of his work for the EV station. There were no objections to this.
Garrettsville Summerfest will be June 24-26.
New columbarium space in the cemetery will be ready by the end of this month. The project has been paid for partly by grants from the State of Ohio and by future fees associated with the use of the columbarium. Fees have not yet been decided; the mayor and cemetery committee will be meeting soon to discuss the fees.
Councilperson Tara Beaty shared concern regarding the intersections of Center Street and Maple Avenue and Center Street and Windham Street. The concern is that some drivers are not aware that cross traffic does not stop. Sergeant Keith Whan said he will have officers closely monitor the intersections and increase enforcement. Mentioned were the possibilities of adding additional signage and moving the location of the current signage.
Street/Service Superintendent Randy Crites and Mayor Patrick will decide the location of multiple bike racks that will be added for residents to use.
Documenter Notes
Public Hearing for Ordinance 2022-19, Budget for 2023
Prior to the regular council meeting, Garrettsville officials held a brief public hearing for ordinance 2022-19, which would approve and adopt a permanent budget for 2023. No members of council or the public offered comments and the hearing was closed.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved by the council.
Financial Reports and Income Tax Receipts
The village is up $75,000 compared to this time last year.
Payment of Bills
There were no comments on the bills and the council moved to pay bills.
Ordinance 2022-19, An Ordinance Approving and Adopting a Permanent Budget for 2023 for the Village of Garrettsville, After Publication and Public Budget Hearing Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 5705.30
Motions to suspend and enact the budget for 2023 were unanimously approved by the council.
Ordinance 2022-24, An Ordinance Amending Various Sections of Chapter 1171 of the Codified Ordinances of the Village of Garrettsville Relating to Minimum Side Yard Widths in the R-2 Zoning District
This was the first reading of the proposed ordinance. The ordinance will have two more readings and then a public hearing in August. Councilperson Chris Knop shared the history of the issue, which this ordinance would solve. Currently, the minimum side yards for construction are too narrow for any necessary machinery to pass for any needed maintenance. Currently, the minimum space is five feet on each lot, which combined only allow 10 feet of clearing for passage. The proposed ordinance would increase the amount of space on each lot to 10 feet for a total of 20 feet where lots border each other.
Ordinance 2022-25, A Resolution Accepting the Low Bid of $221,761 from Woodford Excavating, LLC for the North Street Storm Sewer Improvement Project, Authorizing the Mayor and Fiscal Officer to Enter into a Contract for Said Improvements, and Declaring an Emergency
The following bids were given:
- Woodford Excavating, LLC for $221,761
- Trax Construction Company for $227,619.55
- Utility Contracting, Inc. for $235,299
- Eclipse Company, LLC $262,527.68
- Dawn, Inc. $275,684
Councilperson Chris Knop mentioned that the village has used Woodford Excavating, LLC for other projects and it is very satisfied with the company’s previous work. Councilperson Thomas Hardesty added that most recently the company was contracted for the water line replacement along South Street.
Motions to suspend and accept the ordinance were unanimously approved by the council.
Resolution 2022-26, A Resolution Authorizing an Expenditure of up to $221,761 from Fund 2151, The Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, in Order to Carry out the North Street Storm Sewer Improvement Project, and Declaring an Emergency
This resolution explains which fund the money for the North Street project is coming from. The resolution was unanimously passed by the council.
Ordinance 2022-27, An Ordinance of Accepting a Temporary Construction Easement from Jeremy and Rachel Nieves Relating to the North Street Storm Sewer Improvements Project, and Declaring an Emergency
This was the first reading of the ordinance. No vote was held.
Thomas Hardesty, Councilperson
Hardesty said that in July he may ask for approval for a grant application in which the village would need to “commit the funds.” The grant would be for a restroom in one of the village’s parks. [This documenter is unsure of which park Hardesty named. Inaudible 00:14:48].
Rick Patrick, Mayor
The village was asked by an unknown individual if it would like to put a memorial of Tom Collins somewhere at its coming EV charging station since he initiated the project. There were no objections to the idea.
Garrettsville Summerfest will take place June 24-26.
The columbarium will be set by the end of the month. The village was approved for a grant from the State of Ohio’s capital budget money to go towards the project. The mayor and cemetery committee will have a meeting soon to discuss fees associated with the columbarium. Assistant Fiscal Officer Deb Wordell said she hopes the fees will cover the additional cost of the columbarium. The council will vote to approve the set fees for columbarium use. Wordell pointed out that the money for the columbarium did not come from the cemetery fund. Instead, the money came from the general fund, and therefore the village would need to pay it back.
Tara Beaty, Councilperson
Councilperson Tara Beaty addressed the group sharing her own experiences at the intersections of Center Street and Maple Avenue and Center Street and Windham Street. Beaty was curious about possible solutions. She brought up perhaps changing the location of the stop signs or adding signs that say “cross traffic doesn’t stop.” Sergeant Keith Whan said that he would have officers monitor the locations and do better enforcement.
Unknown Individual
An individual informed the group that the Rotary Club asked him about the status of the bike racks. Mayor Patrick informed the individual that he spoke with Randy [this documenter presumes the mayor is speaking of Randy Crites, superintendent of the service/street department]. Patrick said he and Crites will “go out and look it over.” They are going to plan on where to put all of the racks.
Transcript
The following transcript was generated by a transcription bot and is not 100% accurate. The Portager does not edit the AI-generated transcript. We understand the automatic transcript can be very inaccurate. An audio recording of the meeting is available here.
Garrettsville 6/8/2022
Thu, 6/9 3:20PM • 22:44
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, bike racks, village, hardesty, sign, sherry, public hearing, ordinance, llc, brady, talked, fund, project, line, ran, reserving, motion, comments, resolution, knapp
SPEAKERS
Michele Stuck, Tom Hardesty, Sheri Johnson, Max Swartout, Chris Knop, Tara Beaty, Deb Wordell, Keith Whan, Rick Patrick
Tom Hardesty 00:22
Coming your way, thank you so much you throw it away. Somewhere o’clock we’ll call the public hearing to order. So, public hearing on ordinance on a 22 dash 19 an ordinance approving and adopting a permanent budget for 2023 for the village of uracil after publication public budget hearing pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 57 Oh, 5.30. It’s just a requirement that we do this. And so if you’re going to be seeking any input from the public Ward Council Does anyone wish to call my text this time? No comment so I’ll close the public hearing.
Max Swartout 01:31
Cakes the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Rick Patrick 01:59
everyone a chance to look at the minutes. Comments. Motion to approve the minutes. Who’s John? Sherry and John.
Deb Wordell 02:19
Call the roll. Mr. Knapp? Yes, Mr. Hardesty? Yes. Mrs. Johnson? Yes. Mr. Chambers? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes, this is baby. Yes. Review of
Rick Patrick 02:29
financial reports and income tax receipts. And any comments? So look, I’m pretty good.
Tom Hardesty 02:45
You know, the main month was down from May of last year with April and May have flip flopped, basically, because taxes weren’t due until May. So what restores has $75,000 on a year to date basis for 2021. So we’re doing well, Nick. Tax
Chris Knop 03:06
was in place that puts us about you know,
Rick Patrick 03:11
in the trend for delinquencies looks good. I mean, if we continue that way, you should be good for the end of the year. Any other comments? Okay. Bills. Comments on the bills. Motion to accept payment of the bills. I’ll move sherry. Second, Tara.
Deb Wordell 03:45
Call the roll. Mr. Hardesty Yes. Mrs. Johnson? Yes. Mr. Chambers? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes, Mrs. Baby. Yes. Mr. Knapp? Yes.
Rick Patrick 03:54
Okay. ordinance 2022 Dash 19 an ordinance approving and adopting a permanent budget for 2023 for the village of Garrett smell after publication and public budget hearing pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 57. Oh, 5.30. This is a second reading. This was the public hearing was about suspension for suspension. Have a second? Second. And Chris. Call the roll.
Deb Wordell 04:29
Mrs. Johnson. Yes. Mr. Chambers? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes, this is Mr. Not Yes, Mr. Hardesty
Rick Patrick 04:36
motion to enact. So, Chris. Second. John. Call the roll.
Deb Wordell 04:45
Mr. Brady? Yes, Mr. Sadie. Yes, let’s turn up. Yes, Mr. Hardesty Yes. Johnson? Yes, Mr. Chambers.
Rick Patrick 04:53
ordinance 2022 Dash 24. an ordinance amending various sections of the chapter 11 Set Only one of the codified ordinances of the village of Jarrettsville. Relating to minimum side yard widths in the art to zoning district. This is on second reading first reading first. Oh, first. Okay. Anyways,
Michele Stuck 05:16
we have to have a public hearing on this before we pass it probably August.
Tom Hardesty 05:23
Yeah. Yes, yeah, probably go through all three regions.
Rick Patrick 05:27
Public Hearing in August.
Chris Knop 05:29
Chris probably explained the background everybody here and that is that right now some of the minimum side yards for new construction are so narrow that should we need to get right away permissions to get anything through there. It’d be too narrow if they built to the line.
Tara Beaty 05:48
So they are 10 feet now and you’re changing it to 25
Tom Hardesty 05:51
feet or five feet on each log gives a 10 foot space, you can’t get like a backhoe through that 10 foot opening. So we’ll go back to the tenant was before which gives us gives us 20 feet that way equipment can get in and out. So this would be basically sanitary or water lines is
Chris Knop 06:13
that that was the big driver but I live in a location where my next door neighbor’s property line is so close to their building garage that they cannot get in their backyard would come into my yard, which is okay if you’ve got neighbors you get along with right. There’s gonna be instances where you’re not you know, and so I put somebody in a bad spot right.
Rick Patrick 06:32
Any other questions about that? No. Okay. board it’s 2022 desk 25. Resolution accepting the low bid of $221,769 from Woodford excavating LLC for the North Street storm sewer improvement project authorizing the mayor and fiscal officer to enter into a contract for said improvements and declare an emergency. This is a first reading but we could pass this tonight. Do you want to and we do
Tom Hardesty 07:15
need to read all these other bits. Those
Michele Stuck 07:17
bits in which I’ve just handed you. Okay.
Rick Patrick 07:23
Woodford excavating LLC $221,761 tracks construction company $227 227,619 and 55 cents, utility contracting Inc. $235,299. Eclipse company, LLC $262,527.68. And Don incorporated $275,684. Making Woodford excavating the lowest bid.
Chris Knop 08:06
Versus last time, I think it’s worth mentioning that we’ve used them elsewhere in the village and we’re very satisfied. So yes, fortunately, they are a little bitter, but they’re also qualified contractors that work successfully a
Tom Hardesty 08:18
couple of projects. Most recent project in the village was a South Street water line replacement.
Chris Knop 08:27
I moved that we suspend the rules.
Rick Patrick 08:29
Okay. Tom, so Chris and Tom.
Deb Wordell 08:36
Mr. Chambers? Yes, Mr. Meeting. I’m sorry, Mr. Brady? Yes, Mrs. Baby. Yes. Mr. Knapp? Yes. Mr. Hardesty Yes. Mrs. Johnson? Yes.
Rick Patrick 08:46
Motion to accept. Sharing. Mark? Yes. Okay. Sherry And mark.
Deb Wordell 08:59
Mrs. Beatty? Yes. Mr. Knapp? Yes, Mr. Hardesty. Mrs. Johnson? Yes. Mr. Chambers? Yes. Mr. Brady?
Tom Hardesty 09:06
Yes. And currently I’ll talk to them we’ll be looking at probably a September timeframe for this work to be done. And and we would work in conjunction with other work that we’re possibly awarding to them in the near future as well. So we’ll do probably do both projects at the same time.
Rick Patrick 09:29
Okay. resolution to that. Yeah. We did. Oh yeah. Yeah, this suspension they suspended Sherry And then we
Deb Wordell 09:51
did I totally missed that.
Michele Stuck 09:53
Me dead bird, another planet. Okay, well, it’s off the record.
Rick Patrick 09:58
Okay. All right. Thanks. Yeah, okay. But I was losing it. All right, resolution 2022 Dash 26 The resolution authorizing expenditure of up to $221,761 from fund 2151, the local fiscal recovery fund in order to carry out the North Street storm, sewer improvements project and declaring an emergency. So this is just saying where the money’s coming
Michele Stuck 10:29
from. Yeah. Because it’s setting out all the requirements of the ARPA funding how we use it. Okay. So when we get audited on that, whenever that happens, we have legislation to back up what our choice was.
Rick Patrick 10:44
So we could we need this you can you can pass it now. And your suspension. Also move Chris. John. Call the roll.
Deb Wordell 10:57
Mr. Hardesty Yes. Johnson? Yes. Mr. Chambers? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes, Mrs. Beatty? Yes. Mr. Knapp? Yes.
Rick Patrick 11:04
Motion to enact.
Chris Knop 11:05
I’ll move to an act, Chris.
Sheri Johnson 11:08
Second, Sherry.
Deb Wordell 11:11
Call the roll. Mr. Chambers. Mr. Brady? Yes, Mrs. Baby. Yes, Mr. Na? Yes, Mr. Hardesty. Mrs. Johnson? Yes. We did. We did.
Rick Patrick 11:26
ordinates 2022 Dash 27 an ordinance accepting a temporary construction easement. From Jeremy and Rachel Davis. This nugget is relating to the North Street storm sewer improvements project and declaring emergency. This is on first reading.
Michele Stuck 11:50
They haven’t actually signed it yet. They’ll have things correct. So you might let it run. In case they have
Rick Patrick 11:57
no urgency. Right. Right. So this is first reading. We’ll
Chris Knop 12:00
just have to have it done by September. All right. Yeah.
Tom Hardesty 12:03
Okay. What I’m wanting to do is just so you can understand, now that we have a contractor, I want the contractor to meet with the people and myself. So we can go through the details, address any questions they have, so that when they sign it they’ve got like a full comprehension of bottles going on there. Because it’s very, I just think it’s good for the person receiving had that opportunity before I get them to sign so we didn’t want to do that before the contractor selections. So we can bring the Contractor have communication with them and go from there. So okay, that I have talked to them there where this is coming. And that’s in addition to the existing permanent easement that runs through so we have a 20 foot easement going through that property that enables us to do that. Okay, so
Rick Patrick 13:05
already. Anyone, anyone want to speak? Go ahead,
Max Swartout 13:13
I’d like to introduce us to sort of complete strangers. My name is Max Ward outs, and I’m with the portraiture publication that covers Portage County, a part of a new program of documentaries were called, we’re not journalists, but we go to local meetings, take notes, record the audio, take a picture, and then we write a summary. And all of which is sent out in the portraitures newsletter via email. If you’re not signed up, you should do so. But this is Ashley D’Angelo and CJ wouldn’t they’re interested in doing what I’m doing. It’s brand new. I’ve only done a handful myself but we’re growing so we hope that you’ll see us more in the future. But usually will just be quiet and observe.
Rick Patrick 13:53
Well, welcome Thank you.
Deb Wordell 13:54
Could you spell your last name
Max Swartout 13:56
swartout SW AR T O ut
Rick Patrick 14:05
you guys want anything? Nothing going on? Well, there’s always something going on. Hey, you could talk about okay. Then no. roundtable reserving the past I don’t need to trade you
Tom Hardesty 14:31
on may be back in July to ask for approval for grant application which we’d have to commit the funds and that would be potentially for the brochures Rosa Park restroom and we had to apply for last year got turned down made. They told me to go ahead and apply for it again this year. I may do that will say okay. Jerry,
Rick Patrick 15:12
you want me to tell you my mom’s complaints? No. We’re putting sidewalks know? Let’s see cash. You guys went so fast, I think Bill only I can think of but I’m reserving the right. We were asked by, I can’t think of the guy’s name. It’s to do with the TV station. We’re putting him down there. asked if we would want to put a memorial site, like in memory, Tom Collins, since he’s the one that got it going. Anybody have any comments about?
Chris Knop 16:00
I think it’s great. He ran with that happened. So. Okay. And he’s conservation. So
Rick Patrick 16:11
I don’t know where we’re at. Well, I think we’re, I don’t want to do all this stuff come in here.
Deb Wordell 16:15
I haven’t
Rick Patrick 16:17
talked to Scott about it. No. So. And we have Summer Fest coming up a couple of weeks here. And
Tom Hardesty 16:29
I can think of Yeah, we got the call barium
Rick Patrick 16:31
columbariums. They’re supposed to set him in the next few weeks. I think by the end of the month, we got to go. Oh, yeah. We need to talk about approves Oh, yeah. We get a grant for that. Grant from capital budget money from the state. Oh,
Chris Knop 16:51
okay. So excellent. So we’re going to go right,
Rick Patrick 16:56
right. But what they’re doing, we weren’t supposed to get the other one until next year. And the portage monument had it there. And they don’t want it in the way. So they’re gonna set on both at the same time. Okay, then we’ll just have to pay him next year. Right, gotcha. So that’s good. I can’t think of anything else you have anything.
Deb Wordell 17:22
Just in terms of the columbarium. I think the mayor is planning on having a cemetery committee meeting soon, then they’ll make some suggestions for the fees for the columbarium. And then Council will need to approve that. I’m hoping that it will be enough to reimburse the village for the purchase, because that did not come out of the cemetery fund came out of the general fund. So we want to make sure we pay that money back.
Rick Patrick 17:50
And Lily, our intern that we’ve had in the past Lily is out of school, so she’s helping out this summer. What does she start? Charity started last week last week? Yeah. Wait, it’s here today when I was here, while she’s on here all the time.
Deb Wordell 18:06
She’s only here a couple times a week, maybe half a day, but she’ll fill in. Donna has a conference next week. So she’ll film a few more days.
Chris Knop 18:15
Don has a very old column. If I recall the metrics, we worked out one night with the cemetery Committee. It would easily pay for itself and then some so I’m not anticipating. Well, eventually, eventually, yeah, yes. Yes. Right. Even though people use it, yeah. Right. Terry, anything.
Tara Beaty 18:45
I’m just I’m sure you guys have talked about it in the past. It’s just something that’s personally happened to me a couple of times coming up. Center Street. Okay. I don’t know what this little group what’s the road that crosses right here? Oh, my whole? Yeah, I have. Honestly, no joke almost been hit probably five times people just running that stop sign. They’re like sitting there and they see me coming. And they look right at you. And you don’t stop because you’re gonna stop sign. And they really honestly almost I’ve almost been honestly like T boned. Like, probably like four or five times, like within the last like, probably six months. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s new people dragging and they just don’t know the traffic pattern. Or if you could put up a sign that says like, cross traffic doesn’t stop or if the stop signs are too far back. I don’t know. I was looking at the One Stop sign. It looks like it was pretty far back. So I don’t know if people get there and then they forget. I don’t know. I’m with you. Because I drive through that a lot. Oh, yeah. I mean, I’m constantly going through there. It was in February where I actually had to like swerve into like another like, because he came so fast that almost like coming at the police
Deb Wordell 19:51
vehicle got hit a few years ago.
Keith Whan 19:54
Because of the way that hill comes up. A lot of people say there’s people speeding up there. We’ve sat up there and I’ve actually slept for hours on my radar. And people aren’t speeding, but it looks like they’re going fast on the hill. But by tiny crest, that hill, somebody’s coming through, it can get close call once a while, we can have some officers over there and try to do some enforcement stop and just, you know, trying to get people pay more attention, but
Tara Beaty 20:21
we can sit there most of the time, I swear, they’re looking at me like, I mean, they see me coming and I’m like to threaten them, they just like, Oh, she’s gonna stop at
Chris Knop 20:32
the YMCA or get over there. You see what we do? Stop and talk to people. And we’ll keep an eye on it so you can get some enforcement. get that under control better? Was it a blue card? Was really what’s your license plate? You guys are looking at it from the standpoint too, or whether we need to add something there that cross traffic doesn’t stop that.
Tara Beaty 21:00
I’ve heard just from other people that if they if you don’t live in Garrison, you don’t understand how that intersection works. And the one by the coffee shop. That is a little confused. It’s just a little weird. Just how you have to kind of look.
Rick Patrick 21:12
Yeah. Coffee shops gives me worse. Yeah. Rotary asked me what the status was on this bike racks. I just talked to Randy about it today. Okay, so we’re gonna be in here. We’re gonna go out and look it over because I had talked with Tom about it. And then we never got that far. How many bike racks do we have? I don’t even know. I think we have. I think we were supposed to only have eight because I think Chiron was going to take three of them, but then for some reason. They don’t want them so we’re going to put them all out. We’re going to figure out where we’re going to put up. Alright. Okay. You have any nails? Nope, nope. All right.
Chris Knop 21:56
So, the determination of where to put those will be
Rick Patrick 22:00
me and Randy.
Chris Knop 22:02
Okay, Rory is going to participate in it. I mean, no, I think they donated okay. So they don’t want to participate in the location. Thanks. So that’s my understanding now. Okay.
Rick Patrick 22:17
Okay, motion to adjourn. Well, that was quick. Sherry was not thinking he was gonna.
Deb Wordell 22:35
This is Johnson Yes. Mr. Chambers. Yes, Mr. Brady? Yes. This is baby. Yes.
Rick Patrick 22:39
All right. Thank you, everyone.
