Garrettsville – The January 8, 2014 Garrettsville village council meeting opened welcoming new councilman Tom Hardesty (Hardesty was elected last November and replaces retired Councilman Bob Matson). Immediately the floor opened for nominations for council president. Councilwoman Becky Harrington nominated Tom Hardesty for the job. The motion was seconded and council voted him in. Hardesty’s first act was to open a public hearing to discuss proposed Ordinances 2013-39 and 2013-40 which would eliminate the requirement that business signage be reviewed by the Design Review Board and would allow the zoning department to approve applications for signs that meet current codes.
There was no public comment – actually, there was only one resident in attendance in the audience. Hardesty closed the hearing and regular session began. Minutes from the last council meeting were approved with corrections. Council then discussed revenue, expenditure, cash balances and income tax reports.
Council approved expenditure for the Planning Commission for the printing of 2,500 historical color charts. The mayor stated the last time these were printed was in 2001 and more were now needed.
Next on the agenda was the third reading of proposed Ordinances 2013-39 & 2013-40. Both passed unanimously with those council members present (councilman Klamer was not in attendance). Council also passed Ordinance 2014-01 amending an ordinance affecting the employee handbook making floating holidays permanent for the police department and Resolution 2014-2 authorizing the mayor to execute an easement to the Ohio Edison Company for the new bridge that will be installed on Liberty Street.
Mayor Rick Patrick read his 2014 State of the Village report to council (see below) followed by roundtable discussion. New Council President Tom Hardesty brought up the subject of the availability of WiFi in the village hall. All felt more information was needed about possible security issues and agreed to discuss it formally at next month’s meeting. Solicitor Stuck informed council that 45 tax delinquency letters were sent out on December 26.
If you’d like to know more of what is happening in your community, attend a meeting. The next regular Village Council meeting is scheduled for January 8, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall.
