In attendance at the May 8th Garrettsville Village Council meeting were Councilpersons Deb Wordell, Tom Hardesty, John Chambers, Sheri Johnson, Richard Beatty, and Mark Brady; also present were village solicitor Michele Stuck, Mayor Rick Patrick, and Fiscal Officer Tara Beatty.
Prior to the business portion of the meeting. Mayor Patrick swore in officer Grant Redeker, a full-time police officer hired by the Garrettsville Police Department.
Minutes from the prior meeting were reviewed and approved, with a correction that showed Tom Hardesty was absent from the meeting. Council also accepted the bills paid since the last meeting.
The following legislation was discussed:
2024-09 Amending the village of Garrettsville employee handbook with regard to compensation, sick time, etc. It reached its second reading at the meeting. Hardesty requested to see the proposed numbers, however only the numbers for the police department were available at the meeting. Wordell would like to wait to act on the legislation until the numbers for the other departments are calculated. The legislation will go to a third reading at the June meeting.
2024-11 was read into the minutes. The legislation would enact zoning regulations regarding yard parking within the village of Garrettsville. No additional comments were heard from council. The ordinance heads to a public hearing and a third reading at the upcoming meeting in June.
2024-12 Modifying section 137.01 of the codified ordinances regarding duties of the village solicitor. Solicitor Stuck explained that as the village will be hiring an assistant zoning inspector, the duties surrounding zoning that are currently assigned to the solicitor should be detached from the solicitor’s duties.
2024-13 A resolution commending Keegan Sell was approved, recognizing Keegan for earning his second consecutive state championship title in wrestling, which is the third in the James A. Garfield school district’s history.
2024-14 an ordinance engaging the services of Amy Turos to act as the assistant zoning inspector and aid in the collection of delinquent income tax payments for the village of Garrettsville. Hardesty explained that income tax collection and assistant zoning inspector duties have been split from the village solicitor’s duty to prevent the need for the new solicitor to travel from Cleveland to Garrettsville or court for the purpose of representing the village when going to court over income tax fees.
2024-15 William Mason, Attorney at Law, was named the village of Garrettsville’s new solicitor beginning July 2024, through June 2025.
2024-16 which adopts a permanent budget for the village in 2025 received its first reading. It must go through two more meetings and a public hearing before being enacted.
2024-17 Executing an agreement to allow the village of Garrettsville to enter into agreement with Quality Control Inspection, Inc. (QCI) for site inspection for the Windham Street Water Main Project. The recommendation was made by the Garrettsville Board of Public Affairs to retain QCI, which will provide one full time Resident Project Representative (RPR) to monitor and document the work of the contractor and monitor the contractors punch list activities and ensure they are completed in accordance with the Village of Garrettsville’s specifications. This provides for a total of 1,072 hours of inspection services. QCI’s bid for these service came in at $74,706. The Village will provide municipal oversight services, i.e.: engineering and contract administrative services, design review and approval of site plans, issuing of permits, approval of special exceptions and/or variances, field engineered change requests, and request of as-built drawings from the contractor.
2024-18 Resolution authorizing an amendment to an existing agreement with Arcadis, which is providing engineering services for the Windham Street Water Main project. The amendment allows Arcadis to oversee mandatory soil testing in specific areas along Windham Street, they are checking for residual chemicals that may have leached into the project area over several decades; the presence of contaminants will determine where the soil can be disposed of during the Windham Street Water Main project, which begins this summer.
2024-19 is an ordinance setting the employment compensation rates for employees of the village of Garrettsville. This was for a shift differential that was proposed at the safety committee meeting held earlier in the day.
2024-20 is an ordinance setting forth employee compensation. Michele Stuck explained that the ordinance separates out any conflicts of interest resulting from Richard Beatty voting on pay for village employees as he has family members employed by the village.
Roundtable Wrap-up
Council members were invited to attend JAG music programs. The choir has their final concert of the year on May 14th at 7:00pm in Iva Walker Auditorium; all of the school bands will be performing “in the round” at the GHS gymnasium on Sunday, May 19th at 2:00pm.
A resident made council aware of an issue with the Ohio BMV with regard to the tax district split between Nelson Township and Garrettsville. The village was not appearing in the BMV system, only the surrounding townships were. The resident was concerned that the village is losing tax revenue due to the BMV’s system. The resident provided council with documentation of the issue, so it can be addressed with the state.
Chief Tim Christopher asked for a retroactive motion of Grant Redeker’s swearing-in to fill the position of full-time police officer.
Beatty wished a happy early Mother’s Day to the village’s mothers.
Brady has received complaints about lights at the veterans memorial. Mayor Patrick said that he has reached out to Scotchman Electric, who found that the sockets inside the fixtures had gone bad. Different options, including LEDs, were discussed with Scotchman, pricing to be presented at a future meeting.
