August 19, 2013 Council Meeting Minutes

Regular Council Meeting

August 19, 2013

The Council of the Village of Riverlea met on the above date at the Thomas Worthington High School, Worthington. The following Council members were present: Mayor Kirk M. McHugh, Scott K. Gordon, Donald E. Griffith, Briggs W. Hamor, Jenny D. Jones and Eric A. MacGilvray, President Pro-Tem. Jon L. Ankrom was absent. Also present were Pamela M. Colwell, Clerk-Treasurer, L. Leah Reibel, Solicitor, William P. Charles, Street Commissioner, Karen McElmurray, Marshal, Jody Croley Jones, Web Manager, Michael Jones, Planning Commissioner and Lois Yoakam, Newsletter Editor. Guests of Council were Lt. Jennifer Wuertz, Jim Dippel, Josh Mehling, Marc Benevento, and Greg Ross. At 7:07 pm the Mayor called the meeting to order

Minutes

1. The minutes of the regular Council meeting of June 17, 2013 and the special Council meeting of July 8, 2013 were not read since each member had received a copy. MacGilvray moved and Gordon seconded the motion that the minutes be approved as submitted by the Clerk-Treasurer. The motion was approved unanimously (5-0).

Report of the Clerk-Treasurer

1. Hamor moved and Jones seconded the motion to approve the payment of bills and to accept the financial reports for June 2013 and July 2013, as submitted by the Clerk-Treasurer. The motion was approved unanimously (5-0).

Report of the Mayor

1. The Mayor introduced Lieutenant Jennifer Wuertz with the Worthington Police. She was recently promoted to Lieutenant over patrol operations and she wanted to introduce herself to Council. She is familiar with Riverlea but had worked the third shift and, therefore, did not have much of an opportunity to meet residents. She wanted Council to feel free to contact her with any concerns or questions. The Mayor thanked her for taking the time to meet Council.

Report of the Solicitor

1. The Solicitor had no report.

Report of the Planning Commissioner

1. The Commission approved two Certificates of Appropriateness in July. One was for a roofed deck and the other for a new house on Pioneers Court.

Report of the Marshal

1. The Marshal reported there were 295 checks and no citationsThe Marshal reported there were 286 checks in June and 294 checks in July with no citations.
2. She discussed a recent home burglary and a car broken into on Olentangy Blvd. She reminded residents to double check that their doors and windows are locked and that valuables are removed from cars.

Report of the Street Commissioner

1. The Street Commissioner had no report.

Report of the Newsletter Editor

1. The Editor would like copy for the Newsletter by September 5th.
2. She reported that the Quarterly Newsletter is completed and will be mailed to all residents, even those who no longer receive the paper copy of the Newsletter. She said Chris Coe (Salvato+Coe Group) did a wonderful job on the design and thanked him for volunteering to do this. She also thanked Jon Ankrom (Harman Midwest) for volunteering to print it for free.

Report of the Web Manager

1. The Web Manager reported that 30% of the residents have now signed up for the online Newsletter and that there is a lot more new information on the website.

Comments from Residents on Agenda Items

Old Business

1. Committee on Infrastructure
   Briggs Hamor, Chair, reported that Committee members have been investigating bonds for financing the infrastructure work and have found that the total amount the two banks they met with are willing to underwrite, approximately $2 million, is way below what is needed. He said the Village will have to look at other sources for financing.
2. Committee on Ordinances
   Jenny Jones, Chair, will discuss this under new business with the codification costs.
3. Committee on Communications
   There was no report.

New Business

1. Resolution No. 2013-11 Hamor introduced Resolution No. 2013-11, A Resolution to Award the Contract for the 2013 Villagewide Sanitary Improvement Project, to Authorize the Mayor to Enter into an Agreement Therfor, and to Declare an Emergency. MacGilvray moved and Gordon seconded the motion to suspend the three readings of Resolution No. 2013-11. The motion was approved unanimously (5-0). MacGilvray moved and Gordon seconded the motion to declare an emergency. The motion was approved unanimously (5-0). MacGilvray moved and Hamor seconded the motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-11. The motion was approved unanimously (5-0). The award went to Performance Pipelining, Inc. of Ottawa, IL. The bid price was $558,339.90, which was 5.7% above the engineer’s estimate of $528,000, but within the percentage allowed by the Ohio Revised Code that may be awarded by the Village.

   Jim Dippel, Burgess & Niple, stated that once the Notice to Award is signed, he will begin to put the contract together and have a pre-construction meeting. He will submit the contract to OPWC and work will begin after he receives the Notice to Proceed from OPWC. Louis McFarland, Burgess & Niple, will be in charge of the project. MacGilvray asked why only one bid was received. Dippel thought that was due to the proprietary products required in this project that are very specialized.

2. Clerk-Treasurer Position
   Council discussed the Clerk-Treasurer position since the current Clerk-Treasurer will be retiring at the end of January 2014. Council has the option to change the position from an elected to an appointed one so they would be able to hire someone outside of the Village if no resident was interested in the job. However, a resident, Josh Mehling, is interested in the position, so Council decided to keep the position as it is for now. They can appoint him to fill the remainder of the term and then at the end of the term decide if there are any changes needed. Council asked Mehling to forward a resume to them.
3. Codification Costs
   American Legal Publishing submitted an estimate of $2,400-$3,450 to update the Village’s code and incorporate the recommendations of the Committee on Ordinances. Since the code has not been updated for three years, Council thought it would be best to proceed. There are still some issues to discuss and Council asked Jenny Jones to compile these for the next meeting. Council also wants to get feedback from residents before passing legislation to make these changes. A public forum could be held at the October Council meeting.
4. Expenses
   Hamor moved and Jones seconded the motion to approve the following expense:
   $21.34 for replacement of the US Flag on the Circle.
   The motion was approved unanimously (5-0).

   The Clerk-Treasurer reported the expenses for the Village’s Summer Party were $907.07, which was the lowest in years because a tent was not rented. Council said they were pleased with the party but wanted to make sure it was advertised more next year to get participation up.

5. Vacant Council Positions
   Don Griffith said he will be resigning because he is moving out of Riverlea. This is his last Council meeting. Council thanked him for his service.

   Council discussed the need to find someone to fill Griffith’s term until the end of this year. They also discussed the four Council positions whose terms end this year. So far no residents were on the November ballot but one is said to be a write-in candidate. The Mayor asked the Solicitor to check into the process of filling vacant Council positions.

Comments from Residents on Non-Agenda Items