Regular Council Meeting

September 18, 2017

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 Eric A. MacGilvray, Marc Benevento, Scott K. Gordon, Chad A. Lowe, Kathy McClintock, Josh Schoenberger, and Jacalyn Slemmer. Also present were Leah Reibel, Solicitor and William P. Charles, Street Commissioner. At 7:05 p.m. the Mayor called the meeting to order.

Minutes

The minutes of the regular Council meeting of August 21, 2017 were not read since each member had received a copy. Schoenberger moved and Lowe seconded the motion that the minutes be approved as submitted by the Clerk-Treasurer. The following vote was recorded on the motion: Yes – Gordon, Lowe, McClintock, Schoenberger; No – none; Abstain – Slemmer. The motion carried (4-0-1). Benevento was not yet in attendance at the time of this vote.

Report of the Clerk-Treasurer

Schoenberger moved and McClintock seconded the motion to approve the payment of bills and to accept the financial reports for August 2017 as submitted by the Clerk-Treasurer. The motion carried (5-0). Benevento was not yet in attendance at the time of this vote.

Report of the Mayor

  1. The Mayor reminded Council that there was a public forum scheduled for 1:00 pm on Sunday, September 24. He had sent a newsletter to Village residents updating them on the status of the infrastructure project and informing them of the forum.
  2. The Mayor informed Council that a special meeting would be needed to approve Burgess & Niple’s project plan once submitted in order to remain on the current timeline for bidding the project. Council agreed to schedule this meeting for the week of October 2.

Report of the Solicitor

  1. The Solicitor reported that a new Police contract was being sent and would be available by the October meeting. This new contract contains a 2.5% increase due to wage increases.
  2. The Solicitor reported that she had researched the issue with restrictive covenants in title abstracts and discovered that they had not been legal for about 60 years. It is currently not possible to change these documents as they are historical records and cannot be altered. Note:  Since the meeting, the County Recorder’s Office has announced that they are considering making the on-line records available for editing to remove such restrictive covenants.
  3. The Solicitor reported that she had researched the Village’s code on satellite dishes and discovered that this code stated that dishes not mounted on the roof shall be placed in the rear of the home and not exceed a height above 12 feet above grade. There was discussion about whether to require residents to mount these dishes on the roof. The Solicitor said that she would research satellite dish restrictions in other municipalities and report back in October.
  4. The Solicitor reported that she had researched the Village noise ordinance as it relates to the upcoming construction. The ordinance states that construction must be between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm and there is to be no construction on Sundays, with an exception for emergencies.

Report of the Street Commissioner

The Street Commissioner mentioned that he had met with Columbia Gas about their plans to replace the gas line infrastructure in the Village. This project is not connected with the Village’s plans to replace the streets, sewers, and water lines, but will be conducted in parallel with it, with work expected to begin by the end of the year. The new system will be at a much higher pressure, which will allow items such as generators to be used when they had not before. The Street Commissioner reported that he had put in a request for a quote for a backup generator for the lift station for use during outages.

Report of the Planning Commissioner

There was no report, as the Planning Commissioner was not in attendance.

Report of the Web Manager

There was no report, as the Web Manager was not in attendance.

Comments from Residents on Agenda Items

There were no comments from residents.

Old Business

  1. Committee on Infrastructure
    1. The Chair of the Committee reported that the engineering work was almost complete and that Burgess & Niple projected the project to be under budget, but nothing was official until bids are received.
    2. The Chair of the Committee reported that there was discussion at the meeting about the cases in which driveway grading will require work to be performed past the right of way onto homeowners’ properties. The question concerned how to go about receiving permission from homeowners to do this work, whether they would need to individually agree to the work being performed or whether this approval would be assumed, with homeowners needing to individually opt out of this work. The Solicitor stated that she would speak with Jim Dippel of Burgess & Niple about this.
    3. The Chair of the Committee reported that he had contacted several internet carriers about their plans for the future and if they were interested in upgrading their infrastructure in the Village during the project. None of the carriers expressed interest in taking advantage of the project to improve their system as they planned on increasing speeds using the current infrastructure. Council agreed that it would not make sense for the Village to install conduit for potential future use at the current time.
  1. Committee on Communications
    1. The Chair of the Committee was not in attendance, so Schoenberger reported that they had received about 40 of the postcards back from residents with contact information.
    2. Schoenberger reported that he had a meeting scheduled to get a quote on moving the Village web site to WordPress by the end of the year. He stated that he expected to have a proposal by the October meeting

New Business

  1. Resolution 2017-08

Resolution 2017-08, A Resolution to Provide Legal Counsel to the Village of Riverlea was given its second reading.

  1. Resolution 2017-09

Resolution 2017-09, A Resolution Accepting the Amounts and Rates as Determined by the Budget Commission and Authorizing the Necessary Tax Levies and Certifying them to the County Auditor was introduced by Slemmer. Slemmer moved and McClintock seconded the motion to waive the three readings of this resolution in order to submit this ordinance to Franklin County on a timely basis. The motion carried (6-0). Slemmer moved and Schoenberger seconded the motion to approve the resolution. The motion carried (6-0).

  1. Fall Festival

McClintock announced that the Village would hold a Fall Festival on Saturday, October 21 at 4:00 in the Village Green. This will feature food, a bounce house, and a chili cook-off for residents.

Expenses

Schoenberger moved and Gordon seconded the motion to authorize the following expenditure:

Eric MacGilvray – $266.28 – Newsletter mailing expenses

The motion carried (6-0).

Comments from Residents on Non-Agenda Items

There were no comments from residents.

Next Meeting Announcement

The next regular meeting will be Monday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the Thomas Worthington High School.

Adjournment

 

There being no further business, Schoenberger moved and Slemmer seconded the motion to adjourn.  The motion was approved unanimously (6-0).  The meeting was adjourned at 8:13 p.m.

ERIC A. MACGILVRAY, MAYOR

JOSHUA C. MEHLING, CLERK OF COUNCIL