City Manager’s Remarks 2/28/2022
Virtual meetings.
Governor DeWine signed HB 51 into law enabling public bodies to once again meet through virtual meetings. For our new Council members, the Governor signed a similar law enabling public entities to conduct business through the pandemic. This law is in effect until July 1, 2022.
Eastern Road resurfacing project.
We are very pleased that our next road resurfacing project is going out to bid. This is another project where we applied for a grant and received 80% funding through AMATS. This resurfacing is scheduled for a 2022 completion.
Legislation amending Section 107.02(a) explained.
The city recently has been given the opportunity to have bids submitted electronically and opened, publicly, but electronically through a company call BidExpress. There is no additional change for this service. Our Law Director amended the language in this section to allow for this additional method of submitting and opening bids. Many bid openings, will still be done in person. This process is acceptable for federally funded projects and currently being used by ODOT. ODOT offered this as something to be used by local entities as a convenience and also this process can provide more accurate bid openings.
RFQ-Wastewater Treatment Plant engineering.
A Request for Qualifications is posted on our website through the end of March. This will enable engineering firms to have an opportunity to submit their qualifications to the city for the WW Treatment Plant project.
Service Department update.
The Service Department will be hiring a new Maintenance Technician with a focus on Storm Water projects. The city imposed storm water fees in 2016 and increased fees in 2019 so that more of an emphasis could be placed on rehabilitating our storm water catch basins, replacing lines, jetting of the lines, etc. in a timely manner. This employee will still be assigned other duties such as snow plowing, help with street projects, etc. but again, their main job will be storm water. Chuck Lengacher, Buck Rediger, Matt Bubp and I worked through the logistics and the job description is under review by AFSCME.