A Regular Meeting

on Monday, April 12, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

Members Present: Rick Hanlon, Lynn Beaumont, Glen Russell, Richard Lapehn, Bill Workman and Darrell Carey

Members Absent:  None

Presiding:               Mayor William Robertson

Invocation was given by: Dr. Jerry A. Burton, Pastor followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  

Approval of Minutes – March 22, 2010

Workman moved to approve, upon roll call; Carey-Abstain, Hanlon-Yes, Russell-Yes, Beaumont-Yes, Lapehn-Yes, Workman-Yes and motion carried.

 

Workshop

a.      Discussion Regarding a USDA Grant Application for a Vehicle Purchase in the

Utilities Department City Manager Boggs advised they have been working on some rather lengthy grant applications trying to get approval for a sewer jet and a dump truck w/a snowplow. He advised it was part of the grant requirements that it be discussed in a public meeting and hopefully receive Council’s support. Boggs advised Utilities Director Metcalf worked on the majority of the grant application and the vehicles would be used in his department as well as the service department.

            Metcalf advised the sewer jet is a 1993 so it was 17 years old. He advised they have done a lot of repairs to the sewer jet and it was used a lot by the street dept. and the water and sewer departments. Metcalf advised USDA has some money available for equipment and right now was possibly a better time to get money for equipment than other projects.

            Lapehn inquired as to the breakdown of the dump truck w/the snowplow and the sewer jet.

            Metcalf advised the sewer jet was approximately $240,000 and the dump truck w/snowplow state bid was $108,253. He advised we asked if we could do multiple pieces of equipment on the same grant and we never really received and answer, but when we applied for both we were told that was fine. Metcalf advised they were hopeful the grant would cover at least 40% of the cost in answer to a question from Workman.

            Boggs advised the city was hopeful to receive approximately $138,986 from the grant, but it could come in lower.

            Hanlon inquired if the truck could be ordered without the plow.

            Metcalf advised if necessary they could order the dump truck without the plow.

            Boggs advised the city would try to sell the old vehicles, but he was not sure if it would be through auction or an Internet site.

            Russell inquired if they receive the grant were they ok moneywise as far as making these purchases.

            Rissland advised the sewer jet funds would come out of the sewer fund and as far as the dump truck was concerned they would have to look at how it was going to be used, but she assumed from discussions that it would either be from the utility funds or split with the street department. She advised those departments rotate which vehicles were bought out of which fund. Rissland advised if we receive the grant monies she felt .65 cents on the dollar for new equipment was not a bad idea.

            Russell inquired if the money would be (available) without affecting the budget very much.

            Rissland advised if it was in the governmental funds it would be in the capital projects, which they were required to spend twenty-five percent of the income tax on capital projects and the sewer jet would definitely come out of the sewer fund.

            Mayor Robertson inquired if Council needed to take any action to show their support of these projects.

            Boggs advised it might be good if Council gave a vote of support.

Motion

Workman moved to support the City Manager in applying for the grant for said purpose, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

b.      Discussion Regarding Police Patrol Car Purchase

Boggs advised as part of the capital improvement purchasing for this year, the police

department was recommending to replace one patrol car. He advised previously the city was on a schedule to replace one patrol car per year, although due to budget constraints there have been years where they didn’t purchase a car including last year. Boggs advised he asked Chief Burg to provide a list of existing patrol cars and the age and mileage of each vehicle. He advised when the mileage exceeded 95,000 – 98,000 they could usually expect to have an engine or a transmission rebuild, which was expensive. He advised they try to keep the vehicles out of the 100,000 mile range, but when they bypass a year it always puts one beyond that mark. Boggs advised Chief Burg was present to discuss some of the options available.

            Police Chief Burg presented Council with three vehicle options with accessories

·        2010 Crown Victoria - $24,802.00

·        2010 4WD Expedition - $30,608.00

·        2010 4WD Explorer - $26,086.00

Burg advised it has been discussed in the past about the possibility of getting a 4WD and he didn’t know if this was necessarily the best time to consider such, but he received quotes should Council deem it appropriate at this time. He advised if they purchased the car it had to be ordered by May7, 2010 and the 4WD didn’t have to be ordered until June or September respectively. Burg advised he checked locally for a quote on the 4WD and he never heard back from them and that was the second year in a row.

Workman inquired if Burg checked with Maibach Ford in Orrville.

Burg advised he did not.

Boggs advised any Ford dealership could provide a quote at or below state bid

requirements and they could purchase said vehicle without going out for bids. He advised usually they try to keep the purchases within the county.

Robertson inquired if the reason for the 4-wheel drive vehicle option was for winter

driving.

Burg advised he couldn’t see them letting it sit and not be used all summer, but it would be

helpful for driving in the winter with the hills. He advised he didn’t know if it this was the right time for such a purchase, but he went ahead and got the quote for Council’s consideration.

Hanlon inquired if they went with a Chevy vehicle would it still be rear wheel drive.

Burg advised he only checked for a Chevy vehicle with the 4-wheel drive option because

the Chevy patrol car was front wheel drive and the present mechanic doesn’t like working on front wheel drive vehicles.

Discussion included the accessories needed added onto the vehicles.

Burg advised Chevy doesn’t have a police package for the 4-wheel drive and the biggest

thing he would need would be the largest alternator because all the electronics added to a vehicle.

Boggs advised the cage wouldn’t fit the 4 wheel drive vehicles so it would have to be

modified. He advised a light bar would need ordered too, but they have been replacing those when the new vehicles were purchased and that was included in the $4,000 accessory quote. Boggs advised most SUV’s have a center mount gearshift and that would block mounting the radios and the computer. He advised he didn’t know why Chevy didn’t have a police vehicle in an SUV.

            Workman inquired if Burg could check with other cities and find out what kind of setup or problems they were having with the 4-wheel drive vehicle.

            Burg advised Orrville had the Explorer and the Sheriff’s Department had one of each the Expedition and the Explorer. He advised he spoke with them separately and they each said the Explorer looks fine when it comes in until you go to install the equipment and then the Explorer was a lot smaller on the inside than the Expedition and they suggested if the city could afford it to go with the Expedition, but looking at the dimensions the one wasn’t that much bigger than the other.

            Beaumont inquired as to how many officers were in the police department.          

            Burg advised there were a total of 17.

            Beaumont inquired as to how many were on duty at one time.

            Burg advised two with the exception of Fridays and second and third shifts, which have three.

            Beaumont advised so there is never more than three officers on duty at one time.

            Burg advised that was correct.

            Beaumont inquired if there was car assigned to each officer on duty.

            Burg advised yes. He advised there was a list so the vehicles don’t get run 24 hours in a row. Burg advised the part time officers were assigned to one car and maybe two officers were assigned to each of the other ones that way vehicles get a little bit of a break and the mileage doesn’t go up too much on one vehicle.

            Beaumont inquired if all the police vehicles were on the road every day.

            Burg advised no, not necessarily.

            Beaumont inquired as to how many vehicles were on the road in a day.

            Boggs advised between 2 and 6 with 2 men on a shift. He advised it depended on who was assigned to what vehicle.

            Workman advised the K-9 unit was used (solely) by the K-9 officer and the chief has a vehicle.

            Chief Burg advised his patrol car was also assigned to another Sgt.

            Beaumont advised so approximately 6 of the vehicles were being used everyday.

            Hanlon inquired if it was the chief’s desire to replace car #34, which has the highest mileage.

            Burg advised we have always replaced the highest mileage vehicle to help keep maintenance down.

            Hanlon inquired if they were asking for a 4-wheel drive in addition to a new patrol car.

            Burg advised no, if they purchased a 4-wheel drive vehicle it would replace car #34.

            Beaumont inquired as to how many miles were put on a cruiser per year.

            Burg advised he didn’t know, but he would say an average of 30 miles per shift.

            Beaumont advised the 2006 cruiser was 4 years old and only had 47,000 miles. He inquired if they really needed to buy a car. Beaumont advised there was one vehicle in the fleet with excessive miles, but he felt they should be able to move that car around so it wasn’t on the road as much, but the miles on the other cars were very low.

            Workman advised he believed there were two vehicles with excessive miles, the K-9 unit and the other one.

            Beaumont advised the K-9 unit wasn’t on the road all the time and that vehicle was 8 years old. He advised he felt they should discount the K-9 unit and look at the remaining cars and with the exception of car #34 the rest of them have very low miles. Beaumont inquired if they needed to buy a car this year.

            Hanlon advised past history was to buy one car every year with a five year rotation and somehow they seven cars on the list with a five year rotation. He advised that was fine, as they were not necessarily getting rid of the old and they obviously didn’t want to put a K-9 unit in a 2010 vehicle.

            Russell inquired if they have had any high maintenance issues or were they expecting any.

            Burg advised they really weren’t expecting any although they recently had to put some money into the canine car, but the vehicle had been sitting for a year while the officer was in Iraq.

            Boggs advised one of the reasons the police department has more vehicles was Mike (Burg) chose not to keep the unmarked car, as normally one of these would have been rotated into an unmarked vehicle and instead the chief kept the one patrol vehicle.

            Russell advised they got out of the rotation last year and he believed they were overdue for at least buying one.

            Hanlon advised he believed the rotation was usually setup for fall and it looked like they were considering buying a 2010 vehicle, which really did not put them out of the rotation in terms of the year of the vehicles, they just put it off for six months.

            Boggs advised if they order a vehicle it probably wouldn’t come in until the first part of July.

            Hanlon inquired as to how they were doing on the capital improvement budget in the police department.

            Rissland advised they would be working more on the five-year capital plan and there was enough money in the capital budget to purchase said vehicle this year and the appropriation amendment included that in case Council chose to move forward on the purchase.

            Russell advised he felt they should go with the 2010 Crown Vic for the $24,802.00. He advised it was what the department has used in the past.

            Beaumont advised he was opposed to purchasing a 4-wheel drive vehicle. He advised if they had to buy one he felt they should just buy a Crown Vic., but he did not see any reason to buy a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

            Boggs advised he would like to know the direction Council would like them to take due to time constraints on the Crown Vic. and they could get it through the state-purchasing price without an ordinance. He advised they had to have the order in by May 7^th.

            Workman advised he would like to see if they could save any money by going with Maibach’s in Orrville and asked if they could check.

            Boggs advised they could check.

            Hanlon advised he agreed with Beaumont, as he didn’t know that they were so financially sound to make the expenditure for a 4-wheel drive and they could save any additional and set aside for next year or something in the five year plan.

            Rissland advised they could not spend those funds on anything but a capital project and we have to spend a certain percentage of income tax on capital improvements. She advised she didn’t believe it specifies that it had to be used in the year in which it was collected. Rissland advised she hoped to bring the five-year plan to Council in the next month or so.

            Lapehn advised the police dept. did not purchase a car in the calendar year 2009. He advised he felt it would be penny-wise and pound-foolish to put if off much longer. Lapehn advised maybe they could purchase one every other year if the budget continued to be squeezed, but he just felt they should go with the Crown Vic. because if the mechanic wasn’t familiar with front-wheel drive, he didn’t want to throw 4-wheel drive at him as it sounded more complicated to him. He advised he felt they should go with something they were familiar with and he didn’t believe they have had emergencies where there were problems since we have such good snow removal in the city.

            Russell inquired if the cruisers parked behind the station were all in use.

            Burg advised all the vehicles were still in use just not all of them were used in any given shift.

            Hanlon advised his suggestion would be if they wait until the 2011 vehicles came out then they could get a 2011 vehicle and 3 years down the road they could say that in 2010 they skipped a year because we were trying to save money. He advised if we buy a 2010 we really have done anything other than prolong making the expense.

            Boggs advised this would be the last year for the Crown Victoria because they were coming out with a different model.

            Burg advised the Interceptor was next years model.

            Hanlon inquired if we had an estimated dollar value if we wait and purchase an Interceptor.

            Boggs indicated he didn’t know, but would guess the cost would increase.

Motion

Workman moved to support the purchase of a 2010 Crown Victoria for the Police Department, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Citizens Forum – No Comments

Old Business – None

New Business

a.                   Ord No. 7595 An Ordinance of the Council of the City of Rittman, Wayne and

Medina Counties and State of Ohio, Amending Section 991.10 (f) Interment Fee and Declaring and Emergency. First Reading. Ord. No. 7595 was read on first reading.

Lapehn advised he understood the additional fee for municipal holidays and weekends, but after 1:00 p.m. on normal weekday and he inquired as to the normal work hours for those in this department.

Boggs advised they work until 3:00 and if it (the interment) is scheduled after 1:00 p.m. it puts them into overtime.

It was noted, the employees in the service department work 7:00 – 3:00.

Carey moved to place on second, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

b.                  Ord. No. 7596 An Ordinance of the Council  of the City of Rittman, Wayne

and Medina Counties and State of Ohio, Providing for the Compensation of Certain City Employees, Determining Effective Dates and Declaring an Emergency. Three Readings. Ord. No. 7596 was read on first reading.

            Boggs advised he believed they needed an amendment on this ordinance. He advised according to the Finance Director it needed to be retroactive to the date January 1, 2009 instead of April 1, 2010. Boggs advised the reason as stated in his memo to Council was an error as the one clerks pay was over by .26 cents more an hour than what was listed on this persons pay scale. He indicated it was a housekeeping issue for the auditors.

            Hanlon advised this was raising the maximum allowances.

            Boggs advised the only employees whose maximum allowances were changed was that particular clerk, the Service Supervisor and the Finance Director. He indicated the latter two were close to the top of their ranges.

Russell moved to amend the date in Section Two and Section Three to be January 1, 2009, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Hanlon moved to suspend the rules and have second and third reading, as amended, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Ord. No. 7596 was read on second and third reading, as amended.

Carey moved to adopt, as amended, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            c.         Ord. No. 7597 An Ordinance of the Council of the City of Rittman, Wayne and Medina Counties and State of Ohio, Amending the Annual Appropriation Ordinance No. 7583, As Amended According to the Attached Sheet(s) and Declaring an Emergency. Three Readings. Ord. No. 7597 was read on first reading.

Lapehn advised the changes were significant in some funds and he inquired if there was anything they needed to be made aware.

Rissland advised she provided a memo that discusses the different appropriations and most of it was self-explanatory. She advised in the police department there were some items that were removed from last years budget and now that things were a little better financially they were added back into the budget. Rissland advised the CIC assessment authorized by Council to be paid by the city was one of the larger items. She advised they have taken out all but $6,000 in part-time people for the water and sewer departments. Rissland advised the FEMA grant funds were finally coming in, which was nice. She advised Perm Tax II was a special revenue fund and anything spent out of that fund had to pertain to street improvement and the Rufener Street culvert project is slated for this year. Rissland advised the utilities truck was authorizing last year and didn’t get purchased and was in the budget again this year. She advised the police vehicle purchase was discussed earlier in the meeting. Rissland advised the paving of roads at the cemetery was $22,000 from the cemetery endowment fund.

Lapehn advised in the recreation trust account the revenues were $8,200 and the budget for 2010 was $50,000.

Rissland advised that did not change and was the $50,000 that would be transferred into the general fund. She advised we have been eating into the trust balance for a few years now and what they don’t supplement into the general fund would come out of the general fund balance unless they cut programs.

Hanlon advised they were spending $41,800 more than they expect to have in revenue this year from that account.

Rissland advised yes.

Hanlon inquired if they would have any money at the end of 2010.

Rissland advised yes, she thought they would. She advised there was enough carryover that came over unencumbered to cover any of the shortfalls from what we anticipate on receiving from what we were spending. Rissland advised they were fairly conservative on the property tax and those were coming in higher than anticipated and were up about 2% and income tax was up substantially although part of that was timing and they were cautiously optimistic, but it was going in the right direction.

Boggs advised he felt it was normal to see the expenditures a little higher, but we don’t actually spend the amount appropriated. He advised almost every department has a good carryover balance as last year they projected less than $100,000 and they actually came in higher than the previous year, which was approximately $540,000.

Hanlon inquired as to the reason for the request to suspend the rules and have three readings that night.

Rissland advised the biggest expenditure would be the police cruiser with the second being the part-timers.

Hanlon inquired if this wasn’t approved they couldn’t hire part-time employees (in the water and sewer dept).

Rissland advised they could hire one.

Boggs advised he pushed the finance director to include everything for the year now. He advised it was his opinion the previous year he felt they were constantly approving appropriation amendments and he was trying to cover it all now instead of throughout the year. Boggs advised he was sure they would still need to come back with more, but they were trying to cover the majority.

Hanlon advised they might still see some housekeeping later.

Rissland advised yes as there was an Issue II grant for Salt St. and was not included because it hasn’t been finalized and she couldn’t use the money before it was approved. She advised a lot of items were pulled out of the 2010 budget and the year ended up better than anticipated and to make operations a little more manageable the appropriations were necessary. Rissland advised she also believed there was a pending retirement in the street department.

Boggs advised they were going to hold off on replacing that person with another full-time employee until we see how the year-end balances come in.

Carey moved to suspend the rules and have second and third reading, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Ord. No. 7597 was read on second and third reading.

Russell moved to adopt, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            d.         Ord. No. 7598 An Ordinance of the Council of the City of Rittman, Wayne and Medina Counties and State of Ohio, to Require Video Service Providers to Pay a Fee Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 1332.32 and Declaring an Emergency. Three Readings. Ord. No. 7598 was read on first reading.

            Boggs advised this is an additional item on the agenda, as the information didn’t come in until late Friday, but was something he has been working on. He advised the state passed a new cable franchise “law” that in essence puts the state in control of those franchise fee funds. Boggs advised it requires the cable companies apply to the Ohio Dept. of Commerce for a license to service specific areas and if those providers were current providers in our city once they file and are approved with ODOC the city essentially loses their franchise contract. He advised currently there were two contracts one with Time Warner and one with Heritage (Doylestown) and both of those contracts were set at 5%, which is the maximum allowed for that time period. Boggs advised once they were notified by a cable company that they have filed the required paperwork with the Dept of Commerce, the city had ten days to notify them of the ordinance passed by Council requiring the cable company to pay 5% to the city from the state on a quarterly basis.

            Rissland advised she wasn’t sure if the funds would come from the state or from the cable company itself.

            Boggs advised Heritage has filed said paperwork and the city now has ten days to notify them of their intent regarding these franchise fees. He advised he believed Heritage was going to keep the contract conditions the same i.e. they give the city and school buildings free service. Boggs advised Time Warner notified they would not be providing the public buildings cable service in that same way. He advised Time Warner has notified us they were going to require the city to pay a business rate for cable and Internet services or we would be disconnected. Boggs advised today the Dept of Commerce notified him that Time Warner has not yet properly filed the required paperwork and could not disconnect us at this time, but it would most likely be coming soon. He advised if we don’t pass this ordinance we have the possibility of losing those revenues collected from the cable companies and it basically takes the place of our franchise contract.

            Robertson inquired if this legislation covered all the cable companies.

            Boggs advised it would cover any cable company that would come in along with the existing companies. Boggs advised in addition there is language in the ordinance allowing the city to collect that same percentage on advertising by these cable companies and there was an option to exclude the advertising, as that was not in the contract previously.

            Lapehn advised he sees a franchise fee line item on his Time Warner Cable bill and he inquired if this ordinance were not passed if he no longer would pay that franchise fee.

            Boggs advised that was correct, it would go away.

            Lapehn advised so he would save approximately $2 a month on taxes from Time Warner, which comes to the city and was roughly around $56,000 a year for the city.

            Rissland advised it was $70,000 for all franchise fees in 2009.

            Lapehn advised so people were spending $1.4 million in the City of Rittman on cable every year. He inquired if there were municipalities that do not have franchise fees.

            Boggs advised he didn’t know. He advised in talking with Orrville and Wooster and they were unaware of this new law and Administrator in Wooster said they were collecting approximately $128,000 at 3% and he wasn’t sure what Orrville was charging. Boggs advised in reading the previous agreement it appeared that the cities could charge 0-5%.

            Lapehn inquired if this was general fund income.

            Rissland advised yes.

            Beaumont inquired about Dish or Direct TV.

            Boggs advised the city doesn’t receive any funds from those entities.

            Beaumont inquired if they were not video service providers.

            Boggs advised he would say yes and that was a good question and he would talk to the Dept. of Commerce about that (issue).

            Beaumont inquired if it wouldn’t technically cover all cable such as computers as you can watch t.v. on your computer. He inquired about cell phones that receive videos.

            Robertson advised he believed those were different as there was cell phone service and there was video service.

Carey moved to suspend the rules and have second and third reading, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Ord. No. 7598 was read on second and third reading.

Carey moved to adopt, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            e.         Motion to Approve a Conditional Sign Permit Request from Altrux at 83 Industrial Street

            Hanlon inquired if there was an exact location where this sign would be installed.

            Boggs advised it would be located on CIC property on the south side of the Morton Salt driveway, which was Industrial Ave. He advised the intent was for those trucks going into the Morton Salt facility to see the sign. It was noted, the sign would be approximately 500’ from the Altrux facility at 83 Industrial St.

            Hanlon inquired if Morton Salt was o.k. with this sign request.

            Boggs advised he didn’t talk to Morton Salt about, as they don’t own the property where the sign would be located. Boggs advised this request needed Council approval, as the sign regulations dictate signs be located on the property of the business being advertised thus requiring conditional approval.

            Discussion included previous sign approvals. Boggs noted if they don’t meet all the requirements stated in the sign regulations (1325 section) they had to come to Council for conditional approval.

            Beaumont inquired as to what circumstances would they tell some no at this point.

            Boggs advised it was CIC property so he felt the CIC had the authority on that (issue) unless Council allowed them to place it in the right of way (ROW).

            Beaumont inquired what if more businesses want to locate their signs in this manner.

            Boggs advised they would be reviewed as they come to the city, but he was right in thinking this could open up the door.

            Hanlon inquired if the CIC wanted to remove the sign let’s say three years from now would that be possible.

            Boggs advised he believed so because it was their property. He advised the only reason he brought it to Council was it doesn’t meet the ordinance (sign regulations 1325) on the sign being installed where the business was located. Boggs advised as it was CIC property he believed they would have the right to say what would go on their property.

            Hanlon inquired if the CIC was in agreement with this (request).

            Boggs advised he is the Executive Director of the CIC and the other members were not approached on this issue.

            Lapehn advised he doesn’t feel it was a bad idea and he was all in favor of it, but following Mr. Beaumont’s stream of thought he related stories regarding other locals businesses also wanting to install signs giving directional information to their establishments.

            Hanlon advised as long as it was not for an indefinite period of time he didn’t have a problem with the request.

            Boggs advised he could draft a contract from the CIC to include language regarding time frames.

Russell so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            f.          Motion to Go Into Executive Session for the Purpose of Discussing the Purchase of Property as well as Personnel Contractual Issues and Invite the Mayor, the Finance Director, the City Manager and the Law Director – 8:12 pm Workman so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            g.         Motion to Come Out of Executive Session – 9:03 p.m. Carey so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            h.         Motion to Authorize the City Manager to Sign the OPBA Contract for the Police Department Workman so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            i.          Motion to Provide a 2% Cost of Living Increase to the Non-Union Employees Effective April 5, 2010 Russell so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

            Boggs advised if it was determined those benefits, which were frozen should be reinstated then he would bring that for Council’s consideration at a future meeting.

City Manager’s Remarks

            City Manager Larry Boggs advised one of the projects they were looking at for 2010 was the Rufener Street culvert replacement using Perm Tax II funds and they were working on acquiring quotes for that project. He advised he hasn’t been notified officially from Issue II, but they have verbal approval for the Salt St. waterline project, which includes Terrace St. as part of the overall water plan they have been working on for the last 3 ½ years for fixing old waterlines in the city. Boggs advised he was anticipating they would receive written notification of the award sometime around June. He advised the city would need to hire an engineer and bid the project out, but they would try to get the project underway this construction season.

Finance Director’s Remarks

            Finance Director Barbara Rissland advised included in the packet was the March financial report and income taxes were up quite a bit, but a lot of that could be timing, but it was still a positive. She advised the DOW was up over $11,000 today and with the stock market doing better hopefully they would start to see interest rates come back up and that was good. Rissland advised real estate taxes surprised her, as the first half settlement seemed up about 2%, which was great. She advised overall looking at the Treasurer’s Report for the end of March they were up over $530,000 revenues over expenditures year-to-date and that was really positive. Rissland advised as the City Manager indicated all the employees were very accommodating when times were tough and she felt that it was a good thing to go and reinstate some of the benefits they had given up.

                        a.         Approval of Financial Report for March

                                    Russell so moved, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Council Remarks

            Council Member Rick Hanlon inquired as to where they stood with the buzz on the bees.

            Robertson advised Mr. Meade was still out of the country and he would contact the city upon his return.

            Hanlon thanked everyone for coming and he would see all next meeting.

            Council Member Bill Workman had no remarks.

            Council Member Glen Russell had no remarks.

            Council Member Lynn Beaumont advised he would like to give kudos to Larry and Kevin for being on top of that video service providers fee. He inquired as to where they stood with the review of the sidewalks in town.

            Boggs advised the Police Chief provided him a copy of Wadsworth’s current program and he would be reviewing it and he would try to provide something to Council at their next meeting. He advised he felt Wadsworth had a unique way of handling the issue.

            Beaumont advised he had more comments made to him from people reading in the paper about the possibility of fixing the sidewalks than any other issue. He advised he felt it was one of those projects that people could visually see an improvement and he would really like to see us pursue if we could.

            Hanlon advised fixing the sidewalks seems easier to address than installing them in places they have never existed.

            Boggs advised he has been in contact with one engineering company and they were trying for CDBG grant funds or some other alternative.

            Council Member Richard Lapehn had no remarks.

            Council Member Darrell Carey had no remarks.

            Mayor William Robertson advised Meghan Laughlin has left as the Rittman Chamber Director and Mindi Vance was currently the interim and would possibly be applying for the position. He advised there was a public relations meeting this Thursday, April 15^th at 8:00 pm at the Chamber office primarily to discuss the Sleepwalker Festival. Robertson advised the event could use help and anyone available was invited to attend. He advised the Reverse Raffle was Saturday, April 17^th at Rawiga and tickets were still available.

a.       Approval of Vouchers 52926 thru 53031 Including Then and Now

Certificates Hanlon moved to approve, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

Adjourn: - 9:15p.m.

Carey moved to adjourn, all Yeas on roll call and motion carried.

________________________________Mayor

__ ______________________

Clerk of Council