Welcome to our February 27th uh Beckley
city council meeting I'm Monique Lamy
I'm the president I have a new gavel and
I'm very
excited um thank you to everyone for
joining us this evening we have a full
agenda so with that I'd like to call our
meeting to order and ask if there are
any speaker slips being filled out to
currently if you would please hand those
in to our auditor M peek uh per our
written speaker slip
policy thank you Mr Drury and with that
Mr mCP would you please call the role
yes uh Mr Marcelino present Mr Hurley
here miss FAL I am here miss SD here
miss lankey here Mr
Markham and Mr Silverman here um Council
you are aware that Mr Markham is not
able to Jo us this evening I move to
excuse his absence could I please get a
second second seconded by Mr Marcelino
all in favor say I I anyone
opposed all right please join me for the
Pledge of
Allegiance flag of the United States of
America and to the rep for
stands
indice
share
okay we have several special guests this
evening our first is um an amazing
division 2 State diving Champion Jackson
monus um council did you know that he is
a
freshman so we might be seeing him again
for the coming
years
we might Jackson do you and your family
want to come up I think the mayor has a
proclamation for you and we'd love to to
hear more about
you one up your
jack good to see you all right so we do
have a proclamation for you um and I I'm
gonna read this and you got you guys's
Jaws are going to drop so just be
prepared not to spoil the
plot whereas as a High School freshman
Jackson monus has demonstrated
exceptional talent and accomplishment on
the backley line swim and dive team
achieving several notable wins this
season and by the way if I miss out or
anything you just tell me like like well
I also did this and whereas Jackson is
also a member of the aces diving
national team where he competed for the
einhoven diving cup did I say that right
cool achieving a second place finish in
the three meter dive in a first place
finish in the one meter dive Jackson
also achieved a second place finish in
the three meter dive dive at USA diving
Junior Nationals and a first place
finish at the Central Buckeye League one
meter meter dive and whereas Jackson's
impressive season culminated in an
astounding performance at the ohsaa
division 2 state competition where he
scored an impressive
48305 points winning the first diving
championship in Bexley high
school that
right and I know we have Coach Sandy
here do you have anything to add to
that awesome awesome now Jackson um in
our latest newsletter actually wrote an
article and I referenced our old high
dive at the Bexley pool do you have any
thoughts about if we should bring that
back I think they should you do okay you
guys heard that first here all of this
to say today February 27th 2024 in the
city of Bexley Ohio is Jackson monus day
congratulations
we'll give this to
you do you have a speech prepared yes I
do that's okay you don't need can we
take a quick picture is that okay yeah
all
right
happy Wednesday everybody
for I love it I love it congratulations
Jackson what an amazing
accomplishment um your family is
certainly welcome to stick around if
you'd like for the rest of our city
council meeting you are certainly more
than welcome or you're also free to to
head out and get back part of your
evening
congratulations our second special guest
this evening
um joins us from morsy mayor would you
maybe like to introduce our morsy
speaker I've never heard of this
organization what is it called
morsy um
Lauren Lauren Cordon is join join us
here from The Mid Ohio Regional Planning
Commission um Lauren I'm going to put
this in full screen mode and you can
just tell me when to advance slides if
that works okay is it possible to click
in to your computer do you know it is
you know it's a little temperamental I
think you're just gonna have to say next
slide sure sorry really Hightech over
here um but you're to talk to us about
the Metropolitan Transportation plan and
we're really glad to have you here yes
sir thank you so much for having me this
evening I'm excited to be here to talk
about the plan uh as mayor Kesler said
my name is Lauren Cardone I the active
transportation and safety program
manager at morsy uh so I don't do this
full-time but I'm helping out the team
that does uh to go around central Ohio
and make these presentations to all of
our communities so next slide please for
those who aren't familiar uh with the
mire Regional Planning Commission or
morsy we are the Regional Council for
Central Ohio which is comprised of the
15 counties that you see on the screen
uh but we also serve as the federally
designated M for the Columbus urbanized
area which is primarily Franklin and
Delaware Counties uh but additionally
some small port ions of licking Union
Fairfield
counties and uh many of the services
that we provide essentially help local
communities such as yourselves uh plan
for the growth that we anticipate coming
into the 15 County region over the next
20 to 30 years I think you're all
familiar with this information but we're
anticipating this 15c count region to be
to grow to a region of over three
million people by the year
2050
and um with that comes people but the
need for additional housing and jobs uh
to serve those people so uh a lot of
what we do at morsy is work with our
local Community Partners to plan for uh
the housing that's needed throughout the
region uh as well as uh help communities
to grow in a way that attracts new
employers uh and also invest in a
transportation system that can
sustainably accommodate all of that
growth
so one of the ways that we do that is by
looking at all of your local plans uh to
look at forecasted um or expected land
use changes uh and where growth is
planned to occur within your community
uh so the maps on the screen basically
show where we are anticipating or
planning for uh the highest
concentration of growth and then what
that would look like in 2050 in terms
terms of population density and the same
for employment uh so on the left is the
intensity of uh job growth and uh on the
right is what we anticipate in terms of
total density of jobs throughout the
region so this information is uh one
data point that goes into our planning
process for the Metropolitan
Transportation plan or MTP which is our
longrange transport a plan that guides
all of the transportation Investments
for uh that core MO area over the next
20 to 30 years it is a fiscally
constrained document so we'll talk about
money here shortly uh and it is a
process that we are required to complete
every four years by the
usdot so as I mentioned uh there's a lot
that goes into this process and that
includes reviewing a lot of local and
state planning documents that have been
complet completed over the past four
years to really understand how things
have changed and how we need to change
our plans uh in order to accommodate
that so where has growth actually
occurred where has demand changed on our
transportation system uh and how do we
need to be planning for that over the
next four plus years uh the other kind
of key piece of this document is that it
basically
establishes the projects and strategies
that are then eligible for federal
transportation dollars
at the outset of this process uh we
establish a series of goals to guide the
entire planning process and everything
that goes into the ultimate document uh
so you see on the screen the six goals
that were established back in the fall
of
2022 uh with all of our um local
partners and morsy committees and they
essentially include creating sustainable
neighborhoods attracting and r
maintaining uh Economic Opportunity
protecting our natural
resources increasing Regional
collaboration providing transportation
and Mobility options for everyone and
reducing per capita energy
consumption so those six goals
ultimately guide everything that comes
afterward in the planning process
including the development of specific
objectives and targets uh that we hope
to uh help meet those goals uh we also
go through a process early on to look at
all of those local and state plans uh
Transportation plans land use plans
comprehensive plans to understand again
how things have changed over the last
four years and what information needs to
be incorporated into this current Plan
update and then we go into sorry same
slide there you're doing a great job
though um all of that sort of data
collection and plan review that we do in
the initial phase then goes into
detailed technical analyses that we
spent an entire year conducting that
includes updating those population and
employment forecasts on the maps that
you saw earlier uh as well as conducting
some travel demand modeling to
understand how those forecasts uh play
out across the transportation system we
also went through an extensive process
of identifying projects proposed in all
of those local and state plans uh as
well as reaching out to the community to
get their suggestions for transportation
projects that are needed in our region
and then uh we went through a process of
evaluating all of those projects and
that is ultimately uh why we're here
this evening is to talk about the draft
uh recommended list of projects as well
as Regional
strategies so the strategies uh that we
have drafted based on all of this um
plan review and data analysis
uh include two primary categories that
you see on the screen that's system
management and then system
development so we have a list of
individual strategies that address all
of the subcategories you see here that
essentially um give us action items to
implement as a region uh that hope to um
help us better and more efficiently
manage our existing Transportation
infrastructure but also devel the
transportation system in a way that
accommodates all users of the system and
all the potential uh people that we
anticipate coming into the
region and um before we get into the um
projects and information on the next few
slides um all of this information is
available on morsy's website if you go
to the link on shown on the page here or
just Google search morsy MTP uh there is
um all of this information as well as
opportunities to provide um feedback on
all of this
information so the um draft strategies
is one piece and then draft projects is
the next and probably most interesting
piece for um everyone um as I mentioned
this is a fiscally constrained plan so
when we identify projects we also uh
develop cost estimates for those
projects and use that information to
um figure out a budget for um how much
we can actually anticipate constructing
uh within this 30-year time frame uh so
we have estimated approximately $35
billion will be available through
various sources to our region within the
next 30 Years well 25 technically um um
and we have used that figure to then uh
distribute that amount of funding to
these different project types U that
includes nearly $13 billion for Transit
projects that we'll talk about shortly
as well as Standalone bicycle and
pedestrian infrastructure standard
roadway projects uh and the like so
again there is a web map available on
our website for folks to zoom in and
zoom all around the region click on
individual projects and provide as much
feedback as you would
like so I mentioned the $13 billion just
for Transit projects so we thought that
was important to talk about and um I
think it's very relevant for the Bexley
Community because some of these projects
will directly serve your
residents uh So within that 13 billion
number we anticipate being able to
completely
construct uh at least three high
capacity Transit corridors that are
already in development today so that
includes the three skinny purple lines
that you see on the screen that's the
Northwest Corridor the West Broad
Corridor and the East Main Street
Corridor which goes right through
Bexley all three of those corridors are
currently in some phase of design uh and
we anticipate being able to fund
construction of those by the year
2050 additionally that $13 billion
number includes just general Transit uh
improvements uh so there are two
specific alignments identified in pink
that include the Northeast Corridor or
the cax line today as well as the East
Broad Corridor so we anticipate being
able to uh fund additional premium
Transit improvements for those
corridors and then you see three kind of
purple sads going to the Northeast the
southeast and the Southwest uh that are
um General uh directions in which we
anticipate needing to study further uh
Rapid Transit alignments so there's no
Corridor identified yet today uh but
there is at least funding identified to
construct up to two additional corridors
uh that we hope to study in those
General directions and then the final
piece uh is um not included in the
funding um but is something we wanted to
mention um because everyone's probably
heard about at least uh the Amtrak
announcement uh where we were the state
of
Ohio um and partners were awarded
funding to study passenger rail uh
within the state um so that's the um
there are a couple of the yellow swabs
identified there and then ODOT is also
in the process of conducting Workforce
Mobility studies uh for some additional
corridors so lots going on with Transit
and then the individual projects that
have been identified uh for the uh at
least recommended draft list uh for the
final plan uh are shown on the map here
for the area surrounding the city of
Bexley there are none specifically
included within the city's
jurisdictional boundary but that's not
to say um the city wouldn't be able to
apply for any federal funds um we do
have additional line items included in
the plan for just um basic
infrastructure improvements so that
includes things like sidewalks uh as
well as bicycle facilities because we
know those are much more localized
decisions uh and may not be
um May not necessarily need to be
specifically identified in a regional
plan so there is a sort of funding line
item included to allow for those um
additional projects that might come up
in the future um however there are some
noteworthy projects that I believe the
city of Bexley has been involved in uh
such as the Livingston Avenue Corridor
so that is specifically identified in
this plan U which makes it eligible for
federal
dollars so wrapping up uh I mentioned
this is a multi-year process we started
back in 2022 doing a lot of that initial
information gathering
and then spent a good amount of time
throughout 2023 doing all of the data
analysis project evaluation uh creating
materials for public input and now we
are uh coming up against our deadline uh
where we have to have the final plan
adopted in
May so we are in uh the midst of a
public comment period And I think if you
jump to the next slide oh somebody
changed them up on me so maybe next
slide we'll come back to that uh we're
in the midst of a public comment period
that will go through through the end of
March uh so as I mentioned our team is
going all around central Ohio making
these
presentations uh just to get this
information out to the communities um
because we want to hear as much feedback
as we possibly can um all again all of
the information is available on our
website so anyone can view and submit
comments uh that way but we'll also be
hosting a public open house in person at
morsy's office downtown on March 19th
from 3:30 to 6:30 which will be an
opportunity for anyone and everyone to
come talk with us view maps printed out
in large format project lists the list
of um strategies ask us any questions
that they have and provide any feedback
as
well and then all of the feedback that
we receive through this process will be
incorporated into the final document
before we go to our morsy committees uh
to have it adopted in
May so if you jump back I'm also
supposed to talk about Lingus which is
again very relevant for the city of
Bexley U Mory has been a partner in this
initiative uh that is primarily being
led by the city of Columbus and Kota uh
and really represents a uh truly
transformational investment in not only
uh better transit services for our
region but also the basic infrastructure
that's needed needed to get people to
those transit services uh so you may
have heard about the link us initiative
uh and the ballot effort that will be uh
brought to voters in November uh to
slightly increase the current sales tax
uh for Kota uh in order to enable
funding of all of these different
services and infrastructure Investments
uh so we're really excited about it
there's a lot of information available
on the Linka website um but also through
morsy I know um the link us team is
going all around the region as well to
share information about this so if you
haven't had a presentation already uh
the team would happily come and give
one thank you so much Miss Cardone um
thank I'm very excited that Livingston
is on that on that map um any questions
from Council for Miss cardoni Mr Hurley
um first just a comment um you know I
work a lot with warmy professionally
through my work with metr parks and you
all are fantastic this is I wouldn't he
what uh what president lampy said um you
know the transit cordor Works exciting I
love that you all are you know on it
with Am track and um yeah just a lot of
good stuff I just a quick question on
your the $35 billion figure so that
that's not funding that morsy controls
that's money that you anticipate being
spent by whatever the federal state
local Source might all of the above so
Mory does uh as the federally designated
MP were responsible for Distributing the
formula funds that come through uh the
federal government uh but that 35
billion dollar number includes
additional federal funds state funds and
other funds on top of that and then
secondly just uh this is updated every
four years correct the MTP sorry it's
upated every four years okay awesome
thank you thank you anyone
else thank you so much La yeah than you
thank you for joining
us
you really want to stick around we're
actually talking about Livingston in
like four
minutes get comfortable and you're free
to join us for for a few more agenda
items um that brings us to agenda item
number five public com comments
regarding items not on the agenda Mr mCP
do we have any speaker slips have a
speaker slip Mr
drewy Mr drewy come on up
Brian Drury 919 grandon uh representing
beex minority parent Alliance so um I
just wanted to uh thank city council the
mayor Megan everybody for our bexy Black
History Month banners um this has gone
on now to well actually got an extra day
because it was leape day so that's very
exciting so if you need to Mr Marcelino
you can take your extra photo that day
uh but we've gotten phone calls and
comments from not only people throughout
the city throughout the county and
actually throughout the country from
there uh regarding this project wanting
to know how we did this and so I just
said the partnership that we've had with
the city um this was a thing I think we
talked about this mayor probably six or
seven years ago so um just very happy
really appreciative that the city stood
behind that um also want to thank uh NRS
injury law for uh their partnership and
financing this project and bmpa so
questions
thoughts I think it's awesome thank you
so much for your um kind of coming up
and being part of that idea and putting
it to fruition uh we I've often said
Brian that you are a wonderful connector
and Communicator in this community and
we are so lucky to have you I know we
joke with Mr marcelena that maybe next
city council office hours are going to
be underneath his Banner uh on Main
Street we we shall see um any questions
for Mr Drury regarding um the banners I
just want to commend him for all the
work you put into that and and thank you
for your patience because Brian
reproached we started talking about the
design and how to get them out there
later at the end of last year right and
I said just hold on Megan Meer is coming
we don't have bands right now so Megan
like day one is like here you go so also
kudos to Megan for quickly turning that
around and and getting those up yeah
great job great delegation mayor it was
really appreciated so thank you thank
you it's nice to see that Brian drewy
gets his picture up some place too
because it rarely
happens okay also those can be purchased
[Laughter]
from sounds good all right uh moving on
to ordinances with special guests we
have a third reading Mr official all
right we have a third reading of
ordinance 05- 24 authorizing the mayor
and City auditor to accept funding and
enter into an agreement with the mid
Ohio Regional Planning Commission
pertaining to the Livingston Avenue
reconstruction Capital Improvement
project and to enter into a capital
Improvement project intergovernmental
and contribution agreement with the city
of Columbus relative to the project to
authorize a city auditor to appropriate
funds received from morsy for the
project including providing funding to
the city of Columbus and their
administration of the project to
establish auditor certific certificates
as needed and requested for the project
and to as necessary authorize the
auditor to receive any unspent balance
of funding deposited by Bexley to the
city of Columbus for the project
introduced by m
sad wonderful we have special guest here
tonight to speak on this ordinance so um
with that being said we would love to
introduce Eric Lambert and James Young
excellent James and Eric if you could
come up if that's cool we're gonna we're
actually gonna Pitch hit on the
presentation um James is the city
engineer administrator design and
construction for the Department of
Public Service Eric is the project
manager for Livingston Avenue project so
the Brain Trust is in the room um we're
going to real quickly just do a quick
refresh as to where we how we got to
where we are today
um which you know does play into the
Metropolitan Transportation plan that we
just heard about so there's a lot of
synergy in these conversations um just a
quick refresher as part of our uh joint
Livingston Avenue plan with the city of
Columbus we came up with a project scope
for what sort of improvements we would
like to see occur in the corridor the
study area um went from James Road
essentially to Nelson and you know a
little bit past on both sides um and was
really focused on finding ways to create
a safer Corridor for for vehicles and
for
pedestrians um and to elevate
development standards in the in the
corridor um through um changes to zoning
through investments in streetscape and
that sort of thing um through that
process there you guys all know there's
a lot of work that went into it and
there's a very rich uh plan that came
out of it um um has a lot of information
um a lot of uh work and research went
into that and that is available you can
see it at our on our website the fastest
way to get to it right now is be.org
Livingston Megan's going to talk a
little bit about the infrastructure
recommendations today we're not going to
talk about the zoning streetscape and
some of other things where we're going
to focus on infrastructure so she's
going to talk about commercial and
residential infrastructure
recommendations yeah absolutely thank
you um so if you were to look at the
Joint Livingston Avenue plan there are
actually three cross-sections for the
commercial District the existing
conditions near-term conditions and the
long-term um recommendations this is the
cross-section from the long-term
recommendations so we are looking at the
big picture um to accomplish this would
require Redevelopment in a major
streetscape reconstruction project such
as which is being implemented through
the city of Columbus um so if you were
to look at the existing conditions today
what you would have is five Lanes of
traffic you would have a 4-foot tree
lawn as well as a 4-foot sidewalk um
That Sidewalk being heavily interrupted
by various util poles you would have the
existing utility lines overhead um you
would have inconsistent Street lighting
um throughout the corridor um so what
you're seeing here is what would be
proposed um in beex specifically from
our Western Corporation limit East to
Francis Avenue on the north side of
Courts but also mirroring that on the
South Side on the Columbus portion of
Livingston with the long-term idea of um
increasing The Pedestrian um uses um
through a large Urban sidewalk so
instead of a 4ft tree lawn and a 4ft
sidewalk you're seeing it grow to nearly
18 ft in total um and again some of that
would be required to to get to that idea
through streetscape um I'm sorry through
Redevelopment to get
there I think we talked about this image
um in our last meeting was we were
talking about zoning but uh how do you
get that some of it is through zoning
changes like you said changing the form
of that development um it is difficult
for us to imagine what a Livingston
Avenue would feel like with a actual
trees and containers and some space
setback from the curb and then a nice
wide sidewalk it would radically
transform um the the look and feel of
that commercial
District um on the residential side um
what you would see if you were looking
at the existing conditions today would
be four lanes of traffic um this would
be from the area from Francis to our
Eastern Corporation limit and Beyond um
on this you could expect to see that
shared use path on both the North and
the South side if you were in the
commercial District still the the
previous iteration um that would just be
on the south side in the Columbus
portion um what you're also seeing here
are protected medians um and turn Lanes
with the idea being that that is also
potential pedestrian protected
pedestrian crosswalk um that being one
of the main concerns expressed
throughout the joint Livingston Avenue
um project process that there isn't
pedestrian crossings that are safe one
thing to call out on this slide um we've
talked a lot about medians recently in
the city of backy we're getting be quite
familiar with them this in geography
with this 18 foot wide median in the
center is a lot more like a a fair a
Fair Avenue median in terms of the the
width of it um and what it does is not
not only does it separate traffic but it
also provides that protected turn lane
like Megan mentioned uh which is
obviously a huge huge change for the
corridor this is sort of what that looks
like in um threedimensional
View and to accomplish all this um you
know it's great to put stuff on a piece
of paper and dream um which we spent a
lot of time doing with the city of
Columbus but I want to really commend
city of Columbus because they have
expertise in applying for the sorts of
funds that we were just hearing about
from morsy one of the reasons that you
don't see some projects in the future in
Bexley we do receive funds through morsy
from a variety sources but these larger
federally funed projects are often scope
larger than our footprint of our city um
so we don't have expertise in going for
ATT tributal funds dollars city of
Columbus does and we started talking
very soon after this project or was
completed in terms of the plan about
applying for funding and I want to thank
you guys because Columbus jumped right
on it Beckley was the actual technical
applicant um for a a valid reason uh had
to do with the way it scores on the um
on the application um but Columbus
really did the heavy lifting and um
would just sort of nudge us and tell us
like when to show up uh and and vouch
for it um and so now uh we are we are
embedded in a very tight working
relationship as we have been awarded the
funds and we move forward and so Eric
and James if you want to talk about oh
sorry add one more slide we're gonna
come back to the funding in Greater
detail but I just wanted to remind us
that of this $8.7 million current
projected plan
13.6 plus is uh that Federal funding
morsy um and then we have proposed a a a
split on the local match based upon our
Frontage onto the road so bexy would be
a 33% split Columbus is the remainder
and we're going to get into those weeds
here very quickly so don't worry there's
more fun more fun graphs and charts to
come
okay I'm James Young and I'm here to
talk about Livingston Avenue you go to
the next slide I won't do a project
overview but if you go to the next one
uh I just kind of wanted to go through
and illustrate what we work on WE Chase
federally funded projects all the time
again like you said we do this a little
bit we're actually Geared for it uh
probably about 40 people in our Design
Group and about 100 in construction so
really really comfortable uh pursuing
this and Performing this work work we're
excited to partner with you on this
street skate projects are pretty
transformational um and we're going
through the say the planning and design
right now I just got to say it because
construction's a little different so as
soon as you're you know working against
people's front doors and businesses it's
a lot more real so this is the the
exciting time to talk about it and see
the vision uh with that I'll move over
to I can move to Eric the one thing I do
want to note is when we went out here
and we performed the the medians this
last year uh crashes tremendously
changed on the corridor in 2019 there
were 78 crashes it dropped to 40 crashes
and the Crash types changed Eric has
better stats on the speeds that changed
in the corridor but again this is
something that's very transformational
and we're excited to be working with you
on
it it over to you thanks James
um as the slide says I'm Eric fber I
I'll be serving as the the project
manager through the design phase next
slide um and a lot of my slides have
already been talked about but yes
acknowledging a lot of the goals from
The Joint Livingston Avenue plan um
we're looking to improve and enhance uh
the safety for all modes of
transportation through this Corridor um
while we do that we'd also like to
improve the Street character um it's not
uncommon to hear it but it's like we
want to move from a highway like
Corridor to more of a neighborhood
street corridor or something that's more
connected to life everyday life um and
then there are the goals for
implementing the streetscape design that
was laid out in the planning
document um this is the obligatory slide
where you can't read anything um my goal
with uh with this was just uh showing
that thus far we we've got things
sketched out we're in that concept phase
taking the the
planning uh the fruits of the planning
phase and now we're going to try and get
it
into um detailed design um as you can I
was going to note it was mentioned thank
you Megan but the we're tweaking the
scope so that there is a sidewalk
from uh
College West to uh Alum Creek Trail on
the north side
um it was a slight tweak from maybe what
you had seen before um but that got us
out of some very sticky RightWay
situations that would had major impacts
um some of the left turn bays and the
median lengths will be adjusted um in
the next phases um so that it all
functions properly and there will be
other discussions that we'll have along
the way you can go to the next slide um
but generally this project scope we're
looking mainly at pavement repairs
um it has been recently paved so we're
trying to save some funds there um we're
replacing the curb so what we're going
to do is there's been the Tactical
solution of restriping Paving and
restriping to this three Lane section um
which I will
say has performed wonderfully um after
that was done we took some
um some speed data uh some speed count I
guess through the corridor and the
overall or what the general speed
through there we call it the 85th
percentile so that's the general uh flow
of traffic through there didn't really
reduce a whole lot it was three and a
half miles an hour in One Direction and
2.7 miles an hour in the other
direction um the average speeds were
reduced as much as nine miles an hour
but here's the real kicker what stood
out was the decrease in extreme speeding
which is 50 miles an hour or more it's a
35 mph Road and we saw that decrease as
much as
95% just by taking out that extra Lane
beside you where I don't know maybe you
can race someone or you can uh hurry up
and get around someone so I think that
that was one of the main goals that I
read in the planning document was
speeding was very specifically called
down so that was great to see um but the
curbing will help take that tactical
solution make it it more of a strategic
permanent solution um talked about the
sidewalk um mentioned the shared use
path uh all Crossings uh will become Ada
accessible across Livingston through
this Corridor we're looking at Street
trees landscape
medians um all impacted signage will be
replaced so that'll be
new um there will be what we call rrfbs
or their the diamond signs with the
flashing yellow lights for pedestrians
Crossing where they can activate it um
and then there'll be signal Replacements
at the streets you see there and street
lights um and then of course we'll
address all the utility
impacts next slide please so talking
about the funding uh this is the same
breakdown with just a little bit more um
I'm going to walk through this a little
bit so you see the breakdown overall of
the project um the engineering design
phase is about 1.6 million broken up
between our preliminary engineering and
environmental and then we have our
detailed design um the RightWay phase
right now we're projecting about
2.2 million and then the overall
Construction
number is sitting at about 14.9
million next thing we'll look at is
we'll apply the the
the the uh cost
share um that is laid out in the
intergovernmental agreement um the morsy
funds are not applying in this
engineering and design phase so you can
see that that 33 67% split is applied
there
um and the morsy funding will kick in
during the RightWay and construction
phases so all of the numbers are there
um as the as we get go through the
project if there's adjustments to those
numbers we've already got how we're
going to adjust pretty much laid out the
one caveat would be the the purchasing
of the
rideway um moving forward we
will not we will not take a strategy
that would put RightWay acquisition on
one side or the other we will take a
strategy of what is best for the project
so basically if it looks like in one
stretch that right away would need to be
taken from a Bexley parcel we're not
going to move the center line of the
road over just to avoid that and
possibly impact a Columbus parcel and
likewise we're not going to do the
opposite okay
um you can go to the next
slide now when is this going to happen
these are General time frames that we're
expecting this to happen we're ready to
go with the preliminary engineering and
environmental um that will take a while
we will have series of meetings there
there will be decisions along the way um
here that we will we will need to get
together we'll need to talk about uh
we've already developed some strategies
with with mayor Ben to make sure that
we're all plugged
in
[Music]
um you can see the the detailed design
won't pick up until 2026 and it'll last
until
2028 um right away will pick up during
that time so what's really happening is
we're getting the project to a point
where we're having a very high level of
confidence of what if and what right
away is required and then we will go get
that um acquire that right of way um
once it's Acquired and plans are done
and we're all ready then we will uh
request authorization to go to
construction and then construction would
happen in 2029 and
2030 go to the next slide um keys for
Success are fairly simple we've got a
great consultant team the consultant omm
I believe you all are familiar with them
um
they're going to be the the prime
consultant and we're very comfortable
with them leading taking the lead in
that role um as James was saying we're
going to try and leverage some of the
Columbus standards um in our processes
for administering Federal projects we're
going to use as far as the standards we
use that as a launching pad meaning if
there are things that we want to discuss
for changes there are ways that we can
get there um and the last is very simply
we're going to communicate early and
often um it'll be my goal as the PM to
make sure that there are no surprises um
coming to Bexley that they're a level of
accountability
shown um and you know I think mayor's
already got my personal cell phone so he
can reach out to me anytime he wants so
um other than that you can go to the
next slide I think that's it if anyone
else needs my information it's up there
um reach out to me and we'd be happy to
answer any questions thank you both so
much I'm gonna add a couple more details
to that so just one of the questions
that uh you guys have had is how are we
going to pay for our piece of this and
so this is a draft sort of recommended
way to approach this we've already
appropriated the
537,500 it's actually um we actually
appropriated a little bit more than that
because was a little higher like the 2
544 I think
um but we appropriated that to handle
the engineering design expenses R piece
um which is colorcoded blue on there so
that's in our 24 budget and we'll carry
forward um when it comes time for
rideway expenses um we anticipate that
could be either infrastructure or
Capital
fund um and then when it comes time to
the actual construction I have Street
fund written in here I think we actually
need a legal determination if the street
fund is is valid for that so Mark and I
will work on that um and that will
slightly change the way that we would
approach it um but I am comfortable that
with the lead time that we have we will
absolutely have the ability to start to
like set aside a reserve to to make this
um a a painless um payout when the time
comes so that's a current strategy that
is you know liable to change based upon
changing economic conditions but it's a
comfortable um it's a comfortable
responsibility get and the funds that we
have available to us uh today and I
would note that if we wanted to we could
sock aside all of this right now from
what's in the infrastructure fund and
we'd be okay you know we would have less
capacity infrastructure fund for other
projects but that that was one of the
reasons we formed that infrastructure
fund a couple years ago in anticipation
of this
project um and so that com that's our
side of it and now ready to answer any
questions Council any
questions question um
how how is the $1.7 million determined
you you had said footage of could you
maybe just walk through
that so it's a um a fairly simple
calculation that if you go
to this map that no one can read and you
were to look
at what how much of this linear footage
is Beckley versus Columbus we have about
33% of the foot
along the the
project and and I know we've said this
many times but how far east does this
project
go it's short as you can read right
here it's right that that sounds right
it's it's it's where the James project
tied in
yeah good questions uh any questions
from Council Mr Mr Marcelino yeah I'm
just uh thinking about this in terms of
time frames Etc and I you said it but I
don't think it really hit me until I'm
looking at it I'm seeing when work
actually starts Etc so is the Livingston
that we're looking at today going to be
the Livingston that we're looking at
until
2028 um I'll answer from our perspective
and then I'm not sure what you guys
might have in the pipeline um I think
that as we you know one of the reasons
we have a zoning ordinance in front of
you for me commercial Livingston is it
starts to set the stage in the
expectation for some of these setbacks
it's one of the most important pieces of
that zoning so I I do think we're going
to start to see Livingston slowly and
incrementally change um prior to this
street project right so the street and
sidewalk project uh will complement the
work that we're doing um within the
zoning and we're going to continue to
invest in in streetscape as we can as it
exists today as we have you know we do
have now this is this these are soft
improvements and there side of the scope
of this but you know we have flower
boxes and and flowers on the bridge and
we're we're we're putting infusion into
the corridor so I think we're going to
continue to invest in the corridor um
and we'll start to see some slow
incremental change with zoning changes
that then ties into
this from the Columbus from the Columbus
side um I would say through our property
lines it's going to be pretty much the
same as it is but if a business comes in
we almost all the time update our plans
look at the setbacks go through try
adjust and make it work with whatever
they're trying to do thank you very
much uh Mr
Silverman thank you you guys mentioned
some updated statistics about that
Corridor is that listed anywhere in the
documents you
presented is there a way to provide that
information to us and my other question
is right away can you clarify are we
speaking about like the driveways and
the entrances and exits on Livingston
and changing the traffic traffic flow
from the owner's perspective of the
parcel we wouldn't be looking to
change uh
driveways or whatnot um how how medians
interact with the driveway so like if
somebody has a driveway and there's a
median they're gonna have go one way in
directional pattern yes there would be
an access management change for many
people that is something that we will be
addressing in our public involvement
plan so that this meth message is
brought out to the public and they can
comment and uh we can go through the
process that's not right of way taking
that's access man access management okay
Megan you look like you wanted to ask I
think I was confusing to you then well
specifically to um the curve cuts that
you're speaking to that that is again
some of what we're trying to address
through the joint lenson Avenue um plan
itself but also the rezoning ordinance
in front of you as redevelopments come
forward with that in mind the city would
work with them to hold them to things
like that and so you can't obviously
limit C Cuts completely but where
Redevelopment opportunities present
themselves you can do it
appropriately thank you I don't want to
I don't want to kind of skirt around the
question that you asked because I think
that there's another important thing to
call out in this and it's that the
Columbus rideway on the south side is
larger than the Bexley it's not even Bey
right right away to the north side and
so there is not currently room in the
rideway to to accomplish more treelon
and wider sidewalk in some of the areas
along the corridor and so that would be
necessary in order to accomplish this
um so just to be clear like there there
is a piece of this that would require
that ride of way taking to make the plan
as envisioned
um come into reality we're not talking
about taking down buildings or anything
like that it's just talking about
widening the the space between the curb
and the the sidewalk and providing a
safer pedestrian interface thank you did
I speak at a turn anything I just said
no far as we know that's correct yeah it
was very I just wanted and just because
access management is something the
public will be involved in if it
involves and then right away will be
discussed future as well but those are
separate components of the plan correct
thank you Miss
F help but say thank you for 10 years I
have been concerned about individuals in
that area of our community and when
mayor Kesler showed me what his dream
was for that area of our city I I said
yeah okay and then I would you know and
then he took me looking meetings with
some of your people and I just am so
excited about the collaboration and I
know that with the density that is um
suggesting it's it's going to be even
there's be more traffic on those streets
the
idea so that people walk rather
than it's just so great so please please
please take my joy and my gratitude back
to all the people in Columbus and and
and thank you this is what happens when
two Mayors get along well and can make
their cities you know collaborate thank
you thank you thank you thank you thank
you I'll I'll take you back off that for
for several years my kids attended the
JCC and we would bike from Bexley to The
JCC when they were you know getting
getting trained and and wanting to
exercise some Independence and Crossing
Livingston with two young children was
really really challenging uh so I agree
with Miss Bible that this is going to be
transformative for Bexley so all that
you've done is so appr appreciative all
the studies all the data all the
opinions and the input I know that this
was very much a collaborative process
and thank you both for being so open to
really recognizing what Livingston could
be should be I did have one question you
know that word wedge um of south of
Livingston right at the intersection of
um College Five Point yeah yeah I I
recall there was some discussion about
you know do we do we close that do we
change that I'm not sure where we landed
but could you refresh my memory we
haven't landed that is a discussion
Point uh very briefly just give you food
for thought you can see where the
RightWay lines are so we really only
have what's in between those RightWay
lines and you can see that we would
already need right away it there's
there's a lot of area to dream um it's
just how how do we make it uh work with
the people who live who uh are on
Castlegate Road and so we'll have to
work as neighbors and see if we can find
a common solution great be part of the
public process that great sounds lot of
opportunity it's great it's great call
there will be a good amount of public
involvement with this or at least that's
I'm anticipating that so wonderful any
anything else mayor no thanks for coming
here tonight thank you both so much for
joining us tonight we really appreciate
it did Columbus city council ask better
questions than our city council did
about this can you like compare and
contrast no comment I can't say it I'm
already happier but
yeah thanks so much means a lot thank
you thank you um and given that this is
the third reading um no speaker slip is
required any comments from uh any
members of our
public um I believe this one's yours any
any action on this one yes I would like
to make a motion to approve ordinance uh
5-24 any second second second by Mr
Marcelino um Mr MC would you please call
the role Miss fible yes yes yes Mr
Silverman okay yes um Mr
Markham Mr Hurley yes Mr Marcelino yes
Miss sad an enthus IC yes slam key yes
and ordinance
passes wonderful and a big thank you to
our mayor for helping spearhead this
especially with our neighbors uh in
Columbus so thank you every takes a
whole team over here and a huge team
over there so thank you that's right um
Mr Lambert Mr Young you are also welcome
to stay for the rest of our meeting if
you would
like um but you are also free if you'd
like to head out and re uh reclaim your
evening thank you thank
you we have another ordinance with a
special guest for second reading I'm
going to turn this back over to our City
attorney okay I get is a special guest
Mr Price yeah seen Mr Price in a long
time all right we have a second reading
of resolution
01224 supporting the purposeful
unification of Commonwealth East and
Commonwealth West Parks into a single
cohesive Park including the closure of
North Columbia Avenue between
Commonwealth Park north and Commonwealth
Park South introduced by m
Bible yes how does one big Park sound I
think it sounds good as I think that you
know um from what I shared uh last last
time around um but to unify or not to
unify that's the question and that's the
only question that's being dealt with in
this
resolution um I discussed some of the
reasons I think that it's good for our
community last time and Ben and Mike
have prepared a presentation um that
will give you some more details that
will help all of you with your decision
making so turning it over to you
gentlemen thank you madam um Madame
chair of the rec committee wow that was
an old uh slip
mayor Madison glad to see you guys um
that's another slip that occurs a lot uh
so Mike and I have spent a long time
practicing how we're going to present
this together uh which is to say not at
all uh but we do want to just give you
an update on um where things stand with
the discussion of Commonwealth Park
unification I will note that we invited
um residents specifically we sent
letters to residents on Park viiew
Columbia and Drexel to the north of
Broad Street inviting them to this
meeting they were invited to a public
Workshop in January at which we
discussed this as well we received a lot
of feedback we had really good dialogue
and we um circled back to many of those
that were there so um there's been a lot
of public input to date um so we invited
them to this meeting um letting them
know about the resolution that's before
you and the ability to provide further
feedback um but we wanted to quickly go
over sort of an abbreviated presentation
to what we did in the public
Workshop um let's start with
Commonwealth Park's Origins it was
ploted in the late
1800s um as part of the bullet Park
subdivision of
Bexley you can kind of
see where Parkview and Drexel are on
this plat Commonwealth North and South
being platted the geometries are a
little bit different than what we see
today but the concept of this complete
Park spanning between Drexel and park
viw was clearly in place um well well
before Bexley was even incorporated as a
village we also overviewed um the plan
and efforts that went into the creation
of the 2018 Commonwealth Park master
plan and we went through slides that
showed the different options that we had
pursued and we did talk about
unification we talked about um creating
a plaza which will go into greater
detail for a little bit we also gave
residents an update of some of the
projects that are on underway or have
recently been completed at Commonwealth
including the restrooms um we showed
images of the athletic fields uh we
showed images of the pond um and by the
way this again in the spring when some
of this plant material is in more than
it is today and and the tree is in the
tree island and it starts to really it
will show uh you'll see much more
complete picture in the
spring and then we talked about how we
got to this discussion of of what we
should do with
Colombia um and Mike maybe this is a
good time for you to talk about why we
first looked at this option of unifying
the park but keeping the street open
yeah thank you mayor um you know we uh
obviously a priority for us is the the
stitching together of Commonwealth East
and West uh to make him feel more like a
unified park uh also to focus on the
safety when you talk about uh uh
traveling from one park to the other so
uh we went through the master planning
process for Commonwealth Park we we
the committee determined that we wanted
to continue to look at vehicular access
uh down Colombia uh but to focus on a
way to um create a more safe interface a
combined feeling uh between Commonwealth
East and West so we started to focus on
ways to do that um working with
mksk uh to develop some designs um as
you'll see on this uh you have a
Boulevard you have a Plaza in the middle
that allows for uh pedest estan access
from one side to the other um you have
Street material that changes uh and
elevation changes that would uh
hopefully slow down traffic um but as we
went through this process and really got
into the details uh of it um there are a
lot of challenges that came up um from
an aesthetic and also from a safety
perspective um requirements uh from our
engineer related to signage that would
have to go in uh and as we really sort
of got into the nuts and bolts we we
continue to look at this and all the
different things that we felt like we
would need to put in place uh to
accomplish our goals of making it feel
unified but also providing for safe
pedestrian access from one side to the
other and it really sort of became clear
to us that um uh that uh we needed to
re-evaluate what the best approach was
to accomplishing our goals at
Commonwealth um and so uh we took a step
back and that that started the the
process to begin you know discussing
again uh whether uh continuing with a
street uh through the two commonwealths
uh was the right approach or whether we
should revisit uh the idea of a unified
park uh with no vehicle traffic through
the middle of it so taking that pause
and and just taking a beat to to
reexamine our assumptions and and what
would be the best approach here uh we
sort of went into this with option one
being that core option we had already
discussed um this was sort of an updated
rendering that came out of the more
detailed design process um this is that
um the street that serves more as a
connector because of com
traffic it's it is a beautiful design um
as Mike said it it um started to become
more and more compromised you can't
really tell from this drawing but if we
looked into some of the further details
it would make sense with some of the
additional stop signs and and then
concerns about the way that to handle
the The Pedestrian cross in the mid
block Center area um but taking a step
back you know we have the second option
which is we could simply keep the status
quo um which is a full 25 mile per hour
Street um and we're going to talk about
some of the pros and cons of these
options in a second um I do like this
aerial because it shows the beautiful
athletic fields Mike over there to the
East look at that good
work um and then we're talking about
this third option which is this idea
that the park can be Unified
and where we are today um lauan was very
correct in emphasizing we're not talking
about any given proposal as to what
occurs in the center the drawing in
front of you just shows generally that
it's green space what I think we are
committed to are a couple core
principles that came out of that Master
Plan one of them is not to expand the
athletic play surface in Commonwealth to
let those areas that aren't athletic be
passive space um for the enjoyment of
our residents um and to sort of harness
this concept of a park of active space
but that's nestled in midst of the
specle ARB burum so there's a really
beautiful Civic space amongst trees and
plantings uh to
enjoy so option one uh got some project
Scopes here to outline and we have some
costs to just kind of call this out and
I want to be really clear about what
these costs include and don't include
what they do not include is any of the
concepts that we've talked about with
pergolas or
um any of the any basically anything
vertical um any vertical improvements
these are the
true horizontal plane street plaza
improvements and option one with the
traffic Comming that does flange out to
uh Cobblestone Plaza between the two
that's part of the crossing um but you
know the cost of 1.3 million would have
would have been born through OPC Grant
funds would have covered a chunk of that
um our Street fund where we had
encumbered
$400,000 and then um Grant funds from
the uh Community Foundation although I
want to be clear those really actually
wouldn't have covered the street piece
of it those would have been like if
we're doing pergolas that sort of thing
option two uh if we went ahead and we
just repaved it it does need repaving we
have put a uh new water line right
through that street and we'll be
continuing that new waterline North and
South uh it's engine Engineers estimate
of just $1,000 to repave the street and
do spot repair on the curbs and sidewalk
and then unification option is a little
bit more expensive
$15,000 before that we're removing the
asphalt we're putting in a curb on
Commonwealth North and South we're
connecting the sidewalk between uh
Commonwealth North and South where where
Columbia would have been in the past and
we are bringing in high quality top soil
and St um to be able to support any
variety of future vegetation that we
might want to put there um I emphasize
high quality we could do this project
for probably more like that 975 if we
just put like the the cheap fill in
there that doesn't set us up for success
in the
future pros of option one keeps that
street open it does beautify the park it
does calm traffic going through the park
cons it's expensive uh the street is
less likely to be used I think many
residents came out of our workshop being
like Oh man if you did all these things
don't think I'd actually want to drive
on the section anyway which was kind of
the point um and it also can provide a
false sense of security to uh users of
the park as they cross that they know
that the street is generally quiet and
and calm and they might sort of just
take it for granted that um that
crosswalk isn't really a
crosswalk um option two um Pros it
repairs the Tren chain that right now is
ugly and doesn't make for Street surface
but it doesn't really address our Park
safety issues doesn't at all actually
and if anything probably exacerbates
them because a nice smooth surface is
more attractive to drive on faster and
obviously option three is the safest
option because there is no crosswalk um
it does add more green space to our city
which is in high demand and um obviously
something we always are Desiring um from
a storm water perspective it's only one
block but it is that one block of less
heart surface being added to our sewer
systems uh it's a great way to lower
pressure on those systems um and it's
consistent with historical
plant cons there's about a four parking
space loss net parking you do pick up
parking when you unify the street north
and south uh Commonwealth but you lose
some parking spaces we do have some
ideas to alleviate that to make parking
um more uh userfriendly and desirable
and also help ease some of the resident
concerns about turning out of driveways
onto those streets um and
it would certain motorists would find it
less convenient we found that when we
did traffic volume there's very low
traffic volume in general Columbia
Avenue residents aren't putting a ton of
pressure on that space but that would be
a little bit less convenient for some of
those
motorists I guess at this point in time
we would take any questions that you
have about this this is uh sort of the
the presentation at this point and happy
to answer your
questions yes uh in terms of long-term
expenses just a general understanding of
cost of uh maintaining the Green Space
versus maintaining a street scape Etc
any information you could give me on
that and then I'll have a second
question it's a great question um Andy
I'm gonna look at you because you might
have some we're we're sort of gonna make
this up as we talk to but uh that
$997,500 in today's dollars that figure
you can figure that you're going to do
that every 15 years when you have
asphalt uh with a repaving project 15 to
20 years is going to be the time that
you have to spend on that um the devil
will be in the details in terms of what
you put in the center if it's simply
grass it's a little bit more incremental
Mo I'm not really sure what the dollar
figure would be of that uh overall
Excuse Me overall it would be less
maintenance than the asphalt or the
brick curbs or you know the proposed you
know into the first plan yeah but then
of course we could always put something
really beautiful and laborious in the
center that that that's a conversation
for the future I mean I I think that one
a couple things came out of that uh the
resident Workshop that I felt were
pretty clear which was a desire to
enhance or really focus on this as
passive space not active um there was a
the word Amphitheater got thrown out and
a very negative light so no one was ever
talking about an Amphitheater just to be
clear um you know know even some
skepticism about what would it look like
to even have like some seating areas so
I think we're going to tread lightly
there um but I you know you guys are
going to be part of that decision Matrix
as we move forward and the second
question just uh has to do with actually
the parallel streets there on dreel and
Park View um I know you said the traffic
isn't as significant as we might have
expected in that area but upon
completion can we potentially look to a
safety study to see whether there's a
need for uh safety humps or anything of
that nature to slow The increased
traffic down or can we commit to that
type of evaluation after it's
completed for sure and we've already
started that we did a we've started
evaluating after we right now it's
closed before our road project so we
pulled stats on what's happened since
then they were corrupted by the fact
there was one of our few snow storms
this winter during that study so we have
to rerun those those numbers because
actually they showed a lower volume of
traffic on all three streets so clearly
uh we need more samples to determine
that yes it's an important question um
and until we have more data we don't
really know the answer to it but we are
committed to that Mr Hurley and I'm
curious more of a history question has
the park always been divided or how long
has Columbia actually bisected the park
as far as we know it's ever since there
were homes built Columbia has gone all
the way through okay thank you I have a
quick question you may have touched upon
this and I maybe I didn't quite
appreciate it but what's the
infrastructure that's underneath
Colombia is there infrastructure that we
need to route or or take out if we went
with option three such that we'd have to
figure out a way to maintain that in the
future um actually if it was a grass it
would be easier to maintain but um I
mean we wouldn't have to do anything
significant with our infrastructure um I
mean it would be fine if if we go this
route or if we go the other row we don't
have like any drains or stuff that we
have to maneuver not that we would have
to reroute or anything um I mean we got
water mains and um sewer going down um
one side but I mean it would be fine
either way and we also now have will
have or do have soon tele
underground there are currently polls on
the east side of Columbia that part of
this project is undergrounding those
polls it's not power it's just Telecom
so that that will be there as well but
again through conduit so it's able to be
maintained that way yeah great thank you
um
missad so um the public meeting was very
well attended and lots of great feedback
from that meeting these plans tonight
looking at option one two and three are
a little bit different than what I was
anticipating um I was thinking we were
looking at an option one the unification
but the hardscaping staying there just
closing off the roads so now I'm I'm
looking more at an option two and three
that looks a little different than what
I had anticipated so my question would
be if we went with an option
three are we when we were looking at
some of the hardscaping as unification
seating areas um bathrooms that was
something we had spoken about are those
still in this
plan those are the bathrooms so they're
there bathrooms uh yeah the Foles exist
um that's the only and we've committed
to those they're under construction
that's those are the only things that
we've committed to and so we did take
this this is a different slide because
there was so much focus on um in the in
the meetings and I'll show you uh
you know like oh I don't like that or
why would we put a fountain in the
middle you know this that's not you know
these are these are artists concepts of
things that could happen um but they
were you know even admittedly the
designer that did this was like oh
that's too many trails that's kind of
messy so um we're not critiquing what
could potentially happen here the litmus
test for us is does it make sense to
combine or not and then you know the
Baseline is planting new tree species
and Botanical walk is very inexpensive
compared to anything that we're talking
about so that's that to us is sort of
the default and then if we want to put
anything else in there that's something
that you know we can have a future
conversation about but bathrooms are
happening bathrooms are happening so
that's
the uh that right there is the bathroom
see that's great because we've heard
from our our young
athletes for a while that utilize these
facilities that um it's needed
so glad to see that that's in the plan
yes hang on Mr M Mr Silverman had his
hand up first my question is for Mike
what's current usage of the Commonwealth
fields from a wreck standpoint and from
a if there's any adult wreck leagues
playing there and then has there been
any safety issues that have happened in
the past that kind of lead to some of
the concern with having Colombia running
through it so our are our use is
generally youth activities Sports um uh
permitted use happens a lot for uh our
joint cesa wreck soccer um we run a
number of internal um programs coach
Chris t-ball
um um summer camp uh sports summer camps
uh um we also uh permited out to the
schools for their uh Middle School field
hockey um the use is heavy I mean we get
there's a lot of use that occurs on
these fields um uh in terms of safety
have we you know I can't speak to a
specific incident that has occurred
obviously right now we have one restroom
that Services both Fields um and our
designed for these folies there's two
folies one uh is going to uh house a
restroom and the other one is going to
house mechanical equipment for the
irrigation system so with a road still
down the middle of it you'd have the
issue of uh TR of traveling across that
street in order to get to the restroom
if you're coming if you're on the West
Field um so while I can't I can't speak
to a specific accident that has occurred
or incident that has occurred um
obviously having the street lends itself
to you know more potential for that um
and obviously having a street that uh I
think we understand has um has a
propensity for uh speeding because of
the way it the the size of the street
and also the lack of stop signs just
sort of uh sets ourselves up for a
potential uh safety incident that could
occur and just to clarify you speak of
restroom how
many is it multiple restrooms inside the
building or is it one it be it'll be
individual restroom one individual yeah
thank you Mr
mCP with
the um uncertainty we'll say on how this
will be going forward were there any
design changes that were made to the
restrooms or would there be any design
changes made to the
restrooms um if if this were closed and
grass was put in yeah great question so
um this is probably a better image right
here this this works regardless so
there's no design changes um if the if
the street closes then um you know this
the plane right here is uh some sort of
a surface that probably you know
connects them sort of what's alluded to
um in this option three but uh these
restrooms exist um you know regardless
and they don't need a change in plan and
we think they're going to be
architecturally appropriate either
way any other questions from Council oh
Mr Hurley just one um you know we have
option one two and three when I guess
will this decision be final obviously
we're being asked to weigh in on what
council would prefer I'm just curious
what the timeline is for when we'll
actually settle on
a I guess option one two or three or
have we already settled on reading right
now tonight and if you pass it at your
next meeting and vote in the affirmative
then our intent would be to uh mobilize
in the spring to to do to do
unification um it's currently closed
because it's torn up so there's not a
there's no incentive for us to reopen a
street you know with the gravel trench
through it um so we would want it to be
cleaned up sooner rather than later um I
am I my my personal opinion about this I
have expressed before I think to you
guys as well is at the public Workshop
which is that I believe this is
financially responsible I think it is
safer is the safest idea is the most
beautiful at the end of the day um
because I would you know I would prefer
tree canopy over uh brick and
cobblestone as as good as those can look
um so for me it's I hate to say it's a
no-brainer but it seemed quite
straightforward I think the objections
that have been the concerns that have
been raised um have been answerable
we've had a lot of kitchen table
conversations you know and I think uh
frankly the tone shifted quite a bit
after we started talking more about this
with the residents in the
area Mr Hurley also wanted to add that
um I understand that the tree and garden
commission unanimously approved uh
unification um since our last meeting so
I just wanted to pass that on to council
uh Miss Bible and and uh in addition to
that just as a Remer um the rec board
also unanimously said yes to this so um
I just think we need to think um really
hard on about the the safety I think the
finances are really an important one as
well um and I continue to uh cure on any
extra usage of of this and so if it
brings more little people to my corner
of the arbor it will make me happy and I
I will say for the F for the first time
I actually saw a mom walking the gravel
path with a buggy in front of
her um today which I I don't I don't see
that and and to waste this beautiful
space is is Criminal so I really think
that the more attractive things we put
into this and
and yes we are just deciding on you know
unification but we will end up having a
a blank can canvas that we can just you
know and if it's nothing more than
beautiful additions to our tree canopy
then for us so
that's me singing I hope to the
choir any other questions from or Mike
if I could add to that I mean one of the
things that the arbored feature on the
on the west side has really brought into
focus is um is how this park has
generally been used by our community
which is to say that 99.9% of the use at
this park has been for athletic purposes
and our interaction as a community has
been one my kid playing soccer over
there's my kid playing bball over
there's my kid playing um field hockey
over there and uh the arbor feature on
on on the west side has really
completely opened up how our community
interacts with this space um in that you
have people walking around with
strollers you have people just going out
for a leisurely walk you have families
Gathering and stopping here as part of
their walk which isn't an interaction
that we have typically seen and this
this combination and this concept of you
know who knows what the middle will be
but the idea that it'll be more of a a
passive space that invites the community
and to engage in this park in a
different way as a really a really I
think positive outcome for for our
community all right thank you um Mr mCP
do we have any speaker slips for this
resolution no speaker slips all right um
moving on to president's report um uh no
report from me this even evening moving
on to our City attorney yeah two things
first of all I want to introduce those
who didn't get to meet benam free from
my office he will be uh backing me up
since I have scared away the people who
formally back me up I'm taking blame not
you so you don't have to stand it's okay
you can talk if you want I don't have to
but Ben actually has is new to the firm
but he has a lot of experience um
representing government um for many
years at um larger law firms so um we're
glad to have him aboard and one of his
tasks is part of my second part of my
report there is a I will be out of town
with a client so there is a a conference
call that is being organized on Thursday
Zoom call for by uh Franklin County
Public Health to discuss where things
stand regarding the um potential
enforcement or not of the uh tobacco um
the the tobacco limitations that Bexley
and other cities that are serviced by
Franklin County Health um are
um have as well and there so I think
there's going to be a discussion about
whether or not there's still going to be
any enforcement I doubt there will be um
but we'll see and um you know whether or
not Franklin County I doubt Franklin
County Public Health will participate
but there certainly should be some
discussions at some point of who's
participating in legal ch Alles to uh
the uh prohibition against local
regulation of that issue so keep you up
to date that is a fantastic um turning
it over to you mayor for administrative
updates
aitor oh I'm sorry Mr mCP I totally es
skipped you I'm so sorry no update no
report well had you wanted to give an
update we would be here for it all right
mayor over to you thank thank you madam
president um Mr Price provided you a
written update at the last meeting but
was wanted to leave you hanging for his
physical presence so that written update
is still in your folder Mike can
supplement it um and he can also tell
you about how excited he is about our
Jeffrey Woods Festival on Saturday Mike
yeah super excited uh like really really
excited yeah um but I'm happy to answer
any questions you might have about uh
the the written report we I will say uh
we are feeling really good about our
maple sap yield going into this weekend
we might have record numbers um so
really uh yeah we we're looking at maybe
six to 700 gallons of sap which you
worried yeah I mean the weather's been a
little bit inconsistent to say the least
but uh thanks syers worry that's just
what we do we thing thanks to Ron and
his his staff for getting uh uh
collecting all that sap but uh and
thanks to Johnson's ice cream as well
who helps store a lot of the sap and
lets us freeze it there until we can uh
process it but uh yes very happy about
that and happy to answer any questions
that the that Council might
have any questions for Mr Price Mr s uh
just wanted to check to see how the
skate park final review
went was um we we had great question we
had to uh postpone that um and so uh the
the design team wasn't quite ready to
present a final design based on the
feedback from the previous public
Workshop so it looks like that's going
to get rescheduled for late March uh
we're going to have a committee meeting
uh with the design team hopefully prior
to spring break to uh get feedback from
the committee on their their last
iteration of the design before
presenting it to to the public but that
is still moving along and excited I will
say this the feedback has been almost
universally positive along the two sort
of design fronts that we had and we feel
pretty good about where we're going to
end
up and mik the turnaround on that is
not it's pretty quick right on building
the skat Park um I mean we're GNA have
to go through a process to award
construction of it and uh you know we're
gonna slowly here in the next couple
weeks we'll get a pretty decent idea of
what we think the price tag is going to
be um before we we OB go have to bid and
assuming that price tag is within the
range of of funds available then it
should be able to move fast if we have
to reevaluate funding for it then and or
potentially reevaluate design to to
address any funding then it may take a
little longer but I do think we're
hopeful that it'll move fairly quick we
also have more public process to go
through with boards and commissions uh
once we have an actual D plan so that
that'll add some time as well so but if
we're talking they could they could
people could be on their
the words by
potentially this year it's not
impossible yeah I mean I think that's
possible I mean I think things need to
continue to move forward without any
sort of hiccups but I think it is
possible you'll have some really happy
skaters yeah is s speaking of happy um
the pickle ball players are out there
pickle balling left and right right I
get ask now when I'm in my tennis
uniform if I'm a pickle ball player and
I'm like I love pickle ball but I play
tennis uh which feels outdated these
days so um it's it's awesome to see
since 2019 when every a lot of us
sitting here were uh surprised that what
was coming in our community we were
ahead of um the curve and uh those it's
great to see um so many age age ranges
using those chords in your
um um Mike in your update it's discussed
the pickle ball light
discussion and I was wondering if you
could elaborate a little bit more on
that knowing that um so many in our Comm
maybe that one time that they get to
meet someone or have physical activity
are on those pickle ball courts from
what I've heard from community and you
know this time of year it's 5:36 and no
longer can play because it's dark out so
kind of wondering where we're at with
that discussion on um accessing lights
doesn't mean till midnight just means to
um keep those Courts open a little
longer for those in the community that
are coming home from work um and are
looking for that Outreach to get on that
court and have some interaction um which
is great mentally and uh and for the
community as a whole yeah so we've had
some uh residents and pickleball
Enthusiast reach enthusiasts reach out
to us about the potential for adding
lights to the pickleball courts um we
have asked them to engage uh which they
have with the uh preservation
enhancement committee because they were
actively looking at Master planning for
Jeffrey Park so that that made sense for
that to be the first sort of uh step to
to start those discussions um they have
also come in front of the rec board to
to um talk a little bit about their
their desire to have lights at the
pickleball courts um the rec board has
been you know really clear that they
obviously want to see what comes out of
the preservation enhancement Committee
in terms of the master plan uh for
Jeffrey whether or not uh and we have a
we have a preservation meeting tomorrow
with that committee uh and the hope is
that uh the hope is that we'll be
actually have a a vote on the the plan
from that committee tomorrow um which
will obviously then go to the rec board
for for support um so we're trying to
follow a process to evaluate the idea of
pickle ball lights um we have
communicated with neighbors that you
know we're obviously trying to always be
very transparent about this this
discussion is happening at some level uh
with the addition of pickleball lights
and so letters went out to area
Neighbors on Clifton uh so that they
were aware and and we could gauge uh get
some feedback from them on on their
experience uh being that they're you
know adjacent to the pickle ball courts
um so we're going to continue to
evaluate obviously there are there are
concerns that have been raised there are
benefits to adding the lights um and we
need to be really I think we need to be
really thoughtful as we continue to
gather information uh from our residents
our communities our pickleball users our
neighbors um before making any decision
so uh I expect that we will have a
public hearing at uh potentially April
Recreation board meeting at which point
we'll have you know a a approved plan
from the committee hopefully we'll have
an approved plan from the committee that
um that speaks as to whether they think
there should be pickle ball lights or
not or maybe it doesn't speak at all but
that's something we'll be discussing
tomorrow and we'll kind of continue
through the process um I do think if we
look at that if if we determine that we
want to add pickle ball lights I think
we will also be looking at replacing the
tennis sport lights uh that would be
something that would be be I think
important in terms of the aesthetic and
the uh quality of the lighting uh we
have old P we have old lights at on the
tennis courts that illuminate a lot more
than what they're intended to um but
that's that's where we're at in the
process we're going to continue to talk
with those residents that would like to
see that and and the neighbors and make
sure we make a thoughtful decision how
late are the tennis remind me how late
are the tennis court lights that are
right next to the pickle ball courts how
late are those 10
o'clock
anything else for Mr Price all right
thank you Mike Mr bashore the service
department has an update for you here
any uh anything you want to add to your
written report Andy I'm sure nothing to
add but happy to answer any questions
questions for
Andy Jess was first if you could just um
give us a quick reminder of when we
looking
to pay Rexel gosh that would be great
haven't seen you in just you know hot
second I just thought we could use that
reminder had a discussion with um OD do
would have been last week they are
putting it out to bid but it's still
probably going to be August
September yeah o so to be very clear we
have consistently pushed ODOT for this
we lined everything up for them to PVE
it last fall and um they are
backlogged
um even Broad Street was supposed to
have been paided four years ago right so
we are pulling out all our stops to get
them to get Drexel done they understand
it's a priority for us and it their
safety implications because right now
it's like Road paint spaghetti and it's
driving us all crazy so don't worry that
uh it's universally felt and and part of
the frustration is the overall final
product is not going to be apparent
until that's done right until then the
True Value to the community is not
manifesting so um we're just going to
have to hang in there and be patient
we'll get there do we have any if they
come back and are ready to like PVE it
during school coming back into session
do we have any say in that or do are we
just we have to their time frame we'll
have the ability to work with them on
time a little bit the repaving is not
gonna take that long it's it's a Mill
and overlay it's expensive but it's a
fast process everything else that we've
done to
is what has taken all the time but we
could we could definitely stay away from
like first day of school yeah we'll have
the ability to work with them and I'm
sure there'll be many more meetings
before then I mean when we actually have
it lined up and ready to mobilize the
project itself to Mill and overlay is
a two three day yeah I mean it won't
take long and then the striping will
come after that right um one of the so
there are some Silver Linings let's
let's let's talk about it for a second
um
we have the the initial striping plan
that's been installed is
temporary we've already learned from
that we're going to tweak a little bit
by the time it shows up in that
three-dimensional solid reflective
lining um and we've so we've had an
ability to you know we're probably
actually
gonna there's I don't want to overcommit
but we're gonna probably shorten one of
our meetings just a little bit we're
going to do little bit of tweaking
before that final code goes in um so
that's the still line
y um lauan
sorry we're learning it's
truth it and but also applauding the
though there
is it really does I I hesitate to bring
this up in a meeting because an and I
haven't talked about it but I just saw
the attempt to erase that Center Line is
are we G to fix that okay we had a
contractor that there must have been
some miscommunication so a lot of anyone
seen that there was old center lines
that we were blacking out and they've
been gray out and that we now have a new
color uh so that was not the intent um
we will be fixing that shortly
nothing never a dull moment here at the
coob any other questions for
Andy okay Andy's just trying to keep me
young um development Administration
Megan thank you for joining us again uh
second council meeting in a
row
uh do you have anything to add to your
written report yeah sure thank you mayor
um I'm not going to touch on all of this
of course but if you're under the
General ad Administration SE section um
I do want to add a note about the
transit supportive infrastructure um
bullet point there that is relevant both
to morsy's conversation about the Linkus
initiative the ballot initiative coming
up in Fall of this year um if that were
to pass there will be the creation of a
Transit supportive infrastructure fund
that's $60 million a year that would be
subdivided across morsy service region
um specifically that's covering link us
not the entire region um and we have
preliminarily submitted multiple
projects to be considered for that
funding and part of that would be the
local match component for the Livingston
Avenue project um those are a bunch of
wh ifs hence the mayor's plan for moving
forward our portion of the funding
despite this um but should that move
forward we have already submitted that
preliminarily um to them for
consideration hold on one second pause
there I want to riff off of that because
you reminded me that I didn't cover that
bullet point during the presentation
sorry which is that not only are we
applying not only have we put this into
that TSI plan so that the Livingston
match could maybe be funded from another
source in part at least it will also be
one of our state capital budget requests
this year and so truly what we talked
about with that local match is worst
case scenario we are really optimistic
that we will see funds come in from the
outside to further support that
Livingston project yeah fantastic um I
do want to re reiterate underdevelopment
if you haven't already encouraged your
friends and neighbors to do so please
have them um complete that land survey
since we launched it at the end of
January we've gotten about 150 responses
which isn't bad for you know an opt-in
online survey but all the feedback is
welcome the more the marry are on that
and then under Communications I hope to
see everybody here of course at the
state of the community next
week Megan it's hard to believe you've
been here just under two months it looks
like you are busy no shortage of tasks
um but I was really happy when I saw
your updates um because it's very
exciting to see what is going on
development wise so thank you um and
congrats on your upcoming two months
anniversary Carrie has is unfortunately
able to be with us she is she's ill
today um but there is a finance
department update
with car's key points
which is fun um and I will Pitch hit a
little bit with this and I'm gonna Le on
Matt M if you would like to also add any
narrative as you were aware we already
talked about income taxes down a little
bit um in January this is January's
report um from what had been projected
February is up by about
300,000 and then March we're looking
like we might be down again so there's a
little bit of roller coastering going on
with income tax so we don't think that
that is yet
determinative
um and having said all that because of
expenditures you know lower than budget
we are still in the positive
221,000 uh for the month um on our
year-to date and having not delved much
deeper than that in discussions with
beer I don't know if Matt you want to
add anything uh to that no I'm just
thrilled to say the auditor budget is
what's driving a lot of that savings we
are under spending through the month of
January so well done thank you very much
appreciate that but yeah no I mean it's
one month so uh you know few more months
under our belt we'll have better idea of
Trends but over we're all looking
good any questions on the January
finances that we can answer or refer for
future
answers okay um I told suggests that I
would be quick so I'm going to be
although my it looks like my update
didn't get uploaded into
here uh oh you do oh shoot I know what
happened it did get uploaded and I was
on the sinking sorry my bad um so as it
uploads into my system over here that's
my fault um I will just kind of
highlight a couple key points from this
uh which are that the state of the
community is on the 7th I said it's at
St Charles if you have an rspp that
would be great you don't have to though
you can still show up um the mor state
of the region is on March 15 we do have
a table there Natalie would like you to
RSVP by Thursday so that we know that's
coming um and then uh we have several
other updates in here I want to
highlight Joanna Smith day we celebrated
um our first African-American police
officer uh during uh Black History Month
um with
Proclamation and uh we had a beautiful
picturesque day for our tree tapping
last weekend um I want to commend Andy's
Cruise uh they came out two weekends in
a row we inexplicably had these postcard
perfect snows on Saturday uh two
weekends in a row and then like 60
degree weather right afterwards um so
how it doesn't get any better than that
photo right there um did some walking
along Main Street with our land use
strategy I to the Franklin Park
conservatories master plan um they're in
the draft master plan presentation some
pretty exciting stuff that they have
there for expanding Franklin Park
Observatory uh even further and I think
really adding extra value to um just to
the west of us and then um that's just a
really cute photo of my cat so I had to
throw that in there and that's my update
and I'm happy to answer any
questions and yes um not a question
question just to comment just want to
say thank you again mayor for your time
Friday we had a I think a really
productive lunch and appreciate you
sharing your time and insights
so last meeting I want to say it again
just so you guys know this the bridge
the bike ped bridge at Schneider is
going to end up shifting a little
further south because of the hydrology
um it'll probably end up a little bit
closely aligned with where the skate
park is on our side uh is proposed for
so keep keep a ear to the ground I'll be
once we have some actual drawings we'll
be sharing those updates with you um I
just wanted you to be aware of that we
are roling that design a little bit um
and that concludes my report and Madame
President the meeting is yours of
course all right moving on to our
consent
agenda all right on the consent agenda
we have me meeting minutes from February
13th 20
24 any questions from
Council any questions from the
public right I move to adopt the consent
agenda could I please get a second
second second from Mr Marcelino all in
favor say I I I anyone
opposed consent agenda is
adopted all right we are on to Second
readings we have second reading of
ordinance 0624 establishing the Craig
climan fund to support families with
special needs designed to receive
donations intended for the provision of
support and services for Bexley
residents and families facing need
special need challenges and to authorize
the appropriation of $5,000 from the
unencumbered general fund to provide
funds to match private donations
introduced by Miss sad yes thank you so
um we had looked at this ordinance
possibly going to the Community
Foundation and um in discussion between
Mr Price and uh H the director executive
director over there um currently it does
not match um the um guidelines for um
bexy Community Foundation Grant so we're
going to keep this established within
the city and since Mike is here tonight
I was gonna ask you just to elaborate on
that a little bit more since we're on a
second
reading yeah thank you um we do have
language is that in the we have the
amended language Natalie
that beat you put
together okay um so yeah we you know uh
give you a little bit of background on
this uh the clim family runs uh in
memory of their their late son a um a
Labor Day 5K run uh in which um we
provide some limited support for the
execution of that but they uh have uh
wanted to and have donated back uh money
to the the rec department to support uh
special needs initiatives an example of
some of of what some of those funds have
been used for in the past um uh we put
in a a digital sign at the pool to help
uh kids with processing issues that
makes a little bit easier for for them
to uh read the the clock um we put um uh
boards also at the pool communication
boards for uh kids that maybe aren't as
verbal that they can use signs to uh to
Comm unicate what they want what they
need uh support for um so that's sort of
how that's been used and we've been
receiving these funds um this this would
be the second year I think um and uh the
problem then became well if we don't
have a specific project to work on right
away how can we hold these funds and
earmark them for this intended use as
opposed to them going into a the general
fund and then sort of being lost uh
within the context of that um and so we
have these Enterprise funds or these
money in Money out funds for a handful
of different things the one that we use
it most for is our youth scholarship
fund um and so that that money goes into
there it's used very for a very specific
purpose and it tracks year-over-year
instead of going into the general fund
um so that's the impetus for this uh for
the creation of this um I have had
conversation we did have conversation
with the families uh with the family
about you know whether the Community
Foundation might be the right Avenue to
go I have conversations with Hal at the
Community Foundation and the amounts
that we're talking about in terms of
donations from this family is $1,000 or
less so we're not we're not talking
about large sums and they have uh
requirements for uh to open up a new
fund at the Community Foundation that
exceed that so they're not at a a level
yet that that it makes sense to think
about running this through the Community
Foundation additionally they obviously
want the funds to be very specific
directed through the rec department um
so uh those conversations have taken
place what I will say is the uh the
first um uh the language in the
resolution there's I think some
miscommunication between beer and I uh
in terms of How It Was Written which was
asking for an additional appropriation
of $5,000 we do not need to appropriate
additional funds uh what we are asking
for is there are funds within the
mayor's uh accounts and I can't remember
the name of that fund mayor I don't know
if you remember the name of that fund uh
which has already had $5,000
appropriated in there which was designed
to support families with special needs
that's part of our city hall account
within the general fund yeah and so the
request isn't to ask for additional
Appropriations but the request is to ask
uh to use those funds to match any
private funds that come in uh to set
that then aside uh for um you know
special needs support services so uh
this is something we do with our youth
scholarship fund there's a $10,000 uh in
in the budget to um match any private
funds that are raised for our youth
scholarship and so we're asking to do
the same thing with an already existing
appropriated $5,000 funds that are are
earmarked for this very specific use so
that language needs to be tweaked I
think there is uh um amended language
that may or maybe that you have um for
this to address that that
miscommunication
any any questions from Council Alex do
you have did you have your hand up can
you clarify the first part but I guess
the you had said that there's a certain
amount where you would maybe reconsider
moving it is is there a cap on that
5,000 and the match coming in
from money donated to the fund because
you're getting the donations from the
family and then others could
additionally donate to increase that
amount so is there a certain point where
where our match would be capped is 5,000
that amount yeah 5,000 is what's
appropriated for this year that doesn't
speak to Future
years yeah the Community Foundation I I
think it's at $25,000 to open up a new
fund for one so we don't we don't meet
that again I think we should continue to
discuss if if they 's a lot of growth in
in the funds that they're generating as
to whether that makes sense down the
line um but um I don't you know I don't
foresee that being any time in the near
future um this allows us to deal with uh
to to support you know their desire to
give back to our community it it gives
us an Avenue to do that and to track it
and make sure it's being used as they
they are
re missad do we have any amendments that
any action on the Amendments that you
want to take
tonight yes um like to make a motion to
approve the amendments to ordinance
6-24 any mad is moved any seconds second
by Mr Marcelino U Mr
mCP Miss viable yes Mr
Silverman Miss ly yes Miss yes Mr
yes and Mr Hurley
yes Amendment
passes that consent is yes I was
thinking consent agenda thank you for
the reminder Mr official anyone oppos to
that all right Natalie if we can put
amended ordinance 6-24 on the consent
agenda that would be great it is a
second reading so I don't know if we had
any speaker slips oh Mr
mCP no speaker slips thank you Miss for
right all right moving on to first ordin
first readings ordinance 707 test24 to
amend section
22.021 holidays in order to rec codify
juneth as a holiday for bar
non-bargaining
employees of the introduced by Miss
sad this is just an update um for our
non-bargaining employees to add juneth
to their calendar um for H and that
amendment was made as you see with
Section 26
2.02 yeah or you have it under
7-23 should it be 7-24
Ty
okay
just future all
good yeah it's would yes okay so so
these were just some when things got
codified and recodified and added to it
just slipped through the cracks that the
last that just the way it worked out
they accidentally forgot to include
juneth and the most recent one for all
non-bargaining un employes of the city
except for the chief and the deputy
chief for some reason because there was
different sections so this is total
cleanup all right sounds good any any
questions from
Council Mr mCP do we have any speaker
slips on this one no speaker slips Right
Moving on all right first reading of
ordinance 0824 to amend 2024 pay rates
for a building part department assistant
to capture and reflect the additional
responsibilities added to this job
description introduced by Miss sad thank
you so this is um an open um position
that we are currently hiring for And So
It gave us the the opportunity to kind
of look at our payroll where we were
where we need to be to be competitive
and um this is where we um have made the
decision that uh this would enhance and
fit this role better as far as um
matching it to other jobs and
descriptions across the community I am
now though going to let the mayor
elaborate more on that and why these
changes were made so not made yet but
proposed um we had built into the budget
a building department assistant that was
mapped to the front desk operations role
as it says in the recitals range between
40 and
$54,000 um as we built out the job
description more fully um it became
pretty clear that what we were asking of
the position was for a more
sophisticated higher
performing um skill set that would um be
a little bit more demanding than what we
were kind of mapping it to and so we're
recommending and this is um Emily
Buckley and I worked on this together so
um at her recommendation and I I agreed
with her uh we're looking at a pay scale
of 48 to 60 is what we're proposing and
I'm going to pull up
our I know this is a lot to look at but
this is our pay scale and if you look at
where do we have 48 we try to kind of
map these to other positions that exist
and the one that felt sort of
aligned most with sort of what we're
doing as Rec program coordinator where
there's um just a high level of
functioning um not responsibility for a
staff uh or for you know sole sole
responsibility for programs um and you
can see that that the at the rate that
was proposed this front desk operations
rate we don't have a front desk
operations this was a previous position
that doesn't exist anymore um that is
the lowest paid um uh other than what we
had proposed here building department
assistant lowest PID position that we
have what we're asking of this employee
is not the lowest level of skill set
that we necessarily require among all of
these different positions so we felt it
wasn't the right pay scale um in order
to both attract the right candidate but
also just long-term pay Equity within
the organization it wouldn't have worked
out well so we're recommending this 48
to 68 um we've had for what it's worth
we have
had I think over 60 applicants so far so
it's been a pretty strong applicant pool
with some very interesting candidates um
that have emerged so Emily staying busy
doing the screening thank goodness for
Emily uh and Mr Marcelino any questions
just a quick question you have building
department assistant but that'll be then
scrapped to make room for this and then
we also have the other one where you
said we no longer have that position so
I'm just trying
to yeah not uncommon for us to have some
pay categories that of of employees that
we don't have if for example front desk
operation has over time morphed
into what's oh Mike Mike left oh Mike
was about to save me um Emily's Emily
perfects position which creative
coordinat there you go um she's doing a
lot more than just front desk um and
she's falling into that role beautifully
so if were to like you know uh go
somewhere else which would be terrible
please don't do that Emily then um we
would potentially look back at frontes
operations does that make sense thank
you um and then building department
assistant is still called building
department assistant it just has a
refined set of skills and requirements
to it that we feel like this is the
appropriate uh
range the questions
yeah no other questions Mr mCP any
speaker slips on this one no speaker
slips all right thank you all right this
next one first reading is definitely
have speak got to have speaker you know
one on resolution I assume that should
be 224 not
223 resolution 224 adopting the solid
waste management plan for the Solid
Waste Authority of Central Ohio
introduced by Mr
Silverman thank you um seo's Board of
Trustees has released their final draft
of the solid waste management plan and
they are asking us to approve the said
plan within 90 days and I will pass this
off to Mayor kler to explain more about
the
details well attached to your document
your agenda is a 348 page document which
is the revised draft of the solid waste
management plan um as councilman silver
said the Ohio Revised Code asks Solid
Waste districts which are public
entities to seek approval of their plans
from member jurisdictions of which we
are one of those um we have we have a
really close and
constant uh relationship with suo so
there's a lot of feedback happening all
the time we meet with them pretty regly
so we've been well aware of some of the
things that are in this plan um it
includes in general kind of more of an
emphasis on diversion of materials from
the solid waste landfill things that are
really in keeping with our own zero
waste plans um Bexley own Patrick King
is the chair of the suego board I don't
know if you know that and um most
recently I believe that Randy soal was
appointed to the suo board so there's a
lot of Bexley on that board right now um
and there is a little bit of language in
this resolution it's a nice little nudge
suo so if you see section one here we
are approving the pen approving is the
word that orc uses I think it's in I was
kind of questioning that but that is how
theise code ask us to do it and also
encouraging them to prioritize
completion of a uh Franklin County
Compost Facility uh it's called out for
in their plan they have a a nice
timeline if they follow it it's in the
next two years that'll be great um they
they identify the issue that we've
shared with them many times that we
really need a reliable local Source uh
that's trusted and that you know we can
point to so they've heard us and other
communities I think we've been the
squeakiest wheel so I'm I think I I'm
I'm glad to see that in their in their
plan and and hope that we can add that
little bit language to give them a nice
little
boost um Mr Hurley um so my
understanding is these plans have to be
developed every 10 to 14 years by a
solid waste District I assume did we
support the previous iteration of this
that's an interesting question um it's
been a little spotty um I thought it was
actually more frequent than it's a it's
a it can be more throughout Horizon but
I think this is like I think it's a
little more frequent so I don't have any
knowledge of us having in the past
approved it not to say didn't
happen they said they've been a little
spotty in getting those in the past
potentially okay and we checked the Ohio
Revis code to make sure the language is
what they're asking us to do is
consistent it is so so to the best your
knowledge we've not taken a vote like
this before on one of the previous not
recently and we can go back a little
further to try to find some more more
knowledge but is there a mechanism I
mean I'm assum I mean this is fine I I
don't have any concerns with toos plan
but I'm just
curious more of a question for Mark is
there any kind of issue if a majority of
the constituent communities don't
approve or is it just sort of a courtesy
to let them vote on it the honest answer
is I don't know but I believe that there
is I I don't know that there's any um
penalty or ramif legal ramifications
without I think this is a perfunctory
kind of yeah
it does the RC does call for a
percentage of local jurisdictions to
pass it okay see nobody called me about
checking the legal s you know I guess
you don't need a law director that's all
right no it's all good buddy former as a
former law talk to Ben Ben Ben answered
it already for he's nicer than you well
and as a as a former lobbyist for like
oh I should know the answer that too I
just don't so um I had Megan check out
the language just to cross Che told us
was accurate because I felt it was not
necessary to elevate to the v no I I
assume that's exactly who checks I trust
her
complet good question uh any questions
from Council any other questions uh Mr
mCP do we have any speaker slips on this
one no speaker slips
right for the actual ordinances other
than tabled
ordinances um I think we might have some
action on at least one table ordinance
right do we yes okay um I'll move to
take ordinance
4123 off the table open for discussion U
Mr marcelino's moveed to remove from the
table I will second that motion um all
in favor say I hi hi anyone opposed all
right it is off the
table thank you very much this is the
ordinance that we discussed towards the
end of last year leading into the Main
Street incentive District and a tiff uh
extending the uh exemption period but
I'm going to basically allow mayor
Kesler to go over the details of this
and refresh our memories before we uh
hopefully move it to a
vote okay so um if you recall this went
through a third reading in early
December we tabled it because
statutorily we needed to provide a
written notice to the school district
and uh the
county um which we did in the end of
December December 27 border of
Commissioners yep so that has been
satisfied um which now puts us in a
position where uh we can vote on this
what this does is this takes our
existing Main Street streetscape Tiff
which is a 30-year Tiff the recital kind
of covers the history but in 2005 we
enabled that um and it extends it
another 15 years um the taxes that are
raised to that TI the incremental
increase so there what happened as the
values increased since 2005 they're
diverting taxes that would have gone to
non City and non-school District sources
so um County
agencies some of the other it's roughly
about you know 20 to 30% of the property
tax collection the increase in value
that's attributed to those taxes goes
into a streetscape Improvement fund that
Improvement fund has paid for um trash
receptacles it's paid for enhanced
crosswalks it's paid for medians and
trees and lights and Pavements and um it
will be helping with the library pocket
park it's helped with the main street
trail head and and many projects along
Schneider which connects to Main Street
um and so it's provided really a
fantastic uh benefit to our community
but also it helps support Business
Development that's occurred in the city
so the tip has contributed to projects
such as the um what I call the Connells
flower building which we'll call the
Snap Fitness building now um the Ohio
State Bank is uh the Drexel Theater has
been a tiff recipient um and this um no
that's a different Tiff not that um and
then cohatch is the most recent um
potential recipient once they finish
their project um the reason this is
there's this is kind of necessary now as
opposed to later there are two reasons
this is important reason number one
cohatch requires its own separate Tiff
fund if we can't piggy back off of this
extension so administratively it
simplifies things you've already
approved the coach Tiff it's just it
makes it easier for us to administer
reason number two is that this extension
ability is because of some legislation
that passed
um recently in the past year at the
State House allowing for cities with
tiffs that are like ours as in created
before January 1st 20 6 which as you can
see we got in under the gun with you
know 11 months before that um can extend
15 years it's by no means certain that
that extension ability will M be
maintained into the future so this is
one of those act quickly while you can
moments where we can continue to capture
revenue for the city from this uh
because it's it's not guaranteed to
stick around this um provision of
orc Mr Hurley uh just two uh clarifying
questions uh the first so the this Tiff
currently would expire in 2025 we're
extending it to
2040 roughly is
that I believe it's a 30-year Tiff so
it's 2035 and we're extending to 2050
2050 okay um what's the uh I guess rough
estimate or what's the revenue raised on
this
stff I'm not going to give you a rough
estimate I'm going to give you an exact
figure
um please please
hold let's let's why don't I start with
the rough estimate to see how good I am
at guessing just kidding I'm not do that
to
myself um it like around 400,000 but now
that's totally wrong I know I know I
know I did it blon over
here and I'm just curious when we talk
about you know other county level Levy
dependent organizations that are you
know we we're foregoing Revenue to them
I just wanted to put a dollar figure
with it um
$42,882
is
our projected income um I didn't uh yes
yeah
underestimated um and we looks like
hopefully this this is the draft budget
but this yeah has I can't point to Matt
anymore fix this
shoot MC
Peak um so County agencies that would
forgo revenue from this was your
question oh I was just curious the
number I I I I know and as you know
represent some of those County agencies
and they're not too excited so what are
you gonna do about the extension ability
sure um I don't have the full breakdown
although I could literally come up with
that pretty quickly because it's pretty
easy to just jump out of the outer
website and see go just the the total
dollar amounts fine I just you know but
it is it is money that would otherwise
go to a public purpose going to a
different public purpose but it's
ultimately tax revenue going to a public
purpose and I think that's important to
note and lawfully within the Ohio RIS
code thank you state of Ohio for now
yeah exactly for now any other questions
from
Council okay um it's had the third
reading it's off the table there um no
speaker slips would be required for this
any comments from the
public okay uh Mr Marcelino do you have
action on this ordinance yeah I moved to
approve ordinance
4123 second Mr Marcelino
moved um seconded by Miss
sad Mr mCP Mr Marcelino yes Mr Silverman
yes Miss fibble yes Mr Hurley yes Miss
lampy yes and Mage yes
such well done guys okay um I believe
that's the only action on under taed
ordinances Mr Marcelino am I am I
correct on that you are
okay all right moving on to committee
reports uh Finance
missad yes I have a um an invoice that
we need to
address um as we have um been educated
in a few past Council meetings purchases
in the excess of $3,000 which purchase
orders were opened after the date of the
invoice require Council approval these
can easily occur at the beginning of the
year when the books have not yet been
reopened for purchase orders this um
invoice came from the Franklin County
prosecutor's office in the amount of
$5,795 75 it was opened on January 9th
2024 and it's right here in front of
you um mayor would you like to elaborate
on this I will do my best um there was
forfeited cash distributed to the city
it's good news news um bad news
prosecutor takes 25% of that good news
we keep 75% of it bad news we didn't
know it was coming so we didn't have
this appropriated with the purchase
order they I don't understand why they
don't just withhold it from the money
but in advance whatever so I think you
know we've we've had a lot of these
motions recently I think we're talking
about ways to improve this process and
and part of the work that Matt's working
on is how to ensure that we are
following best practices because there
seems to be some lack of clarity around
that but for now we're going the
conservative right there's things that
are controllable right and there's
things that are not controllable this
seems to be one of those uncontrollable
examples
so any
questions I would like to motion to
approve the payment of the attached
invoice from the Franklin County
prosecutor's office in the amount of
$5,795 75 mve by missad is there a
second second second by Mr Marcelino all
in favor say I I I anyone opposed right
motion passes Madame President I would
like to commend if I may Natalie voder
has been making these these motions for
the past couple times thank you for the
language and for your festi isness thank
you Natalie I would also like to thank
Natalie we're all thankful we are very
thankful couple just uh committee
updates team Bexley t-shirts for the um
pedals for p pancakes and Jersey
sponsors are due this Thursday February
29th if anyone knows of anyone who would
like to Ortho ones on there they're
supporting um but if anyone else knows
of anyone who would want to be on those
t-shirts the uh pedal for pancakes
t-shirts get worn again and again so
it's definitely worth your time and then
this year from an equitable standpoint
um Team Bexley is giving everyone a
jersey instead of asking the writers
actually as May Kessler and I have had
that experience in the past to purchase
them everyone's getting them so another
good sponsorship
opportunity wants to used jerseys I have
a lot right yeah yes you do yes you
do that J so reach out to me if you'd
like to if if you know someone connect
me please and then again I as you know
I'm going to keep reminding everyone
April 6 Bravo 6PM Jeffrey Mansion end of
report have a p on you thing to share to
piggyback out of you
yes which is that there if I may sorry
is there is good news ahead relative to
the route this year for Bexley and
that's all I'm gonna
say a precursor and that never was said
that's
right all right thank you Miss sad Miss
fible Recreation and Parks no
report all right uh service and
environment uh Mr Silverman thank you
madam president um I met with some
advisor boards this past month I want to
recognize um a high school student
cydney Swindle and her participation
with the city to build the newest little
free Pantry at shneider Park this has
been a mission with darn and others for
a long time that will service the
Ferndale Mayfield Community then the
next closest was Alan Creek at Life
Church I believe that they were going to
um the student Miss Swindle through the
global Scholars Program uh built it at
no cost of the city and I presented some
pictures and I'll get those updated to
everybody um but her project was around
food scarcity this was how she completed
it and to piggyback on that the Chamber
of Commerce has a leap of kindness event
on the 29th where they're going to work
on filling Every Little Pantry in the
43209 zip code so if you would like to
help you can either just go and restock
them or get with Brian jury and he will
take donations um Miss Swindle also is
taking donations to fill the little free
pantri Schneider for the next two months
um I can provide the information as well
um
there's so the Chamber of Commerce is
hosting of Lea of Kus event on February
29th thank you for the clarification on
Leap Day this year um and then miss
Swindle was doing one specific to the
little free pantri Schneider Schneider
and she is collecting donations with the
multiple drop off points uh also esac
had a meeting on the 20th and they are
doing an event on March 2nd with the
schools to do a kids clothing swap so if
you have any children that are wanting
to go swap clothes they can go to the C
complex on the 2 and participate in
circular Thrift and bexi school students
clothing Swap and that's end of my
report thank you fantastic um Mr
Marcelino zoning and development hi too
I'm thankful for
Natalie on March 4th we have a cic and
land use meeting on March 14th we have
an ARB meeting um you all should have
now received uh an updated uh office
hours Excel spreadsheet Natalie I would
just ask that if on Friday when you send
out the uh note that goes to some people
in the community if you don't have
anybody let me know and I'll pick a day
and do it then um in regards to
ordinances that are um tabled I think
that we've had kind of a backup and they
all happen to be mine so I just wanted
to throw it out to council as to what my
plans are in terms of addressing them um
now these are subject to change but I
would ask for Council to consider uh the
Livingston Avenue uh zoning ordinance
for our next meeting for a potential
vote um if you do not feel comfortable
with that I would ask that you reach out
uh to Monique um or
uh make it known within the uh laws of
the sunshine as they say in regards to
vicious animal that would then go after
that we will not do these all at once
but vicious animals will be discussed
after we finish the Livingston uh zoning
ordinance and then we will address the
marijuana cultivator and dispensary uh
ordinance
40-23 after vicious animals um unless
somebody comes to me and says that we
really need to switch and get people
marijuana in the streets of Bexley
before we address the dog issues but
we'll see just kidding man that's all
thank you very detailed timeline Mr
Marcelino thank
you uh that's right that's right um
strategic and Health Mr Hurley you're
gonna have to top
that uh well well yes as Sam noted as
Council marcelin noted we have cic and
land use next
Monday um in terms of strategic Retreat
so thank you all for your responses to
the doodle poll unfortunately there is
not a date that works for all of us
before Bexley school spring break so I
will get with President Lamy and Natalie
and we will find uh some dates that work
in April and uh redo a doodle poll I
think um just based on my conversations
with you all it seems like um weekdays
you know afternoon evenings seem to be
best for everyone's busy schedules but
we get that scheduled for after spring
break when we um clear some of these
other issues um I had mentioned and
venue will be the library um so we'll
get that locked in with Ben over at the
library as well um I mentioned at the
last meeting I intended to bring forward
a resolution related to uh transgender
youth um I'd hope to do that today the
language of the resolution is um I think
good to go I've shared it with several
folks in the community um you know in my
conversations with you know hope they
don't mind me mentioning know the mayor
and also Council Mar they've imparted
some some good wisdom and some good
insights and and so one thing I'm I'm I
want to bring forward with that is some
ideas for what else we can do besides
and resolution um you know it's it's
it's a nice gesture but it is just the
gesture and I'd like to find some more
concrete ways we can show support for
this community um and so I'll be working
on that but I it is my intention there
will be a resolution at the next council
meeting um with some other ideas to
follow maybe some things we can workshop
at our Retreat things like that so thank
you
thank you Mr Hurley uh Mr markham's not
able to join us tonight but he did share
with me um the comment that I shared
earlier with you was that uh the tree
and garden commission had unanimously
approved the Commonwealth unification
resolution so I appreciate him sharing
that with me
um any public
comments no all right with that I'm
going to um adjourn until our next
meeting have a good night thanks every
better