City of Reading, Ohio

CITY OF READING, OHIO COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES – REGULAR SESSION MAY 15TH, 2012 – 7:30PM

CALL TO ORDER President of Council Cris Nesbitt called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

INVOCATION AND PLEDGE Mr. Nesbitt led those in attendance in the Our Father and the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL Council Members Present – Mr. Roth, Mr. Gertz, Mr. Lynd, Mr. Albrinck, Mr. Lindeman, Mr. Ashbrock, Mr. Fischesser. Motion made by Mr. Ashbrock, seconded by Mr. Lindeman to excuse Mr. Roth and Mr. Gertz who were absent at time of roll call. Motion passed by a 5-0 voice vote. Both arrived for the council meeting at 8:00pm.

Other City Officials Present – Mayor Robert Bemmes, Law Director Dave Stevenson, President of Council Cris Nesbitt, Safety Service Director Patrick Ross, Clerk of Council Scott Heckle.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES Without objection, the minutes of the May 1st, 2012 regular session of council were approved.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Mayor Bemmes welcomed Commander Joe Smith and Bill Waller from the American Legion. The members of the American Legion Post 69 handed out awards to Daniel Schuster of JMA and Bobby Adleta of Adleta Construction for their large donations to the 4th of July Festival fireworks.

READING OF COMMUNICATIONS Mr. Heckle read the Mayor’s court report from April, 2012. Total amount collected - $19,540. Bench warrants issues – 198. Cases heard – 897. Motion made by Mr. Fischesser, seconded by Mr. Albrinck to mark the communication received and filed. Motion passed by a 5-0 voice vote.

REPORTS OF OFFICALS Mayor (Robert Bemmes) – Mr. Bemmes offered condolences to the family of US Marine Sergeant John Patrick Huling who died in action. He encouraged everyone to pray for our military personnel. He offered condolences to the family of Ralph Quarry. He also offered condolences to the family of Tom Gertz. Tom is the brother of Councilman Tony Gertz.

Mayor Bemmes congratulated the Reading High School boys baseball and girls softball for becoming CHL and sectional champions. The 24th Annual Settlement Day dinner was held on May 4th at VYO Haffey Field House. Carroll Carpenter and Spanglers Café were honored at the dinner. He reminded everyone that the fireworks for the 4th of July festival this year are around $13,000 and even with the $2,000 donations from both JMA and Adleta Construction, we are still looking for more sponsors. He reminded everyone that we are running our city as efficiently and effectively as possible. Citizens with any comments or concerns about our city are encouraged to call city hall. He asked coaches to bring supplies to help prepare the ball fields before use. Jim Rack has not been replaced and he put in more than 8hrs a day into the fields. More people need to step forward with help on the 13 city ball fields. He encouraged all to visit our city website at www.ReadingOhio.org. He reminded everyone that the VYO Memorial Day Festival will begin Friday May 25th and runs through Monday May 28th. The Memorial Day Parade is May 28th. The COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MAY 15TH, 2012 PAGE 2

American Legion Band will be participating in the parade for the 67th consecutive year with Charlie Lohmueller and Chick Elfers participating in every one. We had another outstanding year for our Reading schools. Last Thursday Mr. Bemmes went to Saints Peter and Paul Academy where the Archbishop was present and spoke to the students. Last Saturday Mayor Bemmes attended a Veterans recognition ceremony at Trinity Community Church. Mr. Bemmes was excited to see Tony Pike get his shot to workout for the Cincinnati Bengals and he hopes Tony makes it on their roster this fall.

In the month of April there were 125 EMS incidents, 42 fire incidents. Chief Kaiser, Lieutenant Gallo and Ryan Androne conducted the final inspection on the new aerial truck in Appleton, WI. The truck is scheduled to be delivered this week. The truck should be in service by July, 1st 2012. The police and fire dept. went to Reading High School for the Prom Promise Program. Car break- ins and thefts continue to be an issue. Please take all of your valuables into you homes and do not leave them in your car. Chief Snow reports that man power is an issue right now due to injuries and vacancies.

Safety Service Director (Patrick Ross) – Mr. Ross had a meeting with JMA regarding the Galbraith Rd. improvements project. The MRF funds will count as our local match for this project. Reading will be advertising bids for the Knollcrest Drive project starting May 21st. There will be a board of zoning appeals meeting next month. Two cases will be heard, one for a 6’ fence and one for use of a business that is already in operation. There is a picture of our new aerial ladder truck on the city’s Facebook page. It is expected that the truck will be in the Memorial Day Parade. Four times from June-September the Reading Historical Society will be holding a Benson St. Historical Walk. Information for the walks are on our website at www.ReadingOhio.org. May is stroke awareness month and our fire department has put up some information regarding this on the city website. The final pool signups are this Saturday from 8am-12pm. Susan Slavey says there has been a great turn out. May 24th, DOW is having a community advisory council meeting from 6pm-7:30pm. Contact Bethany Dale at 772-7903 for more information. Mr. Ross has spoken to a gentleman who works with Duke Energy who is interested in expediting the removal of all excess poles throughout Reading. With the help of our service department, they went around and retrieved all of the pole numbers that will be potentially removed. Due to the heavy rain there has been a lot of flooding especially on a current project at 4th St and Benson. Mr. Ross contacted the people working at that project and the issue has been resolved (excess mud & muddy water). Mr. Ross also attended the mass with Mayor Bemmes at Saints Peter and Paul Academy and said the Archbishop blessed the first communicant’s rosaries and crosses. The grass between the hash marks on the Reading football field is being replaced. Mr. Ross thanked Mr. Shorter who had posted some older pictures of Reading on the Reading Facebook page.

Law Director (Dave Stevenson) – No official report.

COUNCIL COMMITTEE REPORTS

Utilities, Lands and Buildings (Don Lindeman) – Mr. Lindeman reminded the citizens of Reading to continue recycling. Every time he goes down by Haffey Field House to drop off his recycling, there are usually 2-3 people there who are also dropping off their recyclables. Mr. Lindeman also mentioned that we did have our Reading Clean Up day a few weeks ago but we as citizens can do that everyday, not just once a year. Please report any vandalism right away. COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MAY 15TH, 2012 PAGE 3

Mayor Bemmes mentioned to Mr. Ross that maybe in the next city newsletter we could supply some information on how to get recycling bins at their homes. He feels it would encourage more residents to do so. Mr. Fischesser mentioned it may be a good idea to put up that information on the city webpage. Mr. Ross said Rumpke may be sending residents in Reading information in the mail regarding this matter.

Zoning, Planning and Environment (Mr. Ashbrock) – Mr. Ashbrock reported that his committee has been meeting to discuss some updates to the zoning code specifically in regards to the sign ordinance. That conversation between his committee will continue. Mr. Ashbrock scheduled a meeting for his committee for June 12th. Mr. Ashbrock read a letter he received from Jennifer Eismeier who is the Executive Director of the Mill Creek Water Shed Council of Communities. The letter asked what our needs were in regards to change. They plan on holding a symposium in Reading to discuss these matters. Mr. Ashbrock plans on taking a vacation day this Friday to participate in a tour the group is conducting of the upper mill creek water shed. Mr. Ashbrock thanked the Reading citizens who have participated in the various cleanups. He encourages all residents to strive to improve their own properties and he believes it will pay dividends to all of us down the road. Mr. Ashbrock says that our parks are in very good shape.

Laws and Contracts (Lee Roth) – No Official Report.

Public Health and Safety (Randy Fischesser) – Mr. Fischesser’s committee met this evening with Asst. Chief Owens. Neither Chief Kaiser nor Chief Snow was able to attend. The main purpose of the meeting was to review the budget. The budget for the paid on call is at 60% already for the year. That line item was cut from last year and will have to be adjusted. Fuel costs are a concern also. He plans on meeting with Mr. Ross regarding Kim’s payout. Mr. Fischesser and Asst. Chief Owens discussed the new aerial ladder truck. The truck is expected to be in Reading on Friday. It will not be completely in service until around July 1st. The old aerial ladder truck is no longer around. Ladder 40 (Evendale) will be our 1st in ladder company with Blue Ash being our 2nd in ladder company. Mr. Fischesser reported that in 2011, 17% of the squad runs were simultaneous runs. We are one of the few departments who can reliably get (2) squads out at the same time if needed. Mr. Fischesser asked residents to remember with school letting out soon to be on the lookout for more children on bicycles and skateboards.

Service (Dennis Albrinck) – Mr. Albrinck reported his committee was supposed to meet the previous Tuesday, but since the legislative session of council was cancelled, the committee did not meet. Mr. Albrinck rescheduled the meeting for June 5th at 6:00pm. Mr. Albrinck spoke with Chief of Public Works Darrell Courtney regarding some of the ideas he has in regard to trying to provide additional space that we need to store the salt that Reading will purchase and have delivered. Those ideas are going to be pursued. This is partly due to the fact that we have 500 additional tons of salt that we must have delivered and we are filled up with what we do have. It was discussed that we need to increase our capacity for salt. Recommendations for the amount of salt we should have are usually 2-2 ½ times what your annual average is (ours is 1200 tons). We can currently store 800 tons. It was also discussed what Reading is going to do make sure that we protect the aquifer from the salt runoff. The service department has been painting street lines throughout the city and it looks very nice. Poles are being painted on Benson St. and Reading Rd. COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MAY 15TH, 2012 PAGE 4

Recreation (Tom Lynd) – Mr. Lynd reported that the service department is working very hard getting the pool ready for the summer. The Board of Health inspection at the pool will be May 29th.

Mr. Ross reported that one of the cracks in the pool has gotten wider than it has been in the past. A company will be hired so a large patch ($2,000). Sooner or later this needed to be done.

Mr. Lynd reminded citizens that residents who want their children play on the swim team must be a member of the pool. All it would take is a one person membership to join the swim team. The last day to sign up for the pool at the reduced rate is this Saturday from 10am-12pm. The sod is starting to be placed down on the football field. There will be a committee meeting on May 22nd at 6:00pm to discuss the possibility of limiting the amount of games played on the field to make sure the new sod lasts a lot longer.

Finance (Anthony Gertz) – Mr. Gertz spoke about the income report that all members of council had received. Reading was up 3/10 of 1% for the month of April which is not a positive response. We are only up 1% for the year to date. The goal was to maintain 5% for the year. Mr. Gertz said it was disappointing that withholdings was down 3.4% from this year to last. The Capital Improvement Fund had a deposit of $147,000. Mr. Ross said that he called the county and they said the second deposit will be less. Mr. Gertz asked if council could hold of passing the ordinance regarding the Nivison property until further discussions were had.

OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Roth mentioned that the Democrats had their 13th Annual Ron Brinkman / Frank Carnevale golf outing at Glenview Golf Course. They then ate at Vorhees Park where Mr. Roth said many compliments were made about the facility. Former Police Chief Greg Hilling’s team won the event.

Mr. Gertz asked if Mr. Heckle had received a letter back from President Barack Hussein Obama regarding high gas prices. Mr. Heckle responded that he had not received any such letter.

Mr. Fischesser encouraged all residents to get their flags out and show their respect for those who dies for our country.

READING OF ORDINANCES

An ordinance authorizing the auditor to pay the amount of $153,943.33 from the EPA Brownfield Grant Fund (225-265-5800) for payment with respect to the Nivison property public improvement bond anticipation note and declaring and emergency.

Motion made by Mr. Gertz, seconded by Mr. Lynd to suspend the rules requiring a second and third reading. Motion FAILED by a roll call vote of 5-2 with Mr. Ashbrock and Mr. Fischesser voting NO.

FIRST READING ONLY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MAY 15TH, 2012 PAGE 5

An ordinance authorizing the Auditor to transfer $200,000 from the city earnings tax fund to the general fund and declaring an emergency.

Motion made by Mr. Roth, seconded by Mr. Fischesser to suspend the rules requiring a second and third reading. Motion carried by a 7-0 roll call vote. Motion made by Mr. Fischesser, seconded by Mr. Lynd to adopt the ordinance. Motion carried by a 7-0 roll call vote.

ORDINANCE ADOPTED ORDINANCE NO. 2012-36

ADJOURNMENT There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm.

CRIS NESBITT SCOTT HECKLE President of Council Clerk of Council