02/24/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Meeting 2-24-03 Page 24 i Mayor Rinker said so our contribution is 300, theirs is 160 and both are trying to get the 600. Mr. Marquardt asked, so what if it doesn't pass, then what are we on the hook for? Council President Buckholtz asked, is it a mandated project-or, I mean--- Mayor Rinker said we made a commitment to the Metroparks that within 3 years we will make good on because it is returning to an ongoing issue that we've had with them. Back about 10 years ago we had Issue 2 dollars but the strategy then was to build a retention basin on the Peirce and Merkel properties which we were acquiring and we had Issue 2 dollars of almost $600,000 to do that and we weren't touching what was downstream. And as anyone that was paying attention knows, that blew up in our faces. But the commitment had been made back then that we had to do something to deal with all this stormwater issue. Mr. Marquardt asked, what kind of commitment do we have? Mayor Rinker said that we were going to work with Metroparks to fix it up. That was Issue 2. Mr. Marquardt said I know, but if this doesn't pass-what kind---are we on the horn or----- Mayor Rinker said I will answer that in 3 years. But we're making a good faith commitment. I We've told them that we're interested in doing this and yes we want to do it. So we're committing the Village to it. I've told him. Dr. Parker asked, why is our portion so much higher? Several people said it's our water. Mayor Rinker said witliout trying to go into reopening this entire issue, this is where we think we can leverage our dollars best, because we never had this kind of opportunity------ and iYs a very public issue and it's a publicly sensitive issue and I want to make sure that everybody knows that Mayfield Village is doing what it can to maintain its responsibility to safeguarding the watershed. And it's a very sensitive issue a11 up and down the Chagrin River. And what we've proven with these projects is that we are putting our money where our mouth is and in the long run I think we benefit even beyond this specific commitment. Council President Buckholtz said for those who don't know, I'll just speak for Tom Cappello not being here. It is a municipality's responsibility to handle the water thaYs passed along to them and it's also, you know, a municipality's responsibility to handle the water as it passes it on. So it's a partnership. Mayor Rinker said let me just-it's a complex of decisions. Don't forget-you know, last year you said we got Issue One dollars. Well that's on the Upper 40 drainage. The Wiley Park end. Now we got that money. We didn't pay for it. That's funding that we get. So if you look at one project alone you can isolate it. And iYs hard for me to convey to everybody to get your arms