09/02/1997 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/2/97 for office space, are now valued at $1,172,000. It should be noted that this brings in about $15,525 of additional taxes to the schools. 5) Recently a new phone system was installed in City Hall which allows people to call in seven days a week, 24 hours a day. During closed hours, the caller can leave voice mail messages. Since the system was installed, we have received 3,000 messages at an average 45 seconds per message. This amounts to 37 1/2 hours of additional input from residents-- all of which we have responded to. 6) The Great Lakes Initiative as currently set up focuses on a chemical standard and a way of reducing mercury levels within an effluent that the city does not believe is efficient. We cannot meet those standards right now, and we believe it would cost $40 to $60 million to meet that level. Our case has been presented to the U. S. EPA. We have been using more of a biological standard--testing the waters downstream and upstream in the Rocky River and into the lake. We have recently been informed by the U. S. EPA that they are not going to change our limits. Since we have achieved their goals by use of a biological standard, the Great Lakes Initiative will be reviewed based on the outcomes achieved by the City of North Olmsted, among other cities, and the State of Ohio. This may bring about changes to the GLI. Our city is now leading the way in cleaning up the Great Lakes--this is a long way to come for a city that was being fined $38 million eight years ago for dumping sanitary sewage in the streets. City Council played a big part in this turn-around by standing firm on the rates and allowing the administration to do the work required. 7) Recently a resident of Ward 4 complained to Councilman McKay about the number of buses on Fitch Road. The facts on this issue are as follows: There are two routes that travel Fitch Road, one being the #89. The #89 is asuburb-to-suburb route which ties in North Royalton, Strongsville, Berea, Olmsted Falls, Olmsted Township and North Olmsted and ends at Great Northern Shopping Center. We had this route years ago, but it was dropped by RTA. We struggled to get it back. It is basically a daytime service from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., with 25 trips per day and 16 trips on weekends. This route helps our peak-to-base ratio considerably, keeping us solvent. The numbers for this route have been steadily increasing, and it now services 715 riders. The second route on Fitch Road is the #64 Flyer, which dates back to the early 1960's. This route makes 6 rush hour trips and services 825 citizens. The total of 31 trips per day on Fitch Road services over 1,500 citizens and is a valuable commodity to the city. The resident also asked if the buses could be switched over to Columbia Road. First of all, that switch would not service the same people. Secondly, Columbia Road is serviced by 34 buses daily. These routes are doing exactly what we want: servicing the people in that area and North Olmsted on a daily basis. The buses are handicapped equipped, and the mid-day service is mainly seniors. These routes are valuable to the city. Law Director Gareau: 1) Regarding the case of Fox vs. the City of North Olmsted, the Law Director had filed a Rule 11 and was granted an award of $2,100 against Mr. Fox's attorney for frivolous conduct. Because the lawyer wasn't a party to the suit, we have filed a nunc pro tunc order with the court asking that he be made a party to it so that the city can collect the $2,100 judgment awarded by the court. ,~. ,,,~, 2