08/03/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 8/3/99 3) Rita Wingenfeld, City Hall receptionist, retired on July 31 after 10 years of service. 4) The installation of the HVAC system at the Rec Center is on schedule. 5) A public meeting was held on July 28 to listen to a proposal by RTA regarding a Park-n-Ride facility on the property adjacent to the northwestern area of the Sunset Oval development. (Greenhouse property) About 70 residents were present, and concerns were raised about fumes, noise and whether other locations had been considered. 6) Crocker Road update: NOACA, which covers four counties, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain, makes recommendations to the State of Ohio as to funding of road projects. The recommendations by NOACA are made to the Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC), which is a statewide council created by the Ohio Department of Transportation. The council relies very heavily on regional planning organizations such as NOACA to award monies for specific projects. There is currently about $300,000,000 statewide which is available. The projects listing from NOACA totals about $150,000,000, and Crocker Road was again left off the top ten Tier 1 funding list. This meant Crocker Road would fall into Tier 2 with possible funding not guaranteed for the next three to six years. With a Tier 1 category funding, the indication is that funding would probably make the project a go, as funding probably would be approved by the State of Ohio. At the July 9 meeting, representative Mayor Clough made a motion to amend the Tier 1 list to include Crocker Road. Ensuing discussion resulted in the Tier 1 list being sent back to the NOACA subcommittee for further review as to which projects should be on the Tier 1 list. Subsequently, the subcommittee added two projects to the Tier 1 listing, bringing the total up to 12. Crocker Road was one of the two made a part of the new Tier 1 list. This new Tier 1 list will be considered for recommendation by NOACA at a meeting on August 13 in Mentor, Ohio. Delays in the Crocker Road construction are costing North Olmsted money. Our roads .are taking a pounding because of the additional traffic on them. When the Crocker Road project was first scheduled to be built, the cost was about $4 million to $5 million, which meant that the city's share was about $350,000. Today, we are looking at a cost of approximately $20 million, which means our share has climbed to about $1.4 million. Law Director Gareau: 1) On June 16, the Law Department met with attorneys from the Chamber of Commerce concerning possible settlement of the federal district court action. The Chamber rejected any settlement which did not include substantial attorney's fees and repeal of the provisions of the code eliminating lawful non-conforming status of existing pole signs. As a result of that meeting, the matter was sent to the magistrate for final recommendations. 2) On June 18, a letter was sent to the Attorney General's office indicating that the city requested the findings against the Service Director concerning vacation leave be abated. We have not yet received any response from the Attorney General's office. 3) On July 1, members of the Law Department attended a hearing in Common Pleas Court in the case of State of Ohio vs. Russell. Mr. Russell is the truck driver who was acquitted of any criminal liability for the death of another motorist at Brookpark and Lorain. He wanted the city to pay the costs of storage of his truck while it was being held as evidence in the criminal case. We refused to agree to pay any of that cost because basically most of the time that it was being held was under the direction of the Cuyahoga ~.~,, Wit,: 2 ....~_~, .._.~,~.h„ ..,eF_ .