05/05/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 5/5/99 2) A Mother's Day Brunch will be held at Springvale. Last year, there were ~, approximately100 reservations and there are already approximately 275 reservations for this year. 3) We are steadily moving forward on securing the resources needed to construct the skateboard park facility. Presently, we have $18,000 due to the recent contributions of $10,000 from Mr. & Mrs. Robert Crider in memory of their daughter Jolee and $1,000 from Mary Creadon in memory of her brother Jim. We are confident that we will reach our goal of approximately $100,000 in voluntary contributions and services in kind this year so as to allow the construction to proceed. 4) Progress is being made on an agreement with RTA to construct a new bus garage in North Olmsted. The construction costs will be provided by RTA. 5) Members of the administration and City Council attended a meeting last Wednesday organized by the school district to address some of the problems and concerns raised by students and parents as a result of the Littleton, Colorado incident. The school administration is to be commended for taking apro-active approach. The city pledges its full support to the schools to provide protection and take whatever steps are necessary within our powers to be of assistance to the schools. In keeping with this, when the police are making their rounds in the vicinity of the high school, the officer will park the car and make a presence by walking through the school. 6) This past Monday, Ed Bak was sworn in as the new Fire Chief. We are confident that Chief Bak will continue the tradition of excellent fire protection in the city. 7) Approximately 40 states have already or are in the process of bringing the benefits of industry competition to their utility customers. The gas companies in some areas of Ohio are bringing deregulated price savings to their customers. East Ohio Gas has delayed its deregulated entrance state-wide because of internal billing problems. Hopefully, they will get that problem worked out before the end of the year. With regard to the electric utilities, the issues are many and complex and involve, for example, the compensation for stranded costs to the utilities, replacement of tax dollars lost from possible lower reassessment of utility personal property values and opt-out versus opt-in provisions. He has formed a Utility Deregulation Advisory Committee to be headed by resident Tom Herbster. Members of the committee will include representatives of Congressman Kucinich, House Representative Sally Kilbane and State Representative Robert Spada, North Olmsted Chamber of Commerce, North Olmsted City Schools, First Energy Corporation, East Ohio Gas Company and the AFL-CIO. Law Director Gareau: 1) During his absence while recuperating from surgery, Assistant Law Director Jim Dubelko worked very hard and attended to numerous issues. For example, the Personnel Director was presented with an updated sexual harassment policy and the BZD Committee was assisted in revisions regarding the Landmarks Commission ordinance. Today, in his first meeting since returning to work, he met with Mayor Musial, Service Director Bohlmann and NOMBL managers Tom Terbrack and Jim Christman to begin discussions about the proposed new operating agreement with RTA. This agreement will include the new bus garage. 2) Correspondence has been received from the U. S. EPA regarding a request for more information relative to the city's request for termination of the consent decree. 2