03/02/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 3/2/99 Mr. O'Grady, Chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) The committee met on February 23. Present were committee members O'Grady, Kasler and Limpert; Council members Saringer, McKay, Nashar, Gareau and Miller; Mayor Musial; the directors of Finance, Service and Safety. Agenda items were as follows: • Ordinance 99-22, which provides for $1.1 million in borrowing for capital improvements in the areas of slab repair, street lighting, the Gessner Road resurfacing, Brookpark Road phase 2 and the reconstruction of Woodview Road. The only area of contention in the ordinance was the issue of street lighting. The administration has proposed that the most equitable way for the street lighting program to proceed was to have the oldest streets, those which have waited the longest, done first. Paul Miller recommended that the Twin Oaks subdivision be given priority due to the fact that they had requested lights five years ago and were subsequently given an interest survey by the prior administration. Extensive debate followed which resulted in the following polls being taken. The first question put to Council members was: Shall the city proceed with the street lighting program where the oldest streets are given priority over newer streets? This initiative was defeated with Council members Gareau, Nashar, Miller and Kasler voting no and Council members O'Grady, Limpert and McKay voting to put the oldest streets first. Second, following a suggestion that additional borrowing be considered, a poll was taken on the question: Shall the city consider additional borrowing to expand the street lighting program beyond that proposed by the administration? This idea was approved in the poll with Council members Gareau, Nashar, Miller and Kasler voting for additional borrowing and voting against additional borrowing were Council members O'Grady, Limpert and McKay. The chair then pointed out that the votes on the two polls had effectively killed Ordinance 99-22 and debate followed on how best to proceed. It was the recommendation of the administration that, in order not to undo the work that had already been accomplished, no changes be made to Ordinance 99-22, allowing the street lighting program of oldest streets first to proceed. Then, in September or so, Council could reconsider the question of additional borrowing to expand the street lighting program beyond that recommended by the administration. After additional discussion, all Council members voted unanimously to approve that suggestion and Ordinance 99-22. Councilman Nashar noted that $25,000 remained from a failed Issue 2 application for widening the Clague/Lorain intersection and suggested that these funds also be used for the city's street lighting program. This idea was also unanimously approved by the members of Council. The Finance Committee voted to recommend approval of Ordinance 99-22 with members O'Grady and Limpert voting for approval and committee member Kasler voting against approval. • Ordinance 99-23, which provides for the borrowing of $500,000 to fund the Lansing Drive phase 3 storm improvements. It should be noted that this will complete the Lansing Drive project. The committee unanimously recommended approval of Ordinance 99-23. • Ordinance 99-24, which provides for the borrowing of $300,000 to fund the completion of improvements at the N. O. Recreation Center. The committee ''~"'" unanimously recommended approval of Ordinance 99-24. 3