02/01/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 2/1/2000 pressure that they exerted upon City Council has been, and continues to be, the issue of pole signs and the amortization and the removal of pole signs. Those issues were not decided by the court, but in the dicta of court it is obvious that the City of North Olmsted, in complying and comporting with the requirements of the First Amendment for time, place and manner, can in fact provide alternate means of expression on pole signs or ground signs. The issue dealing with the amortization is a state issue and not a federal court issue and was not decided by the federal court. It is somewhat disturbing that the Chamber of Commerce and some of their spokesmen have made statements in the newspapers that somehow they have done something great for somebody out there because this adversely impacts on cities across the country. He does not find anything admiral about that. The issue of appeal will not be decided until sometime in April. A new sign code legislation is on the agenda this evening. However, there are adjustments needed to the legislation, particularly with regard to the unique features of the strip shopping center at Great Northern dealing with size, spacing and lettering of signs. He has requested that the ordinance be brought before the BZD Committee before being referred to the Planning Commission. He would hope that this ordinance would be freely, completely and openly debated. We need to zero in on the main issues-to further the health, safety, welfare and morals of the City of North Olmsted, to address aesthetics and to pass this legislation on behalf of the people who live in North Olmsted and not people who merely have businesses in the city. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The Springvale special audit for fiscal year ending 1997 was issued in Columbus on January 13, 2000 and was received in her office on January 19. There were no individual findings for monetary recovery. The auditor's report did, however, give recommendations for improvements into the control processes. These were more detailed, but along the same lines as those made in the regular 1997 audit. Safety Director Tom Jenkins and Springvale manager Marty Young have submitted a response to the audit comments demonstrating the resolution to most of these issues in either 1998 or 1999. 2) Ordinance 2000-11, on first reading today, will create a special revenue fund to record grant reimbursement receipts and expenditures for a federal pass-through grant which was discussed late last year, the STEP grant. This is a selective traffic enforcement program. The police received a $20,000 grant to administer speed and seatbelt enforcement blitzes. This is a reimbursement grant, so the General Fund in the budget that will be presented to Council will have to transfer $20,000 so that the Police Department can expend it before they can be reimbursed for the grant. Mr. Miller, chairperson of the Transportation Committee: 1) The committee met on Tuesday, January 11, to discuss Dover Center traffic concerns. Present were committee chair Paul Miller, committee members McKay and Gareau; Council members Kasler, Limpert, Nashar and O'Grady; Service Director Bohlmann, Finance Director Copfer and Mayor Musial. The committee discussed concerns about southbound traffic backing up on Dover Center at Lorain to nearly the Westlake city line. In summary, it was felt by Mr. Bohlmann that an adjustment in timing of the lights at Dover and Brookpark extension, Dover and Mill and Dover and Lorain Road would most probably assist in ~. alleviating this problem. Mr. Miller indicated that he is preparing a request to limit right 2