08/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/6/2002 cars from Lorain are making left turns. An arrow should be installed there to keep ~~~~~ traffic moving in the right lane. ~,,. ^ It was brought to his attention that Avon Lake has excess water capacity. He and Mayor Musial have talked about this. Mayor Musial said that he has contacted the mayor of Avon Lake and there is going to be a meeting with both city engineers to look into the possibility of bringing in water from their plant into the City of North Olmsted. They have a capacity of roughly two hundred million gallons a day, and they are only using approximately twetrty-three million to forty million gallons a day. They have excess capacity, and they are willing to sell. In fact, they are in the process of tying into Medina.. Mr. Pangrac suggests the city look at this possibility very closely because the City of Cleveland has a lot of excess capacity since LTV no longer is in business. This puts North Olmsted in a good position to negotiate better water rates. Mayor Musial said the Avon Lake rates are considerably lower than Cleveland's rates. Councilman Gareau said he wrote to the Cleveland Water Department asking the cost of the brochure that was mailed to its customers. He was thinking of Mr. Pangrac when he wrote the letter, and he will share it with him. He believes the cost was in excess of a quarter million dollars in mailing and printing costs to send to every customer of the water district. Mr. Pangrac said he had the same questions about the brochure. He feels that Cleveland is "ripping us ofP' and we really need to take a strong look at doing something for the citizens in the way of water. Dan Dufala, 4466 West Ranchview, commented about the current financial situation the City of North Olmsted finds itself in as reported by the Mayor, Finance Director and department heads at the meeting held on duly 29. ^ Finance Director Copfer stated the administrative fees for Springvale now total $63,000 and she recommends that the fees be waived. Also, she feels the city should transfer $100,000 to the operating account of Springvale so the city can avoid a deficit in a special revenue fund. ^ Under the administrative issues, Safety Director Thomas reported that in the short term we make no more capital expenditures, bid everything over $50, reduce travel, convert cell phones to pagers, refrain from hiring student help in 2003 and reduce the number of fax machines and copiers. Long term goals are to sell off fleet vehicles, review the computer system, upgrade software, sell land, encourage self-supporting programs and look at outsourcing. She also discussed the increasing of many city fees to generate additional revenue. ^ An article in the July 31 edition of The Westlife reports that the city deficit is $744,000 for 2002 and a projected problem of $2.8 million over the next two years. ^ After looking at what little information has been supplied by the administration on the gravity of the financial condition of the city, he can come up with only one word, irresponsibility. It is irresponsible for the administration to believe that by simply eliminating a number of cell phones and pages, $744,000 will be made up. It is irresponsible for the administration to believe that by reducing the number of fax machines and copies, $744,000 will be made up. It is irresponsible for the administration to believe that by not hiring CBE students at minimum wage, $744,000 will be made up. He could continue on with the same arguments for all of 10