09/16/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/16/2003 Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane Extends a public apology to Mr. Dial if he thought the recall was being impugned. He actually signed the petition. That does not mean he would vote for the recall, but believes people should have the opportunity to make a choice. The Mayor corrected him in that the issue was not an ethics issue, but a criminal charge. The Mayor has been vindicated through due process. Regarding Mr. Burns' comments, he noted that about 65% of property taxes go to the schools, about 15% to the city. We have to live off of these budgets. To shift the burden from the schools, the city went way, way out on a limb building a library. Most communities use school funding and school bond issues to build Libraries, such as the Mayfield Regional Library and the Fairview Park Library. He noted that a large tax base was lost by removing the expensive properties on Lorain Road for the new library site. Are the schools going to ask for more money to make up for what they lost? Finance Director Copfer noted that the City of Strongsville also funded their library. Mr. Lambert questioned the amount being paid for leaf collection this year. Mrs. Copfer said she believed the cost last yeaz was $179,000. Mr. Lambert said that was double what was paid three or four years ago, and the city may want to re-evaluate the contract. Council members Gareau and Miller said they believed that the city should and planned to take bids on leaf collection for next year. It was generally agreed by Council members and the Mayor that a more flexible scheduling procedure was needed to inswe that leaves are collected when they fall and not left until April. Patricia Deis, 26893 Sweetbriar. ^ Asked the Service Director if the city could put asphalt down on Sweetbriar before the winter weather as there are huge chunks broken out of the street. It is a safety hazard for children and other pedestrians. She was working in her yard yesterday and was almost hit when a car kicked up a large chunk of the street. Service Director Driscoll said, as far as making repairs before winter, he will take a look at that during the next week to get it on a schedule and address the serious holes in the street. As to permanent repairs, he does plan to put in place some type of a street/pavement condition rating system over the course of the next several months so that conditions of all our streets can be evaluated. In this way, the streets or portions of streets that need attention first can be prioritized. We will take a systematic and reasonable approach to making repairs. ^ Mrs. Deis felt there was a problem with Mr. Lambert's semantics. The Mayor wasn't vindicated by the grand jury. That is not the purpose of the grand jury-it determines neither guilt or innocence. A Grand jury's prominent responsibility is to see if there is sufficient evidence to prosecute. At any time that new evidence becomes available, that can be presented to the grand jury and reopened. Janet Saringer, 23336 Stoneybrook Drive, asked that the Service Director look at the problems on Claque Road north of Lorain. The curb lane is mostly potholes, and people are crossing the yellow line to avoid hitting them causing a safety hazard. Mr. Gareau said that north Claque is scheduled to be done in 2004. With regard to south Claque, the City Engineer, Service Director and Safety Director have had discussion with the county 16