09/20/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/28/2005 5) Dottie Chura, 24105 Gessner Road, moved here several years ago and had flooding on August 20. She met a lot of neighbors during the storm, and she didn't know North Olmsted had this problem. A lot of the neighbors are not at the meeting because they think the city does not care. Mayor O'Grady answered the city does care very much. The rapid growth of the city fifty years ago was done without controls. The result was we had massive flooding in the 1970's. The city is now in a position to do something and has done much. We will not allow the sins of the past to be repeated today. Drainage is addressed as contractors go through the process. We have been saddled with making up for mistakes of early years, and there is no magic solution. There are good, dedicated people in the government who care who will do the best they can do to provide the most relief as soon as possible. 6) Trish Kirchner, 3595 Hunter Drive, asked if there is a scheduled maintenance plan and is wondering if there is funding available to apply for to address some of the problems once the city decides what it wants to do. Mayor O'Grady answered that, after August 20, he investigated whether we could find relief for citizens who had damage. He found out we don't fit into one of the niches to qualify. Through FEMA we would have had to have the majority of our community's homes damaged at a rate of about 40% of each household. Service Director Driscoll said, with regard to sanitary sewer cleaning and televising, we try to keep the city on a two-year cycle. Trouble areas come up and they get visited more often. With ditches, we have been through the city two passes cleaning growth, logs, fallen trees, etc. When a storm is coming, we go out and make sure the problem areas where debris gets caught up are cleared from the ditch before the storm. Also, we return there after the storm. We try to systematically go through the city cleaning catch basins. We do have a program where we are consistently trying to go through the city cleaning all sewers and all the related appurtenances. 7) Jerome Barrett, 24125 LeBern Drive, asked what the limit was to require three quotes on purchase orders. Finance Director Copfer said it was $300, and this is policy and not required by legislation. He recommended the city have a procurement officer who would follow the purchase orders and contracts. This would save us money in the long run. 8) Tom Herbster, 4965 Porter Road, said that the Mayor had told him that, because of his comments at the last Council meeting, now the city is going to be looked at for having sanctions for pumping on the streets. He doesn't think that's the reason-the reason is this community has not kept up with upgrading the system. The Mayor asked him at the last meeting what he did to help solve the problem. As an hourly employee, he has discussed this. But he would like to ask the Mayor, as he was a member of Council for over 10 years, what he did to help solve the problem. Mayor O'Grady said there have been many improvements to the infrastructwe over the past 10 years and specific improvements have been made at the WWTP. As a legislator, he was part of providing legislation that was required. As funds were needed to be allocated for repairs and improvements at the WWTP, he took part in discussions and allocated funds. 15