09/06/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 9/6/2005 Councilman Tallon, chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) At the end of the special Council meeting on August 30, the Finance Committee reconvened to discuss an ordinance to hire a special counsel for tax review issues. This issue was brought to Council by both the Law Dept. and the Finance Dept. The committee discussed the issue and recommended the legislation be drawn up and it would be considered under suspension. That issue will be introduced tonight. Councilman Barker, chairperson of the Recreation, Public Parks & Buildings Committee met on September 6. Present were Council members Barker, Gareau and Nashar; Council members Tallon, Miller and President Kennedy; Mayor O'Grady, Law Director Dubelko, Safety Director Limpert. An informal meeting was held with Cingular representatives to discuss a cell tower at North Olmsted Park. Their proposal is a tower either right behind the Senior Center or where the existing restrooms are. After discussion of can it be moved elsewhere, does it have to be in the park, can it be by the new fire station, could it be by City Hall, they showed the committee a 150 foot flag pole tower, which is not real disruptive but it is a tower. After much discussion, it was decided by all the Council members to have Cingular back for a more informative discussion at a future time. Councilman Barker made the following statement: "Many of the questions I'm presenting tonight to the administration on behalf of the residents of Ward 2 have been asked and answered, but I do think they need to be repeated. The residents I serve are upset, mad and frustrated. Many of them understand 3.5" in 25 minutes. They do not want to hear who else had problems or storm of the century or decade or North Olmsted's annual storm. They want to know where were the pumps? Why weren't they out before the storm? In the past, they have always been placed out at many locations in Ward 2 when rain was predicted just in case they were needed. I think most of us will admit that the pumps most likely would not have helped those first 25 minutes, but seeing them would at least shown that we as a city were trying. Mayor, I am not pointing blame towards you. Mr. Driscoll, I am not pointing at you either. You haven't been here long enough to understand the frustration of Ward 2 residents. Flooding in the past was always a hot item. I guess the questions would be if maybe maintenance has dropped off some, starting with the previous administration. The city moved 3 or 4 employees to WWTP from the Service Dept, to be the cleaning culverts, ditches and storm sewer team because of budget cuts. Have those employees been doing that work? Can it be documented? Have we been doing preventive maintenance? When was the last time the VAC truck did a sweep of the storm drains in the city, especially Ward 2 where a lot of history of flooding has occurred? Do cleaning streets more than once a year help in the maintenance of storm sewers? Does the vegetation in Westlake just past North Olmsted's border along with the decrease in width of Hall Ditch contribute to the problem? Ward 2 residents were asking me these questions, and I hope we will have answers. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we had answers but I still believe that these need to be asked. The residents don't want sympathy, they want solutions. We then had another storm August 27. It was 1.1" in 30 minutes if memory serves me correctly. I called the Police Dept. after the rain subsided, and they had not had any flooding calls on the emergency lines I was told. Saturday night a resident form Chase Dr. called to say his basement didn't flood but the street did. It wasn't hydro-brakes, it was possibly a clogged sewer drain. I put out a memo to have that checked. Monday evening, the 29t", I received a call from a Deerfield Drive resident, his story was a little different. Deerfield Dr. also had water on the street, but he had 4 %2" of water in his basement on the 27th with 1.1" of rain. On the 20th with 3.5" of rain, he had 4" 14