09/06/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/6/2005 money and/or low interest loans. We have to give the people of each ward a sanitary environment to live in. Twenty-one years or longer living with this problem is horrible. We need to act now. Mayor O'Grady said that, as an employee of the WWTP, Mr. Herbster should be aware of the significant improvements that have occurred-not only in the infrastructure in our city over the past 10 years but also in the operations of the plant. Mr. Herbster noted that former environmental engineer Dennis Long had identified problems in areas of the city but nothing has been done. We cannot ignore this problem any more, and we cannot continue to put raw sewage on the streets. 3) Dr. Mike Miller, 26728 Driscoll, said then years ago he got about an inch of water in his basement. Since that time, he has spent a considerable amount of money having his basement waterproofed. This year, he got 10 inches of water. Part of that was with the sump pump and three submersible pumps running at the same time. It was still coming in a little faster than it was going out. What he recalls was after the last storm 10 years ago, everything was going to be taken care of. Now he hears the Mayor, respectfully and nicely say-it's a big storm, oh, well. This somewhat parallels his impression from what he heard at the federal level a week or so ago. And it troubles him-as opposed to saying, okay, what can be done. His next door neighbor had no water, but he is just close to the line. It's tough to hear-oh, well. Mayor O'Grady said he hears and understands Dr. Miller's frustration, and he shares it. As he has explained, we simply cannot build to the capacity to handle such a storm. We don't have the money. He could easily make people happy and tell them something different from that. He could say he is going to build something over the next four years that's going to handle the capacity of storm like that, but that's not true. It's not truthful; it's not realistic. If blaming the mayor of the city for that kind of a storm is some kind of solace, then he has broad shoulders and will take that. But he is going to say as directly and clearly as he can what he is able to do and what he is not able to do anything about. The city officials are not FEMA. They live here and pay taxes too and experience the same things. He too had water in his basement during the storm. What can we do? We can go after sanitary. There are things we can go after, but he won't say he can prevent flooding in that type of storm. 4) Ronald M. Prebis, 18955 Chamberlain Road, Grafton, is a North Olmsted fire fighter and asked what the city is doing to help the people who were victims of hurricane Katrina. He would like to go to the gulf states and help as he is on his vacation. FEMA has put out a request for fire service emergency assistance. They have an urgent need for 1,000 two-person fire fighter teams. Our city was approved by FEMA for atwo-person fire fighter team, and was ready to go, actually should have left Saturday night but was stopped by this city due to a bargaining glitch between the Mayor and our union. The Safety Director said the reason he could not go was a manning problem as the department was short-staffed. However, he is on vacation and will have coverage until the month of November. Why is he still not able to go? Mayor O'Grady said the city is part of an effort to raise funds for the victims of the hurricane. ® He is in contact with the mayor of Cleveland and is working with the mayors and managers 17