11/20/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11/20/2007 the Mayor sat through two meetings and never made one comment about any of this. This is up to the Mayor's discretion whether he wants to use them or not. This is a tool being put in the Mayor's arsenal to try to protect the wages of people who are struggling. He doesn't see what the problem is, and that's why he votes no. Roll call continued: Barker, yes; Orlowski, no; Tallon, no. The motion failed with four no votes and three yes votes. Responding to Councilman Ryan's comments, Mayor O'Grady said he did sit through meetings and did comment. He feels the changes made in committee were unwise. Reducing the amount for consideration for PLA down to $100,000 is putting it on a level where perhaps PLAs are unrealistic. He thinks the legislation was good as it was, and the changes made damaged the legislation. He thinks it should be reconsidered. Councilman Ryan said he had the opportunity to talk to several union leaders who seemed to be in agreement with this. They were very satisfied this was a good way to protect our union workers here in northern Ohio. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1} Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, spoke about Ordinance 2007-123 which represents a sewer increase. Whether it's going to do the job is doubtful, and that is his concern. He attended the meeting where the presentation of the assessment of our sewer plant was made and felt it was not a broad enough assessment. It does not address the inflow and infiltration problems that the people north of Lorain and lower level areas are going to be facing. Those people are still going to have pumps in their front yards. The study was based on a comparison of the Regional Sewer District to this district, and did not have a comparison with the Rocky River and Lakewood sewer plants. To him, that says the information isn't that accurate. There is also the consideration of whether the sewer plant will be rebuilt just as it is or if other alternative measures are being considered. For instance, channeling some of the sewage at the lower end through Rocky River and developing hookups with that so that the sewer flows its natural path downhill, instead of uphill through lift stations. This would alleviate two problems: (a) the flooding In the lower-lying areas of North Olmsted; (b) the requirement for having the same size sewer plant with the same output facility into what's basically a rather small stream, having to meet critical EPA standards when Rocky River is dumping their sewage out into the lake where it's almost immeasurable whatever their bacteria levels and solids are. This all needs to be considered and studied. He suggests this not be passed until the right approach is determined. There's no doubt in his mind that that sewer plant needs something done with it. But there's a lot of doubt in his mind that the project the city is about to undertake is (a) going to solve the problems that you want to solve and (b) going to get the job done for this amount of money and possibly more. It's going to be a big waste of money if it fails. Mayor O'Grady said this is a sewer rate increase. He believes either Mr. Lambert either misunderstood or did not quite take the time needed to study the issue and study the work that has been done by professionals. What has been presented to Council is a very professional work that continues the good story that this city has to tell about our WWTP. 9