06/19/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 6/19/2007 6) Attended a NOCOP board meeting on June 13. We were offered three vehicles with a 20% match, but accepted two because we only had two vans that were in need of replacement. These vans are going to be an on-going process by using the GCRTA to purchase vans in bulk and utilize federal funding. The three communities pay $3,700/$3,800 as our share of a van, which is a very good deal. 7) On June 14, met with John Petty and Matt Stuczynski from Nat City Investments. John Petty, an investment banker for 30 years with National City Bank, is retiring. He has a lot of corporate history on the City of North Olmsted. He has provided leadership, advice, professionalism and definitely friendship and camaraderie. He will be missed. 8) The Ohio House of Representatives and Senate passed versions of a statewide franchise fee for cable. Cable provides about $360,000 to $370,000 of revenue to the General Fund every year to North Olmsted. Law Director Dubelko asked Todd Hunt, an expert in the area of telecommunications, to provide a summary to her. He explained that after the compromise version gets worked out, there will be a 5% cap on the statewide franchise. North Olmsted is fortunate to have a 5% franchise. Some communities exceed that. Additionally, we will still continue to receive our local franchise fees on the existing services they provide, but it may go down somewhat. Law Director Dubelko commented that the House version will probably pass, and the Governor is not expected to veto the bill. There may be some opportunities for our two cable franchisees to opt out of the contract so we go into the statewide franchise. There might be some adjustment to our revenues, but it should not be significant. Mayor O'Grady noted the Ohio Senate had accepted the House version just today. The expectation is it will go to the Governor and be approved without his signature. Councilman Ryan requested the Finance Director provide, before the first Council meeting in August, ahalf--year report in the same format as the monthly reports, and she agreed to do so. Council President Kennedy, reported on two Committee-of--the-Whole meetings: 1) The first meeting was held on June 7 at the North Olmsted Library. The subject to be discussed was the renovation to the North Olmsted Library. Present were President Kennedy and Council Members Orlowski, Tallon, Gareau, Barker and Jones; Dianne Discenzo, North Olmsted branch manager; Judith Cramer, branch service administrator for Cuyahoga County; Tracy Strobel, deputy director of Cuyahoga County library system; Julia Jacobs and Anthony Fini from RCU Architects. There is roughly $980,000 available for renovation to the library. The proposal made would spend about $497,000. The concentration is on five main areas: multi-purpose room, homework center, restrooms, children's area, stairway A and vestibule. The homework would be located in the basement area which is currently unfinished. The main discussion centered around renovations to the children's section, which according to the proposal would be enlarged and visually enhanced with an ox cart and a barn that children can explore. The proposal also calls for changing the way the shelves are arranged to keep the children kind of out of the main area, but not cut them off totally. There are a number of computers in the children's area which causes disruption to the adult users. Council Members took a tour of the library to look at the various sections firsthand. Some of the statements brought up 6