08/19/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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;A°v~~. Council Minutes of 8/19/2008 activities and work, senior citizen programs, and inspections. Sean Frye, the Bethesda Regional Director, explained that Bethesda Lutheran Homes is a faith-based entity that has homes in 14 states. The people who will be moving to North Olmsted on MacKenzie currently live in a home on Rocky River Drive, where all but one of them have lived since 1982. Mr. Frye and his associates said that they had to begin looking for a new place for the people to live because the aging process has set in and they needed a home where they could have remodeled bathrooms that are more accessible to them. The home that they currently occupy is older and did not have this capability. The organization said they feel lucky to have found the two homes in North Olmsted, so the pile will be able to live close together and each will have their own rooms. There will be four people in each home. Mr. Frye stressed how committed the organization was to being a good neighbor in our city. He explained that the yards will be kept up and landscaping was to be added. He stated that in the other locations where Bethesda has homes, the property values have increased due to the money spent on upgrading the homes and the care taken on the outside. Staff will be present in the house to assist the individuals with the help they need. The staff people hired by Bethesda have both State required training and additional training required by Bethesda. In addition, the State requires continuing education. Residents present asked questions about parking for staff (there is a driveway and atwo-caz garage), if there was a limit to the number of group homes that can be located on a street (no); and if the license is obtained, can it only be used for these specific homes under this specific organization (yes). In addition, there were questions about the building permits that had originally been obtained, which were issued under the former homeowners name. Safety Director Thomas cleared up that issue by explaining that there is a glitch in one of the computers in the Building Department that defaults to the original homeowners name. When the residents brought that to the city's attention, it was corrected and the permits were issued under the new owner's name. Ms. Weisent offered to have a neighborhood meeting six months after the homes are occupied to meet with the residents on MacKenzie and discuss how things were going. Mrs. Janes expressed thanks to everyone who helped and participated-to the BZD committee for allowing this issue to come before the committee and her fellow Council members and the Mayor for attending the meeting, which was not required but that really helped a lot of people get on the same page about the situation. Thanks to Law Director Dubelko and Asst. Director Heyward for their attention to this matter and hours spent researching on this issue, and for Mr. Dubelko's guidance and comments at the meeting. Thanks to Safety Director Thomas and the hours she and her secretary, Louise Klbane, spent making phone calls and going through permits and the like. Thanks to our Clerk for her help. Thank you to Ann Wesent with the State Department of MRDD, the representatives from the Cuyahoga County Board of MRDD, and the representatives from Bethesda Lutheran Homes who attended the meeting. People came from Columbus and Indiana to be at the meeting in North Olmsted that evening, and to see that level of commitment to the city of North Olmsted from these individuals and the people who work here in our city is refreshing. Councilman Barker, chairperson of the Building, Zoning and Development Committee: 1) The committee met on Tuesday August 12, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Present were committee members Barker, Gazeau and Dailey Jones; Council members Kearney, Mahoney and 10 ~. ~,~»~~