02/03/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 2/3/2009 because it creates wealthy and poor districts. We must have a reduction in property taxes across the board and find alternative sources of revenue to cover that. He emphasized that point last week during a teleconference with the Governor's staff and will continue to emphasize it. He has high hope we can see true reform to education across the board, and specifically funding. 4) Spoke briefly with the Governor about the local government fund which is a great concern to us as it accounts for more 10% of our General Fund. The indications we have back from Columbus are that the local government fund will be held harmless. Of course, it's the legislative branch that finally determines the budget. His administration will continue efforts to protect the local government fund. These are very challenging times; but, if we have the drive and vision to have true and open deliberations, we will emerge from these difficult times as an even better city. 5) The Senior Center is taking appointments from citizens age 55 and over for income tax assistance. 6) Residents whose income is less than $18,200 for an individual or $24,500 for a couple, are encouraged to apply for the Home Energy Assistance Program. Qualified residents will receive aone-time only credit on their gas bills for the winter months. Contact Community Life Services Director Dailey for more information. 7) City's new and improved website was launched at the end of last week; it is a massive improvement over what we have done in the past. Thanks to all departments and to Council for providing the necessary information to assist our Network Administrator in this project. Our most profound congratulations to the IT Dept. and to Director Farver and to Mark Urbanowicz for the great work they did. 8) The IT and the Fire departments have worked very closely to implement the new electronic transfer of EMS runs to our billing company which will speed up claims processing and speed the return of dollars to the city's funds. 9) The city's Third Party Administrator for worker's comp conducted supervisory training meetings in January to explain our new self-insurance program. 10) Fire fighter Todd Kirkpatrick appealed his layoff as Assistant Fire Chief to Civil Service on January 12. The appeal was denied at the meeting of January 26. 11) The administration has initiated a new effort to create along-range cemetery improvement plan for Coe and Butternut Ridge cemeteries. Speared on by the work of North Olmsted High School SITES student Phil Tomko, this project has attracted the attention and support of the Landmarks Commission and the Ohio Historical Society. The plan will include physical improvements such as signage, fencing and headstone restoration. Those interested in joining in this effort are urged to contact Planning Director Kim Wenger. 12) The EPA's public hearing on Suburban Auto has been changed to March 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the North Olmsted Public Library. 13) In January, we received 40.5 inches of snow, barely missing the record set in 1978 of 42.8 inches. That snow in 1978 was amazing, and we almost caught those numbers. Thanks go to the Service crews who again have done an excellent job of keeping up. We continue to make improvements and adjustments in the attack for major snow events so as to improve response times to our residents. u 2