8/19/2014 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 08 -19 -2014 the backyard. That animal shelter has been removed. There have been five sentences imposed, two convictions pending sentencing, three open cases subject to conviction, seven total complaints authorized and awaiting filing and service, three additional complaints referred to the Law Dept. and pending for prosecution and seven complaints remaining unresolved with service issues. Mayor Kennedy in the absence of Director of Finance Copfer: • The June 30th financial reports were distributed to Council along with the quarter review narrative. Councilman Barker, Chairman of the Public Safety, Health & Welfare Committee: The Public Safety Committee met Tuesday August 12, 2014 at 7:45 p.m. Present were committee members Barker and Brossard; President of Council Jones; Council members Hemann, Kearney, Limpert and Schumann; Mayor Kennedy, Safety /Service Director Glauner, residents and business representative, Mr. Chambers. • Discussed first was Ordinance 2014 -52 which is an Ordinance both amending Section 333.03 of the Traffic Code entitled "Maximum Speed Limits; Assured Clear Distance Ahead" and further amending the Traffic Control File of the City of North Olmsted so as to provide for an increase in the speed limit on Stearns Road between Lorain Road and the Westlake Corporation Line from thirty -five miles per hour to forty -five miles per hour, and declaring an emergency. This is a change of speed Ordinance that was suggested to North Olmsted by the City of Westlake, which was also brought before North Olmsted in 2009. Councilman Barker invited Mayor Clough to attend the Finance Committee meeting, but his schedule didn't allow for him to attend. Westlake's Engineer, Mr. Kelly, was also unable to attend. The length of road under consideration for the speed limit increase is .8 of a mile and, combined with Westlake, it would be a total of 1.5 miles. So, when traffic approaches Lorain Road from I480 on Stearns, drivers would go from 35 mph to 45 mph crossing over Lorain. Councilman Barker requested statistics regarding speed on that part of the road for the last year. There were 109 tickets issued with an average speed of 50.5 mph. Of those, 78 were issued in the stretch under discussion. Speed limit is 35 mph with an average speed of 50 mph. In Councilman Barker's opinion, an increased speed of 45 mph may increase the average speed from 50 mph to 55 mph or 60 mph. With a good discussion between Safety Director and Council, the feelings were not in favor by a majority of Council members. The committee heard some emotional pleas from residents saying increased speed will mean more noise between walls as well as a higher chance of accidents by car and with deer. Mr. Chambers said he has seen many close calls at the Lorain intersection and feels an increased speed will be more dangerous. He mentioned to his colleagues that this was brought before North Olmsted before, and eventually the legislation was tabled because of non- support and some requests for some studies were not made. Councilman Barker said that he and Council President Jones were on Council at that time, and their feelings are still the same. Councilman Barker made a motion to recommend approval to Council of Ordinance 2014 -52 which was seconded by Councilman Brossard, and the vote was 2 -0 against the recommendation of Ordinance 2014 -52. 2