12/6/2016 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12-6-2016 Council also passed a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. January or February might be a good time to take a look at it. This could be a brief meeting or a very long series of meetings depending on what the Council's pleasure is on regulating these marijuana dispensaries. Lastly, the Mayor, Director of Finance Copfer and myself will be in Chicago on December 21 and 22nd to meet with Moody's and discuss our bond rating. To quote a former Mayor, "we have a good story to tell." I think it's going to be well received by Moody's and hopefully the City will see our rating improve to an even higher level than it is now. Council President Jones, Council Committee of the Whole: The Council Committee of the Whole met on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at 7:01 p.m. Present were Council members Barker, Brossard, Kearney, Limpert, Schumann and Williamson; Mayor Kennedy and Safety & Service Director Glauner. The purpose of the meeting was to update Council on the deer culling efforts the City has undertaken in 2016. In 2015, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources met with the City and surveyed the City for deer by helicopter. There were over 240 deer in North Olmsted. There were approximately 25 deer per acre. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources recommendation for cities is 10 to 12 deer per acre. The City decided to pursue culling and Director Glauner indicated to Council just this year there have been 54 car crashes due to deer, of which three were on I-480. The remainder took place on city streets. The City harvested 12 deer in 2016, creating 667 pounds of venison donated to the Cleveland Food Bank. When a City pursues culling, once the deer are harvested the venison is donated to food banks. Council did ask if some could perhaps come back to the City of North Olmsted through our food bank. Director Glauner said he would look into it. The City is going to request approximately 125 permits from the Ohio Department of Natural resources for 2017. The survey areas where deer were harvested this past year focused on a smaller portion of the City. This year, Director Glauner stated they were looking into expanding it, not just to the Root Road and Clague Park area, but also near Tennyson, Porter, Blossom, around the Recreation Center, Broxbourne, Barton, north of 480 and the area around MacKenzie. Essentially this was an update to Council so we would have more information in case residents contacted us. If residents ever have any questions, we do have the information you would need to know on the City website. Of course, the Safety Service Director and Council members would be willing to answer any questions residents may have regarding this issue in the City. Councilman Barker also added, he asked Director Wenger if the City had an increase in fence permits, because he had calls from some residents saying they were fencing in their yards, because of deer. She submitted a report showing in 2010 there were 123 permits issued for fences, in 2011, 103 permits were issued. In 2015, there were 162 permits and through November 30 of this year there were 161 permits and we are not done yet. I think fencing permits gives us some valid data that people are tired of losing their plants and stuff to deer. Councilman Barker does not know how tall of a fence one needs to prevent the deer from coming in, but that's being done by quite a few residents.