6/26/2018 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6-26-2018 his parts into another proposal. She said she researched if the City needed a dog park. She said Council just approved Canine Country Club, which is an indoor recreation facility for dogs and owners to go. Councilwoman Hemann said regarding pocket parks there are already three or four home owners associations that have their own parks so she doesn't know exactly what it is or where the cost of $1.2 million came from with regard to adding dog and pocket parks. She also said she does not know what parcels were evaluated for purchase or the value of the parcels. She also said there is already a shared service agreement with the schools and she said perhaps it could be better, but Mr. Groden will also tell you that is something to be done between the schools and the City and it takes a process. She said it the City can't just throw it on the ballot and know it will be agreed to. Councilwoman Hemann said the bike path is actually owned by the State of Ohio and the Department of Transportation must approval all of the improvements to the bike path and then the City is responsible for the maintenance. She said the City has applied for some grants, but we do not know if they have been awarded yet. She said while the plan does sound good in theory, she has been unable to get any information to work with the plan nor to offer support to it. Steve Urmin 5680 Wellesley Avenue Mr. Urmin said his concern is with the Recreation Center. He said projects have cost overruns. He said in his discussions with Director of Finance Copfer she confided to him the estimates for the operation and maintenance of the new facility is only one million dollars more than the current facility. He said he doesn't believe if you double the size of the facility just adding 25% to operational costs are sufficient. He said current operational costs are four million, he does not believe adding one million to make it five is enough. He believes costs will be between five and eight million a year, which would be double the cost for double the square footage. Mr. Urmin said at the last meeting, the Mayor said look we have nothing at our Recreation Center. Mr. Urmin said he grew up without a toy box and he thinks some people when they get a full toy box are looking for more toys or looking to see what other community toy boxes look like. Mr. Urmin said when he talked with a gentleman at the Recreation Center and asked what the new center will have that the current one does not have the only thing that the person came up with was basketball courts. He said there are new basketball courts at the high school/junior high and there are courts at other locations throughout the City. Mr. Urmin said he does not understand the need for senior citizens to have a walking track when mall walking is still popular. He said Toys R Us and Babies R Us are both closing so there are two huge buildings that are reducing our tax base and the City could make walking centers out of those buildings. Mr. Urmin said the Mayor's statement there is nothing at our Recreation Center right now is outrageous. The Mayor said he did not want to interrupt, but that is not his statement. Mr. Urmin said to the Mayor that he did say that and you can look at the minutes from the last week. The Mayor said there is plenty at our Rec Center.