08/06/2024 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

It's not often we see a bipartisan piece of legislation come out of Columbus. We did have House Bill 56, which was enacted. It's effective October 24th of this year. It addresses an issue that I didn't really think we would see happening again, or if it ever happened in the past, but we've had several occasions in North Olmsted where we've had, masquerading as car shows; where we've had traffic blocked on Lorain Road, we've had really reckless behavior with vehicles spinning out, donuts, speeding back and forth, up and down the street, with people lined up and down the road in the middle of the afternoon. We've had two establishments where this has taken place in North Olmsted. One of them, it's taken place on multiple occasions. We're not alone. Apparently this is happening in other communities. There's a communication method in this community of people who enjoy these types of activities. They put the word out as to where they're going to be, and then people show up like it's a parade. They're lining Lorain Road, and there's cars completely out of control in the middle of the afternoon. It's the darndest thing to see. I ran into it right by the post office in North Olmsted. • They passed a statute down in Columbus to clarify that, and it will increase the penalties for those partaking in those activities, and they describe it as a "street takeover, blocking or repeating the regular flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic for the purpose of street racing or stunt driving on any public road, street, highway, or private property open to the public'. It defines the activity as any stunt driving, burnouts, donuts, drifting, wheelies, or allowing passengers to ride partially outside of the vehicle. • Again, I didn't think this would be happening in North Olmsted, but it actually is. The important part of it, more than anything else, is that the person who sponsors it will be charged the same as the people engaging in the behavior. So if we continue to see that, I intend to notify the property owners that are doing it as soon as this is effective, that if you do it again, you'll be charged. Because there's some video at one point where the vehicle went off the road and almost went into a group of people standing on the side of the road. It's not happening every weekend, but when it happens, it's incredibly disruptive to the people of North Olmsted. It's very loud, and it's very dangerous. • So I intend working with the safety director to work on making sure that the property owners that are sponsoring this are put on notice that they will be charged the next time they do it, and anybody caught doing it will be charged and will be prosecuted fully to responsible behavior, and it needs to stop. • Summer's been busy, as you can imagine. Typical things we'd see in the Law Department in the summer is property maintenance enforcement. We've been giving a full go at that. Very busy zoning code enforcement issues also tend to pop up at this time of year. We've been working very hard on that. • Kava Bar update, they are scheduled to close pursuant to the agreement that I'd mentioned previously. On or before September 1st, they will be no longer in business. So we look forward to that. 08-06-24 Council Meeting Minutes - Page 4