03/04/2025 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor Jones: Mr. President? Council President Brossard: Mayor, go ahead. Mayor Jones: Thank you, Mr. Benson. First, your question regarding Dover Center Road. Our Council had their budget meetings this past Saturday, as reported by Finance Chairman and Ward 1 Councilman Scarl, and what was agreed upon at that time was that we were going to move up the rehabilitation of Dover Center Road. So the last time that road was, it's called a mill and fill, which means that we take it down all the way, and we repave the entire section of the street, that was 16 years ago. That road should have lasted at least four more years. However, it hasn't, and the road is owned by the County, so traditionally the way that the City handles road repairs of that kind is we work with the County on their schedule, which is a 20 -year schedule. Obviously, you've seen the condition of the road deteriorate before our eyes. Our service department, as I'm sure living on the street, you see them out there. They're doing their best to handle the road with the materials that we have right now, which just for everyone's knowledge, the plants that produce the hot patch, which is the material that will actually stay in our potholes and fill them, don't open until the beginning of April, and that's throughout Northeast Ohio. All of our neighboring cities are waiting with bated breath for those plants to open, so we can properly fix our streets. But just so that you know, we did move up the schedule with Council to rehabilitate Dover Center, and the plan is for that to happen this year. Tom Benson: When you say move up the schedule, are you referring to what the County can help with or just ourselves? Mayor Jones: Mr. President, to Mr. Benson, I am approaching the County and will request that they put in their typical share of what they usually offer for road projects. But I cannot guarantee, because again, they've already set their road projects for this year and next. Tom Benson: I heard talk about years of scheduling to get deep pavement done, but I wasn't sure where Dover sat on that. Mayor Jones: And then, Mr. President, regarding businesses in the City, I would be very happy to, after this meeting, make an appointment for you to come in and we could have a longer discussion about that with our Economic Development Director as well. But to your question about empty storefronts, most of those are retail establishments, as you know, the face of retail is rapidly changing before our eyes, and what we do on a daily basis in our Economic Development office, is to try and work with the owners of those plazas to fill those storefronts. In addition, we also are looking to bring in higher -paying jobs, so more office -type jobs, which we've been 03-04-25 Council Meeting Minutes - Page 7