Cuyahoga Falls City council meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month and council committee meetings are held on the first and third Monday to publicly discuss pending legislation that will be voted on by council as a whole during its regular scheduled meetings. The public is free to comment on pending legislation during the allowed time on the night of committee meetings.
On Monday October 25, Cuyahoga Falls city council met to discuss legislation to be brought before committees on November 1.
Finance Committee
B-91: This legislation begins the process of council hearing all department heads and going over their needs in order to create the 2022 budget for the city. These discussions will continue over the next few weeks and fall within Finance Committee. For those interested in how tax dollars are spent, it is important to pay attention to these committee meetings.
B-92: Authorizes the Director of Public Service to demolish a structure at 2844 Audrena Ct.
B-93: Authorizes the Mayor to enter a contract with GVS Getac for Police body and cruiser cameras.
B-94: Authorizes the Director of Public Service to enter into a contract with Badger Meter for the purchase of meters to be installed at new developments around the city
Public and Industrial Improvements
B-95: Authorizes the Director of Public Service to enter into a contract with Core and Main for the purchase of water service construction supplies.
B-96: Authorizes the Director of Public Service to apply for Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant Funds from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study for the re-surfacing of Hudson Dr. between Front St. and Graham Rd.
B-97: Authorizes the Director of Public Service to apply for Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant Funds from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study for the re-surfacing of Bailey Rd. between Front St. and Graham Rd.
B-98 Authorizes the Director of Public Service to apply for Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant Funds from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study for Cuyahoga Falls Secondary Line Trail Project between Broad Blvd and Front St.
Public Affairs
B-98: An ordinance to enter into a contract to purchase property at 57 Chart Rd.
Community Development
B-100: Creation of the Pine Ridge Tax Increment Financing Incentive District to allow the owners of those parcels to make service payments in lieu of their tax payments and establishing a Municipal Public Improvement Tax Increment Equivalent Fund to pay for infrastructure improvements to the incentive district
There will be a public hearing on this piece of legislation Nov 1st at 6:30 pm.
Council standing committees voted on the legislation discussed at last week’s committee meetings as follows:
Planning and Zoning
B-88: Approving the car wash at 2720 Second St. Passed 11-0.
Public Affairs
B-89: Adding no parking zones on certain parts of Suncrest Dr. and Valley Rd. and amending the traffic control file with what already exists at 17th and Grant St. Passed 11-0.
B-90: Authorizing the Service Director to represent the city as a member of the board of directors of American Municipal Power. Passed 11-0.
Under Miscellaneous Business, Council President Mike Brillhart allowed Mayor Walters time to speak about last Tuesday’s power outage.
As the mayor explained, the city has two feeders that enter the Valley substation (near Valley Vista park)— the Theiss feeder and the Valley feeder. The pole the Valley feeder is on developed a problem with the feeder shorting across the pole and eventually led to the pole catching fire, collapsing the top portion. The ground line on the very top of the pole came in contact with the high voltage lines and caused an immediate shut down to both the Valley feed and the Theiss feed. Due to the nature of the location of the failure, along with the voltages associated with the lines, a special crew and special equipment had to be brought in for the repair. The initial estimates of when power would be restored was based upon getting all those resources in place in a timely fashion, and although everyone was doing their best, Walters said many obstacles surfaced as the repair began. Unfortunately, those obstacles kept pushing the estimate of when the power would be returned later and later. He went on to explain that our electric department personnel were ready to start powering the city back up once the fault was cleared from the main breaker for the feeds early Wednesday morning.
On the plus side, the Mayor said there were many things of a positive nature that showed how our safety services shine when the chips are down. The fire department handled 97 calls for service— that’s four4 times their average of 23 calls per day. Walters also said that with only 14 intersections in our city having battery backups, police were busy directing traffic while tech services delivered generators to other intersections to keep traffic moving safely. One thing of note mentioned by the mayor was that there were no break-ins during the outage.
As it stands now, the pole will still need replaced and will more than likely cause a scheduled outage. The administration is working closely with First Energy to determine when that will happen. Walters stated that while it is in the future, a third feeder is part of a long-term plan for the electric department and is budgeted.
Questions from council brought one from Adam Miller, who wanted to know if there was any way our electric dept personal could have made or helped with the repair? The Mayor explained that the work involved was on First Energy’s equipment and our staff is not permitted to work on their equipment.
Diane Colavecchio was up next with some information on the quarterly economic report that was passed out to council. While numbers were down for this quarter, it was mainly due to projects slowing because of slow material deliveries. These numbers should be back in line by the end of the next quarter.
Next, Bryan Hoffman went over the monthly finance report. He noted that admission taxes from Blossom are creeping up closer to a better number. Property taxes received are also up and the Leisure Time fund is up and staying strong.
Next were shout-outs from council members starting with Jerry James. He wanted to thank all those involved in Trunk or Treat over the weekend and thanked the Parks and Rec department for putting it together, and as the shout-out went with the same kudos for the event held in neighborhoods all over the city this past weekend from Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Nichols- Rhodes and Ward 5 Councilman Mike Brillhart.
Council-at-Large Tim Gorbach also wanted to thank the everyone for the strong support he has seen so far from residents over issue 32 renewal levy on the ballot next Tuesday. With that Council was adjourned
Committees will meet Monday, Nov 1 beginning at 6:30 pm
