Cuyahoga Falls City Council holds regular meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Council committee meetings are held on the first and third Mondays in order to allow councilmembers to publicly discuss pending legislation that will be voted on at regular meetings. The public is free to comment on pending legislation during the allowed time set aside as part of committee meetings.
Finance & Appropriations:
B-38: An ordinance authorizing the director of public service to enter into a contract or contracts, without competitive bidding, with AT&T for telephone service lines which support alarms, elevators and dispatch non-emergency numbers throughout the city. IT Director Josh Kington presented this item to the committee. The city has historically used two providers, Windstar and AT&T; when getting prices for future services it was noted that Windstar’s price had more than doubled to $60k. Kington asked AT&T to quote the same services and found they would provide the same service for $34k. Combined with the services already provided by AT&T, this change would cut the cost of landline phone services by 60%. The finance committee agreed to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
B-39: An ordinance authorizing the director of public safety to enter into a contract or contracts, according to law, with Motorola, Inc. for the purchase of APX radios for use by safety services. This legislation would allow the city to purchase MARCs compatible radios prior to our move to the new dispatch center. Current radios are about 20 years old and buying these now would give us a better lead time on the equipment rather than waiting until after the dispatch center is opened. The finance committee agreed to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
Public & Industrial Improvements:
B-40: An ordinance authorizing the director of public service to enter into a contract or contracts with CTI Engineers, Inc., for Water Treatment Plant improvements. Water Superintendent Russ Kring explained the current building that houses our water softeners was constructed in 1935 and maintenance and upkeep are becoming expensive. If passed, this ordinance will allow the design phase to begin and under the current timeline design work could finish this year with construction of the actual project happening next year. The public & industrial improvements committee voted to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
B-41: An ordinance authorizing the director of public service to enter into a contract or contracts, without competitive bidding, with Karvo Paving Co for the installation of a new 12” water main on Portage Trail Extension West from Cedar Hill Road to an existing line located approximately 1,200 feet to the east of the intersection of Portage Trail Extension West and Cedar Hill Road. Kring said this would replace a 6” main that was installed in 1957 with a 12” main while the street is undergoing construction. The decision to award the contract to Karvo was because they are already performing the widening and will have personal and equipment already onsite. The public & industrial improvements committee voted to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
Public Affairs:
B-42: A resolution declaring the month of May 2023 as Mental Health Awareness Month in the City of Cuyahoga Falls. This resolution was presented by ADM Board Communications Specialist Alex Hall. Hall said he was there to encourage council to support the resolution declaring May as mental health month in Cuyahoga Falls. He provided councilmembers with a folder containing all services the agency provides to the taxpayers of Summit County. Several councilmembers thanked Mr. Hall and the agency for being there when the people of Summit County need help, while also thanking Hall for all the things he has done for the community outside of his role with the ADM Board. The public affairs committee voted to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
B-43: An ordinance authorizing the renaming of Portage Trail East to East Portage Trail, and Portage Trail Extension West to West Portage Trail, within the city limits of Cuyahoga Falls. City Engineer Tony Demasi stated that this came about in discussions with the Council of Governments as part of the new dispatch center. The concern of the COG was the same street having three different names all using different prefixes and suffixes. This would standardize the names in an effort to keep a call meant to go to the 300 block of Portage Trail East from going to Portage and Third St. Akron would also be bringing up legislation in their city to rename the part of Portage Trail Extension that runs through their city to West Portage Trail to match. The public affairs committee voted to bring this out for a vote next Monday.
