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.
The meeting was started with Girl Scout Troop 90325 leading the Pledge of Allegiance.
Cuyahoga Falls City Council met for new ordinances to have their first reading and assigned to their proper committees to be discussed at committee meetings on December 6th at 6:30 pm.
B-105: Allows the Mayor to enter into an agreement with E&J Inc., allowing them to construct and maintain a sign in the city’s right of way at 1561 Akron-Peninsula Rd. This was assigned to the Planning and Zoning committee.
The Finance Committee has several pieces of legislation on their agenda, starting with a group of ordinances that all pertain to redevelopment of an area of South Front St. and Second St. near Sackett Ave. and Chestnut Blvd.– B-106, B-107, B-108, B-109, and B-110. These will cover the purchase of several parcels of land in the area, along with creating a TIF (tax increment finance agreement) and a local developer constructing 50 townhouses in the area. Community Development Director Diane Colavecchio said she would have these pieces of legislation bundles in notebook form for council members prior to committee meeting on Dec 6.
The finance committee will also discuss B-111 and B-112, pertaining to city employee healthcare benefits for the upcoming year and B-113, authorizing an administrator for the employees’ 125k plan, Flexible Spending Account Plan, and Retiree medical reimbursement account plan with Pro-Flex. This agreement would run a maximum of three years.
B-114 is also on the table and will allow the city to enter into an agreement with NEOGOV for human resources and payroll management software on a three-year contract.
In Public Affairs, the first item is B-115, which will establish a maximum hiring age for original appointments to our Police Department to 40 years old at the time of the civil service exam.
Also in Public Affairs is B-116, which allows our city to enter into an agreement with Summit County, Akron, Fairlawn, Stow, and Tallmadge. This will allow the county to acquire, design, furnish and maintain a joint PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) and also establish a Council of Governments with the same cities. This ordinance will be discussed in the Public Affairs committee on December 6th.
Next came reports of council standing committee.
Public and Industrial Improvements voted on B-104, to purchase CO2 fire suppression systems for city generators, passing 11-0.
Public Affairs voted 11-0 in favor of B-104, allowing the Park Board to apply for and accept a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Parks and Watercraft.
Council then adjourned and the Finance committee met again to discuss B-91– The city’s 2022 budget.
The finance committee chair started off by asking if there were any questions or comments concerning what had been covered over the last meetings about B-91. Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Nichols Rhodes wanted to add a follow-up on the hybrid vehicles in the city’s fleet. The police cars have barely been put into service, so it is a little early to tell, but the regular police car is currently getting approximately 8 miles-per-gallon (mpg) while the hybrids are getting 13. Both types of vehicles spend quite a bit of time idling. She also mentioned that according to the water department, their hybrid is reportedly getting 40 mpg overall.
Under Neighborhood Excellence, Communications, and Community Outreach Department (NECCO) Kelly Crawford-Smith gave some of the highlights of the department for this year. One of them was helping to raise $33k for various city charities from the first Fire Truck Pull. Other highlights included hosting five downtown Friday events. They also partnered with Cleveland Clinic Children’s for “put a lid on it,” an event where they distributed bicycle helmets to eligible children. They also partnered with AMATS to host two community bike ride events to start a dialog about bike lanes in Cuyahoga Falls, as well as returned to putting out their citywide newsletter. Crawford-Smith also added that her department received two national awards for excellence: the 2021 Communicator Award the 2021 Silver Winner of the W3 award. This year, as things got back in full swing, the department hosted front yard interaction meetings to share information about city services and programs to bring residents closer to their elected officials. They were also able to bring back the Cuyahoga Falls 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. A new event was the Halloween decoration tour map and a new event on South State Rd., the Halloween Hunt Spooky Sweepstakes, with a few other community events scheduled throughout the holidays. As far as budget goes, her department is expected to remain the same.
Community Development Director Diana Colavecchio gave highlights from her department, including the ongoing program with Akron and the park system for the future of the Merriman Valley, for which the next step in that process is a December 15th Zoom meeting. She is excited about moving forward with our public art grant and many of the partnerships that have developed over the last year including the public-private partnership that will be discussed on December 6 to improve an area on South Front St. On an aside, Mrs. Colavecchio wanted to talk about how unique this year has been for The Community Development Department and how her office has had the opportunity to extend itself outside city hall. With the Master Plan they have been working with the City of Akron Planning Department, their legal department, many of our residents, and the Preserve the Valley group. The city has also developed new relationships with the National Parks and the Summit County Metro Parks, and meeting those players, learning what they do, and getting a better feel for the resources that they provide. She feels that moving forward we can have better projects as a result of these relationships. Likewise, through the art grant the office received, they have gotten to know our own arts community much better, such as Collide: Cuyahoga Falls, Arts Now, project managers Curated Storefront, and all the people who bring things to the table that her department does not have. Colavecchio states that all of this had been an extremely pleasant thing to be a part of and she will be a lot less shy about picking up the phone and picking the brain of those in all these agencies should the need ever arise.
Finance Chair Tim Gorbach commented that learning what all the other stakeholders in our area are doing and their different fields of expertise and letting them know what ours can be is the true definition of Community Development. The opportunity of last summer’s joint effort for the master plan for Merriman Valley will benefit both cities just by learning the capabilities and talents of each office.
Parks and Recreation Director Sara Kline gave highlights from her department and introduced her staff. Much of her time before the committee was spent discussing capital improvements from the Park Levy. Kline stated that although 2020 was impacted by Covid-19, 2021 has definitely started to regroup. Capital improvements for the end of the golf season in 2022 will be roof work on the clubhouse at Brookledge Golf Club. There will be field renovations to the local park wading pools, with the plan to eventually replace all wading pools with splash pads like on Front Street. One pool (undecided at this time) will be replaced with a splash pad in 2022 and information is gained in that process will be used to eventually replace them all. Kline cites accessibility and other benefits that make this a far better choice moving forward when it comes to the local parks. Other big steps for the Parks department include interior renovations at the former Northampton Town Hall that include new lighting and bathrooms. Playground improvements will focus on Waterworks Park this year, with the addition of another splash pad there as well. In the Parks Department Leisure Time Fund, the big item will be areas of the roof and HVAC systems that need repair at the Natatorium and some infrastructure repairs at Waterworks Park.
Mike Dougherty, with the city’s electric services, was the last to present to the Finance committee. Their 5-year plan continues to be the extra feed from First Energy that comes into our system at the service center on Bailey Rd. Part of this feed upgrade is planned for the city to facilitate the demand that electric cars will impose on our system.
Also in the 5-year plan is the intention to move the electric department’s warehouse and offices on Cochran Drive in the northern part of the city. The. new facility should be under construction in late 2022. For this year, the electric department has requested a new 1.5 ton truck with a crane on the back like the one purchased by the water department last year. This purchase will allow them to move items in the yard without needing an entire line crew back at the shop just to move a few items.
With that budget discussion complete, there will be an opportunity for clarification or questions when the finance committee meets on December 6th, and city council will vote on the entire budget when they meet on December 13th.
Council committees will meet next on Monday December 6th at 6:30 pm.
