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Health & Safety Minutes
APRIL 14, 2008
Municipal Council of the City of Vermilion
Municipal Complex, 685 Decatur Street, Vermilion, Ohio 44089
In Attendance: S. Holovacs, F. Ostrander, B. Brady, M. Rossini, H. Strickler, D. Roth, J. Gabriel, G. Fisher, Mayor Anderson, D. Squires, C. Schmidt, B. Kish, C. Howard, C. Stempowski, W. Hamilton.
Call to Order: M. Rossini, Chairperson, RESOLVED THAT this Health & Safety Committee comprised of Dan Roth, Vice, and Heidi Strickler, Member does come to order.
TOPIC ONE: Vermilion Signage Review
Eileen Bulan President of Main Street Vermilion explained that Main Street communities have been awarded through the state legislature some grants up to $10,000 to $25,000 per community. These are 50/50 matching grants to help the downtown area. She said that Main Street has decided to put in Wayfinding signs so that people can find downtown Vermilion. She said that Gary Barnby has worked very hard to design the signs and research the signs. They also have prices on the signs. They met with the building inspector last week and he advised them that they should bring this to city council because many of the signs are in the right-of-way, and in order to put signs up in the right-of-way they need a motion by city council. She said they are also going to Parks Board and the Historic Design & Review Board for approvals. She reported that they have to apply for the grant by April 21.
She stated that they are going to apply for a grant for $20,000, so it will be $10,000 that they will pay and Main Street will have to come up with the other $10,000. She said they would like to ask the city if all possible if there are recycling funds available, and whether the city would consider giving some of those monies toward the grant because $10,000 is a lot of money.
G. Barnby reviewed the sign package he distributed to council. It showed the various signs they came up with to direct people through town, which also showed the color scheme. He said the ship’s logo is not the actual schooner they will be using. The schooner will be the same that will be on the city parks signs. They don’t have the actual schooner yet. The colors and fonts will coordinate with the park signs. The package showed the locations and size of signs under consideration.
F. Ostrander asked if the signs going on the state routes have to be approved by the State. E. Bulan said more than likely they will. F. Ostrander said they won’t get the approval by April 21. E. Bulan said they just have to apply for the grant by April 21.
H. Strickler said she was aware that the port authority is putting up signs as well and thinks they are all blue and will match. She was glad that all the groups are working together. G. Barnby said they are also working with the Chamber of Commerce and other groups that had any involvement with previous signs so that they’re all working together on it.
D. Roth asked what these signs are made of and wondered if they were of recycled material. G. Barnby stated they are a high density urethane which is similar to plastic but they’re sandblasted and made to look like hand-carved wood. They are pretty much similar to what the park signs will be. They are working to get the signs made with recycled materials.
M. Rossini asked if the historical sign coming into town will be removed. G. Barnby said it would be replaced with the new signs.
D. Squires noted that the city doesn’t need ODOT’s approval to place the signs in their right-of-way.
B. Brady thanked Gary Barnby for putting so much work into this. She thought this project would be neat especially if there is consistency across town. G. Barnby said they were lucky in finding a wholesale sign company willing to work with them to give them a good price, so they could do all the signs at once.
H. Strickler asked the administration if the recycling money was accounted for in 2008. D. Squires said there may be some money left over in certain categories but unfortunately for recycled signs that money is already earmarked for the standard park program sign. However, they do have one time per year ability to shift funds around, so depending on where the purchases fall for the year they may be able to redirect money.
H. Strickler asked E. Bulan when the signs will be going up in Exchange Park in relation to the streetscape project. E. Bulan said they are waiting for the sign to be prepared.
Mayor Anderson asked E. Bulan to review the costs again. She asked how much they were applying for is and what is the match. E. Bulan said they can apply for a grant of $10,000 to $25,000 and it’s a 50/50 match. They estimate this to be about $20,000. It could be either a little less or a little more, so they would have to pay $10,000. Mayor Anderson asked if they would be asking for a grant for $10,000. E. Bulan said they will apply for $20,000 but then they would be expected to pay $10,000.
M. Rossini asked council if they had any questions as to where this other $10,000 is coming from. E. Bulan said that Main Street is planning on raising the funds if they can’t find it any other way, but it would be good when writing the grant application if they have other partners.
F. Ostrander asked if installing the signs is part of the $20,000. G. Barnby said it is included in the price and the sign company will install them and transport them.
H. Strickler asked Eileen if she needed a motion from council. E. Bulan said that she needs a motion from city council that will allow them to erect signs in the right-of-way.
H. Strickler MOVED; D. Roth seconded to recommend to council to authorize Main Street Vermilion to erect signs in the right-of-way. Vote 3 YEAS. MOTION CARRIED.
E. Bulan asked council to consider helping with the grant if possible if there are any funds available.
F. Ostrander asked if there was any money in the budget for items like this. D. Squires said no.
G. Fisher suggested getting a straw vote from council on this motion since Main Street has to apply for the grant by April 21 and the official motion from council won’t happen until that evening. After a straw poll, all members of council were in favor of this motion.
TOPIC TWO: North Central EMS
Rick Shields of North Central EMS distributed to council their fourth quarter 2007 emergency response report, as well as the first quarter 2008 report. In 2008, the City of Vermilion had 226 runs, Brownhelm Township had 20 runs, and Vermilion Township had 75 runs. These numbers were up from the fourth quarter possibly weather related. The average response time for Brownhelm Township was 8 minutes 52 seconds. Vermilion City was 6 minutes 11 seconds, and Vermilion Township was 7 minutes 28 seconds. He reported that they had no major problems during the snow storms and felt the city did a good job in opening the streets for them. He said they brought a second ambulance to the city during the 36 hours of the major snow storm. He thanked Chris Stempowski and the fire department for their assistance during this time too. He thought they only had one to three trucks stuck during this storm but they were able to get them all out. He said they sent both trucks to every call they had because they didn’t know if one truck was going to end up getting stuck and whether they were going to need the assistance of the second crew. He said there were instances where they couldn’t get into people’s driveways and had to carry the cot in knee-deep snow to get to the house. However, all in all he felt it went pretty well considering the weather.
He reported that they met with a contractor last week about pursuing a new location in the city for a building. They got a pretty firm commitment from the contractor as far as a design of the building. He said they would like council to give them perimeters as to where they would like North Central to stay within before they purchase property to build the station. He said they are looking at a three-bay building suitable for at least four crew members including a small meeting room, a kitchen, and a day room type facility. The design is standard in comparison with the last station they built in Bellevue which is like a texture block with a steel roof. He said he can bring pictures to council once they get a definite design in place. He said before they purchase property they would like council’s input on an ideal location. He said through previous discussions, they needed to stay north of the second set of railroad tracks. He said they plan on moving forward with this project and getting the station up.
B. Brady wondered if they would be better suited to answer this question if they look at their run history. R. Shields said they could do a study but obviously with the type of calls they never know where they are going to end up. They feel the location they have now is pretty good and if they could find something in the downtown area that would be great. He said they don’t necessarily need to be right on Liberty Avenue if there is something off the beaten path. He said they have priced some property on Liberty Avenue and it is out of their reach. He said their goal is to be centrally located within the city.
F. Ostrander asked R. Shields how the possible closure of Perry Street will affect them. R. Shields said he discussed this with the crew members because he received a phone call from the mayor last week or the week before last to look into this, and it was pretty unanimous among the crew that they didn’t see a major inconvenience with Perry Street being closed. There are alternate routes and obviously if those alternate routes are blocked then Perry Street would be blocked as well, so they don’t see it as creating a major setback as far as response. He said he did send an e-mail to the mayor stating that as well. Mayor Anderson said she was going to share that with council at the public hearing on April 21.
H. Strickler suggested finding a place to keep the response time similar to what they have now. She said they will keep their ears open to see if there is anything available in the downtown. R. Shields said if there is any property available they we look at it. He said if they can be connected to a realtor that knows the city pretty well this would help.
D. Squires suggested the old Marathon gas station at Vermilion Road and Liberty Avenue as an option. R. Shields said they did look into this but it was terribly expensive. D. Squires asked if they would consider an existing building and renovating it to their needs. R. Shields said absolutely if it was suitable and more cost effective to rebuild. F. Ostrander asked if they looked at the Fulper’s property. R. Shields said they did look into this but it wasn’t cost effective either to rebuild it to their usability. Mayor Anderson said they would explore any possibilities that might be out there.
W. Hamilton addressed the number of call sheet because there was huge spike between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. R. Shields said this may due to the fact that people are coming home at that time.
S. Holovacs noted that there are two buildable lots on Toledo Street by Cargo Warehouse. He said he isn’t sure whether the property is for sale but they could look into this.
F. Ostrander asked R. Shields if the railroad tracks at Vermilion Road and Sunnyside Road have delayed their response time. R. Shields said he isn’t aware of major delays but could look into this.
M. Rossini said if there was a bridge on Highbridge there would be no doubt that it would cut their response time down.
F. Ostrander asked R. Shields if he could log in the delays they experience at the railroad tracks and note the areas. He said they have looked a couple times at putting a bridge back on Highbridge and this input would help. R. Shields said he provided information in the past about train delays. He said their crews are instructed to call dispatch when they have a train delay so this information is logged if the response time is questioned.
R. Shields reported that North Central EMS performed the CPR recertification for the fireman and police officers.
TOPIC THREE: Fire Chief’s Report
Chris Stempowski reported that through March 31 the year to date calls were 25. He said that 19 of these were fire emergency calls and 6 were CO calls. He said on March 31, April 1, 2, & 3, Captain Doug Keith attended a 34-hour swift water rescue training course put on by the Ohio Fire Academy. He attended two days in Carlisle Township and two days in Cascade Park in Elyria. He has been trained at the operations level. They will continue to get basic awareness on swift water rescue training in house as it comes available.
He reported that nine firefighters attended Bowling Green State University Regional Fire School in Bowling Green on March 8 and 9. Some of the classes they took included firefighter and life safety initiatives and meth labs, responding to airplane disasters, public information officer, appliance fires, Pediatric and Geriatric emergencies.
On March 1 they held another emergency vehicle drivers training course in house. There were 15 personnel that attended this session and this is the second class that they have put on in house. All of their personnel are required to attend at least one of these sessions per their department requirements. This consists of six to eight hours of classroom training and continuous behind the wheel driver instructional training. This is all being done in house and it is being put on by firefighter Rodney Johnston. They still have five personnel who need to attend the classroom portion and all the drivers training part of it is ongoing.
The majority of the personnel have been through the ADD/CPR training through North Central and they are at about 98 percent of their personnel trained.
The new portables are in and are programmed, and are in service and working well. The skid units have been installed in the new pickups and they are in service as well. The pumper tanker is currently scheduled to go to Twinsburg this Monday for an oil change, filter, lube, and systems check which is a post delivery agreement. Primarily they would have done this in house but with the leak that they have in the truck they need to take it to Twinsburg to fix it. The leak is in one of the recirculating valves and they have to pull the tank to do the work. It will take about three days max to do the work.
M. Rossini asked if it was possible to get a schematic or diagram of the lines in Brownhelm Township that are available for the use of fires. C. Schmidt reported that he has a map of all the fire hydrants. M. Rossini asked for a copy of this because he wants to sit down with Carl on rural water and fire hydrants.
C. Stempowski reported that they did look into the state purchase programs for turnout gear and they have some concerns. They did submit specs and there are several vendors and manufacturers of this turnout gear, and they are getting varied responses. He said not all can comply with their specifications. They did have the opportunity in talking with other departments on what they like and dislike about turnout gear because they have been through the procedure. He said they did talk to a couple vendors and some vendors gave them some ideas on the gear and what was available, and what to look for. They did get a rough idea of what this turnout gear may cost. They have two suggested prices from state purchase vendors and they are looking at these as being rather high in price. Bill Kleinhans said he contacted a company about a year ago called Veridian to discuss the specs and they came up with a percent cost. Recently, he sent out to Warren Fire Equipment and Bobel Pool Fire Equipment which are both listed on the state purchase price schedule. They replied back with the same specs minus a couple of items. He said that Veridian has a triple stitch structure which is more durable and it doesn’t seem that anybody else can match this spec. He said that Pro Am who handles the Veridian Fire Equipment came back with a quote of $1,432.75 per set, which was about a year ago. He talked with the representative and they are willing to still honor that price. He received recently a quote from Morning Pride through Warren Fire Equipment and their price through state purchase schedule is $1,750 which is a difference of $317.25 per set. He also received a quote from Bobel Pool Fire Equipment in the amount of $1,541.80 which is under state purchase schedule and is $109.05 difference than the Veridian quote received a while back. He said it appears that the state purchase price schedule is putting them at a higher cost position so they are wondering if this is the direction they really want to go.
M. Rossini asked if this equipment includes the drag pull. B. Kleinhans said they can’t manufacture a coat without this device because it is a NFPA requirement. Chief Stempowski noted that these prices don’t include the cost of the boots. This is strictly turnout gear only. The boots are ranging from $185 to $245 a pair through different suppliers.
S. Holovacs asked if the quote from Veridian a year ago is the current price now. B. Kleinhans stated that they are not part of the state purchase. S. Holovacs asked if they are asking council for authorization to go out to bid for this turnout gear. M. Rossini thought council already authorized them to go to bid. Chief Stempowski said they were asked to look at state purchase first. B. Kleinhans said the representative from Veridian gave them another 60 days on the pricing of $1,432.75. F. Ostrander said this is lower than the state but they would have to bid this out.
C. Stempowski said they are looking at $16,000 to $18,000 more than what they know they can do. He thought this was a lot of money that they don’t need to spend. S. Holovacs asked if the boots were separate from the turnout gear. C. Stempowski said they would like to separate the boots from the turnout gear. He thought the boots would come in at a range of $15,000 so they can just pick a supplier and order the boots.
C. Schmidt asked the chief how many sets they are planning on buying. C. Stempowski said currently they have 36 firefighters and have asked for six sets in reserve, and they have two potential day shift applicants which they desperately need. He said they are looking at 44 sets in total. C. Schmidt asked if it was necessary to purchase them all at one time. C. Stempowski said they need to start somewhere with the rotation program. The gear they have is still compliant and is still in good condition will be utilized at Station #3.
W. Hamilton noted that there is money in the fire funds and he wouldn’t break it up in separate pieces. He suggested getting these guys out to the fires with good equipment.
H. Strickler MOVED; D. Roth seconded to recommend to Council to authorize the fire department to go out to bid for turnout gear. Vote 3 YEAS. MOTION CARRIED.
M. Rossini asked how long it will take them to get the equipment. C. Stempowski said the winning bidder would come out immediately to measure all the fire personnel. He said they are probably looking at six to eight weeks for manufacture time.
M. Rossini asked if the pumper tanker has an auxiliary pump so they can pump from a pond into the holding tank. He wondered if there was possibility that they could damage their pump from using a field pond. C. Stempowski said the potential is there because they don’t know what is in the pond. M. Rossini asked if they carry extra pumps. C. Stempowski said they do and they do have portable pumps that they can set up to draw water out of the pond. They also look at the proximity of the pond.
TOPIC FOUR: Safety Director’s Report
Carl Schmidt asked people to use caution when walking downtown. There is a lot of construction going on. He said that people can walk next to the buildings because the sidewalks are still there.
Secondly, he said he would like to have an ordinance prepared to hire four citizens to the watercraft operation. They are as follows: Doug Keith, Jr. - $11.50 per hour; William Kleinhans - $11.25 per hour; Doug Keith, Sr. - $11.00 per hour; and John Pinter at $10.75 per hour
Chief Kish said this is through the watercraft fund and they have always had seasonal operators. He said they have never done this by ordinance in the past. C. Schmidt said he is leery when he puts people on because he doesn’t want to get in trouble for hiring someone without the funds. Chief Kish said they have always hired civilian operators and they have always written a letter to the mayor prior to this. He said there is an ordinance on the books hiring the Harbormaster which gives him authority to do things.
Mayor Anderson reiterated the fact that how they do things fluctuates and the consistency is not really solid. She said that since there have been so many questions on hiring and appropriating, and paying people she thinks an ordinance by council hiring these people and setting their salaries gives a good audit trail. She said she suggested to the safety director to get an ordinance from council so past practice can be looked up in the index of ordinances for information that is needed. J. Gabriel said he would be tempted to change this ordinance every year in case any of the names or salaries would change.
H. Strickler MOVED; D. Roth seconded to have legislation prepared to hire four citizens to the watercraft operation. Vote 3 YEAS. MOTION CARRIED.
C. Schmidt reported that he is still working on the drug-free workplace program and the BWC is putting the city under pressure. They will allow the city to have a drug-free workplace and will give the city a 15 percent discount but they want the city employees trained immediately. They told him that the employees were supposed to be trained by March 31. However, the BWC will back this up to January 1 and the city will still get the discount, but the training needs to be done by the end of May. He said he has several proposals on where they can get the training done. Every employee of the City of Vermilion has to be trained before they can implement a drug-free workplace. He has to set up certain training times before the end of May. He said that Steve Holovacs and Jimmy Davis assisted him with companies that could do the training. They range from $1,099 to $3,500 to train all the employees. He said if they do the training then two-thirds of this money comes back to the city in the form of a grant, so if the city spends $6,000 then they’ll get $4,000 back. He said because he is hiring someone to do the training he would like council’s approval to appropriate the money.
F. Ostrander thought if this money was in the budget and was under $25,000 then the administration can spend the money. Mayor Anderson said this money isn’t budgeted. G. Fisher said that council can pass a motion to authorize the drug-free testing for that amount of money and then they can prepare an appropriation ordinance to appropriate those dollars. C. Schmidt said he is technically contracting somebody to do the testing. Mayor Anderson said there isn’t a line item in the budget that designates $3,000 for the training and everything they put into the budget they have need of. She feels they need this amount appropriated in a line item so they feel confident that they can do this without overspending the appropriation.
J. Gabriel indicated that the administration has been talking about this issue for a while and they really should have put this in the line item budget instead of coming to council two to three weeks after the budget had been passed. He said he is all for this program because the city will be getting the money back.
C. Schmidt said he went to seminar at the end of February and then started to pursue it in the middle of March. He said hopefully next year he’ll be on top of this before January. He said this is a five-year program. He said the city can save around $15,560. He said they may have to pay wages when somebody is off the job attending a class.
H. Strickler said if they didn’t have a line item budget then where would have this money come from. She said they are getting e-mails from the administration already saying they need money and it’s only April. She said council gave the administration more money this year than they got last year and if they’re already asking for money then she would think they should be within the constraints. She asked Wayne Hamilton if they have this money extra in the budget. W. Hamilton said there is money in the general fund so it’s simply a matter of appropriating the money and moving forward. He said they do have additional costs per the police contract that they didn’t have last year. H. Strickler said they are going to end up spending more money this year and she thought they would have had this projected. W. Hamilton said this is the advantage of having a tight budget so that council sees everything as it comes through. H. Strickler said they are spending more money and the administration is expecting them to say yes to everything. She agreed though that they need to save money through the BWC.
B. Brady said before they had operating expenses, personnel, and capital improvements and in the operating expenses they could have taken this money out but council didn’t give the administration an option this year. This year council controls the money through line items. J. Gabriel said they should be comforted by the fact that the money projected to come in is $5.2 million and they budgeted $5 million so they do have $200,000 to work with. In addition they shaved an additional $35,000 off the $5.088 million, so they are actually below the first projection. He said they have to be mindful with what they do with the money. H. Strickler said this is her point. J. Gabriel said this drug-testing has a return and C. Schmidt has done a good job with it and he thinks it would be a wise investment.
S. Holovacs asked C. Schmidt if he got with the unions to make sure there is nothing in the contracts which will conflict with the drug testing. C. Schmidt didn’t believe so except for the fact that the CDL drivers are already doing their testing and he isn’t sure how BWC is going to work this out.
H. Strickler MOVED; D. Roth seconded to authorize the finance director to prepare an appropriation ordinance in the amount of $3,000 to be allocated for drug testing. Vote 3 YEAS. MOTION CARRIED.
F. Ostrander asked what will be done to enforce the program. C. Schmidt said they will have to write a policy. D. Zaleski said they will first have to look at the union contracts and the rest of the employees will follow classified civil service under 124.34. There is gross misconduct if they test positive for drugs. He said they started the same policy in Lorain today.
Chief Stempowski asked how this would affect the volunteer fire personnel. It was said that if these personnel are available within this time frame then they would have to be tested. C. Stempowski thought it may be easier if they weren’t available for testing.
H. Strickler asked why the alarms were going off on Devon Drive Friday night. C. Schmidt said he would have to contact Bill Walker about this. Mayor Anderson thought it was because of the wires down on the turnpike from the high winds.
TOPIC FIVE: Police Chief’s Report
B. Kish thanked the law department and council for completing and approving the watercraft legislation. He said they had several officers who completed watercraft officer training conducted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources at Cleveland State University.
He reported that the Lorain County Sheriff’s Department in conjunction with Homeland Security and all the watercraft communities is working together. There is a boat that will be docked at Clarion Drive. This boat will be used for homeland security and will be out further along the borders.
He reported that the city had a fatality during the snow storm. There was no alcohol or drugs related to this accident. This case is still an open investigation.
He said the Ohio State Highway Post 47 came up to Vermilion for extra traffic enforcement. He said that Officer Chris Hartung took it upon himself to get the officers together to quietly conduct a traffic blitz that was unannounced. It took place at Rte. 6 and in the two weeks they did this they issued 24 citations and had 30 arrests. There were 104 warnings given. He said it was his hope to tell council that they had quieted Liberty Avenue somewhat, but right after they finished this there was a gentleman that crashed. He had a high level of alcohol in his system. He said two weeks ago in the shopping center they had a gentleman at 2:00 p.m. test in the teens on blood alcohol after smashing into another person’s car. That weekend they also arrested several OVI’s and in the past week they had a gentleman at 4:00 p.m. who was intoxicated and headed down Liberty Avenue at 85 mph. He was stopped and arrested by local police. He said this past weekend they had a lot of kids who were drinking and fighting that was alcohol related. He said he really doesn’t know what the answer is but this is why they have the police to try to keep this stuff under control.
He said at the last council meeting there was some question about signs and the “Keep Kids Alive, Drive 25” program. He said years ago a group of citizens got together and formed a traffic safety meeting and they raised private donations to purchase these signs. He said if a group of residents want to get together to purchase a sign, then they can get with the company who is still making these signs.
He reported that the police department is under a time constraint to order the police vehicles. After speaking with Wayne, they need an ordinance or resolution passed by April 21 to allow them to purchase the five Crown Vic’s for a little over $109,000. He said they are also going with the Dodge Durango which can be purchased locally at Andretti. They can almost match the state price. It is $23,323.50 which is below the $25,000 bid figure. He said they have $40,000 in their line item so the $31,000 can go toward the down payment and then the $9,000 can be utilized to install the equipment in the cars.
G. Fisher asked the finance director if legal counsel has to prepare borrowing legislation. W. Hamilton said this is basically like the ordinance council did for the dura patcher. He said the authorization is the same. He said they are authorizing the purchase of the five cars and the Durango and they are authorizing leasing. There was some question to a previous note ordinance.
H. Strickler MOVED; D. Squires seconded to have legislation prepared to purchase the Crown Vic’s and the Dodge Durango and authorizing leasing of sale. Vote 3 YEAS. MOTION CARRIED.
W. Hamilton said that even though they are authorizing $140,000 they are going to borrow $110,000, so the $30,000 will basically reduce the debt down. He said the city won’t have a payment this year.
Chief Kish said there was a question of noise control from a resident and was prepared to answer any questions. M. Rossini said they will have discussion on closing a crossing and wondered if the police department ever does an evaluation of the noise from the trains. Chief Kish said it is really beyond anybody’s control. He said in Chapter 634 it lists different subsections on noise. He said there are sections in the code which addresses industrial noise adjoining residential property, etc. He said the department has a device which they obtained through the water safety program which is a decibel meter reader. They have one officer trained to operate it. He explained different scenarios in which the department has issued citations for noise violations.
J. Gabriel said in the past the police department has purchased fuel and various boat parts and Romp’s is a particular type of dealer so they carry parts, and have done service work for the police boat. He said he doesn’t know where all of this stands now since he serves on council. He said he would like a clear understanding from the law department before the season begins. Chief Kish said traditionally the police boat is owned by the State of Ohio but the city is responsible for its upkeep and maintenance. He said for many years they have gone to Romp’s for maintenance on the boat. They use to purchase fuel from Don Parsons when he was in business, but when he went out of business it seemed the gas prices were the most reasonable at Romp’s, plus they were already doing business there. He asked the law department if there would be any type of conflict since J. Gabriel serves on council. He said they already established this business relationship prior to J. Gabriel coming on council. D. Zaleski said he would need to look into this. J. Gabriel said he wanted to put this out to the public and would like the answer given in public as well. D. Zaleski said he is not authorizing the contract. J. Gabriel noted that he is an owner of Romp’s.
J. Gabriel said that Romp’s also has the only crane that is accessible in the downtown area and the fire department has used it frequently in the past for fire calls, so they should have a ruling on this as well. D. Zaleski said he would take a look at this. C. Schmidt thought if it was the only crane available in the city then it wouldn’t be a conflict. J. Gabriel said he would volunteer the crane until the time they receive the legal opinion.
M. Rossini asked the chief what he was doing with the old police cars. Chief Kish said the building department has cars that are not running so they can give a couple of the better cars to the building department and if anybody else needs them in the city. He said the older cars will go up for auction. M. Rossini asked if they hold a police auction annually. Chief Kish said pretty much and noted that bikes drive this auction.
S. Holovacs asked the finance director if he could get council a list of all the vehicles in the city. W. Hamilton stated that Yvonne Bott keeps all the titles to the cars and they could get this list to council.
No further discussion was heard, therefore, Chairman Rossini adjourned the meeting.
Next Meeting: May 12, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Note: Unofficial meeting minutes. Changes may be pending. Minutes are verbatim.
4/17/08
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