Toulon City Council Meeting

[Guest Guest]

Was anyone at the Toulon City Council meeting last night? If so, what did they discuss?

[Feared]

Everyone is scared to answer, feared by what others will say, or concern, or what someone says, to get said words deleted.
I did not attend, but would have been willing to comment, if I had attended.
Sorry.

[Toulon Res]

By Amy Beaver
[e-mail]

Bruce Fehrenbacher was appointed as the Toulon City attorney at the regular council meeting this past Monday. The annual cost of the appointment will be around $5,000 a year.
“I will be doing the basic things for the city,” said Fehrenbacher. “Anything specialized will be given to a firm that works on those kinds of projects.”
The city council did not appoint a city engineer, citing that they would use an engineer on an as-needed basis. The city currently has an agreement with the county to use the county engineer for road work projects.
The city was surprised to receive an invoice from 2007 from Jacobs and Associates for TIF management. The city’s TIF fund was put together by the firm and has an annual fee for maintenance of the project.
“We are just trying to get up to speed here,” said Dan Walker, representative from the firm. “Apparently, most of the TIF work was done by the city attorney. I don’t know why, because that is something you pay us for in our annual agreement.”
City council members and employees will gather information and work with Walker to determine the proper way to proceed.
“I believe we’ve paid all bills from your firm to date,” said Phil Albertson, council member. Several city council members were concerned with why the bill was not submitted to city hall for payment or why the firm has not followed through with inquiries about the invoice.
“We just need to get to the bottom of all this,” said Mayor Collins. The council agreed to gather information and schedule a separate TIF meeting later this month.

Lawn waste
The city discussed several options for improving the handling of yard waste in the city. Currently, the city will pick up yard waste on Mondays from residents who contact city hall. Council members discussed the option of eliminating all burning within the city limits. The council also considered purchasing a used wood chipper for $13,500 to assist with the disposal of lawn waste.
“It wouldn’t recoup its cost this first summer,” said Shane Milroy, Toulon city employee. “But will more than recoup the cost over its lifetime as well as improve our efficiency.”
The offer for the wood chipper will expire in approximately one week, but the council tabled the decision until the committee presents the budget for consideration next month.

Other business
The city approved a pay request of $27,350 to Putnam County Painting to clean, prime and repaint the water tower. The firm will provide a small water tank so that water supply will not be hindered during the project which is expected to take no more than seven days to complete.
A few residents from the city took issue with the inefficiency of the city police chief and asked why the city’s handling of the issue has also been ineffective. Council members Larry Hollis and Jenny Davis asked residents to continue to be patient while they incorporate a new accountability system for the whole police department. The police committee will be meeting monthly with a performance review and outlining what exactly is expected out of the city police department.
The Old Settlers association asked for a donation for their event, which is scheduled from July 30 to August 2. The four day event is back to its original schedule with the OSA pageant on Thursday, a Rod Steward Concert experience on Friday night and on Saturday, two bands. The first band plays big band type music earlier in the evening and the local band, the Veggies, for later on Saturday. Sunday will continue with a community church service and OSA meeting.
The city council approved a donation of $1,000, an increase from $800 last year to the OSA committee.
The OSA committee also made a request to work with the city to replace the city disposal receptacles and also to set up a beer tent for the Old Settlers event. The city agreed to work with the committee for both options. Specific plans for the beer tent will be presented at the July meeting for final approval.
The city council tabled discussion on the increase of animal control costs to the city. The city had been paying between $50 to $100 a month for animal control. A letter from the Stark County sheriff notified the city to increasing these costs to $250 a month. The council wanted more information before reaching a decision about the service.
The mayor stated that he would most likely fill the vacant councilman’s seat at the next regular meeting in July. There are several people that would like to fill the position.
The next regular meeting will be on July 13 at 6 p.m. at the Toulon Fire House.

[Guest What]

the above is a pretty good summary of the meeting. Much more things were discussed and there was occasionally some raised voices and some eye rolling going on. the meeting was as long as the last -
3 and 1/2 hours, it was completed at 9:30 p.m.

The star courier reported more information about the TIF administration. That the city paid about 23,000 at the beginning of this year on top of the 30,000 paid to the past city lawyer just for TIF work. (I'm just going on memory here, look it up)

the TIF administrator's annual fee is around 2,500 I thought I heard him say, plus a percentage of what the TIF brings in every year. Something's wrong with that picture I think. Businesses, entrepreneurs and residents work hard (some) to improve their property and values and the tax increase that's paid goes to administration? Instead of using it and giving it back to the businesses, entrepreneurs and residents.

That last is not a city problem, so I want to make that clear.
I do think the city has issues they need to resolve, but NOT to the extent that they've been made out on the street.

Just remember, there's always (at least) two sides to every story and They BOTH may be correct.

food for thought

------I don't know why anyone doesn't want to comment on the meeting, if they went. It was a regular (but LONG) meeting.------

[Guest Guest]

I see from the Stark County News article about the meeting that several people are interested in filling the vacant alderman position. I think this is progress.

Does anyone know who the interested parties are that are "running" for that position?

Who decides on who gets the position? Is it by vote of the council or does the "mayor" decide?

[Guest What]

We don't know who the interested people are for the Toulon alderman position, they would have to come forward in a meeting and make themselves known.

The mayor appoints an alderman. The council has the right to refuse approving his appointment I think. I'm not sure who has the final say on that issue. I think the mayor does.

If anyone else (a municipal lawyer) knows the answer to that issue please let us all know.