Stow City Council
Vote Nov. 8th!

My notes from last night’s council meeting are below…

– Matt Riehl started the meeting with a solemn moment of silence for Lt. David Rylander, a Stow resident who was killed in Afghanistan nine days ago. I offer my prayer and deepest condolences to David’s friends and family. It was August 2, 2006 when I lost a close friend in Iraq. The rollercoaster of grief and pride in what both Lt. Rylander and my friend Joe Tomci did for our nation is hard to comprehend. The calling hours for Lt. Rylander are tonight at Redmon Funeral Home from 6 to 9. The funeral procession will begin from the funeral home at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, heading south on Darrow, west on Kent, and south on Route 8 to The Chapel on Fir Hill.

– It was about 15 months ago that Stow lost another man in the line of duty: Jonathan Bastock. Next week, they will be adding Bastock’s name to the National Police Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Chief Lou Dirker will be there, along with others. Councilman Riehl and I will be in Washington next week, and we plan to visit the wall.

– I was pleased to make a motion last night to authorize the hiring of two new police officers. This will bring our staffing up to 38 officers, which is still down significantly from our peak of 44. The two new officers will be sworn in sometime this summer. They will help secure two of our three shifts. More are needed, but this is a good start.

– Council voted on the storm-water policy that I have discussed on this Web site for the past few weeks. I made an amendment to strike out the following language:

SECTION 12. The City of Stow may decline to address off street drainage issues that have been created and/or aggravated by either the construction or placement of a structure or the alteration of natural water flow, especially any drainage issues that are located in designated floodplains or floodways.

My amendment passed unanimously. The legislation, as a whole, passed 6-1, with Brian Lowdermilk voting no. Council unanimously passed all other legislation that I mentioned on my Web site after Monday’s meetings, as well.

– As I said above, I will be in Washington, D.C. next weekend with the primary purpose of networking with other elected officials, sharing best practices, and so on. This trip is not funded with taxpayer dollars whatsoever.

– City council’s committees will meet next on Monday, May 21, with what appears to be a busy night of legislation.

The committees of Stow City Council met this evening. Here are some notes…

– The mayor requested a few personnel changes. 1) We are going to appoint a new planning director, Rob Kurtz, as his predecessor Ken Trenner will retire. 2) We have an employee in the Service Department who has served in her role for more than four years — from a temp agency. It’s only fair that we make her permanent, giving her benefits but keeping the same hourly pay. 3) We will also promote a new chief building inspector, a job we need to be filled in order to apply for certain grants. 4) We will also hire a new employee for the Service Department, which is badly undermanned. … With all of these changes, there is minimal new spending. I truly admire how the mayor has managed her staff and strategically filled openings, only where critical, and with very good employees.

– To steal a line from John Pribonic, we “talked trash” tonight. In other words, we discussed our contract with Kimble (formerly J&J) to have a non-exclusive right to collect from Stow residents. The three-year contract will soon expire, but there is a two-year renewal option. Kimble is cutting its rates by 50 cents per month for residents, if the city will accept the renewal. There is a significant amount of risk involved with going back out to bid on this — for both the city and for Kimble. The administration’s position is a good one — minimize the risk and give the residents some savings in the process. The only other viable option is an exclusive contract, but I don’t like the idea of telling residents which service provider they will use. Trash collection is a service-related business. If the service is bad, the city’s hands are somewhat tied and the resident can’t just take her business elsewhere.

– I was honored to chair the Roads and Safety Committee meeting where we approved the hiring of two new police officers. When the officers are sworn in this summer, we will have 38 officers. At our peak, we had 44. This city still needs more police, but tonight was a big step.

– The Finance Committee discussed several purchases of equipment, including a new leaf collector ($31,815), a snow plow ($126,981), a water department truck ($138,634), and four new police cruisers ($108,751 combined). Each of these purchases is necessary. For a few years, the administration ignored capital spending. As revenue comes back, we have a lot of making up to do.

– City council will meet to discuss these ordinances on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Please join Matt Riehl and me for our monthly open hours meeting with residents, today at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall — in the second floor conference room.