M I N U T E S
The Village of Evendale
Regular Council Meeting
July 14, 2005
The Village of Evendale held a Public Discussion Session prior to the Regularly Scheduled Council Meeting. Mayor Apking asked if anyone wanted to address Council. There was no discussion.
The Village of Evendale held a Public Hearing. The purpose of the public hearing was to consider the preliminary tax budget for 2006. Mayor Apking asked if anyone wanted to address Council. There was no discussion. A motion to close the public hearing was made by Mr. Puthoff, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar, and unanimously approved.
The Village of Evendale held its Regular Council Meeting. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Don Apking. Upon roll call, the following council members were present: Mr. Bill Puthoff, Jr., Mr. Stiney Vonderhaar, Mr. Jeff Albrinck, Mrs. Carolyn Smiley-Robertson and Mrs. Catherine Hartman. Mr. Chris Schaefer was absent and excused. Also present were: Assistant to the Mayor, Jack Cameron; Economic Director, Linda Fitzgerald; Village Solicitor, Tim Burke; Chief Fiscal and Accounting Officer, George Snyder; Recreation Director, Dave Nichols; Service Director, Joe Wiehe, and Village Clerk, Michelle Ficke.
Mayor Apking presented the consent calendar. Mayor Apking asked for a motion to accept the consent calendar consisting of June 9, 2005 Council Meeting Minutes; CFO Report for June, 2005; Tax Administrator’s Report for June, 2005; current Departmental Reports and the Treasurer’s Report for June, 2005. A motion to accept the consent calendar was made by Mrs. Hartman seconded Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved.
A check from Anchor Development for $50,000 was presented to Gary Goosman, Executive Director of Gorman Heritage Farm. Matt Grever, from Anchor Development was present. Mr. Grever wished the Gorman Farm great success. He said that he hopes this is the first of many contributions that Anchor will be making to support the farm. He stated that it is Anchor’s goal to become full members of the community. Gary Goosman was appreciative and stated that the money would be placed in an endowment for the Gorman Heritage Farm Foundation.
Gary Goosman gave an update on Gorman Farm. He announced that August 6th from 3:00 – 7:00pm will be the Summer’s Bounty, a culinary event for the whole family featuring student chefs from Cincinnati Cooks! The cooks will prepare the foods that visitors collect in the fields and bring to them to prepare. The summer camp sessions are half way through and adult classes will begin in the fall. The Market Cart will be open on Reading Road beginning this Saturday. Mr. Albrinck asked what efforts are being made to build the endowment fund. Mr. Goosman said that the board is identifying prospects and that he believes they need to collect a few testimonials from a people who will step forward and state that they are putting money from their will into the farm so that others will step forward.
Lucille Bossert, who was the second Village of Evendale Clerk from 1954-1980, presented the Village with the finial from the top of the original flagpole that was erected on the Village of Evendale grounds and dedicated on June 12, 1951 for the first council meeting. She presented it to the Historical Commission at their meeting on July 11, 2005 and it was recommended that it be presented to the Mayor and Council of the Village of Evendale at the Council Meeting tonight. The framed piece will be displayed in the Administration Building.
Mayor Apking gave the Mayor’s Report. Mayor Apking invited residents to come to the Saturday night concerts at the amphitheatre. Concerts begin at 7:30 pm and end around 9:30 – 10:00 pm.
Mayor Apking attended meetings about the Princeton Schools. They discussed the renovation of three schools in the district. The School Board has $18 million dollars left. A new school would cost around $12 million dollars. Therefore, Evendale may have a new school, a renovated school or no school at all. This is still to be determined by the school board. There will be another meeting on July 19th to discuss this and the Mayor encouraged people to contact him or come to the school board meeting and let their concerns be known about the schools.
Jeff Albrinck gave the Finance Committee Report. In June we had $983,000 in receipts and about $1,150,000 in expenses and we are in the black for the year. Mr. Albrinck thanked the volunteers for the July 4th race and festivities including Phi Lambda Pi for their efforts.
Mayor Apking presented Ordinance #05-27, ORDINANCE APPROVING THE 2006 TAX BUDGET OF THE VILLAGE OF EVENDALE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. A motion to read Ordinance #05-27 by title only was made by Mr. Vonderhaar, seconded by Mr. Albrinck and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to suspend the second and third readings of Ordinance #05-27 was made by Mrs. Smiley-Robertson, seconded by Mr. Puthoff and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to adopt Ordinance #05-27 was made by Mr. Puthoff, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved on roll call. Mayor Apking declared Ordnance #05-27 adopted as an emergency measure.
Mayor Apking presented Ordinance #05-28, APPROVING TRANSFERRING FUNDS BETWEEN ACCOUNTS AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. A motion to read Ordinance #05-28 by title only was made by Mrs. Smiley-Robertson, seconded by Mrs. Hartman and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to suspend the second and third readings of Ordinance #05-28 was made by Mr. Puthoff, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to adopt Ordinance #05-28 as an emergency was made by Mrs. Hartman, seconded by Mr. Albrinck and unanimously approved on roll call. Mayor Apking declared Ordinance #05-28 adopted as an emergency.
Mayor Apking presented Ordinance #05-29, ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO HIRE A PART-TIME EMPLOYEE IN THE RECREATION DEPARTMENT AND SETTING THE PAY RATE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. A motion to read Ordinance #05-29 by title only was made by Mr. Vonderhaar, seconded by Mr. Albrinck and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to suspend the second and third readings of Ordinance #05-29 was made by Mrs. Smiley-Robertson, seconded by Mrs. Hartman and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to adopt Ordinance #05-29 was made by Mr. Vonderhaar, seconded by Mr. Albrinck and unanimously approved on roll call. Mayor Apking declared Ordinance #05-29 adopted as an emergency measure.
Mayor Apking presented Ordinance #05-30, ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH THE LOWEST AND BEST BIDDER FOR THE 2005 STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, TRANSFERRING FUNDS AND MAKING ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. Mayor Apking explained the importance of keeping up with street projects and that the funds are there for us to make some improvements to Sherbrooke. The low bid for the project was $310,000 ad the Engineer’s estimate was $325,000. Mrs. Smiley-Robertson agreed that we need to have a plan for road projects when we have funds available. Mayor Apking said that James Jeffers is working on a five year plan for road projects in the amount of $500,000 per year. Costs continue to rise each year. Mayor Apking stated that councilman Schaefer was concerned about overspending our
income this year and looking at our income and expenses we will not have any overspending. A motion to read Ordinance #05-30 by title only was made by Mr. Vonderhaar, seconded by Mr. Albrinck and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to suspend the second and third readings of Ordinance #05-30 was made by Mr. Puthoff, seconded by Mrs. Smiley-Robertson and unanimously approved on roll call. A motion to adopt Ordinance #05-30 was made by Mr. Albrinck, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved on roll call. Mayor Apking declared Ordinance #05-30 adopted as an emergency measure.
Mayor Apking presented Ordinance #05-31, ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE SALARY FOR THE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. Mayor Apking stated that the salaries were last set by ordinance in 1995 and have not been increased in ten years. None of the current members or mayor would receive a raise. The newly elected council members would get a salary adjustment on January 1, 2006. You cannot get a raise while you are in office. Sharonville and Reading go on a percentage basis of the Hamilton County Commissioner salaries. The current salary for county commissioners is $80,861. Mayor Apking proposed that we raise our council salaries from $5200 to $7200 which is 9% of the county commissioners’ salary and that Sharonville council members receive 13% now. He also proposed that the Mayor’s salary be 30% or $24,258. Carolyn Smiley-Robertson stated
that we cannot compare ourselves to Sharonville and Reading because they are cities and we are a Village. She also questioned setting it at a percentage of the commissioners’ salaries that could change each year. She was concerned on how this would affect the budget. Mrs. Smiley-Robertson also stated that we are public servants and not in it to make money on it. She was more in favor of setting a salary for the next few years and allowing future councils to revisit it down the road. Instead of changing it every year, set it for four years so we can see if our budget will support it. Catherine Hartman stated that she has been on council for twelve years and only had one increase and that this is long overdue and entirely appropriate. A motion to read Ordinance #05-31 by title only was made by Mrs. Smiley-Roberson, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved. Mayor Apking stated that this was a First Reading of Ordinance #05-31.
Other Items included:
Mayor Apking stated that we took out of the budget this year approximately $74,800 which was allocated to do the recreation parking lot area. He said we are $1.8 million dollars ahead of our budgeted estimate in six months so he feels the money will be there for the repaving of the parking areas. Mayor asked council if they were in favor of reallocating the monies to make the improvements to the parking areas around the recreation center. Council will look at this issue at council committee meetings next month and discuss it.
There was some discussion on the amount of parking available. It was determined that there is sufficient parking most of the time on the grounds and that the scheduled events need to be coordinated so that events do not overlap. Handicap parking was also discussed. Mr. Puthoff said he typically sees two cars in the handicap parking spaces out of the eight available and that they should consider taking the number back down to four. Mayor Apking asked Joe Wiehe and Dave Nichols to cover four of the signs for handicap parking unless we have a big event. It was also stated that pool and recreation employees should be parking at the Civic Center and by the amphitheater instead of in front of the Recreation Center so that patrons can park in these spaces. In years past people would park in the shopping center and walk to the center.
Tom Lubers from Peck, Shaffer & Williams LLP spoke and answered questions about TIF (Tax Increment Financing) for the Anchor Development. The Mayor stated that they had met with Princeton and that the School Board was okay with the concept of TIF financing for the Anchor property. Jack Cameron stated that 5th/3rd Bank has estimated that Evendale would benefit from TIF financing in the amount of $3 million dollars.
Tom Lubers explained that TIF is a way for the Village to capture the portion of real estate taxes that would otherwise go to the County, the School District and the Village in order to pay for public improvements which benefit the private development. Since the Village does not collect real estate taxes, there is nothing to loose for the Village. The Village could use the tax monies from the Anchor development to pay for public improvements such as roads. Catherine Hartman asked how this affects the schools. Princeton has agreed to get 50% of the monies and the other 50% can be used for public improvements. He explained that the schools would benefit because they are receiving nothing now and will receive 50% of the real estate tax monies through TIF financing. Mr. Albrinck asked if it is restricted to roads only. Mr. Lubers
said it is quite broad; sewer, water, environmental uses, land acquisition for public improvements are all valid uses of TIF funds. The public improvements have to directly benefit the private development; however, it does not define what a direct benefit is. The financing can be used up to thirty years; however, the school district comes into play after ten years.
Mayor Apking shared that they have looked into purchasing PNC Bank to try to put a roadway back to the Surgical Center behind the Crossings Shopping Center. The Mayor asked if we could combine the TIF from the Anchor Development with this project. Mr. Puthoff asked if there is any reason NOT to use TIF financing. Mr. Lubers said that there are not many reasons not to use it if the numbers work and it is for the right uses. TIF is a popular tool in most political subdivision’s economic development programs. Carolyn Smiley-Robertson asked who looks at how the monies are used. The state Department of Development is involved in it and the bond council firm is involved at the beginning to verify the use of the monies for public improvement. The State Auditor could look at this as well. Jack Cameron stated that, according to Anchor numbers
and the amount they will be putting into the development the Village will have around $3 million dollars that can be used toward roads, property acquisitions, etc. and the schools would benefit from TIF as well.
Mayor Apking stated that he would like to discuss this further at our August Council Committee meetings.
Mr. Vonderhaar stated that he attended the open house for I-75 Through the Valley at the Sharonville Convention Center and it’s moving right along. The Hamilton County Fair is celebrating their 150th anniversary this year August 3-7th and the Historical Commission will have a display at the Memories of Yesteryears exhibit at the fair. Mr. Vonderhaar also asked if we are keeping up on the Mill Creek project.
Catherine Hartman announced the proposed date for the Town Meeting as Saturday, November 5, 2005.
A motion to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss property acquisition was made by Mrs. Hartman, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approve on roll call.
Council reconvened and there being no other business to come before Council, a motion to adjourn was made by Mr. Albrinck, seconded by Mr. Vonderhaar and unanimously approved on roll call. Council adjourned at 8:43 pm.
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Mayor
Attest:
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Village Clerk
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