MOUNT VERNON – The city won’t spend the $25 million needed to rebuild all its brick streets in one year but will plan for two or three blocks every other year using Community Development Block Grants to fund them.
“Part of the strategic plan, what we're going to do is perhaps peel the onion a little more, because OK, we're not going to spend $25 million in the near future to fix all these streets,” City Engineer Brian Ball said during Monday’s City Council meeting.
The next total rebuild planned is North Catherine Street from Vine to Coshocton. After that, Ball said, he hopes to budget funds to start design on Burgess and Hamtramck streets.
Pleasant Township property annexation
The City Council held the second reading of an ordinance on the annexation of a half-acre piece of Pleasant Township land that will have its third and final reading on Sept. 12.
Council considered approving the annexation so it can specify what city services it provides – and doesn’t provide – for the property.
The annexation ordinance said that the city will provide police, fire, emergency medical services and stormwater utility services for the property.
Law Director Rob Broeren said he told property representatives that water and sewer would not be provided by the city.
“They assumed that we would be providing water and wastewater,” he said.
Councilmember Mike Hillier said the vote wasn’t about adding the parcel to the city.
“We're basically voting on whether or not we're offering these services, not whether or not we want it,” he said.
Fundraising protocols sought
Jason Joyner of the Mount Vernon Girls Softball League told City Council he thought the decision to not let city fields be reserved in his name was an undeserved punishment as the league’s actions didn’t violate any city ordinance or contract.
“I would like to see solutions and protocols and help from the city to promote that gives us how we can fund-raise together in the future,” he said. “I'm requesting that the council hold the administration accountable for how to handle the issue.”
Lime sludge brings Old Delaware Road residents to council
Jennifer Grubaugh told City Council that her mother has visited her home on Old Delaware Road hundreds of times, but only after lime sludge was dumped on neighboring city property did she have any health problems from a visit.
“We didn't really get up close to the dump site, but about halfway through our backyard, she started experiencing breathing issues,” Grubaugh said. “And she had to take two breathing treatments on her way home from my house to her house in New York. She felt ill for days afterward and hasn't experienced that since.”
Ariel-Foundation Park wants truckloads of the lime sludge, but the beneficial use permit doesn’t allow that. She asked how can a permit that doesn’t allow for its use in a park, “yet it can be openly dumped on a property that funnels runoff into a river and into people’s yards. Where's the permit that allows for that?”
Justin Meyer, another Old Delaware Road resident, said no one told his family that the lime sludge was being moved by his backyard.
“We all share the same watershed. So we have individual wells, the water to our wells comes from a shared watershed,” he said. "It is the long-term effects of that at the concentration level that I wish to have been informed about.”
Lyle Daniels spoke about the dangers of the lime sludge seeping into the watershed and through runoff onto his and other residents’ property.
He said levels of barium, arsenic and selenium exceed regulatory standards based on the test results that take it from a solid waste into hazardous waste category.
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