MOUNT VERNON – Elementary and high school students learned about local government at Mount Vernon City Hall in separate programs.
Ten high school seniors met in council chambers on Thursday for the first Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council meeting, Mayor Matt Starr told the Mount Vernon News.
The group adopted its organizational guidelines and will begin assigning officers for the council.
Auralie Yoder, a senior at Mount Vernon High School and president of the Youth Leadership Council, helped write the group’s curriculum.
During the educational portion of the students’ meeting, they learned about the work done by city engineers with the Utilities Department and other city departments. The group discussed the city’s flood control plan, parking garage and other projects.
The next meeting will be on the third Thursday of October, when the Youth Leadership Council will learn about the work of the Law Director’s office.
The purpose of the group is threefold, Starr said. First, the youth will get a chance to learn how local government works. Second, it will give a voice to youth in the community. And finally, it will prepare them for future leadership roles on the City Council, school board, town trustees or other local government roles.
Twin Oak Elementary School students also visited Mount Vernon City Hall, the municipal court and the Fire Department.
“We talked about not only how the local government works, structured, we also we also talked a lot about the stormwater utility and how that is incredibly important to our city,” Starr said. “And the kids really understood that when it rains, that water has got to go somewhere and they figured out rather quickly it almost always ends up in the river.”
Mayor meets with local realtors
Starr and engineering consultant Emily Platt met with the Knox County Realtors Association for a lengthy explanation of the municipal separate storm sewer system. The annual meeting also met an Ohio EPA requirement for the city to present public education about its efforts for a healthy stormwater system.
Successful measures include the city’s Clintonville project, where the city separated the storm sewer from the sanitary sewer system and installed new sanitary sewer lines.
“This was one of those areas that the EPA was urging us to get to take some serious action on,” Starr said.
The city still has issues with sewage coming into its stormwater system from Clinton Township, which participated in the project through a Community Development Block Grant.
“We've got sewage rolling downhill into our stormwater system, and that takes it to the river, and so we've got to find a way to work together to make this work,” Starr said, to make “this public health issue no longer a public health issue.”
Parking garage work continues; curb and gutter work on tap
The Engineering Department reported work on the Municipal Parking Garage continues. Contractors expect the next delivery of galvanized steel by the end of the month, Starr said.
The mayor expects the city to request bids for a citywide curb-and-gutter project that will make small improvements around town. The project could not be done without the $6 stormwater fee the city collects from property owners monthly, he said.
The success of the city’s stormwater work depends on the curbing and guttering and catch basins that have been installed, Starr said. An example is Sunset Street, located on a very steep hill on the northwest side of Mount Vernon coming down to North Sandusky Street.
“For years, the rain has just come down and washed things away and people have had problems with the foundation and so forth,” he said.
The city will pay close attention to how curbing and guttering, plus catch basins, affect the entire neighborhood, which he said has been affected by the problem for decades.
