Mayor Nathan Frisch called the December 28th, 2023 Village of Attica Council regular meeting to order at 7:35 PM.
Roll Call: Owen Best, Keith Hopple, Nicole Lenhart, Kirk Stanfield
Others Present: Solicitor Heather Heyman Niedermeier
Absent: Ed Beamer, Louis Sanders
Approval of Warrants: Motion by Councilman Best, seconded by Councilwoman Lenhart to approve the warrants for payment. Vote: 4-0. Motion carried
Approval of Minutes: 12/14/23 Minutes Motion by Councilwoman Lenhart, seconded by Councilman Best to approve the 12/14/23 minutes. Vote: 4-0. Motion carried.
12/23/23 Minutes Motion by Councilwoman Lenhart, seconded by Councilman Best to approve the 12/23/23 minutes. Vote: 3-1 with Councilman Stanfield voting no. Motion carried.
Written & Oral Communication: None.
Public Safety: None.
Streets & Properties: Councilman Stanfield reported being approached by a local business owner about a nuisance property, a vacant office trailer, to the rear of his business. The requestor wanted to know how to remedy the situation. Mayor Frisch reported the Village has no ordinances or property maintenance code that will allow the Village to act. He suggested contacting the health department, Councilman Stanfield reported that was his suggestion. Councilman Stanfield asked if reporting it to the Fire Department would help, Mayor Frisch said probably not. The trailer is reportedly falling apart. The Solicitor stated the Village could file a nuisance lawsuit based off of the state code, but that could be very expensive. Councilwoman Lenhart asked what if someone from Council reached out to the property owner. Mayor Frisch and Councilman Stanfield suggested that wouldn’t work.
Mayor Frisch shared he received a phone call from the Sheriff’s Dept at about 8:30 pm on December 26, 2023 about the traffic light at SR 4 and SR 224 not working. There was a State Highway Patrol directing traffic. They discovered a transformer had blown. The electric company had the transformer fixed around 11:30 pm. The Mayor was called again to come reset the street light. He came up. He reported not being able to reset the light, so he called ODOT. ODOT wasn’t able to get it working properly either. The next morning ODOT called and gave Mayor Frisch contact information for Miller Pipeline because they have removed similar lights before. Miller Pipeline showed up shortly after calling them and replaced two fuses and it started working again. ODOT did suggest the Village start looking at grants to replace the unit(s). Mayor Frisch reported they are about $20,000 per unit.
Parks: Councilwoman Lenhart indicated she is going to get in touch with the county to see about grants for parks projects. Councilman Best asked what kind of grant, Councilwoman Lenhart reported just a grant in general. She said she would like to get the parks cleaned up and painted this spring. She also hopes to purchase new swings.
Councilwoman Lenhart reported that her husband was able to get the building locked where the events committee is storing their decorations. She said she has a key.
Trees: None.
Fire: None.
EMS: Councilwoman Lenhart shared the county is partnering with Ehove to conduct EMT training for free. Interested candidates would have to agree to work for Seneca County for 2 years following the training. She stated they are still working out the details and want to see how much interest they will have, but at this point the classes will be hybrid for 8-10 people per class. $1735 per person will be the cost for the County.
Councilwoman Lenhart shared the Joint Ambulance District is looking into a grant for county emergency sirens. She said she needs to know where all of our sirens are and if any are broken. We have one at the Fire Station and one at the Fairgrounds, which isn’t in village limits. The one at the fairgrounds is not sounding or rotating. It needs moved due to its placement near the railroad tracks. The vibration from trains causes issues.
Cemetery: None.
Personnel: 1st reading Ordinance 2023-16 Amending the Personnel Policy/Handbook which waives the probationary period for health insurance. FO Hatfield let the Solicitor know Council may have changed their mind about the waiving the waiting period after talking to the Health Insurance Rep. FO Hatfield shared the village is in a predicament with health insurance. She reported the Medical Mutual of Ohio will not give us a policy with only one employee using health insurance, so either we allow Dakota to go onto to health insurance prior to the 90-day waiting period, or stay with United Healthcare until February and revaluate. Councilman Best moved to go with UHC ACA for January and reevaluate policy with Medical Mutual in February, Councilwoman Lenhart seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. Motion carried.
Councilman Best moved to enter executive session at 8:05 pm to discuss personnel, Councilwoman Lenhart seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. Motion carried.
Councilman Best moved to exit executive session at 8:25 pm, Councilman Hopple seconded. Vote:4-0. Motion carried.
Councilman Best moved to hire Tom Scott effective 1/2/2024 at $20 an hour, Councilman Hopple seconded the motion. Vote: 3-0 with Councilwoman Lenhart abstaining. Motion carried.
Zoning Commission: Mayor Frisch reported meeting with the owner of 306 Liberty St to stake out the lot for a new home build pursuant to the zoning code.
Finance and rule: Cash balance: $1,473,129.69 All funds include CDs and reserved or restricted funds, and debt reserve funds.
Water & Sewer: 2nd read of Ordinance 2023-14 Amending the Water Bill Payment Schedule, Penalties and Shut Off Conditions. FO Hatfield reported the Solicitor updated the restoration fee to read $50 dollars. Councilman Stanfield asked if the new due date was being moved up by 4 days. The Solicitor reported yes. She clarified the shut off date is being moved up by 30 days. Previously the shut off date was the month following the bill that is due, now the shut offs will take place 6 days after the due date.
FO Hatfield reported the Billing Clerk wanted them to know she found a fee schedule amendment that stated that there is a $25 fee for shutting off the water and a $25 fee for restoring service, so the fee of $50 for restoration would essentially amount to the same. Council understood.
Councilwoman Lenhart asked about putting the warning on the bill if a solution was discovered. FO Hatfield said she believes she and the billing clerk have a solution. FO Hatfield reported the billing clerk intends to start printing bills on paper and mailing them in a prepaid envelope. That way she can print the shut off notice on the bill itself. She also experienced a lot of residents calling about lost bills due to the small post card being sent through the mail. Councilman Hopple asked what the cost would be period prepaid envelope, FO Hatfield figured about $.76 per envelope. Councilman Hopple said that is more expensive than a stamp, FO Hatfield reminded him that it is the envelope too. Council asked if the Billing Clerk really wants to stuff all of those bills into envelopes, FO Hatfield reported the Billing Clerk is encouraging us to go this route. Councilwoman Lenhart asked if she would have enough time in her work day to stuff the envelopes, the FO agreed to ask her.
Mayor Frisch reported having an updated version of the contract with ND Utility Solutions to Operate the Water Treatment Plant effective January 1. Mayor Frisch reported it is 2 pages less. Solicitor reported the version she reviewed had an indemnification clause that she requested be removed. She said she wanted section 4 to be updated to read they would be responsible for their own negligence; the Village would be responsible for their own negligence.
Councilman Best shared he had a question about section 2 step 9, which reads: the system is responsible to perform daily visits to the facility on days when the certified professional operator is not fulfilling the minimum staffing requirements. Councilman Best asked Mayor Frisch if that was something he mentioned to you, because to me that reads that someone on our end is responsible to go down there and conduct a visit when a Village employee is working as the operator? Mayor Frisch reported Jaime would generally stop in. The Solicitor reported number 11 reads similarly.
FO Hatfield spoke up and asked if anyone has thought about how we are going to afford this?
Mayor Frisch replied we don’t have a choice.
Councilman Stanfield was reading from a previous contract: the agreement shall be renewed automatically for additional one-year periods unless wither party should give the other party 60 days written notice prior to the expiration date of the contract. The Solicitor asked if there was any other right in there for him to terminate the contract. FO Hatfield grabbed the signed previous contract for review which was signed on 3/13/23. The Solicitor after reviewing the signed contract, did report the signed contract did allow him to opt out legally.
Councilman Stanfield asked how are you going to pay $100 a man hour. Then Councilman Stanfield asked where are the metrics? Mayor Frisch reported he filed them with the EPA. Councilman Stanfield said he should be filing the metrics with us too. Mayor Frisch reported if the EPA comes into run it we will be charged $160 an hour. Councilman Stanfield asked where do we get the $160. Councilwoman Lenhart reported that she doesn’t know a lot about operating a water treatment facility, she asked what will happen if we don’t sign the contract? Mayor Frisch said we wouldn’t have anyone to make water.
Councilwoman Lenhart asked what happens if Dakota gets his class I tomorrow and ND Utility Solutions is pushing us out. Councilman Best reported we would still need Dakota for water distribution. Mayor Frisch reported Dakota would be able to work on the 7th day when we are responsible for providing the operator of record. Councilwoman Lenhart asked what do we need to do here? Councilman Best said unfortunately, I don’t think we have an option, but I don’t know how we are going to afford it. Councilman Stanfield suggested requesting $60 an hour. FO Hatfield stated she thinks the Village needs them more than they need us at this point. Mayor Frisch said you heard Jaime on Saturday, they won’t come in for anything less than $100 an hour. Councilman Stanfield reported listening very closely on Saturday, it is going to cost an additional $10,000 a month. FO Hatfield states she doesn’t know if anyone looked over the report, but the water fund status is only at $3000, she feared the ability to pay bills as large as theirs would be.
Councilman Stanfield said add $20 a month to resident’s bills, call it a regressive meter tax.
Councilman Stanfield then suggested using the water improvement fund, which he believes is an unofficial fund, and is an illegal regressive meter tax. He asked how much was in that fund. FO Hatfield reported roughly $146,000. Councilman Stanfield asked how much do we need to raise rates to receive an additional $10,000 a month. Councilman Stanfield reported he is adamantly opposed to this contract.
The solicitor said we need to get the couple of paragraphs that say we need to provide certified professional operators changed. Mayor Frisch said we do have certified professional operators, Orin, Gary, and Jeret and our other Contract Operator, Mike. The Solicitor asked who will be responsible if he doesn’t have operators available or if we don’t have operators available. Mayor Frisch said it would be like it has been for years, we would be responsible, although ND Utility Solutions contract has them on the hook for 48 hours a week. Councilman Stanfield asked why we have to agree to 48 hours of coverage, when our plant is only operational for 40 hours a week.
Councilman Best asked if we could pass the contract based on getting clarification on a couple of items? The Solicitor pointed out that the contract guarantees 48 hours to ND Utility Solutions, but it doesn’t guarantee us to 48 hours provided by them. She said we could approve it with a change that would clarify that. She asked if Jaime -ND Utility Solutions was promising 48 hours. Councilman Best and Mayor Frisch both thought ND Utility Solutions was guaranteeing 48 hours of coverage to the Village.
Councilman Hopple asked who are we paying, Jaime or the three gentlemen individually. Councilman Best reported we are paying ND Utility Solutions.
Councilman Best moved to enter in the contract with ND Utility Solutions with changes to section 5, the 4th paragraph, the operator will provide 48 hours weekly staffed by ND Utility Solutions and clarification as to who the contract is with, Councilwoman Lenhart seconded. Vote: 3-1 with Councilman Stanfield voting no. Motion carried. Councilman Stanfield again remind Council that the plant doesn’t operator for 48 hours a week as it is. Councilwoman Lenhart reminded him they are also going to be doing upgrades to the plant also during this time.
Village Website & IT: None.
Unfinished, Old Business and New Business: Councilman Hopple reported that Mr. Artie Smith of 110 Tiffin St. has a pole in his front yard, was owned by Verizon until June of 2023, now it is owned by Frontier. The pole is in rough shape and needs removed it is very loose. Councilman Hopple can’t get a hold of Frontier. He asked if there was anything the Village can do to help him out. The Solicitor suggested contacting AEP, if it may interrupt the power they will care.
Executive Session:
Next meeting: Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 7:30 PM.
Motion by Councilman Best, seconded by Councilman Hopple to adjourn the meeting. Time: 9:30 PM. Vote: 4-0. Motion carried.
