Burger called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m. at the Jackson Township Hall with all Trustees, Clerk, Lyon, Fitzgerald and representatives of the Stark County Engineer’s office.
Mr. Mike Rehfus, Stark County Engineer, presented updates on all projects in Jackson Township from 1997 projecting through 2011 including current projects and completed projects. He also presented a breakdown of where the township’s participation is needed on different projects based on current agreements and the year Jackson’s share will be needed. Discussion followed on several of the projects.
Burger called the Work Session to order at 4:30 p.m. at the Jackson Township Hall with all Trustees, Clerk, Lyon, Fitzgerald and Neftzer present.
Chief Neftzer presented updated information regarding the Police Department budget and recommended restoration of Safety Center hours to 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day and to increase part-time patrol hours.
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to send a letter to Ralph Regula in support of the Red Center’s request for a grant to improve the services of LOGIC and also that the Board supports regionalization of dispatch services.
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion to restore part-time officers to 2004 staffing levels.
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to hire temporary aides to staff the Safety Center from 7:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on those days it’s currently not staffed.
John Phillippi reviewed the background of the Research and Technology District.
Steve Bergman: I think the main consideration or at least one of the main considerations that the Board had is in trying to decipher what the R-T District needs to look like, as far as from a regulation standpoint, is trying to get at least an idea from the Trustees what you all think just in a visionary fashion. You know, should it be campus like, should it contain bio-chemical, should it contain, now that I know the word, nanotechnology. What type of a view, of a look, of a type of a district do you folks feel that we’re trying to develop here. And before we wanted to get to the actual regulations to control that we think we need to come some sort of resolution as to what we all think it looks like before we try to control it.
I was going to talk a little bit about that. Aletha Magyaros: Did you need my address, too.
Gonzalez: No. Just so we know when we’re filling in the tape.
Magyaros: That is where we initially had our problems with this is that we just really couldn’t clarify what we wanted to have in that district. And I know in the purpose section we talked about businesses in the fields of power and propulsion, bio-science, advance materials, we had information technology, instruments, controls, electronics. I think the Zoning Commission, and if I’m wrong, they can correct me, we would like to see something, or we’d like to develop something a little bit more concrete under those headings. So when we work through the zoning regulations we can make sure that we have regulations in place that’s going to protect the environment, that’s going to deal, you know we have to know what kind of businesses we’re attracting, so we know what to put in place to regulate and to protect the environment and everything else. And I don’t think there was any, in the current version there’s really not any consideration, we don’t even have a definition for like hazardous materials, so we wanted to go back through and make sure, first of all, like Steve said, the types of businesses that we want to attract to an R-T District and define those a little bit better. And I was on the internet earlier and there’s some pretty good information out there and some examples and I even pulled up something from a law school that had drafted similar regulations that gives you a little bit more, better definition, of the types of businesses we’d like to see. And then we would need to work on standards as far as noise, vibration, and if we want to talk about smoke, dust, gases, fire and explosive hazards, water pollution, we really didn’t have any of that covered in the current version of the regulations. Storage of waste and disposal of hazardous waste. And then I also just wanted to throw in, I didn’t know if we could do like we do with our current PRD’s and PUD’s, where we actually have to see a site plan and approve it.
Gonzalez: That’s a great idea.
Magyaros: Because otherwise you know we put these regulations in and we hope we’re covering everything we want to cover, but if we can do something like we do with the PUD’s and the PRD’s where we need to see a site plan, we need to know what type of business you’re bringing into the area, we need to make sure it’s going to comply with the regulations and then have some type of approval process through the Zoning Commission as a recommendation to you like we do the the PUD’s or PRD’s with the Trustees having the final say so.
Gonzalez: There’s a lot more leverage that way.
Jim Bauder: One of the aspects beyond that is the asthetics, the eastern portion, Frank Road and such, could be more of a nuts and bolts situation like we have seen in Green Township along 241. West of that, closer to the housing you may be thinking more of a campus environment. Now we, maybe you people have some leads as to what some of the people might be interested in the area. We, ourselves, don’t. So we had no idea where to approach on that. Thank you.
Donna Conaway: I agree with everything that’s been said, I think some very good points have been brought up. But one thing I would like to mention as well, is we were kind of put in a position at that meeting where we had to put some new regulations in place and at the same time we had an area that we needed to approve or disapprove. And we had a lot of people in the audience that couldn’t get past what we were trying to do. All they could think about was, they did not want it where it was being proposed, so that would be something that I would like to see not happen again. That we would get the rules and regulations and the zoning in place and then propose it for a certain area. Because the people were just getting really upset with how long and drawn out it was getting. But they had to understand that that was important that we think it through. So that was one thing that I would ask maybe that that not happen.
Gonzalez: I’d like to address the big picture of finances and what’s happening and the makeup of the Township, I’m sure the Board’s getting sick of hearing this, because I’ve given the scenario so many times, but the general public nor your board probably understands the growth of the Township, balance growth, has been a very important thing to Jackson Township over the last 50 years. We’re starting to see a trend that is turning. Ten years ago, our tax base was basically 50% commercial and 50% residential, and this has really come into play because of what just happened with the Police Levy. The most asked question of me was ‘Why are our taxes going up 80% but the Police Department’s not getting an 80% increase.’ The real answer to that question is we are starting to hit a problem and I’m not saying it’s a problem yet, I’m saying tax base wise it’s becoming a problem. This Board has been very good about listening to the residents and their requests, and there’s not much place for commercial development right now and the only way it’s going to be built is to rezone something to commercial. Well that has not been a popular choice nor a good choice. So what happens since really the end of the Strip which was almost 10 years ago, is we haven’t seen any commercial development, and Donna, you’re going to see this issue hit the schools larger than us. When the Policy Levy came up, under this new evaluation, Jackson Township is now 63% residential and 37% commercial. So the increase in the Police Levy was 80% to the residents but it was less than 50% to the businesses. I think this Board is looking at alternatives of other ways to try to rebalance our growth somewhat because becoming strictly a bedroom community, that’s great, and I know people like to have that but there’s a heavy price to pay for it and if we keep doing all the farms that are getting bought up and building houses that shift is going to go farther and our taxes are going to go higher and as most of you know about 70% of those go to the schools. As we talk about alternative sources of funding things, that’s not going to change the schools. Their’s will still be property taxes even if we had the blessing of the sales or an income tax, the school’s are still stuck with property taxes to this point. So I think this was an attempt to say okay there are other ways of smart growth and from that I’ll turn it over to the Trustees but that’s really the financial impact of the problem we’re seeing.
Rebecca Weiford: I would like to talk and follow up on one the things that was just said that you need to know what’s going on before you can regulate something with very great precision. Especially if you’re talking bio-technology. You don’t need to be quite as fussy about it as all of that. It’s been three months since we started this, I would assume that you’ve been to the library and discovered that the regulatory agency for this is not the EPA and never was. That it’s OSHA but they not only set the standards of what is safe and how things should be handled, they have the power to come in and close you down. All that you really need to do is state that if whatever is being used, whatever company, whatever project is being considered, that is must meet regulations, OSHA standards and require an OSHA person to come in on site and do an inspection maybe once a year, whatever. You don’t need to site for each individual type of project what needs to be done as much as you can go to all of these people who have been doing it for years and saying we need to state generally that the OSHA requirements have just got to be met. That’s very simple, it’s very basic. I know for people who are used to regulating things to death it seems like it’s giving up an awful lot of control on our end. The truth is it pretty much covers what you need to cover without any of the loopholes especially for those organizations and those regulations agencies that have been doing it long enough that they have figured out what else has needed to be done and have been upgrading the regulations. I think that long term this whole area is going to run into a real problem if we don’t do something. Hoover is moving out of North Canton for all practical purposes, they were bought by an industrial consortium which has had a history of simply brushing things up and selling for profit. I don’t really think that Hoover Manufacturing is going to be in North Canton very long. We have two plants for the Timken Company that are closing in Canton, being of sound mind they’re going to warmer weather. I think, I mean I love Ohio, I do, I love Ohio. Not necessarily in January. I think that if we want to be at the very apex of what’s going on and you know Cornelius Aultman did that a hundred years ago, as it turns out at the time that the agricultural revolution was going, we were the ones manufacturing the equipment, not John Deere, we were. And it put us on the map.
Right now there are things going on which could put us on the map which are going to have a future on into the foreseeable future. And if right now it’s been thrown into our lap and if we argue it to death we’re going to lose it and so is Jackson. As an aside, our home values actually made the Wall Street Journal because we’re one of the very few areas where home values are going down. One of the ways to reverse that is to have a large area that is going to attract highly educated and highly paid individuals who can afford the kinds of housing we want to see continue to sell in Jackson and North Canton and Avondale and everyplace else. I know that there are problems with bio-technology. Now my name is Rebecca Weiford, my mother was Ila.
Weiford. She was a teacher in the Canton system and they used to watch tadpoles change into frogs and hatch chicks and do all sorts and when they baked bread they talked about yeast and you know, the entire (indecipherable) of what was science back then and the reason nobody was afraid of it was partly because they trusted her and partly because they dealt with it. Now bio-technology’s like that. I’ve been in that field now for 30 years and partly because I have experience with it, it doesn’t frighten me. In large part because I know that even though the down side can be bad, I also know that it can be incredibly expensive if you have a down side. So when these companies come in and they do research, they make sure they have people who are well trained and who are well educated and understand what they’re handling. That’s just part, it’s a package. You don’t get somebody coming in and spending a hundred million dollars on a project and risking the chance of blowing it because they have people who don’t know what they’re doing.
And as for the danger, I work at Aultman Hospital, we have stuff in our micro-we have stuff in our chemistry lab, that’s going to be at least as dangerous as anything you could have in the bio-technology area. And we know for sure it actually produces disease, it never causes any problem, partly because of the sewer system we have, partly because we have people in place who are trained and know how to handle it. Every time you have diarrhea at home, and you go to the bathroom you introduce into the sewer system the kind of bacteria and it never, ever affects your neighbor. And you have to think about why not? Just because there are microbes out there, there was a meeting that we had about a month ago and somebody got up and talked about being concerned that there would be research and he used smallpox, malaria, and AIDS as an example. Smallpox we’ve pretty well nailed and we have the vaccine stocked that if we ever had anything come up we’ll just be able to pull it out and use it, we aren’t doing anything with smallpox. Malaria we have a vaccine in final clinical trials right now. Also we don’t have the type of mosquito here in Ohio to carry it even if we did have a problem, which is why if people come out from over seas and they have malaria, they haven’t spread it to the general population. And as for AIDS, there was a clinical trial about two years ago, when they thought they had a vaccine that was going to work and it didn’t. What this company ended up with was a clinical trial of, I think 128 people, but they are obligated and had to fund or be cared for for the rest of their lives. Now when you start talking that kind of money and that kind of obligation you’re not taking it frivolously. Does anybody here have any questions about bio-technology itself, what it actually is? Has anybody contacted OSHA to talk about their actual experiences with it? I mean, is there anything that you need to know if you’re afraid of it just because, well, you know, fear is a valid thing to be aware of. And I’m sure as Trustees you are aware of it. Fear is a valid thing. And if you’re only afraid of something because you don’t understand it that doesn’t preclude the fear or make it any less. It does, however, mean that it may not be a valid reason to not do it. Okay?
Meeks: Thank you.
Burger: Mrs. Detwiler, care to say a few words?
Nancy Detwiler: Basically, just to agree with where they were at as far as the definition before they go forward but and I know it was mentioned about possibly having a park and things like that connected with it to diffuse some of the fear of some of the residents that were against it. But maybe if they thought there was like a buffer area. But as Rebecca said if it’s not going to be at the danger but I do think that the community as far as the growth issue that it’s something that we need to do, I think. We planned to try to get a hold of OSHA but I didn’t get them.
Burger: Thank you. Joni, would you like to say anything at this time before we open up to the Board.
Joni Poindexter: I just think it makes sense to have a lot more understanding, people need to understand exactly what it is and I totally agree with Aletha that it should be a site plan that is approved through the Zoning Commission so people can see what they’re getting and they know exactly what’s going in there and we can’t just approve an R-T district with people not knowing what’s going to be there. With an approved plan, people will know what they’re getting and I think that that would help a lot.
Burger: One thing that kind of surprised me when this kind of came on the scene, last year I went to a groundbreaking over a Stark State when Mr. Regula was there and I forget who the individual was from the Federal Government and they broke ground for the fuel cell and through this whole thing I cannot understand why there wasn’t any complaints about a fuel cell building going up there where right in the back yard of Stark State and all of a sudden when this came on the site up here I guess like she said, I mean there are people that this is their background, this is what they do and when they talked about a high tech area there, one of the first things I relate to is with Timken Research down there. Now, I’ve been in there a couple times on tours and I’m sure everything is well taken of as far as any critical incidents that could happen there. And when these people would look for an area up here that anything that would be built there, people complained about contamination of water. They were going to have a sanitary sewer; they were going to have water there, city water. I don’t prefer to call it city water it’s in North Canton and Massillon but actually water. And some of the other things that are going to be involved in it and I think people just heard somebody yell wolf too much and they didn’t really think it through. Like you say, and Mr. Gonzalez mentioned a little bit earlier, we’re depending on too much on the taxpayers of the township and we’ve got the mall and so forth over there and the airport, how it’s expanding, I think it was just last night, over the weekend, but now they’re going to have direct flights to Las Vegas, so all these rich people living in Jackson Township can go to Las Vegas and not even have to get off the plane until they get there. There are just so many possibilities here and we’re foolish to let a few people cry wolf and, you know, just pretty hard, a stop to this whole thing.
Bergman: I think in a lot of cases, Bill, it was the phrase ‘Not in my backyard’. And when the fuel cell went in, it’s pretty much not in anybody’s backyard.
Burger: Well, that’s true.
Bergman: When the proposal, and that’s like Aletha said, the proposal just to change and put in an R-T District, I don’t think would have brought near the ramifications that we have, as a matter of fact, we probably got more good input because it was tied in with a zoning change to a piece of land. If we had just had the R-T District hearing to try to figure out what it was, we probably would have had a crowd about like this.
Meeks: I think we realize that and that’s why we pulled this map. I think that the whole stumbling block from the get-go was this map. So, and maybe we, and again, maybe we because of timing and we had, our backs were up against the wall in timing, maybe we tried to put it through too quick. And so we realize that, so we backed that out and we’re back to square one, we’re back to, okay, what related uses should we have in there. What are we going to do if this doesn’t take off?
Bergman: I didn’t hear anything yet that tells me that the people of the township or the zoning board are against putting in the R-T District. It is just the definition of it to make sure that we know what we’re approving before we do it.
Magyaros: And the location.
Meeks: The location was the big thing. That’s all we heard.
Magyaros: I mean, you know, we had this room full and for the most part everybody thought it was a good idea. And the same with the Zoning Commission. It was just the location and I know we tried to revise that for the second hearing and we created more buffering but, you know. That’s just what we need to do, I mean, we need to maybe make it a little bit smaller, really consider the buffering, educate the public on it. Cause I think overall, people are for it. That was at least my impression.
Weiford: Is there any other place that the people that supply the money are interested in? I mean, people I know that I’ve talked to that are actually anxious for this to go forward wanted to either go up there by the airport in the original position or they’re willing to take it to Medina.
Now that’s I mean we don’t have it’s wonderful to say we want it but we want it someplace else. But that’s only if the people who want it to go are willing to put it someplace else.
Meeks: And just let me interject here, first of all I think a lot of this, you didn’t, the people did not take into consideration all the positive that would come out of an R-T District, okay. First and foremost, they looked at location, and then they heard this terrible term bio-technology, that was one minor, minor, minor component of this new research technology district. One major component in the future of Jackson Township, in the future of partnering with local government, business, and higher education. One thing that I think as we are elected officials we should be looking at is how we can increase our tax base bringing in the right types of businesses that pay exactly like you said, ma’am, and that was our focus on this so that we can bring back a whole new industry in our area because we see so much going out. We can’t wait until everything is gone and the dust is blowing through our streets. We’ve got to act now because we know how slow government happens. But when you get a group of people who had excellent points of why it shouldn’t be in their backyard but is that truly fair. I mean, really, just because it’s in their backyard had it have been in your backyard, Donna, would they have been here to support you. I think not. However, all that negativity brought up a lot of positives. And that is truly the reason why the Board took a real hard look at where we’re going. Number one I still believe in the Research Technology District. Number two the reason for number one is so that we can get back to this 50-50 split because there are so much talk about Jackson Township being the place that we want to be, we want to live, we want to work, and raise our kids and go to school. And rightfully so, but if we don’t take control of how this tax monster is eating us up on the property tax side, no one’s going to want to live here or work here. So we looked at this district and we thought there’s nothing like it in Northeast Ohio, we’re looking at access, we have 77, the I-77 corridor, we have the airport, which is a gem to us. Is very attractive, that’s what these businesses want.
When you go to Boston using Akron-Canton Airport’s vehicle, man, you can commute very inexpensively, that’s what you want. You know, other people say why here, why not there. Well, number one we are very close, again, the airport was a key component. All right. Number two, you don’t always have partnering with government, business, and higher education putting a quality product together and we had that. We still have it. And number three, based on the past history of that parcel of land which I don’t think any of us were here at that time when all of that exploded, and a certain ringleader brought it all up again and crucified Stark State’s ability to have one parcel of land which would have been tax exempt. The ten acres that the airport would have leased for a dollar a year. That did not commit the rest of the 162 acres, they would have been taxpayers. It was not going across Wales to bother the aquifer or bother Willowdale, it wasn’t. But it was perceived that way. So, you know, we take all of that in and it has put it back but you know what, it put it back for the right reasons. Because when we come out with this again, we want it right. The only reason why it was fast tracked was because Stark State had an opportunity to obtain a grant. They were not successful. And it was a blessing because we truly weren’t ready to move forward in the direction that we needed to go. But bio-technology isn’t, that word isn’t something that you should be afraid of, you should be excited about it and interested to learn as much as you can because, like they were talking, Dorey Diab, Vice President of Stark State, when he would talk about nano-fibers, do you understand the breakthrough technology in nano-fibers, what he can do to under (indecipherable)
Gentleman in audience: (indecipherable) understand it, I didn’t understand it when they brought it up.
Meeks: You know, they experiment with it in the service and that, the absorption rate, it isn’t a chemical. It’s a fiber that absorbs itself many times over in its weight. I mean these are the things and you’re absolutely right, OSHA would regulate the safety of it. The clean room that would have been in this building believe me the restrictions that are on a facility like this is supercedes anything we could ever think of.
Weiford: It’s above and beyond the zoning.
Meeks: Right. But I really believe in Jackson Township, we always pride ourself on thinking out in front of the curve. We want people to come here. And this is another attempt at Jackson Township wanting to lead the way in a technology based district that we don’t want to see our I-77 corridor eaten up with retail, strip malls, even though they have been very beneficial to us, that is not what we need here. We have enough. But we need high paying jobs. We need higher education to fund those high paying jobs so that the people can afford to stay here and live here.
Pizzino: I agree with you, Steve, and I know very little about this project, this was kind of Steve’s pet project and I’ll be the first to admit I know very little about the Research and Technology field, what they were going to do there, what they weren’t going to do there, but I do know one thing, when that map came out from the Comprehensive Zoning Committee it did show it was going to butt up against Willowdale Lake and around Willowdale Lake and it went on the other side of 241. Now that was just a plan, but that plan got in everybody’s way and that’s what bogged you people down and bogged everybody down. But we still got to watch out for our residents. And I still believe there’s enough room in that corridor, that airport corridor, to put that Research and Technology District there and still not affect that neighborhood, Willowdale Lake, Pine Creek, Hillfield Allotment, Port View Allotment. There’s still a lot of area there. Now maybe the 168 acres wasn’t the ideal place to start, or the 162 acres whatever that was, Mr. Meeks, but, here nor there, that’s over and done with but we still have an opportunity to create this district and bring in the jobs that not only Jackson Township needs, but Stark County needs. And that’s what we should focus on right now. And I think we all agree, I think this Board agrees, that we’ll look and we’ll study this map, let’s get the text in place, then we’ll worry about the map.
Meeks: We need as much input from you because we truly value what you say. All of our advisory committees, we do want that. Because, again, it doesn’t do us any good to come up with a text even though John Phillippi’s very good and our legal counsel as well. But if it doesn’t work for you to uphold it when it comes before you, what good is it. If it is so technical that no one can understand the dog-gone thing, what good is it. We won’t get the people here anyway. The other major component of this is that we don’t have the money to go out and buy this land. When you have major land owners who are willing to give this up for this type of idea, you’ve got to look at the possibilities there. And that’s what we had. But let me tell you this, through all the information that’s been in the press and that, we’ve had other property owners who own large tracts of land that are interested in that. That are totally adjacent to Frank Road and what I try to look at are positives and negatives, and this will even make up even stronger and better for it and hopefully someday we can send Mr. Conley a thank you for what he has. But not today.
Bergman: Steve, what do you see, you guys, anybody sit there and see a vision. I drove through the Port Authority and it kind of struck me, I wasn’t sure if that’s the way I saw the district or if I saw a little bit more campusy, with a little bit less concrete or you know I wasn’t sure what exactly where I sat, but I want to know where you guys sat.
Meeks: The first phase was truly a campus type atmosphere. That’s why the tracks were so large and that’s why there was a natural amenity that was in that with the ponds and the walking track and the trees and everything like that. That’s what was going to make it so appealing. I still think we need to have that focus and you’ve got to take each part of the land that comes available and use it to that. I don’t want to see, even though it’s a beautiful building, you know, these monster, say like the Timken Research, even though it is very lovely and it sets, but there’s still no warmth to it, you know.
Bergman: Big square.
Meeks: Right. This is not heavy manufacturing, it’s not heavy industrial. It is research and technology.
Conaway: What is the one thing that we all hear in this township? A lot more green space. And so that’s what you’re saying, we need industry or this kind of a new zone so we can bring in the monies. But at the same time, maybe if we could connect and make people understand that there’s going to be a green space and it’s going to be an area where they can, it’s open to them to go and use the walking paths, the trees, and the pond, whatever. Then maybe it (indecipherable) . . .and if we can just impress that upon these people and make them understand, you know, what it’s really all about and what we’re trying to accomplish, but that night we didn’t really know (indecipherable).
Meeks: Right. I understand.
Poindexter: I think that was part of the problem, too, is the residents were asking questions that the Zoning Commission didn’t have answers for. Aletha had brought up a good point and you know they were saying well light industrial; we don’t even have an actual definition of industrial in our zoning book.
Conaway: So it was hard to formulate a definition of light industrial which we ended up taking out anyway the second hearing, but I think if the zoning commission can be in on the drafting of the language it would be a lot easier for us so when the residents have questions, you know, we know where, at least we’ll know where we’re coming from and be able to answer. But we just have a real hard time trying to respond to residents when we were like well we were basically handed the language so we didn’t you know we didn’t know where we were coming from or we were going exactly.
Meeks: We encourage your involvement in helping us create this, truly.
Gonzalez: All the things that you said, and all of you have got this public input from the hearings and all those things, is there any reason, I guess just suggestion wise unless it’s too much work for you, you had a lot of great points there to make revisions to get it to where you guys think it should be and send it back to the Board?
Pizzino: Aren’t we going to revote, Steve?
Gonzalez: I mean wouldn’t that be a great and then they could look at it and they don’t have to vote on it just send it back, look at the revisions, what you guys have, then it’s actually a work product of both Boards, I think.
Meeks: I’ll tell you, what we had even talked about was revoking what we had in place, okay, that we had enacted on. But you still have that footprint and you could use that as somewhat of a model and just make it better.
Conaway: I personally think that’s a great idea.
Pizzino: This way here will get that hearing out of the way. We could just, that hearing would just go away. And we can start back at square one where we should have started from the very beginning.
Poindexter: Well, I think, too, because if the commission goes and more or less totally rewrites what you initiated, they’re not, when you modify it, that’s more or less, they’re totally rewriting it. That’s why I agree that I think it should be revoked and we should hold work sessions let the Zoning Commission write it and then
Gonzalez: That’s what I’m saying, Joni. Why not just revoke it, use that as the start work product, make some revisions, send it back, formally, it would be revoked then the Board can then take it, adjust it again and then finally send to you guys for a vote. But this way you’re getting input up front instead of getting it and rewriting it again. Than at least they would know what you feel real strong about and what your input was back on this product.
Meeks: See, the other main component of all of this was that informational meeting that we had. That we didn’t have to have. But we invited the residents up there to come here to hear what we had to, you know . . .we didn’t have to do that, we could have dropped it right in your lap and they wouldn’t have known anything, but we weren’t trying to hide anything. Truly believe in what we are doing, still believe in where we need to be, it’s just that we do care about the opinions of our residents. Yes, ma’am.
Weiford: I think that what we’re
talking about now is a great idea. I think we need to put some kind
of a time line on it. Because it’s the kind of thing that you know.
. .
Meeks: Oh, absolutely.
Weiford: The people have dragged out on. I know some people who have been (indecipherable) for three months and still don’t know that OSHA is the regulating agency. Some people would have found out if they had spent five minutes in the library. I think if you are waiting for some of the (indecipherable) to feed it to you, then you’ll be waiting for the (indecipherable). I think what you need is to come up with a time line here. To step up to the plate and do it.
Meeks: I guess the
Weiford: On both sides.
Meeks: The timeline would be what do you feel is adequate, Aletha. And what you would need to get it to us to that we can.
Pizzino: Why don’t they have a couple meetings and get back with us and we’ll just see how it’s going to go.
Magyaros: And as soon as we can get a meeting scheduled. In past years we have been known to meet every week. And this is before
Conaway: I’m willing to do that. I think it’s better than having too long a break in between meetings and kind of forget what we’re talking about.
Indecipherable:
Meeks: . . .but we can’t procrastinate, either. We can’t
Pizzino: No, (indecipherable) two or three months down the road
Meeks: They could set their own agenda on what they need to, what they feel is necessary.
Pizzino: Do they know why (indecipherable)
Meeks: You’re not even clear what this whole district (indecipherable). You’re still thinking of Stark State.
Indecipherable:
Meeks: That’s not true.
Burger: You may not know this but before you get out of here I was going to make a motion requesting that the commission rewrite the text amendment to this particular problem we have ahead of us, so.
Magyaros: Well, I feel comfortable working on that. I pulled off a lot of language off the internet that talks about research and technology and you know sets up a blueprint of how to set it up in the language.
Burger: I don’t think any one of the Board members want to set a deadline for it but from what you said but I think the committee is interested in meeting at your leisure and accomplishing this without extending into the year 2006 or whatever.
Meeks: What we’re saying is, do it right. I mean, just don’t put it together because we said we wanted it back to us in five months or four months. I mean do it right, if it takes, whatever it takes.
Magyaros: That night at the meeting it was like we’re rushing to create all this language and to fine tune this and there’s people in the audience and they’re already to the second issue, which is the rezone and we’re saying wait a minute, we have a responsibility here to make this language work for you because if it’s not in your backyard it’s going to be in somebody else’s. And they said this is way too important (indecipherable) you have to realize you cannot rush this because this is something that is going to affect everyone. Don’t come here worrying about your own backyard, it’s for the township, it’s for the residents, it’s everybody.
Bergman: One of the questions I have, actually I have two, what businesses do you see in the district and should the district – do you visualize the district being self-sustaining. I – police, some police, some fire, anything like that being located there. Cause that was a big discussion that we had – public services being available within the district.
Meeks: Generally speaking, I don’t see it. As far as having its own fire and police up there, I don’t see that would be a need and it would not put a drain on our safety forces here. Because in the restricted hours of operation, then there wouldn’t be that 24 – 7 type. But the other thing you have to look at is the tax base that they would paying which, yes, it would ask for increased patrol to be hired. I’m assuming that but they would offset that with the taxes that they would definitely pay on their property. That is the key right there. The amount of money that could be generated off of the investments up there is what we’re looking at. We’ve got to get this balance back. We cannot continue to go on the down side, where we’re paying more than what the businesses are paying. We can’t.
Gonzalez: You know that argument came up from Mr. Conley and it was over the small ten acre site, I think it was, that was tax exempt. And he was saying that is was going to stress the police but
Bergman: I think a lot of that came from the Board members just in trying to figure out what the district was supposed to look like.
Gonzalez: I really believe from a property tax standpoint they would be, that’s the whole point to try to develop areas that can subsidize our tax base and with that they should be provided the services that go with what they pay for.
Bergman: (indecipherable) normal.
Gonzalez: Exactly. You know, that’s like one of the issues that hasn’t been mentioned one of the problems I’ve always had as a Trustee and as the Clerk in Jackson Township for years they used to have police and firemen say you want us to have residency requirements but you don’t pay us enough to live in this township. That’s a major issue. I mean most of our people don’t live and work in the township and it’d be nice to have a job where you can say come and live in our community you can work in our community and one of the things that I’ve always used is you look at the city of Akron, how many years ago they were the rubber capital of the world and there were all these tire companies but they made a great transition and they went to polymers and now they’re the polymer capital of the world. That’s what Jackson needs to do and that’s the direction. I mean, look at this even farther down the road, as maybe one day the Strip or some of these box shopping centers may become like what happened to Akron, these types of businesses and retails may not last forever and we’ve got all our eggs in one basket.
Magyaros: Is there any definition as far as we’re to go by as far as are we geared for government projects that would come in or private businesses that would come in I mean who are we trying to entice into this area and, yes, bio-technology but
Meeks: Bio-technology was just one aspect of this. Please don’t get hung up on that. It was only because, again, that we had all the partners in place. But
Magyaros: I mean who is our target market that when we try to define this, are we trying to pull particular businesses
Indecipherable
Gonzalez: Research any type of research.
Meeks: First of all our focus needs to be with partnering with our higher educators, okay. Finding out what they’re seeing as a need because they are in tune with the business sector as well. And if you do that, they will tell you what their needs are going to be because they’re training for that in the future. And this company which we did have and there’s one right up there at Port Jackson that was going to be a major leader in bio-technology. But they are our focus, we just all Jackson Township is trying to do is create the district. And whatever we can put in there to attract and to permit this type of research and technology district then the higher education the businesses they will make sure we have everything that they’re for. We have the land, we have the zoning, we have the infrastructure in place, whether it’s I-77 now with the Shuffel exchange, we have transportation, if they need to commute with the airport, everything. It’s a lot different than looking in the city of Canton, or the city of Massillon, yeah, they have highways running through there but they don’t have the airport that is what we’ve heard time and time again from a plethora of businesses that are looking in this region that the airport is what we want to be close to. It’s a necessity to do international business and just business here.
Gonzalez: There is a foreign trade and a free enterprise zone in that area. That was one of the reasons that area was so highly marketed. I mean there was a lot that was created by the port authority that Jackson Township started back in the 80’s. I think then, years later Stark County took over the port authority, and the port authority also has borrowing powers, there’s all types of things that could be used up there, financially.
Meeks: We would welcome your help on this. I would say take the time that you need, however, don’t prolong it. I mean because every day that we miss not creating is an opportunity for someone to acquire the key land that would make this work. And there’s already been talk, I don’t know why but, certain developers would like to have a parcel in that corridor east of Frank, west of 77, to put a major development in there. It doesn’t fit in my mind at all but there are those talks and there are I mean you think about the acreage around along our I-77 corridor is up now to $600,000 an acre. Can you believe that? And there are people that are just chomping at the bit to get a piece of that. And the longer that we don’t have even though it’s zoned industrial through that do you understand that if even the Strip, and I hope this doesn’t get in the paper, the Strip is zoned industrial which would permit a Christie’s, another Christie’s or something like that. We don’t want that in our community, we don’t want to be known for the strip club capital of Northeastern Ohio. We want to be known for research, technology, high paying jobs, quality home or quality way of life, and excellent school system. And a community that thought into the future and is working with partnering with higher education and major corporations. That’s what we want to be known for.
Pizzino: You know, there was a question that I know, I was just talking to John about this, about the light manufacturing use, everybody, like light industrial, define that. And John and I were just talking about that and I said how do they write it in or they write it out and maybe that should be a conditional use permit. You should consider that. If it has something to do with that type of development. Maybe we should be able to look at it through a conditional use permit. Wouldn’t you think so, John?
Phillippi: If it’s something that has to do with, that’s tied directly into that type of research and facility then that was our whole intent. It would be allowed to prototype it and manufacture of that type of product but then as the district got written it was I think maybe too broad because it allowed basically any type of a light industrial use that fit that definition and it wasn’t a conditional permitted use. And it seemed like a lot of the controversy, a lot of the questions had to do with those types of businesses that would be able to locate in such a district, that really didn’t have a lot to do with strictly research and technology but they’re more just the conventional light industrial uses. That’s probably the one major area to look at and really try to tighten up.
Bergman: If we, as we write this, since I’ve never written one, now are we permitted to specifically identify through usage permit, conditional usage permits, what specific businesses are allowed to go in and, therefore, exclude other businesses from going into a district like that.
Phillippi: Types of businesses you can
Bergman: I guess the question is,
is research a type of business or is software development a type of business
that can be included or are they, or some broad guideline within the state
of Ohio.
Fitzgerald: It’s hard to define.
We’ll work through that.
Conaway: And you don’t want to make it so narrow that
Meeks: that nobody comes in.
Conaway: Yeah. That you’d actually keep people from coming in, but there has to be a balance between looking at too broad and (indecipherable).
Bergman: And that’s, again, when you get back to it is the perception I have of the Board is we want research, development, technology; we don’t want the traditional old-style businesses in.
Meeks: Just keep in mind, you’re on the cusp of something very, very great that hasn’t been done, so we don’t know what type of businesses could come our way because there
Bergman: . . .biggest problem.
Meeks: Right. They aren’t here yet.
Bergman: Now we’re in nano-technology, next year we’ll be in neno-technology,
Meeks: I hope so. I hope so whatever it may . . .
Pizzino: Whatever it is.
Meeks: Okay, thank you.
Burger: I’m sorry ma’am, I bypassed you earlier, did you have anything you’d like to say.
Janet Adams: Well, I’m a resident of Pine Creek and I’d just like to say that myself and I’ve talked to a lot of my neighbors, you know, I don’t think anybody was opposed to the R & T District. I think that a lot of the controversy came out of the meetings was due to a lot of the vagueness and people not knowing exactly, you know, what was going in. The informational meeting you talked a lot about the campus-like environment but yet when we looked at the language they talked about eight story buildings and things that didn’t really seem like a campus atmosphere. I think this is a good idea to go back and take it slow and do it right, because I think that there are some advantages but I think the first time around it was too rushed and I’m glad that it turned out the way it did and we got all the input and hopefully the
Meeks: Absolutely.
Conaway: Yeah, I think it’s going to help us now when we draft this. We actually have a, I mean had the input already from the residents.
Burger: If nothing else to add, I would like to take this opportunity to make a motion requesting the Zoning Commission to rewrite the text of the amendment and there in the meeting we will ask for a resolution to rescind the present motion we have on text amendment 546-05.
Meeks: Second.
Gonzalez: All in favor.
Pizzino: Neal, can we do that before we, I didn’t think we could do that.
Fitzgerald: I really prefer to put the cart before the horse. We’ll do the revocation first and then do Bill’s motion second. As it’s scheduled in the regular meeting, thank you.
No vote was taken.
At 6:00 p.m., Burger called the General Session to order with all department heads present. He requested that all cell phones and pagers be turned off at this time.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Public Speaks – No one came forward.
Administration Department
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 A
Burger moved and Meeks seconded a motion
to authorize the hiring of Matthew Marlett as a seasonal park maintenance
worker, through the temporary service, subject to a negative drug screen,
at the rate of $6.50 per hour, effective May 31, 2005, per the recommendation
of the Park Operations Director.
Burger moved and Meeks seconded a motion to authorize the hiring of Aaron Frye as a seasonal park maintenance worker, through the temporary service, subject to a negative drug screen, at the rate of $6.50 per hour, effective May 31, 2005, per the recommendation of the Park Operations Director.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 B
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to approve the appropriation transfer request from code 214.210.5420, Park
Maintenance, to code 214.515.5459, Special Events, in the amount of $1,000
and from code 214.515.5502, Supplies & Materials, to code 214.515.5459,
Special Events, in the amount of $1,700 for a total amount of $2,700.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 C
Burger moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to approve Amendment No. 13 to the Jackson Township Health Benefit Plan
as recommended by the Health Insurance Committee.
Fire Department
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 D
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to accept the donation of a rescue boat and trailer from the Firefighters
Association.
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to send a letter of thanks to the Professional Firefighters Association.
Chief Heck notified the Board that new Engine 3 arrived late this afternoon and is housed currently at Station 3, while going through clarifications and checks that it meets specifications.
Highway Department
RESOLUTION 05-029, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion
to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board President’s signature
upon the attached Contract with Waikem Ford, Inc. for the purchase of One
(1) 2006 Ford F-550 for a total amount of $31,750.00 which is lower than
the price listed in the State Purchasing Contract for the same equipment.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 E
Boger presented a list of engineer construction
and management companies that responded to the request for engineering
services.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 F
Boger presented information on 0% interest
loan from Ohio Public Works Commission for the Portage/Lutz Intersection
project.
RESOLUTION 05-030, ATTACHED
Burger moved and Meeks seconded a motion
to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board President’s signature
upon the attached Agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation
for the purchase of Rock Salt.
Police Department
RESOLUTION 05-031, ATTACHED
Burger moved and Meeks seconded a motion
to recall Shirley J. Miller from layoff to fill the vacant position of
Secretary 3 in the Police Department, effective May 24, 2005.
Chief Neftzer reiterated the priorities of continuing the neighborhood patrols and road patrols, and having officers available to respond to calls. He stated that a backlog has occurred in the availability of reports of about 4 to 6 weeks behind. Because of some personnel changes in the budget, he recommends that the Safety Center be opened from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day for the remainder of the year and to restore part-time hours to the 2004 staffing levels which will increase road patrol hours, which the Board approved in the Work Session.
RESOLUTION 05-032, ATTACHED
Burger moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board’s signatures upon the
attached OVI Task Force Amended Agreement with the Board of Trustees of
Perry Township.
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to accept a $500 donation from Wal-Mart Foundation for Hooked on Fishing.
Zoning Department
RESOLUTION 05-033, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion
that having been informed in writing that noxious or other harmful weeds
are growing on the lands in charge of Karl Miller in Jackson Township,
described as follows: 8078 Brooke Hollow Street NW, Lot #11, Gloucester
Village, Parcel No. 16-17434, that said Karl Miller be notified by serving
on them by certified mail with return receipt requested, a written copy
of this resolution that said noxious or other harmful weeds are growing
on such lands and that, pursuant to ORC Section 5579.05, they must be cut
or destroyed within five (5) days after the service of such notice or show
this Board cause why there is no need for doing so.
RESOLUTION 05-034, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion
that having been informed in writing that noxious or other harmful weeds
are growing on the lands in charge of Mark Toth in Jackson Township, described
as follows: 2245 Devonshire Road NW, Lot #22, Dunkeith Hills #2,
Parcel No. 17-00441, that said Mark Toth be notified by serving on them
by certified mail with return receipt requested, a written copy of this
resolution that said noxious or other harmful weeds are growing on such
lands and that, pursuant to ORC Section 5579.05, they must be cut or destroyed
within five (5) days after the service of such notice or show this Board
cause why there is no need for doing so.
RESOLUTION 05-035, ATTACHED
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
that having been informed in writing that noxious or other harmful weeds
are growing on the lands in charge of Shari Townsend in Jackson Township,
described as follows: 6561 Portage Street NW-B, Portage Estates SubD,
Parcel No. 16-02762, that said Shari Townsend be notified by serving on
them by certified mail with return receipt requested, a written copy of
this resolution that said noxious or other harmful weeds are growing on
such lands and that, pursuant to ORC Section 5579.05, they must be cut
or destroyed within five (5) days after the service of such notice or show
this Board cause why there is no need for doing so.
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to set the public hearing for nuisance violation at 3809 Michael Drive NW (Carl Chappie) for June 27, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
RESOLUTION 05-036, ATTACHED
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to revoke attached Resolution Number 05-007 thereby withdrawing Zoning
Code Text Amendment No. 546-05.
Clerk’s Office
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 G
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to pay bills in the amount of $109,590.95.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 H
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to approve the minutes of the May 9, 2005 Board of Trustees meeting.
ATTACHMENT 5/23/05 I
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to approve the appropriation transfer request from code 101.150.5220, Hospitalization,
to code 101.150.5458, Professional Services, in the amount of $3,171.00.
3-0 yes
Routine Business
Announcements
Old Business – None
New Business
Burger moved and Pizzino seconded a motion
to accept a $5,000 sponsorship donation from Mercy Medical Center to the
Community Celebration.
Burger moved and Meeks seconded a motion to accept a $250 sponsorship donation from Gaslite Villa Convalescent Center, Inc. to the Community Celebration.
Public Speaks – Open Forum
Mr. Tom Funk requested status on the purchase of his land involved in the Strausser widening project. Fitzgerald told him that is set for the next meeting.
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded motion to adjourn.
| _____________________________ | _____________________________ |
| William Burger, President | Randy Gonzalez, Clerk |