Pizzino called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. at the Jackson Township Hall with Pizzino, Meeks, Clerk Gonzalez, Marilyn Lyon, Ralph Boger, Neal Fitzgerald, Rich LaRocco and members of ODOT present.  Mr. Burger was out of town on Township business.  Pizzino requested that all cell phones and pagers be turned off.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Pizzino:  We’d like to thank everybody for coming at this Fulton/Wales Intersection Right-of-Way Process this evening.  At this time, I’m going to turn this over to Trustee Meeks.  Trustee Meeks has been working this project since 2000 and he’s basically spearheading it for the Board of Trustees.  Mr. Meeks.

Meeks:  Thank you, John.  Good evening.  Thank you, again as John said, we do thank you for your participation.  We feel that it’s very important to get the information out to you.  It’s kind of two-fold here tonight.  What I’m going to ask our Township Engineer to do, that’s Rich LaRocco, is give us an overview of the project, of where we are today and where we’d like to be in the real near future.  And the ultimate goal is completion.  After he is done with his dissertation of our project, then we’ll get to the second page of the reason why you’re here this evening.  So, Rich.

LaRocco:  Thank you, Steve.  This project is being administered by the Ohio Department of Transportation and is being funded by, the majority, by Jackson Township.  There is some federal earmarked for Ohio Department of Transportation funds.  The existing roadway out there now is, as you all know, three lanes.  It currently carries 16,205 vehicles per day, that’s of the year 2004.  It’s projected in 2024 it will carry 32,600 vehicles per day.  The project windows generally begin at Caritas the south on Wales, Mudbrook on the north and Community Parkway on the west to Foxboro on the east.  The project will be curb, gutter, and storm sewer.  It will be five lanes predominately except for the east leg of Fulton will be six lanes.  So you’ll drop right to go northbound.  The Wales Avenue portion, north of the intersection, will have a drop right southbound, to go west.  There will be new signals at Mudbrook, Fulton and Caritas.  Our estimated construction cost is now $3,000,000 and that was estimated back in June of 04.  Our project schedule is right-of-way acquisition this year, 2005; utility relocation in 2006; construction in 2007 and 2008.  We expect to complete construction in 2008.  That’s it, Steve.

Meeks:  That’s it.

LaRocco:  Unless there are questions.

Meeks:  Are there any questions for Rich?  It’s very informative.  I mean, please, if you have any questions.
Question:  When are they going to widen Fulton Road the rest of the way east?

LaRocco:  Fulton east is not on the books.  Right now.

Meeks:  That’s still State jurisdiction.  That’s a different project and what they’re looking to do in the future here is to turn it over to the County.  Once that happens then we can apply for other additional monies from the State that we’re not able to get presently.  At that point is when we’d look at the much needed improvement of that missing link there.  But right now, that’s not on, because it’s theirs, it’s not on their radar screen.

James Kinnick of ODOT:  I’d just like to add.  ODOT’s role on the project is to administer and oversee the project.  As part of the acquisition, the right-of-way acquisition, we brought a couple of the individuals that will be involved with acquiring rights-of-way needed for this project.  We’re going to be here after the Trustees finish with me here to answer questions.  It really (undecipherable) the acquisition process.  We started a couple months ago.  Well, we actually started a year or so ago reviewing the right-of-way plans and once we find a set of plans that we approve, and that will support the road and show the limits of what we need to take from individual properties, we turn it over to our acquisition team, which we have up in Akron and we have two individuals, Travis Carpenter and Steve Connolly from our acquisition unit.  And we also have (undecipherable), two surveyors, Shawn Bessler and Dan Haupt in the right-of-way section.  They’re involved with the review.  So it’s a team effort.  ODOT teams up with the Township and we start the acquisition process which we turn into acquisition, we do a title report to verify the ownership, we then turn around and turn the parcels of land over to an independent appraiser outside of ODOT who appraises the value.  Part of the process then sends it to a second appraiser to concur or state his opinion of value and between the two appraisers we arrive at a fair market value.  That’s where we turn around and begin the acquisition part; that begins negotiations.  That’s sort of where we’re at right now.  We’ve come to a point where we’ve done our title work, we’ve done our first appraisal, we had it reviewed by independent second appraisal and we’re ready to begin actually the physical negotiations the process of acquiring the right-of-way.  That’s why we wanted to have this meeting and have the Township give their presentation of where we stand with the financing of this project.

Meeks:  And that brings us to a very good point.  Our Clerk will go over the financing of our project and then after Randy is completed, then we’re going to turn it over to Jim and his people because that is really the reason, I’m sure, why you’re here.  They can talk to you about the monies that possibly could be assessed on the value of your land.  And we’re here, on a different sort, we know what your land is worth, we know what the project is worth, we know what the project will do for your land.  But before we get the cart ahead of the horse, Randy, you want to go ahead?

Gonzalez:  I thank you all for coming.  I did contact some of you on the telephone about the meeting this evening.  One of the issues, one of the reasons we asked you and I guess this was the Stage Two Steve was talking about.  The project originally went out, the appraisal was probably around $2,000,000 for the project.  It is far in excess of that these days.  I don’t really have a total project amount.  Rich, we are we at these days?

LaRocco:  Well as far as. . .

Meeks:  Total cost.  Right now.

LaRocco:  Total cost $5.5.  Engineering design, environmental, right-of-way acquisition, and construction.

Gonzalez:  We originally started at two million dollars, this is really a Township project, ODOT is putting in, I believe, seven hundred – eight hundred thousand dollars, in this project.  The rest of it is strictly Jackson Township local dollars.  One of the reasons we asked you here tonight and one of the reasons I talked to some of you on the telephone was basically when ODOT’s contacting you to buy your land, they’re contacting you to buy your land with our dollars.  And we certainly appreciate them doing that for us, I don’t mean that that’s a bad thing, but it is our dollars.  The problem is the price of this project is going up so high that it very well may not even go.  I mean, at that number, 5.3, I’m not sure we’re going to have that kind of dollars.  It’s going to be tough for us to come up with that.  We’ve looked at alternative sources of funding which is tax-incremented financing.  There are not a lot of money generators in that area, it has to be on new business.  A lot of what’s going to be built in that area is from Mercy and from Aultman which are both non-profit organizations, so they will be paying property taxes.  The Township will receive no gain from that.  The YMCA, of course, is a non-profit and the Township will receive no gain from that so, for us to borrow on a TIF is a very limited amount of money.  So some of you, I don’t know all the faces in the room, of course are going to benefit greatly by this and some of you may be opposed to it.  I really don’t know that, some of the ones I’ve talked to, of course, really need the project done.  Just remember, it is your local tax dollars, your real estate tax dollars that you pay that are paying for the whole construction of this project.  And it’s hard for us to call you and say ‘Hey, could you donate part of your land or donate your land or right-of-way’.  Jack Bolender happens to be here from FirstMerit Bank and I did have that conversation with Jack and FirstMerit is going to step up and donate their land, hopefully, because they are going to gain from the project.  Some of you may be able to that, some of you may not.  But again, you’re really buying it with your own money, that’s what it amounts to.  With that, as far as for us to make the call, we couldn’t tell you how much land we needed or how much was worth because we really didn’t have the drawings to show you till tonight or the appraisals to tell you what we think the land, or what ODOT thinks the land is worth.  So with that, we’ll let you get into the very specifics of your land.

Meeks:  Yes, unless you have any general questions on the project itself.  I’m sure each one of you has questions or concerns of your parcel.  And if you do, we have the experts over here that know your parcels’ worth.  All we’re asking from the Township side is you know what state you are within your own financing, and we’re just asking, we really believe in the project, however, we don’t believe in the escalation of the costs of the project.  We know what it can do to the area once it is completed.  It will be a huge benefit to all of us.  We know in the mornings when we’re trying to go to work, coming through this area with the congestion of just the school traffic in itself and in the afternoon.  We know we have to do something here and one thing that we don’t try to do in these road improvements that you’ve seen throughout our Township, we think not only what our needs will be today but also for tomorrow, so that we spend our money as wisely as we possibly can and get the biggest bang for our buck.  We know that the area here, which is the center of our Township, with the Y coming in, Mercy coming in, Aultman if they choose to come in, we have a private developer on the southeast corner that will come in eventually in that parcel of land.  We’ve got to be ready for that type of traffic.  We’ve also gone to these people and they’re doing their part to contribute their monies toward the community to help ease the burden of this road improvement.  The State has worked very, very well with us and I’m very proud to say that this is another successful venture that we have entered in with the State.  The unfortunate thing is that we don’t have the County involved, that would be our third leg and right now there are now County jurisdictions within this road right-of-way.  So at this time, again, we have the acquisition team over here, the appraisers; we can break up into small groups.  If you have questions feel free to ask them.  Rich LaRocco’s here.  Mike Rekstis is here from our Engineering Office.  We’re here if we can help you.  But I think your answers and what you feel you need to do or need to have would come from this table over here.  So please, I’d love to see at the end of the evening as you all raise your hand say ‘Hey take my land, we’re donating it’.  Thank you very much.  But I don’t know that that’s realistic, okay.  But you can’t shoot me for asking.  If there aren’t questions, I’m going to turn it back over to Jim and take as much time as you possibly need.  We can go out in separate rooms so you’re private, talk to these guys, whatever you want to do.  Jim.

James Kinnick:  I just wanted to add it’s a unique situation to gather everybody in a group like this.  It gives a chance to the Township to explain to you their situation from a financial situation and introduce ourselves here.  What normally happens and what will happen after this meeting we will meet with you if you want to meet to continue this one on one.  We won’t be in a group type setting like this.  This gives a chance to everybody to put the cards on the table and let you know where we’re really at with this project.  There are sixteen property owners on this project and an individual we call parcel file 320 it contains the plan sheet of the property that’s being affected, with the appraisal in there.  We’re here to answer any questions.  We can talk specifically about your property.  And, again, as Steve brought up, the discussion doesn’t lead to a group discussion on how much your land is worth, we will break off into individual groups but we wanted to get everybody in the same room so we can just explain the situation.

Meeks:  Okay, before we go there, Jim.  If you don’t mind because I’d like to get a good representation of who might be present.  If I read the organization or the name, could you raise your hand to tell me if you’re here.  Shady Hollow Country Club; Willmoll; SHAH, that’s Mercy; BP; Campbell Oil; Foxboro; Waving Leaves; First National; FirstMerit; Diane and Joyce; Gary McAffie; Swenson’s, Jeffrey; Heitger; Mr. Montgomery, I don’t see Mr. Montgomery, Aultman, no; The Oaks, no; and no.

Pizzino:  That’s it.

Meeks:  Okay.  Go ahead, Jim.

Pizzino:  Jeff, you want to start?  Why don’t you go over there? You have a question?

Pizzino:  I guess the remaining people; do you have any questions that maybe we could help you with?  If you want us to. . .

Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion to recess at 7:22 p.m.

Upon return from recess, Pizzino asked if there were any other comments from the Board.

Meeks:  No.  I think it went well this evening and it looked like property owners got with ODOT so they don’t have questions for us.

Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to adjourn.