Pizzino called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. at the Jackson Township Hall with all Trustees, Fiscal Officer, Lyon and Fitzgerald present.

The meeting was turned over to Fiscal Officer Gonzalez who asked for nominations for Board President for 2007.

Pizzino nominated Meeks for President.

Gonzalez asked for nominations for Vice President.

Burger nominated Pizzino for Vice President.

Gonzalez turned the meeting over to President Meeks.

Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to set the 2007 Board of Trustees meetings on the second and fourth Monday of each month at Township Hall 4:00 p.m. Executive Session and/or Work Session, 6:00 p.m. General Session.

Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to go into Executive Session for a conference with Attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent court action.

Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to go into Executive Session for Fire Department Personnel (Appointment/Employment/Compensation/Promotion).

Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to go into Executive Session for Management Personnel (Appointment/Employment/Compensation).

At 6:18 p.m., Meeks 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 – None

Administration Department
Lyon introduced Mr. Larry Marcus from the Stark Development Board Finance Corporation to discuss the applications from OakPark Preschool and Synaptic Chiropractic Center.

Mr. Marcus explained that under the existing partnership this will be the 24th and 25th loan under this program in 17 years.  Both projects have been approved by the Stark Development Board Finance Corporation Board of Trustees.  Both projects also have sufficient funding in place so there is no expenditure under the partnership agreement.  The first project is for $50,000.00 for Dr. Brandon Blood and the opening of his chiropractic center, Synaptic Chiropractic Center, Inc.

The second project is also for $50,000.00 for Lynette White and Oak Park Preschool, Inc. for the purchase of new space to expand.  Both projects will create new jobs.  The Chiropractic Center is projecting three new medical professional type jobs.  Oak Park Preschool will retain their current jobs as well as new jobs for a total of ten.

Pizzino asked about the zoning question with one of the projects regarding renovation.  Lyon replied that if the Oak Park Preschool wants to expand to an adjoining property they will need to get a conditional use certificate from zoning.

Meeks asked if that wasn’t the purpose of the loan.  Mr. Marcus explained that the purpose was for the purchase of additional space and that plans are to move most of the management and training space into the newly acquired space.  There is no plan for improvements or construction at this time.

RESOLUTION 07-001, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board’s signatures upon the attached letter to the Stark Development Board Finance Corporation (SDBFC) approving the RLF loan request of Synaptic Chiropractic Center, Inc./Dr. Brandon Blood as described in the attached December 22, 2006 letter from SDBFC.

RESOLUTION 07-002, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board’s signatures upon the attached letter to the Stark Development Board Finance Corporation (SDBFC) approving the RLF loan request of LTW Properties, LLC/Oak Park Preschool, Inc. as described in the attached December 22, 2006 letter from SDBFC contingent upon compliance with the Jackson Township Zoning Resolution.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 A
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion to authorize advertising for the Park Foreman position (previously Park Operations Director), with Management Package, Class B benefits, and an hourly base rate of $16.75 per hour.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/007 B
Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to keep the 2007 Trustee Representatives to Committees the same as 2006.

Be it further resolved that we hereby appoint Ted Heck as a governmental member of the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) for a two-year term, from 2/1/07 to 2/1/09.

Be it further resolved that we hereby appoint Mark Prosise as a governmental member of the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) for a two-year term, from 2/1/07 to 2/1/09.

Fire Department
RESOLUTION 07-004, ATTACHED
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion pursuant to Step 9 of the Notice of Examination and ORC Section 505.38 and the Township’s Personnel Hiring Policy, we hereby appoint Matthew W. Casper to the position of Full Time Fire Department Captain, conditioned on successfully passing an evaluation by a certified psychologist as to the psychological condition of the individual as it relates to performance of the duties of the Captain’s position.

Highway Department
Boger introduced Mike Rekstis from ME Companies who presented a design proposal for preliminary engineering for sidewalks into the project at Fulton and Wales.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 D
Rekstis:  Thank you for having me.  I’ll just give you a quick rundown of what the proposal is to do.  The proposal is for the stand alone project for walks through the heart of Jackson Township within and around the Fulton and Wales area.  Basically, to walk it through, it comes with a conceptual plan with some exhibits on possible outdoor seating areas, some lighting, what types of walks we’re going to have, where they’re going to go, what kind of connectivity we need between the different destinations and to take care of pedestrian traffic.

The deliverables would be the preliminary engineering with a cost estimate for the project and also to get us started on looking for funding opportunities.  And from that we’ll look at different alternates on how we’re going to build the project.

Meeks:  Thank you Mike.  This came out of a meeting that we had a couple weeks ago with representatives from the project as well as ME and Rob Mullen from Congressman Regula’s office.  We can’t go forward with any type funding requests in grant form, which are available through the State as well as the Federal government, until we have some sort of a plan.  This is what this will identify.  The streetscapes for the Fulton – Wales project, something that I’ve spoken about from the beginning is that this is the downtown area of Jackson Township and we’re doing a major road improvement here and we need to make sure that this is pedestrian friendly, meaning that, I see an awful lot of students and kids and adults walking from our high school, from our parks, trying to cross 241 now going to Subway or to Dairy Queen or whatever it may be.  I would hate to see anyone lose a life or get injured because they cannot cross these roads safely.
And once we improve upon this, some of the roadways may be six to seven lanes and trying to cross that efficiently and safely would be almost impossible without some type of crosswalk and that’s one thing that we want to make sure is in place, not only here but down toward the Caritas area with the improved area where the YMCA is.  They are very, very successful with all of their memberships and wanting them to utilize our parks, we do need to have safe travel for pedestrian access into our parks which is on the north side of Fulton Road and with the interior roadways planned for the Mercy site that will also be their responsibility but we do need a plan so that we can work with, so that I can roll up my sleeves and go out as I did with the basketball courts to try to find the funding to offset these costs.  It is going to be costly but there are programs out there that I think we’d be missing the boat if we don’t try to obtain.  I have a meeting set up again next week with Rob Mullen, Mr. DeHoff, ME will be there as well, as well as a representative from the State, to discuss what is going to be needed for the criteria so that we can be successful in obtaining a grant that ties us in ‘Safe Walks for Kids’ from the schools.

As we look to our future that’s one thing that I do know that our residents have said many times is that we do need to have sidewalks, trying to get our residents, foot traffic, bicycle traffic, coming to the center of our township, which is where we are at, down here at Fulton and Wales.  We have a beautiful park system, beautiful basketball courts, everything with the Y and it’s a shame that we cannot get our residents safely here unless they want to drive.  What my idea is we start it here.  Any future road improvements going north on Wales, we extend that.  When we do our road improvements going east on Fulton, we extend the sidewalks carrying right straight through on Fulton to Lake Cable and so on.  So that what happens is eventually the grid work of sidewalks to our main arteries, if you come out of your allotment, hopefully you can get on a sidewalk and if you want to come down to the center of Jackson Township and enjoy yourself, you can do so and I think that this will lend us a plan to try to achieve our goal.

And the other thing is, once we go forward and, seeing what kind of State and Federal monies we can get to offset these costs, we also have a gasoline tax that we can look at getting into and there’s a considerable amount of monies in there.  But again we can’t do anything until we have a true estimate and a plan.

Pizzino:  And I have no problem putting this plan together.  I guess I do have a problem with the funding of the plan because as you know that 241 and 687 intersection price keeps going up and up.  And this way here by making this a separate plan it’s not going to shove back the construction date, is that correct?

Meeks:  That’s correct.  This is totally separate, stands alone.

Pizzino:  So Mike if we get the developers and possibly Mercy and whoever to buy into this and actually help with the funding of this and plus whatever Steve can do with other government entities, we might be able to pull this off.  But again funding is important and this is just the first step.

Gonzalez:  Mike, how many lanes, just so the public understands, what is the plan right now?  How many lanes on Fulton and how many lanes on Wales?

Rekstis:  There are five lanes throughout the corridor but at the intersection there are some additional turning lanes.

Gonzalez:  So in some places this is actually six and seven lanes at the intersections.

Rekstis:  Yes, that’s correct.

Gonzalez:  So you can imagine trying to cross the street, kind of tough.

Pizzino moved and Burger seconded to approve the Fulton/Wales Streetscape Design Proposal with ME Companies for $16,857.00.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 E
Meeks and Pizzino stated the need for a traffic signal at Fulton and Arlington and verified with Boger that the Stark County Engineer’s Office was originally going to do the design.  Both Trustees said that although that department no longer exists in the county engineer’s office that should not shift the cost to the Township.  Meeks suggested an agreement could be worked out on future projects since there has always been a good working relationship between the County Engineer’s Office and the Township.

Boger said the survey has been made by the Stark County Engineer’s Office and that survey would be made available to whoever does the design.

Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to move forward on the Arlington/Fulton Traffic Signal.

RESOLUTION 07-005, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Meeks seconded a motion to authorize the attached advertisement for Highway Department materials.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 F
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to approve the Annual Township Highway System Mileage Certifications for 192.15 miles for 2006.

Legal Department
RESOLUTION 07-006, ATTACHED
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board President’s signature upon the attached letter to the Division of Mineral Resources Management.

Park Department
ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 G
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to approve the appropriation transfer request from account code 214.510.5652, Park Equipment, to account code 214.510.5110, Salaries, in the amount of $3,380.17.

Police Department
ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 H
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion to accept the attached resignation of Ryan K. Robinson, effective January 2, 2007 at 1000 hours.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 I
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to authorize advertising for the vacant position of full-time patrol officer.

Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to accept a $100.00 donation for the “Hooked on Fishing” program from Laureen Mellion.

Fiscal Office
ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 J
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to pay the bills in the amount of $425,637.55.

ATTACHMENT 01/08/07 K
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to approve the financial reports for December 2006.

Routine Business
Announcements

• Next regular Board of Trustees meeting, January 22, 2007, 4:00 p.m. Executive Session and/or Work Session, 6:00 p.m., General Session, Township Hall.
• Board of Trustees and Fiscal Officer will attend the Ohio Township Association Winter Conference, January 31 through February 3, 2007, Hyatt Regency, Columbus, Ohio.
• CIC, February 5, 2007, 5:30 p.m., Township Hall.
• LOGIC, February 1, 2007, 9:00 a.m., Safety Center, Chiefs’ Conference Room.
• Board of Zoning Appeals, January 11, 2007, 7:00 p.m., Township Hall.
• Citizens Advisory Committees:
• Park, January 9, 2007, 6:30 p.m., Township Hall.
• Highway/Traffic, February 21, 2007, 6:30 p.m., Township Hall.
• Community Celebration, including Board of Trustees, January 29, 2007, 6:00 p.m., Township Hall.

New Business
Meeks moved and Burger seconded a motion to accept a $100.00 donation to the Fire Department from Martha Zak.

Public Speaks – Open Forum
No one came forward.

Meeks moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to adjourn.