Health & Fitness
Rasor's Blog: What Happened at the Sept. 24 Stow City Council Committee Meetings
At-large councilman Mike Rasor shares his notes from the Sept. 24, 2012, meetings of the committees of Stow City Council.
My notes from tonight's committee meetings are below ...
Tonight was dominated by fairly innocuous zoning matters: a veterinary clinic on the corner of Fishcreek and Darrow adjacent to Bruegger’s Bagels, a Jehovah’s Witness church on Darrow Road, an electronic sign at Holy Family Parish (similar to the library’s sign), and the site plan for Christ Community Church on Kent Road.
As chairman, I called a meeting of the Roads & Safety Committee to discuss the purchase of a piece of equipment that could save us a lot of money in road patching and paving. The machine, which costs about $120,000, essentially allows us to recycle our old asphalt and repurpose it for coal patch. The material cost goes from $90 per ton to $6 per ton.
I think this is a great investment for Stow. You cannot complain when green thinking meets greenback thinking. The question is whether we purchase it alone, or with neighboring cities, in an equipment-sharing arrangement.
We also discussed the possibility of a mutual aid agreement with Kent, whereby the cities would provide assistance to one another in times of emergency. I had several concerns regarding liability, although Service Director Mike Miller (a fellow lawyer, whose opinion I greatly respect) does not think there are problems lurking.
Council president Jim Costello presented a legitimate concern: Let's make sure that we aren't getting a bad deal whereby Kent taxpayers are essentially passing off costs on Stow. I think this legislation could be good, but it needs to be examined more closely – with facts and figures about Kent's operations, budget and demographics.
Police Chief Lou Dirker asked the Finance Committee for an additional $30,000 in overtime costs for 2012. The initial allocation was $300,000. It should be no surprise that we surpassed that, given that we have gone months without the amount of officers we originally expected.
This is off-topic ... Since February, I have been training for the Akron Half-Marathon. I figured, since I won't be running for office this summer/fall, I should run for something. I'm definitely ready to conquer this thing! Please say "hi" if you're watching the race and see me chugging along.
Council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday for a committee of the whole prior to the normal 7 p.m. council meeting.