Health & Fitness
What happened at Monday's committee meetings of Stow City Council
Your councilman Mike Rasor shares his notes from the May 21, 2013 meetings of the committees of Stow City Council, including a list of the condition of every street in the city.
My notes from last night’s meetings are below:
Blighted houses / meth houses – If you have kept up on the headlines in Stow, you’ve seen an increase in meth house activity. Your elected officials have noticed the same thing. We discussed last night a couple things we are doing to head off the problem.
First, the city is using money from an attorney general settlement to demolish homes that are vacant and in terrible condition. Four have already been taken down, and five more are scheduled. These are all homes that are not able to be restored.
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Second, there are some homes that, while structurally sound, are not habitable because of prior drug activity. The law department proposed legislation last night to require their owners to clean up the houses that formerly contained clandestine drug labs. In the absence of a cleanup, the legislation will allow for the house to be demolished.
I intend to add a couple protections for homeowners that are wrongfully accused of maintaining a drug lab. Aside from that, I believe this to be a good piece of legislation. It will require owners of rental properties to take more of an interest in what activity is conducted at the premises.
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The legislation is based upon Cuyahoga Falls’ ordinance. Falls has used the ordinance about 50 times since it was passed in 2009.
Road repairs – The Roads & Safety Committee went on a field trip last night. We toured the various streets in the community that either 1) have been repaired, or 2) are in a stage of disrepair.
I scheduled this meeting so that my colleagues can view just how bad some of Stow’s neighborhoods are maintained.
Click the link below to see the handout from the Roads Tour. It includes a ranking of every street in the city (page 12). Below is the ranking system.
100 – 91 Very Good
90 – 75 Good
74 – 65 Fair
64 – 55 Fair to Poor
54 – 40 Poor
39 – 0 Very Poor
Also included in that handout is the proposed 2013 paving list. That list will not be confirmed until labor and material costs are finalized.
City council will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday.