June 17, 2004

Council amends Gaunt pool rate

At its meeting June 7, Village Council approved an ordinance eliminating the fees the Village charged nonresidents of Miami Township to use Gaunt Park Pool. Nonresidents will now pay the same rate that residents of Yellow Springs and Miami Township pay to swim.

Council unanimously approved the ordinance as an emergency, which means it was passed with one reading. Ordinances normally receive two readings. Approving the ordinance as an emergency allowed the Village to immediately eliminate the nonresidential rates.

Village Manager Rob Hillard suggested the rate change as a way to increase the number of people who use the pool, which, he advised, would increase the facility’s revenue. He called the action a “significant change” that would broaden the pool’s “base” of users.

All adults now will be charged $2.50 for single admission at Gaunt Pool, while children 4 to 18 will be charged $1.50. Children younger than 4 swim free. Under the old fee structure, adults living outside Miami Township paid $5 and children $3 for general admission.

All season passes are now $85 a household. The nonresident fee was $170. Advanced season passes are $75 per household. Households outside the township had paid $150 each.

The ordinance passed by Council also gives the Village manager authority to determine charges for special events at the pool. Hillard said this gives him flexibility to set the admission fees for new activities, including a Friday movie night.

In other Council business:

• Council agreed to “move forward,” as Council member Denise Swinger put it, to continue to consider local resident Bruce Cornett’s request to erect an antenna on a Village water tower to provide wireless broadband Internet access to Yellow Springs. Council members instructed Hillard to work with the Village solicitor, John Chambers, to negotiate a contract with Cornett, whose company Logical Solutions would provide the Internet service. Council member Arnett did not participate in the discussion because he has a business relationship with Cornett.

According to a draft tower license agreement, Cornett would pay the Village $500 a year to rent space for up to six antennas on a tower. Council members Mary J. Alexander and George Pitstick said that they were concerned about the contract’s proposed length of the contract and rental fee. They suggested that the rent increase over time, an idea Cornett said he would be willing to consider if the rate did not increase dramatically.

• Council unanimously passed the first reading of an emergency ordinance approving the sale of one of the Village’s rental properties to the tenant, Jamie Sharp. The Village will sell Sharp the property at 1274 State Route 343 for $100,000.

Last year, Council agreed to sell the Village rental properties to raise funds and to get out of the rental business. Pitstick called Council’s decision last week the “best of two worlds,” making both Sharp and the Village “happy.”

• Council unanimously approved another emergency ordinance, this one amending the Village’s personnel policy manual to state that seasonal employees are not eligible for overtime pay. The ordinance was aimed at Gaunt Park Pool lifeguards. Hillard said that the measure would help the Village keep the pool’s costs down and allow lifeguards to work more hours. He called the policy “pretty standard” for pools.

Pitstick said that the ordinance was a “step in the right direction.”

• Hillard reported that Village staffers are considering preparing a grant application for funding to complete the rest of the Dayton Street sewer project. Council encouraged Hillard to pursue the funding.

The project would finish upgrading the sewer line on Dayton, between Wright Street and East Enon Road, and rebuilding Dayton, from Stafford to East Enon. Hillard estimated that the project could cost about $550,000, of which the Village would likely have to pay 26 percent, or $143,000. Since the late 1990s, the Village has been installing a new sewer line on Dayton.

• Hillard also reported that the Village is considering purchasing gas for Village vehicles from a local gas station. Currently, the Village purchases its own gas, which is stored at the Village Public Works facility on State Route 343.

• Council unanimously approved a resolution accepting a bid from the Norman Noe Co. of Nineveh, Ind., to serve as the full-time inspector on the Village’s water tower painting project. Norman Noe, which describes itself on its Web site as a “third-party water tank inspection, evaluation and consulting firm,” will be paid $35,000, based on charges of $75 an hour and $95 per diem. Even with the additional inspection costs, the painting project is under budget. The Village is paying the painters, American Suncraft Construction Company of Fairborn, $209,209.

Hillard said that although Norman Noe’s “rate is high” he thinks “it’s well worth it” given the “magnitude” of the painting project. Troy Slone, who supervises the Village’s water treatment operation, told Council that Norman Noe served as a full-time inspector when the Village painted its other water tower. The inspector’s presence resulted in a “much better” paint job, Slone said.

• Council unanimously approved second readings of ordinances amending the codified ordinances of the Village Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals to reflect changes in the Village’s new records retention policy. The ordinances require the plan board and the BZA to permanently retain recordings of public hearings, rather than for six months, as the boards’ previous ordinances had required.

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance approving a new 10-year cable franchise agreement with Time Warner.

• Mark McDonnell, the health commissioner of the Greene County Combined Health District, gave a report on the department.

• There continues to be one opening on the Village Environmental Commission. Residents of Yellow Springs and Miami Township may apply. To apply, send a letter of interest to the clerk of Council, Deborah Benning, at 100 Dayton Street, Yellow Springs, or dbenning@yso.com.

—Robert Mihalek