Village Manager's Report

For the May 2nd, 2005 Council Meeting

The following report is intended to supplement the information related to the upcoming Village Council meeting. If you have questions or comments about these or other issues, please feel free to give me a call at (937) 767-3702, or e-mail me at phawkey(at)yso.com - Phil Hawkey, Acting Village Manager

A. Council Items:

Repealing Pool Fees and Authorizing Village Manager to Set Fees: See the memo from Rob Hillard in your packet.

Proposed Utility Shut-off Ordinance: This item was moved to old business for further consideration. My conversations with various council and staff members indicate a lack of consensus on what this legislation should and does accomplish. The current draft:

• Raises the deposit amounts
• Allows for customers to spend down their deposits to cover unpaid charges
• Requires all customers requesting payment plans to submit a written request to the Finance Director
• Requires the Finance Director to convene the Utilities Dispute Resolution Board to authorize any payment plan
• Limits the authority of the Utility Dispute Resolution Board to:
• Approval of payment plans
• Determine if a delinquency or the amount delinquent is correct
• Determine if a billed amount is in error due to mechanical or clerical error on the part of the village
• Prohibits any restoration of a disconnected service unless the account is fully paid

B. Agenda Planning:

Award of Engineering Contract - Northern Gateway Project : Negotiations with the selected consultant should be completed by May 6 th. Legislation should be ready for our May 16 th meeting.

Final Thoughts…
I attended the Community Development Block Grant meeting at the county commissioners office. There may be some money available to assist in renovation of occupied dwellings under certain circumstances. 2006 is the year we hope to work on those building in our continuing building compliance effort. Ed and I will explore the possibilities well in advance of next year’s application deadline.

Dayton Street Project: I am awaiting written confirmation of a call I received informing us that our funding will not be available until July of 2006, rather than this summer. The engineer we hired will put off billing, and probably work on this project, until this July so the cost may still be included as part of our match. I’ll take a fresh look at the budget and suggest some revision to this year’s capital projects list. My thoughts include expanding the Permissive Tax Street Project and the Walnut Street Project.