The Hudson City Council held a workshop on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 7:30 PM in Town Hall. The meeting focused on three discussion items: releasing a reservation strip in Pine Trails, a proposed sanitary sewer backflow preventer program, and the preliminary 2025-2029 Five-Year Capital Plan. Several pieces of legislation were also reviewed for upcoming meetings. The workshop adjourned at 8:56 PM.
Community Development Director Hannan presented a request from the adjacent landowner (Mr. Denai) to remove a two-foot reservation strip on Pine Trail Circle to allow access to an 18.16-acre parcel for potential agricultural use (grapes/apples). Council members expressed concerns about increased commercial traffic (large trucks, equipment) through the neighborhood. The reservation strip was originally intended for future subdivision extension, but public water is not available. Council directed staff to issue a courtesy notice to neighbors within 300 feet and moved the legislation to the October 22 workshop to allow for public input. The item was postponed from the October 15 agenda.
City Manager Sheridan presented a proposed program to reimburse residents for installing backflow preventers, initially targeting about 70 homes affected by the August 8 flood (a cost of roughly $10,000 each). Council debated fairness: some argued it should be citywide, others said it was a county system issue. Councilmember Bird suggested a six-month lookback. Councilmembers Goetz, Sutton, Banweg, and Heater expressed skepticism about subsidizing county infrastructure, noting many homes still on septic. The mayor asked about county improvements (raising electrical panels and manhole covers). Sheridan reported the county is not willing to participate. Council did not support the program as proposed and requested staff to follow up further with the Summit County Department of Sanitary Sewer Services to explore assistance.
Budget Director Griffith reviewed the capital budget totaling $123.78 million across 274 items. Highlights included:
1130. We're going to go ahead and get started. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is a duly notice workshop meeting of Hudson City Council held in accordance with the Sunshine Laws of the State of Ohio, Section 121.22 and the City of Hudson Charter, Article 3, Section 3.02 for Tuesday, October 8th, 2024. Per ordinance 220.031 titled Workshop Meetings and Item C. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Council President Foster so as to continue through the remaining workshop agenda items. Council President Foster, the floor and workshop meeting is yours. Thank you very much. We'll move on to section two, which is correspondence and council comments. If any council member has any comments they'd like to make, please give me uh let me know and I will give you the floor. Thank you. Not sure who was first. You go first. Okay. Um so I just wanted to give everyone an update that the EAC met they discussed their goals for next year. And also they made the decision to start the holiday light recycling drive early because they're seeing a lot more lights for Halloween. Um so they will be announcing that sometime in um I think towards the end of October, uh, putting out information about that, and then starting to collect sometime in November rather than in December, like last year. So this is from the architectural uh review board. Um there's been a lot of contention around uh House 56 College Street. Um there was a stop work order because they started doing things that had not been approved by the ARC board. Um the controversy continued, and then it turned out it went to the BCBA. Um, and it turned out one of the board members did not know because she lived on College Street that she should have recused herself from the discussion. Um so it came back and it went on for about an hour, an hour and a half. The there was a lawyer there, and there was a lot of controversy, but finally it was decided that they could uh begin work on the siding, the windows, and a rectangular skylight, and there's a uh window that's round that there was controversy about whether that was proper. Um, so they're gonna have a consultant take a look at it, and they seem to be agreeing to put it in the back of the house rather than the front of the house. But it was one of the most contentious ones that I've seen. So I thought I'd let you all know. A lot of HRB meetings are Chris. Yeah, I think just maybe a community update. I've gotten a number of uh complaints or highlights of people putting political signs. We know it's the political signs season, either putting them in places they're not supposed to be putting them, which adds time to city staff to have to go take them down per complaint. But I think even more um concerning is complaints about people going on to private property and removing political signs because they don't like the politician. It's that season of people expressing their First Amendment rights. I think it's important that we are all civil to each other, and maybe this is just a good reminder that it's not a good idea to go on someone's private property and tamper with their political signs. So I'll just leave it at that. Let's be uh good to each other and respect each other's rights as much as we want ours. Mayor. Just two quick things. Uh we do have two ribbon cutting ceremonies later this week. One is for the new owners at the Sinoco Station on Route 91. It's this Wednesday at 10 a.m. And then there's one for the owners of a Wake and Bay Company, which is also on Route 91. It's in the Starbucks Plaza, and that is this Friday at noon. And just a reminder, since we will not meet um again before the annual safety services open house. It is this coming Monday, October 14th. It's from 5 30 to 8 30 p.m. at the Hudson Fire Station located at 40 South Oviat Street. This is a free and family-friendly event. There will be many exhibits and activities, so please consider coming out. Uh bring the young kids and the Hudson Fire Department is also celebrating their 175th anniversary this year.