Go ahead and get started.

I'd like to call this meeting to order.

This is a duly noticed 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, January 14th, 2025.

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, Mayor.

We'll move on to section two, which is correspondence and council comments.

If any council member or the mayor has anything they would like to say, please get my attention so I can assign you the floor.

If nobody else, I have a few things.

Your citizens are extremely generous and made a significant impact.

While the number of homeless has dramatically increased over the last four years, the generosity of your city has ensured that we can respond effectively and with compassion.

Thank you and the citizens of Hudson for responding with such generosity.

Thank you for championing this effort and helping to ensure its success.

The amount of donations broke records this year.

So much was donated that we ran out of space and had to use some volunteers' garages to hold clothing while it was being sorted and delivered.

Wow.

We live among some very generous folks.

Upon distribution, we had one guy dancing when he got boots for his cold feet.

Others may not have been so exuberant, but you can be assured of their appreciation.

The number of homeless people continues to remain at higher than normal levels.

We continue to feed the homeless every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday, as well as supply clothing as needed.

You should be proud of your city.

We at Peter Marin are certainly appreciative of them.

Thank you again.

And this is from Michael Rao, Knights of Columbus District Deputy No.

25 and the Peter Marin Center campus manager.

So thank you.

And I just want to thank Mr.

Zach Bruce, the entire pack, and the parents for allowing me to be a part of your assembly this past weekend.

Also this past uh Friday, Mr.

Sheridan and I were the kickoff speakers for this year's Leadership Hudson class as they visited City Hall and other city properties this past Friday to learn more about our local government and ongoing projects and initiatives.

And last note for updates tonight.

Um I did post this earlier out there on social media.

Um I've been involved in the Northeast Ohio Girl Scout Organization for eight years.

I was actually a co-troop leader a few years ago.

And one of the troops reached out to me early this morning and asked me to publicize and help promote what they are doing.

So I'm just wanted to update uh the public on this.

Uh Girl Scout Troop 91100 is working towards their silver award project, and this week through Friday, they are collecting specific items to donate non-dairy cake kits to the Hudson food pantry for local area residents who may be in need or looking to obtain that.

So they are accepting dry cake mix boxes, 12-ounce cans of Sprite, 13 by 9 inch foil baking pans, containers of frosting, and cake candles.

And the items can be dropped off at the collection bins inside the middle school lobby.

Thank you.

Um I would just like to say I'd like to give my thanks to to Tom Sheridan and uh Jeff Knobloch and everybody on city staff who were key to the recent federal grant that we got, um, which was if I'm correct, 16.7 million dollars, somewhere in that range, um, for a grade separation over the Heinz Hill Bridge.

Um, certainly one of the largest grants the city of Hudson has received for the city in any case.

Um I did ask Jeff to take a look at that because that's significant grant on top of the 2.8 million dollars that the city of Hudson received from the state of Ohio uh OD uh sorry um rail commission, Ohio Rail Commission uh last year.

Ohio Rail Commission uh last year.

So it took a lot of years and a lot of people to make this happen.

Um certainly that crossing at Heinz Hill has been a problem in the city of Hudson for a long time.

Um I grew up right around the corner from that train crossing on Heinz Hill, and uh we've been dealing with it our whole lives.

Um it's going to not only improve public safety EMS, we won't see school buses doing 180s there anymore when trains have fully stopped.

Um it adds a tremendous amount of economic development value to the YDC in addition to all of the public safety money it's going to save in terms of when there is a uh fire EMS call in the Northwest Quadrant of Hudson.

We typically have to deploy fire and EMS both up 91 and west down 303 to try and reach the northwest quadrant of Hudson from two different directions.

Um so we will no longer need to deploy two trucks to you know ambulances whenever there's a call up in that area.

It's been decades of wasted money, and you know, this would have never happened if it wasn't for Tom and some very keen eyes and Senator Rogner and a lot of other elected officials getting behind this.

So truly I'm humbled and and grateful for this grant.

Um it's taking a long time.

So we'll move on to discussion items.

Item A is 25-002.

It's the Stowe Road Sidewalk Project, State Route 303 to Ravenna.

Staff would like to discuss the proposed alignment of the new sidewalk along Stowe Road between State Route 303 and Ravenna Street.