In a meeting held Thursday evening, the Macedonia City Council pushed forward two infrastructure projects aimed at improving city services and roads.
During the May 8th council session at City Hall, presided over by Council President Jeff Garvas in Mayor Nicholas Molnar’s absence, council members unanimously approved both Resolution 32-2025 and Ordinance 33-2025, authorizing road improvements and a new service facility.
Ledge Road Resurfacing Moves Forward
City Engineer Joe Gigliotti presented Resolution 32-2025, which authorizes the city to prepare plans and advertise for bids to resurface Ledge Road from the railroad bridge to North Bedford Road. This represents the second phase of Ledge Road improvements.
“This is legislation to go out to bid for Ledge Road phase two or Ledge Road paving between the railroad bridge and North Bedford Road,” Gigliotti explained. “We talked about this a little bit in some previous meetings. The first part of Ledge Road we’re going to be paving very soon starting later this month maybe even as soon as next week.”
Gigliotti added that he hopes when the first phase is complete, crews can “follow right up with the second part of Ledge Road.” The estimated cost for this project is $225,000, which will be funded entirely through permissive license tax funds from Summit County.
New Service Building Project Approved
In a more substantial move, council passed Ordinance 33-2025 as an emergency measure to reauthorize the design-build process for constructing a new service building at 9150 Valley View Road, while also authorizing GPD Group to serve as the city’s criteria architect.
Law Director Mark Guidetti explained that while similar legislation was before council in 2021 for a different location, “obviously a lot has transpired since then,” leading to the current plan for the Valley View Road site. The property was acquired through a donation agreement.
The legislation authorizes the design-build process, which is an alternative method under the Ohio Revised Code for public improvement projects, and allows GPD Group to do preliminary design work before handing the project to a design-build firm selected through a competitive process.
Service Director Daniel Wilson expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying: “Thank you to council for always supporting the service department and for passing legislation this evening. This is a project that we’re really excited about and we really need desperately as far as our facilities go. I’m excited to see a groundbreaking in 2025.”
Other Department Updates
Several department heads provided updates during the meeting:
- Parks & Recreation: Interim Director Sam Edgar announced two upcoming events – a family fishing day on May 17th at Longwood Lake, where the city stocks fish and provides free fishing poles to participants, and the citywide garage sale scheduled for May 17-18.
- Building Department: Commissioner Monaco reported that the city will begin issuing notices for high grass violations, with fines increasing for multiple offenses – first offense will include landscaper fees plus office fees, second offense will add a $100 fine, and third and subsequent violations will include a $250 fine.
- Engineering: Director Gigliotti detailed several road projects beginning soon, including Ledge Road phase one from North Bedford to Shepard Road, the city’s own road program covering six roads (Hampton, Sherwood, Ashford, Baba Link, Starlight, and Highland Point Parkway), and ODOT projects on Route 82 and State Route 8.
- Police Department: Chief Yapovich recognized National Police Week (May 11-17) with Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15. He noted that three Macedonia officers (Lieutenant Castello, Patrolman Neil, and Patrolman Lockwood) are participating in the Police Unity Tour, riding 300 miles from New Jersey to Washington DC to honor fallen officers.
The meeting also included the annual Northfield-Macedonia Cemetery Board meeting, where fiscal officer Jeffrey Snell presented the 2025 budget proposal with no increase in community contributions. The cemetery board approved the budget, which maintains Macedonia’s contribution at $71,614.95.
Council’s next scheduled meeting on May 22 has been canceled due to high school graduation.
