By Julie D’Aloiso
This has become a new normal for many people: using video conferencing for meetings. For the first time, last night the Village of Northfield held their meeting online via OfficeSuite. See agenda here. The last meeting at townhall was held just days before the stay at home order: https://nordoniahills.news/3-11-20-village-of-northfield-council-meeting-video/
After the initial set up for everyone, the meeting started up like normal.
Here is the podcast of the meeting (audio only) due to the fact that everyone’s mics were different, some of the audio is louder than others. Click the green arrow to listen:
Mayor Jesse Nehez called the meeting to order right on time at 7:30pm. Minutes from the last meeting were approved.
ENGINEER'S REPORT
Subject: Houghton Road Reconstruction and S.R. 8 Traffic Signals Improvements Project Comment: The detector camera at S.R. 8 and the Fire Station Drive was installed on April 8, and the old span wire signal installation was removed, except for the two wooden strain poles, which should be removed tomorrow. All the overhead mounted street signs on the signal mast arms at Maple Avenue and Houghton Road were installed. I had a meeting with 3 people from the NEORSD in order to explain my invoicing for the grant of $106,510.00.
Subject: Dollar General Store Construction
Comment: The demolition of the existing property for the new Dollar General Store has begun. The location is 10554/10548 Northfield Road and is between of Kennedy and Lowrie blvd. Plans were approved at the January 22nd council meeting.
LAW DEPARTMENT
The Law Director Brad Bryan announced that the Mayor's Court has been cancelled until June.
The Fire station project is on hold, and the company that won the bid does not intent to withdraw their bid and will honor the price if and when the project goes forward.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Fire Chief Jason Buss announced in his report that because Ohio is a FEMA disaster area (the official declaration went into affect March 13th and is retroactive back to January 20th) there are some new procedures to be followed.
All of the village departments should track all of their manpower and expenses incurred from the COVID-19 crisis. There may be fiscal recovery from the government. They may be able to recover some of the dollar spent. It is much better to track it now, then to go back months later. For example, the extra spent money on all of PPE (Personal protective equipment) supplies for cleaning of the stations and the vehicles, disinfectant, UV light equipment and even the conference streaming software is trackable.
He also informed council members that training is available for them. There is ICS 100 and 700 training in regards to a national response plan and incident management.
Here is the Fire department activity report
NVFD ended 2019 with 844 Incidents (81% EMS 19% Fire, 4% Increase over
2018) - Call Statistics - As April 7th, 2020 NVFD responded to a total of 245 incidents in 2020 (+2.5% over last year at this time). Of NVFD’s total responses, 209 (85%) of those incidents were EMS related and 36 (15%) incidents were FIRE related. - Mutual Aid Report - In 2020, NVFD provided mutual aid for 12 incidents,
Provided automatic aid 6 times, and received mutual aid for 5 incidents and automatic aid for 0 Incidents. (Total MA received in 2013 was 13, 2014 was 15, 2015 was 22, 2016 was 28, 2017 was 26, 2018 was 29, 2019 was 26) - NVFD’s Average Response Time from time of call till time on scene is 3:35 - MGM & NVRC Stats – NVFD responded to 42 medical / 0 fire incidents at
MGM/NPRT and 12 medical / 0 fire incidents at NVRC in 2020
Fire Inspector / Prevention Report (April 8, 2020)
- 18 Annual Fire Inspections have been completed - 0 Hood/Duct/Alarm/Sprinkler Tests have been completed - 12 Standby Events at MGM - 2017 OFC Radio Compliance Test Due at MGM on 7/2019 - Fire Inspections / Preplans / Etc are all currently on hold (COVID)
Department News / Upcoming Events
Fire Station Remodel – On hold for now, will reevaluate in the future post COVID
COVID 19 – Have increased daily staffing and created a “call in pool” of firefighters if needed. Have increased “social distancing” in the fire station to the best of our ability (limited space in current station). We have cancelled all non-essential trainings and public interactions. All members are taking temperatures twice daily. Station is disinfected daily as are the vehicles. We continue to try and acquire additional PPE to meet the community’s needs. There have been numerous operational changes to our response to all emergency incidents. At minimum you can expect to see responders in gloves, masks and eye protection at all times.
SERVICE DEPARTMENT
Jason Walters in his report mentioned that he does not recommend dumpsters to handle the garbage issue at town hall at this time and they may have to change the May clean up date.
In an email to council Jason said this:
"There has been question of whether or not we can or should provide roll off dumpsters for Village residents during this time of the State of Emergency. After looking into this and taking all things into consideration, it is my opinion that we should not provide dumpsters during the month of April. Reason being, one we have to monitor what is being thrown into the dumpsters such as hazardous waste, other items like tires, and such. Also keeping the area clean and trying to regulate Village residents only using the dumpsters which would not be easy to do in the state we are in at this time.
However I do hope that once we can get back to some normalcy in the month of May with our spring cleanup and we may just have to extend the time instead of May1st to June 1st, maybe just change the timeframe depending on when the ban is lifted, into June.
The reason the garbage companies are not taking more than the dumpster that has been provided by Waste Management for all residents is for safety reason. The same safety reason would apply to our residents and employees would apply to the use of a dumpster. Understanding that people do not like change, the fact is the country as we know it today, is different than it was two months ago. So I think it is in the best interest of the Village to keep safety in mind and hope and plan for spring clean up with dumpsters as soon as we get back to some normalcy. "
This refers back to the announcement on March 26th "At this time during the State of Emergency, Waste Management will only be collecting what fits inside of the Waste Management trash containers, no items outside of the containers." Macedonia had a similar problem but their provider Republic Services, provided bins for the city residents (read more here).'
In regards to the legislation about the potential opioid litigation settlement funds, the three reading rule was suspended and the resolution passed. The information is included in the agenda.
POLICE REPORT
Submitted Police Chief John Zolgus.
The Report is for the month of March of 2020
- The Police Department has received a proposal from RKS Bio Hazard to sanitize the Police Station, Village Hall upstairs, Fire Department, and all vehicles used by the Police and Fire Departments.
- Preparations are being made for the impact of COVID19 and how it could affect our Police Department.
- Some Officers are staying to stay healthy in case they are needed to fill in for sick Officers.
- The promotion of two part time Officers to full time positions was delayed because of COVID19.
- Total calls for service for March were 628.
NEW BUSINESS
Mayor thanked Lowe's of Macedonia for their donation of cleaning supplies.
