Tuesday night Mansfield City Council voted unanimously in favor of three bills to demolish homes located at 258 Remy Avenue, 318 Prescott Street and 500 Bissman Court. All three homes were deemed insecure, structurally defective, and unsafe to life and other property. The demolitions are a part of the ongoing city initiative to eliminate blight. This is a part of the Moving Ohio Forward Demolition Program and is funded through grants.
Councilwoman Haring presented legislation for a Chipotle restaurant proposed to open outside the city at I-71 and State Rt. 13 to tap into the city’s water supply. Council was unanimous in its approval of the measure.
Council also approved a measure to move forward with efforts to revitalize Lahm Municipal Airport. In a unanimous decision council voted to approve City Service Director Lori Cope to advertise for proposals and to enter into a contract for engineering and planning services.
Councilwoman Ellen Haring proposed legislation to pursue collections on false alarm fees through a partnership with the Ohio Attorney General’s office. Currently Mansfield residents and businesses may experience up to three false alarms from their security or fire alarm systems before they are assessed a fee of $40. The city cannot turn the individuals or businesses over to collections and so as many as 17 offenders are in arrears.
The partnership would allow the Attorney General’s office to pursue the delinquent accounts with an additional 10 percent fee added to the outstanding balance. The City of Mansfield would receive the entire amount owed while the State would retain the 10 percent fee.
Scott Hazen questioned whether the $40 fee was high enough to serve as a deterrent. City Law Director John Spon expressed concern that many of the cities codes, both civil and criminal are overdue for evaluation. In his estimation it may be at least 20 years since the last time the city did a complete evaluation and revision.
Council also voted unanimously to accept tax rates of 2.87 mils for the general fund, and .30 mils for the police and fire pension funds.
During the caucus portion of the proceedings Bill Baker of Frack Free Ohio requested that the City of Mansfield pass a resolution in support of House Bill 178 and Senate Bill 148, both are state legislation aimed at protecting Ohio’s natural resources by banning fracking. Sam Dunn, Pat Hightower and Scott Hazen all expressed verbal support for the measure and Sam Dunn has agreed to sponsor the legislation.
