Salem continues moves to annex drag strip site
By LARRY SHIELDSSALEM - After hearing a resident ask that it reconsider the purchase option on the so-called drag strip property, city council approved an ordinance moving a step closer to the deal on Tuesday.
Council voted 6-0 to authorize the mayor to sign a petition for annexation to property owned by the Utilities Department that would make the city contiguous to the 170 acres that it wants to buy.
The proposed purchased is tied to economic development for the purpose of extending the city's industrial development capacity.
The ordinance was passed with the emergency clause and Councilman Dave Nestic was absent.
At its April 7 meeting, council approved the one-year, $10,000 option to buy the 170 acres of land north of the city that includes Quaker City Raceway.
Mayor Jerry Wolford said the option will be exercised if the city acquires stimulus money or other grants for the final purchase price of $1 million.
Dan Swindell owns the track.
Wolford said the option money would come out of the industrial park development fund and not the general fund or capital improvement fund.
He said the option would tie up the land for one year and "give us time to apply for grants and stimulus money."
He said U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-6) is trying to help with $850,00 in federal money. Wolford was hoping part or all of that money could go toward the purchase.
The property is in Green Township and Mahoning County with back entrances from Pine Lake Road and U.S. 62 and a main entrance off state Route 165.
Tuesday's action, moves the property toward becoming contiguous from U.S. 62.
There is a city sewer line near the Assembly of God Church on state Route 45 and the nearest water line is in the Eastview-Westview Drive area just north of the bypass.
Before that vote, Maple Street resident Loretta Price had several questions including the total cost for annexation, water and sewer, legal fees and roads.
"Has any one figured up the bottom line?" she asked and Wolford said there were no exact figures.
Price asked if eminent domain was involved and Wolford said, "No."
Price said her thinking was that it should be reconsidered.
"Personally, it's wrong to use public money to purchase private property," she said, "we're not supposed to be owning private enterprises ... there's a line ..."
She said the issue needed further discussion, adding, "I hope were can get our $10,000 back."
In other business, Law Director Brooke Zellers issued his opinion on the "house in the park" property in Waterworth Memorial Park where questions were raised over ownership by either the parks commission or the city.
Zellers said he "looked through a lot of material" and found "it was clear to me the legislative intent of previous councils was for the property to come under the parks commission."
He said he will have a clarify ordinance prepared for council's May 6 meeting.
He also addressed the matter of a recent ordinance that council passed and Wolford vetoed after receiving letters from Parks Director Steve Faber and Utilities Superintendent Don Weingart questioning a departmental conflict regarding and crossover control.
Zellers said there was no conflict, that it was simply consolidated. He did take issue with Councilman Clyde Brown's comments regarding misspellings and other errors.
"I was a bit troubled by that," Zellers said, and Brown apologized.
Zellers said the ordinance should not have been "ram-rodded" through and if it had received three separate readings there might not have been any problems.
Council also passed, by emergency, an ordinance for the mayor to apply for a $147,216 grant for equipment for the fire department.
Councilman Dennis Groves said the five percent match from the city will, if the grant is obtained, be used to replace breathing equipment that is about 20 years old.
The matching five percent will come from the fire department budget.
Also council approved three enabling ordinances for the newly-formed health department.
The city's contract with Columbiana County expires on May 31 and the health board wants to be ready to go by June 1.
The first ordinance established a special revenue fund, the second appropriated $67,965 for operating expenses, and the third transferred $21,000 from general fund into a health fund.
Groves asked for repeated assurance from Auditor Jim Armeni that if enough revenues fail to materialize from operations, would there be enough to cover that.
Armeni said he looked at the history and Groves said, "So, we really do need to get money in there?"
Councilman Earl R. Schory said it was already appropriated and Armeni said he had a cash balance in the general fund.
Zellers pointed out the $21,000 was less that what the city paid the county.
Brown asked Armeni if the city could return to county services if the city's department "doesn't work?"
Armeni said he thought it could but added, "We still believe it could sustain itself."
Service Safety Director Steve Andres said a bid from Perram of Wadsworth for $150,999 with an alternate item of $11,995 was awarded the traffic signalization work.
He said 25 tons of hot patch was purchased with about 10 tons already used to fill pot holes.
"We've had lots of complaints about pot holes,' he said.
The city will hold a tire drop off on May 3 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the municipal parking lot across from Timberlanes, Andres said, explaining four tires and rims are allowed. The city can take up to 500 tires and if falls short of that, another drop-off might be scheduled.
Council passed all the newly introduced ordinances with the emergency clause, a point that Schory made in his comments.
He added, "And I don't think anything has been through a committee. If we're going to have rules , we should follow the rules."
Schory said he was going to start voting "no" and noted all the ordinances passed weren't "created yesterday."
Schory said, "We truly have lost our way on the process of legislation."
Brown said he thought about 75 percent of council's legislation didn't go through a committee and Groves agreed with Schory.
He said he wanted to see the ordinances 24 hours before the meetings. He said they had to do whatever was necessary to do that, otherwise, "I'll be voting "no" like Mr. Schory."
Larry Shields can be reached at lshields@salemnews.net
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WatchDog
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04-22-09 12:07 PM
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Schory said, "We truly have lost our way on the process of legislation." That statement was truly an UNDERSTATEMENT! Refreshing but an UNDERSTATEMENT!
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