Settlement, 598 project and iPads discussed in Galion

By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com

Although the subject of settlement with Majid Ressallat has already been much discussed, this issue received further scrutiny at Galion’s Finance Committee meeting Tuesday night. The reason for the additional discussion \stems from new documentation received concerning an easement that has been on the books since the 1950s, but was not known of during previous deliberations.

This easement does allow for the city to enter the property and remove trees in this “channel zone.” The tree removals were made to ease flowing/flooding of the Olentangy River. It was initially thought that the city took the action without proper authorization. This indicates that the city was well within its rights to do what it did, and, in fact, this easement exists for the very reason to ease congestion in this flow zone.

That being said, Finance Chairman Tom Fellner stated his belief that while trees did need to be cleared in this area, some trees “were removed unnecessarily.”

The compensation that has been discussed has been in the range of $9,500, which would equate to 35 replacement trees and the labor necessary to install them. This quote valuates the trees that were removed in terms of their property value according to age, size, and quality. It has not been decided what form, if any, a settlement package would take; whether that would be tree re-installment or a cash settlement.

After considering the impact of the easement, and some input from Mayor Tom O’Leary, it was decided to table this matter for the time being. O’Leary offered his input that, with the upcoming 598 widening project, this would be a very poor time to conduct any sort of tree installment work.

He also shed some light on a phase two of this channel project, of which the tree removals were phase one. This project would be conducted to adjust the river banks to prevent erosion along the Olentangy, very similar to the channel project that was conducted in Heise Park. With the 598 project set to start very soon, and phase two of the channel project something that O’Leary hopes to bring to City Council in the near future, he expressed his desire that this settlement be postponed.

Fellner offered, “In the name of being reasonable,” that members of the Finance Committee should meet with Ressallat in the near future to survey his property and discuss where to go from here. This is especially true for new council and committee member Susan Bean, so as to bring her fully up to speed on matter.

“I want to show an effort that we’re not letting it wither on the vine,” Fellner said.

One of the projects that was given the green light to proceed to City Council came from Clerk Julie Bell and Council President Carl Watts. The January council meeting saw Bell distributing council packets of more than 100 pages, which prompted Watts to think, “We need to move into the 21st century.”

With modernizing thoughts in mind, Bell has researched the possibility of purchasing seven iPads for Council, the council president, clerk, and law director. The cost of these iPads would be in the neighborhood of $3,800, which Bell said is available in the Capital Outlay Fund and in her budget. She spends $900 per half in preparing the agendas when her time, driving, and the paper costs are factored in. These iPads would pay for themselves inside of two years. This idea will be brought to full council.

In another piece of the 598 project, authorization for Didado to reposition utility poles will be discussed before full council. This portion of the project was initially going to be bid, but several factors have led to this being sole-sourced to Didado.

Factor one was timeliness, this project is about to get started and ODOT needs those poles out of the way so they can do their work. The second factor is that O’Leary said when quotes came in, they were not “ballpark quotes.” They were specific and were numbers that the City was comfortable with. The third factor is that federal funds will be used to reimburse a portion of this project (80/20), because ODOT now has the assurances that they require that these poles will definitively be out of the way when it is time for their work to begin. When all the factors were added together, it became clear that bidding this project out would have been counterproductive from the city’s perspective.

Auditor Brian Treisch also informed the Finance Committee of an addition to the staff of Darrin Hammoch, who will be taking over the post of the now departed Mrs. Bodkins.

Finance committee meetings will resume their normal Wednesday time slot in March, with that meeting being held at 7 p.m., March 19, in Council Chambers.