1 1 TRUSTEES MEETING JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP 2 * * * 3 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 4 * * * 5 DATE OF HEARING: Tuesday, May 4, 2004 6 Beginning at 6:58 o'clock p.m. 7 PLACE OF HEARING: One Business Park Drive 8 Dayton, Ohio 45427 9 TRUSTEE BOARD: Brice Sims 10 Angela Jones Jerry Walker 11 Allen Elijah, Clerk 12 ALSO PRESENT: Robert Bradley 13 * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 MR. SIMS: I'd like to call the 2 meeting to order. 3 (Thereupon, the pledge of allegiance 4 was recited.) 5 MR. WALKER: Roll call. Brice Sims. 6 MR. SIMS: Here. 7 MR. WALKER: Angela Jones. 8 MS. JONES: Present. 9 MR. WALKER: Allen Elijah. 10 MR. ELIJAH: Here. 11 MR. SIMS: Approval of minutes for 12 meeting held April 6, 2004. 13 MS. JONES: I make a motion to 14 approve the minutes for April 6, 2004. 15 MR. ELIJAH: I second that motion. 16 MR. SIMS: Roll call. 17 MR. WALKER: Second that the minutes 18 be accepted. Allen Elijah. 19 MR. ELIJAH: I vote yes. 20 MR. WALKER: Brice Sims. 21 MR. SIMS: Yes. 22 MR. WALKER: Angela Jones. 23 MS. JONES: Yes. 24 MR. SIMS: Clerk's business, 25 communications and such. 3 1 MR. WALKER: Okay. I'd just like to 2 give a brief report where we are as of March 31 3 and a total appropriations for the year which 4 went into our UAN system as of April 1, made it 5 official, was 2.2 million, 317,000. Our total 6 expenses year to date was 353,000, and our 7 incumbrance year to date was 212,000. So as of 8 3-31, we have a balance of 1 million 752,000 9 which is -- in percentages that's 75.6 percent 10 left for the rest of the year, and we're 11 one-third through so we're right on target. 12 MR. SIMS: Old business. Old 13 business? New business? Use of Charles 14 Richardson Park on August 8 of 2004, Mr. Walters' 15 family reunion. Do we need a motion? 16 MR. WALKER: Yes. 17 MR. SIMS: Okay. 18 MR. ELIJAH: I move that we allow 19 the Walters' family reunion to reserve the 20 Charles Richardson Park for a family reunion on 21 August 8 of this year. 22 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 23 MR. WALKER: It's been moved and 24 seconded. We're ready for the vote. Allen 25 Elijah. 4 1 MR. ELIJAH: Aye. 2 MR. WALKER: Brice Sims. 3 MR. SIMS: Aye. 4 MR. WALKER: Angela Jones. 5 MS. JONES: Yes. 6 MR. SIMS: Appointment of fire 7 department volunteer, firefighter, EMT, Brandon 8 Hall, volunteer EMT, and Mrs. Maywell, part-time 9 firefighter paramedic. We have a motion? 10 MS. JONES: This is an appointment? 11 MR. SIMS: Yeah. 12 MR. ELIJAH: Chief, do you have 13 anything to say about the appointments? Are you 14 in concurrence? 15 CHIEF MANN: Two of those 16 individuals are volunteers. The part-time person 17 is a paramedic and that's just what -- we're 18 trying to get a paramedic on every run, and 19 that's why we have her as the part-time person. 20 MR. ELIJAH: And that would also 21 allow you then to have faster response time with 22 somebody on site -- initially on site with the 23 ability to perform services for the impaired 24 individual? 25 CHIEF MANN: Well, the paramedic is 5 1 an ACLS person that can do vast life support. I 2 think you are talking about -- let's say the 3 vehicle that we have. That vehicle, we're going 4 to staff it with a paramedic and that individual 5 will be able to reach any place in the township 6 within six or seven minutes. 7 MR. ELIJAH: Okay. As a first 8 response? 9 CHIEF MANN: Yes. 10 MS. JONES: So you anticipate a lot 11 less of mutual aid with doing it that way? 12 CHIEF MANN: One of the problems we 13 have is with the volunteers at nighttime. We 14 have some calls that go up to about 15, some 20 15 minute calls. We're trying to eliminate those 16 calls so that everything is in, say, no longer 17 than seven or eight minutes time frame, once the 18 time they call this place until someone's on the 19 scene. 20 MR. ELIJAH: That's a tremendous 21 increase in efficiency, and I think that's a 22 worthy objective to undertake and we'll have to 23 track that one. 24 MR. SIMS: Yeah. Apartment head 25 property. Mr. Brandon -- 6 1 MR. ELIJAH: We need to finish that 2 procedure. 3 MR. SIMS: I'm sorry. We have a 4 vote? 5 MR. ELIJAH: I move for the 6 acceptance of the fire appointments as read. 7 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 8 MR. WALKER: It's been seconded. 9 Ready for vote. Allen Elijah. 10 MR. ELIJAH: I will vote yes. 11 MR. WALKER: Brice Sims. 12 MR. SIMS: Yes. 13 MR. WALKER: Angela Jones. 14 MS. JONES: Yes. 15 MR. SIMS: Department head report. 16 Mr. Bradley. 17 MR. BRADLEY: I've attached that to 18 the agenda of all the persons attending. It's 19 the last page. And if you'd like, I can read 20 that but they have it before them. What's your 21 pleasure? 22 MR. SIMS: Don't have to. 23 MS. JONES: He said no. 24 MR. SIMS: It's attached to the 25 minutes. Trustees' report. Mr. Allen Elijah. 7 1 MR. ELIJAH: Just briefly. I'd like 2 to touch on the fact that there is a plan for 3 this year for development along the Third Street 4 corridor between -- that separates Trotwood and 5 Jefferson. There's going to be some landscaping 6 and some beautification going on on both sides as 7 we've collaborated with Trotwood to begin to 8 clean up the area, realizing that's the first 9 start. 10 The overall development plan is to 11 increase zoning in different parts of the 12 township and do beautification along Third Street 13 so we can begin to make the area more attractive 14 for development. And, again, this was an 15 activity that the trustees had started a year or 16 so ago with Trotwood with the assistance of 17 Montgomery County, and we just want to make you 18 aware of the fact that things are happening and 19 you will begin to see some disruptions around 20 here, but the net result of that will be a nicer 21 streetscape. 22 MR. SIMS: Anything else, 23 Mr. Elijah? 24 MR. ELIJAH: The only other thing I 25 would like to bring out is the fact that the 8 1 trustees had set up a regular meeting with the 2 school board and we will be having another 3 meeting on the 20th of this month to meet with 4 the members of the school board to discuss 5 township's growth and other activities. I'm 6 done. 7 MR. SIMS: Mrs. Jones. 8 MS. JONES: I don't have a report 9 but I would like to make a comment on the 10 departmental report for the month of April, 2004. 11 And I was just looking over the response time and 12 the run time and, Chief Mann, I wanted to commend 13 you on your response time. Historically, we have 14 truly improved on that. So if you would share 15 with the department -- with your fire department 16 and your medics that I'm pleased with that. It 17 looks real good. 18 The other thing is that -- I guess I 19 have a question for you, Mr. Bradley, regarding 20 the zoning department activity for the month of 21 April, and I see that we have ten zoning 22 violations still existing. And I wanted to ask 23 what the status of that was or if there was some 24 process that needed to go through -- the reason 25 we have ten still existing. 9 1 MR. BRADLEY: In the process, 2 generally speaking, Mrs. Fortson will indicate on 3 the report after she issues a citation, then 4 there is a ten day response time from the citizen 5 and that's what that indicates. 6 MS. JONES: I wanted to also make 7 sure that the citizens were aware of the 8 neighborhood cleanup on June 14th through the 9 18th in the Drexel area and to ask how -- if 10 we're changing or how we're communicating that 11 information to them. 12 MR. BRADLEY: A representative in 13 the neighborhood is putting out flyers in both of 14 those about the cleanup, giving notification. 15 MS. JONES: I also would like to 16 thank the sheriff's department for their report. 17 That's it. 18 MR. SIMS: Thanks, Mrs. Jones. I'm 19 very concerned about our taxes. We just got the 20 '04 today and every time we get it, it doubles. 21 Why I'm concerned is these people that's owing 22 $10,000, $5,000, $3,500, don't give a kitty about 23 paying taxes at all. We've got to have tax money 24 to give services. This is one reason the schools 25 are in a lot of problems. I think what we're 10 1 going to have to do is play hardball with these 2 people. 3 First of all, we have the bulk 4 cleanup. That's free for all our citizens. I 5 think if they don't pay their taxes, they come in 6 here and put their name down, they don't get no 7 bulk cleanup. I think if you're over $5,000, I 8 think our newsletter should put all their names 9 in there letting people know that these people 10 are not paying their taxes. We've got to play 11 hardball like the city of Dayton, Oakwood and 12 Kettering because if we don't get money in, we 13 can't give you the best of services. So I just 14 wanted to bring that to your attention. 15 This is like 36 percent. This is 36 16 percent of delinquents. It's terrible. You've 17 got people that haven't paid taxes in ten years. 18 That's terrible. And the people, downtown's not 19 putting pressure on them. We used to put out 20 letters, but I think we need to put their names 21 on our newsletters and let the people out here 22 know who owes $10,000, $19,000. This is pitiful. 23 You've got to pay taxes if you're going to live 24 in a community. 25 I'm looking at -- very hard for us 11 1 to start doing that. If we don't get no tax 2 money, how can we get the best of services. We 3 got out these letters, fire department, sheriff 4 department, police department. We're going to 5 look at that. It's embarrassing when you owe 6 $26,000 in property taxes out here. If I get 7 some votes from the trustees -- bulk cleanup. 8 You don't get to clean up. Put your name in the 9 newsletter. I'm for all that because we've got 10 to play hardball like the city of Dayton and the 11 rest of us. 12 MR. ELIJAH: I'd like to piggyback 13 on Mr. Sims' comments about the importance of tax 14 delinquency. You understand that sometimes some 15 of our senior citizens may have fixed incomes or 16 don't have necessarily a way every time to meet 17 all their obligations and I don't know if there 18 are programs out there that may be helping in 19 those instances, but I think that those are 20 things that we can explore at the same time where 21 we're looking to say it's only fair if we pay our 22 taxes, that everybody else should pay as well. 23 It's only fair to our fellow citizens. 24 So I think given some of the things 25 that Mr. Sims talked about and us working in 12 1 coordination with the county, we may be able to 2 do some of that because those revenues are sorely 3 needed at the township level. I mean, budget 4 cuts are flowing down from the state of Ohio that 5 hit our general fund that include us having the 6 support services. So I think that's something 7 that you're going to be hearing more about, so 8 just kind of stay tuned. In this particular 9 instance, fair is fair. 10 MR. SIMS: Another thing, community 11 breakfast went off nice. A lot of people in the 12 room was there. We did well for Jefferson 13 Township for entertainment and it's growing every 14 year. We have it every year at Mount Carmel 15 Baptist Church. A lot of people suggested that 16 we should have it at 9:00 instead of 8:00 because 17 they can't get up at 8:00 o'clock. I think we 18 should just change it to 9:00 o'clock. The ones 19 that are suggesting this -- trustees. 20 Other thing, sheriff department. 21 I'd like to commend the sheriff's department and 22 fire department because you're doing such a good 23 job. I hear this all the time in the community. 24 I was in the Drexel area last year and they say 25 you're right on time, the sheriff department, and 13 1 I like to hear that. When they can tell me that 2 we're doing a good job, it makes me feel good. I 3 know that one time when we did have another 4 police department, it was kind of hard to 5 communicate with them. I see now you have got 6 your patrolmen out there. I really like that 7 because that's really good. 8 Risk management activities. Been 9 assigned to Glenn Oak Park. Okay. Comments by 10 citizens. 11 MR. BRADLEY: First is Alfonzo 12 Weatherford of 1316 Eastport Avenue, repair of 13 Eastport Avenue Street. 14 MR. WEATHERFORD: 5316 Eastport. 15 Been on these boards since 1965 and I can assure 16 you that there's never been any resurfacing on 17 that street since I moved there. I know that 18 it's a strange situation because half this street 19 is in the city of Dayton and the other half is in 20 the township. I've been told before that there 21 was a schedule and that next year they would get 22 to Eastport. Well, next year is now. So my 23 question is, has something been worked out with 24 the city of Dayton so that they can take their 25 share of the cost of resurfacing these streets or 14 1 what does the township have scheduled for their 2 portion of the streets? 3 MR. SIMS: Okay. Mr. Weatherford 4 called me about five months ago and asked me 5 about this, and I told you that the city of 6 Dayton -- we was trying to negotiate that they do 7 their part of the street and we do our part of 8 the street. I had Robert to call the city and 9 the city -- have they got back with you on that? 10 MR. BRADLEY: Mr. Thompson I met 11 with and superintendent of streets, and, 12 basically, they're giving us the budget crunch 13 argument, that they don't have the resources to 14 do that at this point and I don't know when 15 Eastport is scheduled on this schedule. 16 MR. WEATHERFORD: They told me that 17 it was this year. 18 MR. SIMS: At the time when you 19 called and I talked to Robert, I told you I'd get 20 involved with him. I think what we're going to 21 have to do is -- you know, so much is in the 22 city, and I think what we're going to have to do, 23 just do our part and just leave the city. You 24 see what I'm talking about? I think that we 25 probably can schedule that. 15 1 The thing about it is the city -- 2 every time I call them on public work they always 3 say we're doing East Dayton, I'm doing this. I 4 said, look, these people are in the city too. 5 Why can't you do something for them? Mr. Sims, 6 we've got it on the schedule. But what I think 7 we're going to have to do is just go ahead and do 8 our part and just say the heck with the city. 9 But it looks bad, you know, when we do our part 10 and the city don't do their part. 11 This is things -- why don't you just 12 get with Mr. Thompson on that. We don't have no 13 choice, you know, annexation areas. They don't 14 want to do nothing out here. By the way, I don't 15 see a city policeman out here that much. Why 16 don't we get with Thompson and could you get back 17 with Mr. Weatherford? 18 MR. BRADLEY: Yeah. 19 MR. SIMS: He did call me about five 20 months ago. And your street looked bad. Why 21 don't you get with public works. If they don't 22 want to do it, let's do our part and say the hell 23 with the rest of them. I'm sorry. Didn't mean 24 to say that. We can't continue to do this 25 because your street is deteriorating. 16 1 MS. JONES: We're going to have the 2 issues again this winter with the snow. 3 MR. SIMS: All right. Robert. 4 MR. BRADLEY: Miss Laura Rench of 5 8280 West Third Street. She has the material 6 presentation. 7 MS. RENCH: Thank you. What I have 8 today to give to the trustees and also the chief 9 and the clerk and Mr. Bradley is some documents 10 that I have collected and had for quite some 11 period of time. This whole agenda began sometime 12 back in September -- well, actually, September 17 13 I had a meeting with the zoning director, Miss 14 Fortson, and we had a lengthy meeting discussing 15 the issues of Permafix and the number of 16 violations there at the company, and I gave her 17 these documents and many more. And I'm concerned 18 that you all have not seen these documents 19 yourselves. And they are in her files. I know 20 the attorney has also given her many documents. 21 So I wanted to at least make sure that all of you 22 receive these documents. One of them is a -- 23 MS. JONES: That was September 14? 24 MS. RENCH: September 17 I had the 25 meeting with -- the documents that are here are 17 1 the finding violations against Permafix from the 2 United States EPA, the surveillance activities 3 from Regional Air Pollution Control for almost 4 two years, the hazardous waste manifest from 5 Permafix of Dayton, which is well over a hundred 6 pages, of toxic hazardous waste disposal that 7 they do at that facility. I think it's very 8 important for all of you to know exactly what 9 they process. One of the biggest things they 10 process is Benzene and that is going in our air, 11 in our sewers and in our ground water. So I also 12 have -- 13 MR. SIMS: What was that again? 14 MS. RENCH: Benzene. I have a fact 15 sheet of Benzene, so all of you can take that. 16 The thing that I wanted to ask you most about is 17 the fact that I wrote a letter, as a 18 representative of the citizens for chemical 19 weapons and also land, on March 11 and I have yet 20 to receive a response from you. It's about my 21 concerns about zoning violations against 22 Permafix. Does anybody wish to give me some 23 time? 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You can have 25 my time. 18 1 MS. RENCH: This is the letter and 2 I'm hoping that you all got it, and I was hoping 3 that I would have received a response by now. I 4 sent it to another elected official and I 5 received comments back from them. Everyone in 6 the community should know that the agency is 7 coming to Jefferson Township to the Drexel 8 neighborhood to do a very high priority health 9 assessment, and it is of great concern that this 10 company is polluting our air and our water. And 11 not only that, more than anything else, they are 12 killing the citizens of that neighborhood and I 13 mean that truthfully and we have documentation of 14 it. 15 And I think it is time for -- very 16 involved with the people in that neighborhood so 17 it's very emotional for me. I think it is time 18 to look at this facility and take action against 19 them. They're not going to leave. They're 20 making hundreds of millions of dollars polluting 21 our air and polluting our water and sewer systems 22 and damaging our roadways. They're not going to 23 leave. They make too much good money here. It's 24 time we step up and take some action against 25 them. 19 1 I talked to Debra yesterday and she 2 said, what is your trustees doing? She says 3 that's their responsibility. She said sometimes 4 it takes the responsibility of the trustees to go 5 to the company and say, look, we've had enough, 6 you know. Be a good neighbor. Clean up your 7 act. It's all out there. The EPA wants them to 8 clean up. Everybody wants them to clean up. We 9 just are asking that you get in the ball game, 10 too, and do the same yourself because these 11 people are dying in that neighborhood and all the 12 proof is there. So, please, seriously take this 13 into consideration. 14 MR. BRADLEY: Mable Cross of 5145 15 Tucson. 16 MS. CROSS: Yes. That's Mable 17 Cross. What are the standards when a citizen 18 moves out of the community and leases their 19 property? What is the code for them keeping it 20 up -- what is the standard for them keeping it up 21 to code? Do you have a standard in place or 22 anything? 23 MR. SIMS: Well, actually, if they 24 rent it or lease it, that's their obligation to 25 do that. They can run into some -- just like 20 1 they're not cutting their yard or something like 2 that. We can probably go over there and put it 3 on their property taxes, something like that. 4 MS. CROSS: If their house is 5 deteriorating and it brings your property down, 6 that too. 7 MR. SIMS: We probably -- 8 MS. CROSS: Not just cutting the 9 grass. I'm saying just deteriorating. When 10 people move out -- 11 MR. ELIJAH: Rental property? 12 MS. CROSS: Yes. Most of them's 13 leasing and some of them's just empty. 14 MR. SIMS: You know the address of 15 that house? 16 MS. CROSS: It's all over Jefferson. 17 MR. SIMS: We have run into problem 18 in the Blairwood area. A lot of people have 19 rented their house and moved to other areas like 20 Trotwood, city of Dayton. That is one of the 21 problems we have, especially over on Ericson. We 22 took some pictures of some of the homes that are 23 deteriorating and we're trying to do something 24 with the county to do that. 25 MS. CROSS: Whose responsibility is 21 1 it? 2 MR. SIMS: It's the landlord's 3 responsibility. 4 MS. CROSS: How do you enforce the 5 landlord? The trustees? 6 MR. SIMS: It's kind of hard for us 7 unless we give them a letter letting them know 8 that the house is running down. 9 MS. CROSS: Condemned. 10 MR. SIMS: They'd have to be cited 11 and everything. 12 MR. ELIJAH: That's a part of the 13 information that's in the zoning person's report 14 that talk about the citations and stuff. What 15 will identify some of these homes is the process 16 of delinquent tax review of probably some of the 17 same ones that are delinquent in taxes. You have 18 got absentee landlords. 19 MS. CROSS: It's looking bad. It's 20 really looking bad out here. Also, I want -- I 21 don't know who I would address this to. I live 22 at a dead end. I was wondering, could we have a 23 dead end sign? And it's a field right -- it's a 24 big field and they come up through there with 25 tractors and them young kids with go carts and 22 1 they come on my land too. I was wondering, could 2 we put a rail across the field where they 3 couldn't come into the field? 4 MR. SIMS: You talking about right 5 there on this side -- on the other side of your 6 house when you first go in? 7 MS. CROSS: Yes. 8 MR. SIMS: Let me look into that and 9 I'll get back with you. 10 MR. BRADLEY: Next, Clifford Brown 11 of 233 Davenport. 12 MR. BROWN: Is this area considered 13 a dump? 14 MR. SIMS: No, it's not. 15 MR. BROWN: You drive around here a 16 little bit, you've got abandoned houses. It is 17 the first block -- it is the first block of 18 Davenport. 19 MR. SIMS: Apartment building? 20 MR. BROWN: Yeah. That's -- in 21 fact, these two houses are right next together. 22 That used to be 6305 barn -- it's the second -- 23 third street to the east of here. 24 MR. SIMS: This one is what? 25 MR. BROWN: This one -- in all 23 1 fairness to her, that place is usually kept up a 2 lot better. I think they're probably doing some 3 remodeling right now. So it's maybe a result of 4 that. The thing of this is when you get one 5 person starting dumping, then the next person 6 says it's okay for him to do it. I'll do it. 7 Then you've got them all over the place. The one 8 picture there of the water -- yeah, up here -- 9 it's been stopped up for years. 10 MR. SIMS: That's on Davenport? 11 MR. BROWN: That's the end of 12 Davenport. I've been up here a number of times 13 bringing this stuff to everybody's attention and 14 it gets worse. 15 MS. JONES: I'm sorry, sir. Whose 16 attention did you bring it to? Have you gone 17 through the zoning? 18 MR. SIMS: That was about two 19 meetings ago, wasn't it, Cliff? 20 MR. BROWN: I caught her on the 21 street on Davenport and I pointed it out to her, 22 and that place has got cleaned up a little bit 23 since then. 24 MR. SIMS: I was over there when you 25 said that. They still got these tires? 24 1 MR. BROWN: Those are just dumped 2 down at the end of -- 3 MS. JONES: I'd like to explain the 4 process a little bit, and it is just not the 5 responsibility of the property owners to report 6 something that could appear to be a violation. 7 And most of the time it is when you're talking 8 about dumping or large amount of trash being in 9 the area. The first thing is that you should 10 contact zoning in regards to where it is, the 11 location, and give them that information. There 12 is a process that zoning has to go through. 13 However, if it does not occur, then 14 you go to the next step. If the stuff still 15 remains there or you call and you say at what 16 point are we with the zoning violations, have the 17 people been cited, if they have not been cited 18 after Mr. Bradley -- it should go to the board. 19 And say that it's been three months. Our process 20 does not take six months to get something done 21 with that. If you see it occurring too long, 22 then somewhere the process has not been done. 23 It is all our responsibility in the 24 community to make sure that those things are 25 noted. And if you feel that they're not, then 25 1 you need to go through the chain. And I know 2 everybody keeps saying there is a process, but 3 the process should not take a year or six months. 4 MR. BROWN: I brought pictures up 5 when you guys was having meetings over on 6 Infirmary. 7 MR. SIMS: Cliff, we're getting 8 ready to have a cleanup in the Drexel area. What 9 we're doing, we're getting coordinators in the 10 area. In other words, we have the coordinators 11 to be with us, you know, when we're getting ready 12 to clean up. We're going to have a truck and 13 we're going to do a -- why don't you just be the 14 coordinator. I've been knowing you a long time. 15 All you have to do is just get with us and what 16 we'll do is clean up everything. What is your 17 telephone number, Cliff? 18 MR. BROWN: 268-8443. 19 MR. SIMS: I'll get with you 20 tomorrow then. I hope we get this taken care of. 21 MR. BROWN: Another thought. 22 Talking about those back taxes, there is a lot 23 beside my house. I've been mowing and keeping up 24 for 15, 20 years. Last year I went down and put 25 some money down to try to get them to bring it up 26 1 for sale as abandoned property. It's been over a 2 year. I'll be paying the taxes on that place, 3 the back taxes plus what's coming due if they 4 bring it up for sale. So Montgomery County might 5 be holding up a little bit on moving some of 6 these properties. 7 MR. SIMS: Some of these houses 8 that owe taxes, we can go to foreclosure on them. 9 It's the treasurer, they usually do that. 10 Montgomery County treasurer that's over the 11 taxes. They usually will tell us the one's that 12 really need to be a foreclosure. They haven't 13 told us too much of nothing here lately. 14 MR. BROWN: Last summer I took a 15 thousand dollars down there. They wanted that so 16 they could start the process of foreclosing on 17 that. 18 MR. SIMS: When I see you tomorrow, 19 I'll come over to your house and take a look at 20 that. 21 MR. BRADLEY: Next, Ron Green of 22 1212 Infirmary Road. 23 MR. GREEN: Well, piggyback off what 24 he just got through saying. You know, it's been 25 my pet peeve for a long time. The zoning 27 1 department is doing the same thing it did two 2 years ago. That's my biggest complaint about 3 this area, how lax the zoning is. You might need 4 some more zoning people out here because it's 5 getting really out of control. 6 Ten zoning violations still exist. 7 I talked about that two years ago. That doesn't 8 say anything. That doesn't tell you how long 9 they've been there, you know, you need to know 10 has it been three months? Has it been six 11 months? Give us some addresses so when people 12 look at this, it tells them something. It don't 13 tell you nothing. One granted. One BZA case was 14 tabled. Why was it tabled? You need more 15 information if you're going to clean up the area. 16 Ten violations is a lot of 17 violations and I bet you -- I bet you, if I was a 18 betting man, next month if I look at that, there 19 might be five of them still on there but still no 20 explanation of why and the area still looks the 21 same. 22 MS. JONES: I agree with you. We do 23 need to know status. 24 MR. GREEN: I've been complaining 25 about putting it on there a long time. 28 1 MS. JONES: The BZA issues about 2 tabling, I don't know if they can say why they 3 need to feel like they're tabling something. I 4 do agree as far as the property, we should know. 5 MR. GREEN: I'm going to ask you a 6 point blank question. Do you think the township 7 is getting any cleaner? 8 MS. JONES: I'll say the township is 9 cleaner than it used to be. 10 MR. GREEN: You have got to be 11 kidding. This is what I'm saying. A zoning 12 person has to see. You all have to see. Right 13 up the street, you know, where they sell the dogs 14 and everything by the store, there's a house that 15 sits right beside it. Just look straight back 16 there. That's enough to numb this whole room. 17 That's what I'm saying. I see stuff that nobody 18 don't see. They just drive by and keep on going. 19 Derby Road, that man cleaned it all 20 up and he put it back again. Over on Belcourt, 21 that guy changes engines. Across the street from 22 him, a man that sells fish, got his machines 23 sitting out in the yard. That's my biggest 24 complaint out there. You talk about taxes. They 25 don't want to pay taxes. I say you need to get a 29 1 group of people to go downtown and start raising 2 hell with them downtown about helping us collect 3 our taxes. They ain't helping us. We need to 4 get a group. 5 I stopped coming to these meetings 6 because I get excited because nothing changes. 7 Just like Robert back in the back. I don't care 8 if you got ten pages of citizens' comments. Put 9 them on here so I can see them so I can see if 10 you put down what you say we complained about. 11 You say it's too lengthy. Check with the clerk. 12 That lady gave you 120 pages. Let us make the 13 decision about how lengthy it is. I don't know 14 if you pay attention to what we said because it's 15 not down here. 16 MR. SIMS: Thanks, Ron. 17 MR. BRADLEY: Next we have Mr. John 18 Coors, 5121 Germantown Liberty, delinquent taxes. 19 MR. COORS: Have we written a letter 20 to the treasurer saying collect these taxes? 21 MR. SIMS: Yeah, I've talked to the 22 treasurer, wrote them a letter and everything, 23 Mr. Coors. 24 MR. COORS: Do we do it once a week? 25 MR. SIMS: Usually, when the taxes 30 1 come out, this is when we examine everything and 2 we send a letter to them. 3 MR. COORS: My understanding, if 4 he's still in the position, this gentleman here 5 shouldn't have to pay a thousand dollars to get 6 the county to foreclose on or whatever. 7 MR. ELIJAH: That's the way the 8 process works. 9 MR. SIMS: We don't know the 10 particulars about the property. 11 MR. COORS: But, obviously, the 12 county's not doing their job. Have we gone to 13 the county commissioner and complained about 14 this, written them a letter? Do we need to go 15 down there? I've got his phone number here, 16 425-1010. 17 MR. SIMS: We've got some strategies 18 with them right now. Wait a minute, John. 19 MS. JONES: We don't have the 20 authority to collect delinquent taxes. However, 21 we do send letters. And Mr. Weatherford, and I 22 hate to refer to you, but you're there. You used 23 to get reports on how much money we would get in 24 delinquent taxes too. 25 MR. SIMS: Sending a letter -- I 31 1 don't know what kind of authority we have to do 2 that. And there would be very positive responses 3 from those letters that we sent out so -- it 4 wasn't working. Now, it never cleaned the whole 5 thing up but it was a working tool. 6 MR. ELIJAH: John, if I may kind of 7 interject. We have just gotten information back. 8 After the taxes were paid or due in February, 9 they do a reconciliation and they update all the 10 errors. We wanted to see after everybody had a 11 chance to pay who actually did. We just got a 12 list now to show who paid, who didn't. Following 13 that, there's a coordination that we need to make 14 with the county to come up with a joint strategy 15 to get them to do what their -- on our tax rolls 16 to do for us. So that's the next step. 17 MR. COORS: Well, we're talking 18 about authority. We have the authority. They 19 have the responsibility. So we need to put 20 pressure on them. Either you or Ron said get a 21 group down there. This has been going on for -- 22 MR. SIMS: I call, I send letters 23 from -- the treasurer is Hugh Quill and he's 24 elected just like the county commissioners. 25 That's his job to do this job. That's his job to 32 1 collect taxes. And Willis Blackshire is over the 2 delinquent department. Okay. We call him. We 3 talk to him. We used to do about two years 4 ago -- the trustees used to send letters out. 5 You remember how we used to send letters out, try 6 to scare people, you know, and they didn't even 7 pay us no attention? 8 MR. COORS: If you're going to put 9 it in a newsletter, how about putting 10 Mr. Blackshire's phone number down there and let 11 people down there -- 12 MR. SIMS: We're going to do a 13 little more strategy than that. We are 14 investigating a lot of things. 15 MR. COORS: I've lived here nine 16 years and we've been -- 17 MR. SIMS: In that case then if you 18 owe $10,000, we have to put pressure on people 19 for $10,000. If they don't pay it, what can we 20 do? We don't have authority just like the 21 treasurer. 22 MR. COORS: Well, put the pressure 23 on them to exercise their authorities. 24 MR. SIMS: What do you think we've 25 been doing? 33 1 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Turn to 2 and 2 publicize. 3 MR. COORS: One other thing on 4 resurfacing the roads. We shouldn't have to 5 resurface every other block because Dayton 6 doesn't do theirs. Have we sent Dayton letters 7 requesting that? 8 MR. SIMS: Yes. Talked to public 9 works and everything. 10 MR. COORS: We need to document that 11 and get their position on that. 12 MR. SIMS: You know what the city 13 would tell you? 14 MR. COORS: Okay. 15 MR. SIMS: We have went to the 16 county -- we have went to the county about the 17 snow removal. Over there in my area they don't 18 even -- they don't even come over for snow 19 removal. We're the only one that does snow 20 removal. 21 MR. COORS: Have we removed the snow 22 and sent them a bill? 23 MR. SIMS: We can't send them a 24 bill. 25 MR. COORS: Why can't we? 34 1 MR. ELIJAH: John, if I could kind 2 of interject, a lot of this goes back to the kind 3 of relationship that this township has both with 4 the city and the county and with Jefferson 5 Township and other municipalities. We've got to 6 find a way to work through issues and talk about 7 these kind of things. That's something that's 8 ongoing and we need to do more of admittedly. 9 MR. COORS: It just seems we have 10 the same old problems year after year. What can 11 I say? 12 MR. BRADLEY: Next, Sara Boykins, 13 5121 Ballard Drive. 14 MS. BOYKINS: My name's Sara Boykins 15 and I would like to know -- we have a sore eye -- 16 a sore thumb at the corner of Derby and 17 Germantown, that shopping area there which -- it 18 needs to be cleaned up. It's bad on the 19 township. Now, you're all talking about 20 beautifying Third Street. You need to beautify 21 Jefferson. Would you agree with that? 22 MR. SIMS: A hundred percent. 23 MS. BOYKINS: Okay. Thank you. 24 Now, the next thing is my street that is supposed 25 to be paved, done this year. 35 1 MR. SIMS: It's going to be paved 2 this year. Did I tell you that, Mrs. Boykins? 3 MS. BOYKINS: Thank you very much. 4 MR. BRADLEY: Next, Barbara Juott of 5 1534 Derby Road. 6 MS. JUOTT: J U O T T. I live on 7 Derby Road. You know me. Behind me there's a 8 house that caught on fire two years ago, around 9 November. It's still sitting there and the car. 10 Did the people take the insurance money and run? 11 And if so, can't that property be knocked down? 12 MR. SIMS: We are investigating 13 that. I know what house you are talking about. 14 I'll get back within a couple weeks because the 15 insurance that's involved in this right now -- 16 it's been there a long time. Not you just 17 complaining. There's other people complaining 18 about that too. So I'll probably know something 19 in about a couple weeks. I need to come over to 20 your house. I'll probably be over there in a 21 couple weeks to talk about something else. 22 MS. JUOTT: I'm trying to sell my 23 house. 24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: May I make an 25 announcement? I have an announcement to make. 36 1 The 19th of May at 7:00 p.m., concerned citizens 2 meeting at the fire station on Liberty Ellerton 3 and Dayton Liberty, so I hope that all of you in 4 here will be able to attend. 7:00 p.m., the 19th 5 of May. Thank you. 6 MR. SIMS: Okay. I'd like to -- 7 before we adjourn I'd like to say a few things 8 because it's very important for the trustees. 9 Trustees are involved in a lot of stuff right 10 now. I understand your concern, Clifford, 11 Ronnie, and even with Mrs. Juott. I've got 12 problems with her property. What we're going to 13 have to do is either clean this township up or 14 sweep people out because I am getting tired of 15 people calling me like Clifford, Ronnie, other 16 people, not just these people in here that calls 17 trustees. We're going to have to make a big move 18 and try to clean this place up. 19 Just because we have a cleanup in 20 Drexel, Crown Point area, that doesn't work. 21 After we clean up, the same thing happens. So 22 I'm going to have to -- as the trustees out here 23 we're going to have to start doing something 24 because we've got a beautiful township, beautiful 25 people out here. And if we don't start doing 37 1 something, the whole thing is going to 2 deteriorate with our citizens. So I pledge 3 myself that we're going to have to do something 4 because if we don't, we're going to have some 5 problems. 6 MS. JONES: I have one comment 7 before we adjourn. Laura, I heard your 8 presentation and I also saw your request that you 9 referred to that you had given us a while back. 10 At the time we had not received any information 11 that we could share at that time. There has been 12 something that came in. I apologize. I thought 13 that you had received a copy of that. I will 14 make sure that you get a copy of what we have and 15 I will make sure that any additional information 16 that may come in or results or findings of 17 something, that you also get that information. 18 So I do want to say, for the record, 19 that I did receive it. I saw it. I read it. 20 And I thought that you had gotten a copy of 21 something that we had received. I will make sure 22 that you have a copy of it. I didn't what you to 23 think that -- 24 MS. RENCH: Was it a letter from the 25 trustees? 38 1 MS. JONES: No. There was some 2 response things that you had asked for, a couple 3 of things with that. So what I do have or what 4 the board has -- our board has, I will make sure 5 that you get a copy of that and then anything 6 else that comes in at a later date that could be 7 a part of your request, I will make sure that you 8 have that. 9 MR. SIMS: Make a motion to adjourn. 10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I want to ask 11 one question. Do we have a zoning 12 representative? 13 MS. JONES: Yes, we do. 14 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Do we need 15 another one? I'm not trying to be funny. 16 MS. JONES: I think that's an 17 opinion. 18 MR. SIMS: Anybody have any other 19 questions you can come in the office and talk to 20 me about it. 21 MS. JONES: I second. 22 MR. ELIJAH: It's been properly 23 moved and seconded. The meeting is officially 24 adjourned. 25 (Thereupon, the meeting was 39 1 concluded at 7:48 o'clock p.m.) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 40 1 STATE OF OHIO ) 2 COUNTY OF MONTGOMERY ) SS: CERTIFICATE 3 I, Stacey L. Kimmel, a Notary Public 4 within and for the State of Ohio, duly 5 commissioned and qualified, 6 DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the above-named 7 meeting was reduced to writing by me 8 stenographically in the presence of the parties 9 and thereafter reduced to typewriting. 10 I FURTHER CERTIFY that I am not a 11 relative or Attorney of either party nor in any 12 manner interested in the event of this action. 13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 14 my hand and seal of office at Dayton, Ohio, on 15 this _ _ _ day of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, 2004. 16 17 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ STACEY L. KIMMEL 18 NOTARY PUBLIC, STATE OF OHIO My commission expires 6-10-2006 19 20 21 22 23 24 25