Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Oregon city council members hosted the first regular council meeting of the new year on Jan. 12, which was highlighted by discussion of America 250 events and a slew of appointments from mayor Steve Salander.
The America 250 discussion began with a question from resident Karen Egan about what talk or updates there has been surrounding events for this year.
City administrator Joel Mazur said the America 250 committee actually met that day, and they meet once a month, which has spurred ideas. The meetings have also included area students.
“We have included some of the high school students from Cardinal Stritch and Clay High School, and I expressed to them today how integral they are as a part of this and how appreciative we all are to have them be a part of it because we seldom are able to capture that demographic and receive input from them and have them be a part of the planning process, so it's been refreshing,” Mazur said. “We all learn something from our interactions with everybody.”
The Oregon Jerusalem Historical Society is taking the lead on many of the events, and Mazur said they have their own calendar of events.
Mazur also reminded everyone that this year is also the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. He said there is a separate committee organizing a memorial event for that day.
As far as America 250, Mazur said that the plan as of Jan. 12 was for Oregon to have a Fourth of July type of event on July 2, but he said that has to be hashed out and agreed upon by elected officials. It will be a key to not compete with other events in surrounding communities, but they also have to find a crew to light the fireworks, which can be a difficult task.
“Lastly, most importantly, the committee has been planning an event, one event, that coincides with one of the themes of the 250th anniversary, which is America has a Picnic, which is also sponsored statewide by Synovus Energy,” Mazur said. “We have one of the refineries here, and (the event) is scheduled to be at South Shore Park on June 14.”
Mazur said that it was a tentative date and everything needs to be confirmed. Council member Beth Ackerman is on the committee along with a few other citizens and the parks and recreation staff.
Later in the meeting, during the committee reports portion, Ackerman thanked Mazur, who is departing his position at the end of the month, for following through to make sure that Oregon gets recognized with the Ohio’s America 250 program.
“I know it was a real pain because I kept getting on their website and saying, 'We're not there yet. I don't see us on there yet. Why aren't we on there yet?’ But he was already on it. He had it taken care of. I just want to thank you for that,” she said.
Ackerman said citizens who are interested in becoming involved in America 250 events with the historical society would have to become a member of the society to participate, but anything the city is doing is open to everyone.
“Everyone’s obviously more than welcome to any events that we're planning for this year,” she said. “(I) never want to make it like it's any cliquey thing so please let me know if you're interested in in taking part in any of the events for the city for this year.”
Another related discussion point was Salander stating that the July 2 celebration will be in lieu of this year’s Boom Fest. He said they will revisit that in 2027. He is expecting them to have a Boom Fest type of event in 2027, but they are focusing on the 250 celebration this year.
Sunshine Law follow-up
Back to Egan, she also had a follow-up question for Salander regarding it being stated at a previous meeting that the city’s legal counsel said that no evidence was found to support a Sunshine Law violation in regard to the appointment of Dave Andrus as a council member in December.
“It was also mentioned that the state of Ohio had been notified regarding an investigation,” she said. “Additionally, you said that you wanted outside legal to do an investigation. So is the state doing an investigation?”
“We were notified just recently of an investigation by an attorney representing the citizens on that,” Salander said. “As of right now, they would have to submit that to the state.”
“Are you having outside counsel?” Egan asked.
“Yes,” Salander said. “I was waiting until we had a law director in place, but since we do, we would need to identify a firm to do so. I’m looking for a legal opinion on the situation that occurred.”
“Are you going to wait until after you hear from the state?” Egan asked.
“I was going to move forward on it sooner just because I had made that pledge, so I wanted to move forward on it as soon as possible,” Salander said.
“And the taxpayers are going to pay for that?” Egan asked.
“Yes,” Salander said.
Mayor’s Report
During his mayor’s report, Salander appointed Jared Sanchez, Alyssa Sockman, Paul Frazier, Brandon Floro, and Jacob Keith to the Oregon police department.
Salander then announced the resignation of Zach Vargo from the Oregon fire department.
Council also approved the withdrawal of acceptance from Angela Mills as the city’s new water treatment plant operator. She was previously approved at the Dec. 15 council meeting and was slated to begin Jan. 12.
Oregon’s public service director Paul Roman had a follow up to the withdrawal of Mills.
“It’s just that she had accepted the position and then had second thoughts and decided not to take the position,” he said. “And through this council, she has to resign in this manner. We're looking at other candidates. I just want to let you know. But certainly, she just had second thoughts and chose to stay with her current job. That's all.”
Salander appointed Thomas Lambrecht and Michael Rowe to the board of zoning appeals, Ralph Burgess and Robert Oberdorf to the planning commission, and Jerry Eversman to records retention. Lambrecht’s term is in place of Andrus, who departed the board to join council in December.
The final portion of the mayor’s report featured Salander debuting a new flag for the front of the city office building, which will replace the current Oregon flag, and it is in celebration of America 250.
Regular business
Council approved several ordinances, the first being an annual one giving all department heads the ability to go out and accept bids. Another was for the police department to enter into an agreement with Owens Community College to provide professional development training that several other area communities do as well.
“It's a great opportunity to have local training that is very budget-friendly for our 48 officers when we're at full staffing,” Oregon police chief Brandon Begin said.
The next two ordinances authorized chemical purchases for the wastewater treatment plant.
A fifth ordinance was tabled until the Jan. 26 regular council meeting because of the absences due to illness of council members Kathy Pollauf and Steve Hornyak, as well as the expected abstention on the matter from Dave Andrus, who did the design for the project. Thus, quorum wouldn’t be possible, and it needs to pass in emergency fashion in order to pay the invoice by the end of January.
The final ordinance updated the city’s income tax code to mirror what the federal and state code says in terms of wording.
Liquor permit discussion
Another topic included Dolgen Midwest LLCs request for a liquor permit for the Dollar General at 2553 Starr Ave. The hearing would be in the county seat at the Lucas County Common Pleas Court, or it can be requested in Columbus.
Council voted to not seek a hearing.
Administrator’s report
Mazur followed up on a previous discussion point regarding tours of data centers. He said Gary Thompson of the Regional Growth Partnership will be coordinating tours and would be the contact for council members interested in scheduling one. He said that Hornyak, Ackerman, and Salander have previously submitted interest, and he urged other council members to contact clerk of council Josette Snyder if they are also interested. It would likely have to be a separate tour in order to not conflict with Sunshine Laws.
