Marietta Council committees tackled variety of issues

Four of seven Marietta City Council committees met Tuesday evening to discuss various issues such as ordinances, replacement of a sewer line and sewer tap application, the Marietta Aquatic Center, and Civil War Roundtable signage.

The Planning, Zoning, Annexation, and Housing committee worked on Land Development Ordinance 367, which was tabled at a recent regular council meeting for further discussion.

The committee wanted to clarify some language regarding appeals as well as who is the stated enforcing entity within the ordinance.

Committee chair Bret Allphin said they were thinking of including the City Engineer as well as the Safety Service Director and a designee as the enforcing entity within the ordinance.

"Our current wording makes it sounds like the current enforcing entity, the City Engineer, is on the same level as the mayor," said Allphin.

"Also mentioned is the Table of Organization which provides accelerated enforcement."

The mention of having multiple enforcing entities for the ordinance would be in place if one entity is not available for certain project sign-offs, according to the committee.

"I agree with having multiple enforcing entities cause it doesn't make sense if the designee has the approval to start a project but they need me to sign off on it," said Safety Service Director Steve Wetz. "What happens when you only have one person? We're already behind on several projects."

Kathy Davis, from the Storm Water Task Force, was present for the discussion of the appeal process within the Land Development Ordinance along with Law Director Paul Bertram.

They said there needs to be clarification with levels for the process and agreed there will need to be further discussion before the ordinance can be brought to council for approval. Allphin said there should be training for how to comply with the land development ordinance and easy to learn flowcharts for the appeal process.

"I think we just had a breakdown of communication (with the land development ordinance within the city)," Wetz said. "The process is working well and there are a few projects that are getting along due to it."

During the Water and Sewer committee meeting, Wastewater Superintendent Ryan Boley requested replacement of main line CCTV equipment from committee chairman Ben Rutherford.

The equipment checks for issues and makes repairs within sewer lines and has currently reached the end of its functionality, according to Boley. The camera part of the equipment would seek $5,000 for repair or could be traded-in for reimbursement. The whole package for the CCTV equipment is quoted at $110,034 with MTech, and has already been budgeted.

They are also seeking to purchase a backhoe due to their current backhoe needing arm and hydraulic repairs. The Wastewater Department can either pay $30,000 for repair or be given $39,000 to trade-in the old equipment. They have also budgeted $75,000 for the purchase of the backhoe, and currently have a budget breakdown for the next five years.

Boley also approached the committee for a sewer tap application for Blizzard LLC at 27834 State Route 7, which is outside the city limits.

"We are ratifying the application from commercial to industrial and they have already paid a $5,000 fee for the application instead of the $4,000 because they are outside the city limits," Boley said. "We can accept their capacity flow as well and they do have a permit to install from the EPA."

Wetz also commended Boley for taking the recent performance audit to heart and making the suggested adjustments to the Wastewater budget.

"Ryan took the audit seriously and now he's helping us save money," said Wetz. "I commend his work and I think he can be an example for the rest of us on how we should approach our budgeting going forward."

The Lands, Buildings, and Parks briefly discussed the Marietta Aquatic Center and current issues with monetary decisions.

"Mitch (Dimmerling) let me know that for the last two years, the Aquatic Center has not been fruitful and we've lost between $60,000 and $68,000 and he has estimated that we will have $100,000 in losses this year," Wetz said. "The last two years we bid out and had no competition for management and concessions. We found out that Williamstown bid on it only after Pool Management Inc.'s bid won. We're now looking to get out of our contract and possibly get a third party involved. It's a nicety for the community and the pool is in good shape, we don't want to see it go away."

The committee tossed around some ideas about getting a third party involved such as the possibility of signage advertisement like the Beverly pool, a night swim like Williamstown pool, having school communities partner, making a deal with non-profits, have food trucks park in the parking lot and create extra traffic, or have a third party run concessions and management which would in turn make the pool possibly run better according to the committee.

Wetz mentioned they would have to make a decision within a month before they need to buy chemicals for the pool.

The Streets committee also met to discuss the upcoming Civil War Roundtable marker that will be placed at 508 Fourth St. at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Richard Hershey to honor Brig. Gen. Rufus R. and Mary Gates Dawes.

"This is the first time we will have two markers on the same property," said Scott Britton of the Civil War Roundtable and Executive Director of the Castle Museum. "It will look similar to other markers we have put up around the area. We hope it will bring more tourism to the community and we know that folks have been receptive towards the markers. This will be our seventh marker that we have placed."

The Brig. Gen. Rufus R. and Mary Gates Dawes marker will be dedicated around Aug. 3. In addition, the Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dana Fearing marker at 131 Gilman Ave., which was placed during COVID, will be dedicated around May 18.

Gretchen Dowler can be reached at gdowler@newsandsentinel.com