Shelby council addresses safety concerns, advances legislation
During a wide ranging Shelby City Council session, officials delved into ordinances impacting safety and municipal issues while also taking time to celebrate, through a mayoral proclamation, the Whippet basketball team’s Final Four achievement.
The council’s broad agenda underscored a commitment to addressing community concerns ranging from unsafe properties to the dissolution of an obsolete commission.
The April 1 session included the unanimous 5-0 approval of Ordinance No. 2-2024, effectively disbanding the Buildings and Grounds Commission.
The council also passed Ordinance No. 3-2024, concerning the establishment of a zoning classification for the Humphrey annexation property in the city of Shelby.
Shelby City Councilman Charles Roub, in March, had explained the decision by noting the absence of impending infrastructure projects, which previously justified the commission’s existence.
“Basically the commission is no longer needed,” said Roub, who leads the Public Works and General Operations Committee.
However, the core of the council’s discussions revolved around Ordinance No. 6-2024, to demolish two particularly dangerous properties that were described as posing significant risks to the community’s safety.
Joe Gies, representing the city’s administration as project coordinator, brought attention to a fire-damaged house on Powell Street (technically known as 144 Rear Second St.) and a dilapidated property on Oak Street.
He described the properties as eyesores and genuine hazards.
“The property owners have stated they’re just walking away from it,” Gies said of the Powell Street site. “So at this point we have a very dangerous house blowing over into the neighbor’s yards and so forth, and it needs to go
away.”
Gies said no insurance is in place to cover the costs, in response to Councilman Roub’s question.
The city could work with the Richland County Land Bank
“They would take care of it, take care of everything, and then the cost of that would be put on the taxes,” Gies said. “Likely we’re never going to get this money back because they’ll not pay that either, then it’ll get foreclosed on, and then it’ll go to sheriff’s sale. And then we can go from there.”
A separate Oak Street property, as explained by Gies, also represented a long-standing issue with multiple violations, from unattended grass to structural concerns and broken windows, marking it as a priority for the city’s intervention.
“...The homeowner would voluntarily donate this house to the Land Bank,” Gies said. “Normally in those situations, the Land Bank has a lot of grant monies that they could help use to tear this down, but they don’t at this point. So at this point, it would be Shelby paying this. They would just take care of everything for us. I just wanted to be very open on all that.”
Gies outlined a proposal to collaborate with the Richland County Land Reutilization Corporation (Land Bank) for the demolition of these properties, a move that, while potentially costly, was deemed essential for public safety.
Ordinance 6 covers both the Powell and Oak Street sites.
“That would put money into that account, so we could use it for both of those properties,” he said.
Resolution 11-2024 is a companion piece of legislation “declaring the remains of a designated dwelling, 144 Rear Second Street to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property.”
Adopted 5-0, it directs the mayor as director of public safety to enter into a contract with the Richland County Land Reutilization Corporation for its demolition and declaring an emergency.
Councilman Eric Cutlip added his observations to emphasize the urgency of addressing that site, describing it as “pretty much just a pile of rubble for the most part.”
He highlighted the imminent danger to local children who might be drawn to the site, unaware of the risks, “Kids get on there and start playing around on that, they get nails in them,” Cutlip warned, reinforcing the need for swift action to mitigate these dangers.
The council’s proceedings also included addressing amended Ordinance No. 4-2024, a legislative proposal introduced by Councilman Nathan Martin to enact anti-discrimination protections linked to those in the Civil Rights Act.
The ordinance sought to ensure “impermissible expenditures” related to discriminatory activities would not be sanctioned within Shelby, sparking a robust debate among council members and legal advisers.
Despite Martin’s assurance that the ordinance’s language, derived from various think tanks, would stand legal scrutiny, the city’s legal advisers had previously cautioned against its adoption.
At its third reading ahead of its potential passage April 1, Martin moved to postpone the vote to the next meeting to clarify language concerning federal contract compliance.
“In talking back and forth with the administration, there’s questions about whether (a legislative detail) has necessary exemptions,” Martin said. “So we’re just double checking the language, I guess, as we go, with our legal, just to make sure that we’re not running afoul of federal contracts and stuff like that.”
“I want to reiterate, I don’t think we are, but it never hurts to be sure when it comes to this,” said Martin, chairman of council’s Finance and Personnel Committee.
“So I’m honoring the administration’s requests that we postpone until the next meeting,” he said. “So I make a motion to postpone this until the next meeting so we can nail down the language for subsection five just to make sure we’re good.”
Council voted 5-0 to postpone further action, supporting Martin’s request.
In March, Councilman Martin had secured amendments to the proposed ordinance’s language as the legislation moved forward.
Separately, Gies provided updates on ongoing projects.
“On the 29th we opened up our paving bid project,” he told council. “The apparent low bidder was Sarver Paving, $578,292.76.”
“The estimate was $618,000, so it was a good bid,” he added. “We had four bids all under the estimates.”
Also, Shelby’s Seneca Drive sewer project is getting underway with it starting April 1 “so they’ve got that all dug up and are moving along with that,” Gies told council.
City finance director Brian Crum also shared financial updates.
“We received our property tax, our first half property tax today. It’s a little bit above last year, which was kind of what we expected. Nothing spectacular,” he told council.
“We’re not going to be able to build a monument or anything out of the increase, but it’s nice to have that in,” Crum said. “It’s a little bit higher, which helps with our appropriations.”
He also addressed city income tax collections.
“Income tax is actually up about $150,000 this year over last year, which really should not be all that surprising,” Crum said. “Our withholding is now 0.75% higher, and we also, if you guys recall, we signed a contract with the Ohio Attorney General’s office to try and help our collections of past due balances.”
Progress is being shown in that area.
“I want to say it was about $70,000 so far that we’ve brought in through that program, which is fabulous,” Crum detailed. “Those are accounts that we were failing to collect.”
This, however, is described as essentially a “one-time deal.”
“These are our past-due balances from a long time ago,” Crum said. “So I doubt that it will continue to be that high. Once again, I’m grateful for council’s support to do that and especially Liz Fields for spearheading that for the income tax department.”
As a result, it’s not surprising that income tax is up a little bit, council was told.
“It’ll be interesting after April 15th here how things come out because, obviously not all of our income tax collection, but a lot of the filers have paid their taxes this month,” Crum said.
He also provided a reminder.
“We now have two weeks until the tax filing deadline,” Crum said April 1. “So for all the citizens, please bring your W-2s and your federal income tax returns down to City Hall, and our staff will be happy to assist you in filing those (city) returns. And even if you’re going to extend your return, payments are due by April 15th, as well as first quarter estimates. So please don’t forget that.”
In a text message Friday, the city of Shelby reported that the Shelby E-file site on Income Tax website was experiencing technical difficulties.
“Email, fax or mail your returns until it is fixed,” the message stated.
More information on city of Shelby income tax responsibilities are available on the municipal government’s website at https://shelbycity.oh.gov/ finance-income-tax