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The Village of Evendale held a public discussion session prior to the regularly scheduled council meeting of September 20, but no one spoke.

Mayor Apking asked for a motion to remove the proclamation proclaiming October 3, 2007 as 4-H Progressive Club Day from the agenda since it will be read the night of October 3. It was unanimously approved.

Aaron Mackey, Superintendent of Princeton City Schools, Fred Penzinger from Princeton City Schools and Tom Lindsey from Cole and Russell Architects were present. First Mr. Mackey presented statistics on performance indicators showing the percentage of performance indicators that were met consistently over the past few years. The performance index is 98.1, just 1.9 short of the rating of Excellent by the state. He also mentioned that the graduation rate has soared to 96.3% at Princeton High School. Mr. Mackey asked Council to support legislation to replace loss from state elimination of Tangible Personal Property Taxes, a loss of about $24 million/year to Princeton.

Seven of the eight new elementary schools are now open with the last one, Heritage Hill scheduled to open in 2008. He expressed the need for a new Princeton Middle School and High School because the buildings are fifty years old with poor air quality and safety and security issues and high maintenance expenditures. The HVAC systems are in constant state of repair causing a huge drain on the operation budget. Temperatures in the buildings can range from 60-95 degrees. The proposed plan is to simultaneously build both the middle and high schools. They would be one facility with shared use of gyms and auditoriums yet separated from one another. The middle school would open in 2011 and the high school would open in 2013. The bond levy if passed in March 2008 would add $166/year for $100,000 home.

Enrollment is up at Glendale, Stewart Elementary and Evendale Elementary this year. Mayor Apking said that property values increase with new schools and said that the new Evendale Elementary school is a state of the art school and Principal Robyn Wiley has done an outstanding job. There will be a ribbon cutting and open house on Sunday, September 30 beginning at 1:00 pm at the new Evendale Elementary School. All are welcome. Mayor Apking also mentioned that Steve Moore, an Evendale resident, is running for the Princeton School Board in the November election. There are five people running for three spots. Mr. Mackey thanked Mayor Apking and Council for their support.

Doug Lohmeier gave the Recreation Commission Report. The pool is closed for the season, Halloween Fest is October 21. Residents can sign up at the Recreation Department. The Adult Services Adult Halloween Party is October 13.

Mr. Schaefer gave the Fire, Engineer, Service Department, Gorman Farm Committee Report. He stated that an update on the ongoing projects is outlined in the minutes from their committee meeting that were distributed to council.  

Vicki Foster, Gorman Farm Marketing and Special Event Manager announced that on Saturday, September 22 the commemorative marker from the St. Clair Chapter of the Daughters of the American Colonists was placed at the farm with an unveiling ceremony at 10:30 am.

September 29 is the Great Outdoor weekend. There are various activities around the city such as geology, tree climbing, astrology and they are all free at several different locations. Go to www.
cincygreatoutdoorweekend.org for more information.

October 5 is the Sunflower Gala catered by LaPetite France. The first ten tables of eight to sign up will receive a free wine and cheese hayride. October 6-7 is the Sunflower Festival from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm with musicians, equestrian training demos, storytelling, corn maze and pumpkin patch. Over 600 drawings of sunflowers from schools who have visited the farm will be on display. Jane Stotts will be available to sign copies of her book that outlines the history of Gorman Heritage Farm.

Mayor Apking mentioned that the Neighbor to Neighbor picnic in Lincoln Heights Elementary School is scheduled for September 30 which is the same day as the Ribbon Cutting at Evendale Elementary. The number of people attending Neighbor to Neighbor has increased consistently over the past few years.

Mayor Apking asked that Council approve the expense of $24,000 to tear down the all brick homes on the Inwood and Reading Road properties. The Church property will be torn down entirely by the Village Fire and Service Departments because there is no basement and it is all wood and will burn easily. They will amend appropriation ordinance on the agenda this month for $33,000 for the demolition of all three properties. Council approved amending the appropriation ordinance.

He also discussed the lighting at the Glendale Milford and Reading Road intersection. Evendale will receive state grant money for traffic lights at this intersection. They would be on galvanized poles. If the village wants to upgrade the poles to match the new street signs and to be uniform with the entire Village it would need to spend $50,000-$60,000 to upgrade the poles. This is the center of the Village and it should be done right. Mr. Albrinck agreed that we should do it right and spend the extra money.

The curbs on Lamarc Trail and Otterbein Road will be replaced. They have the first coat of asphalt down and Adleta will be back on Monday, September 24 and start the curb work. These streets are being done in an effort to upgrade the infrastructure. It is less costly to maintain asphalt streets than it is to maintain concrete streets and we have the money now to replace and reconstruct the streets.

There was discussion on the Civic Center Building. Twenty percent of the total cost would go into handicap accessibility in bathrooms, etc. Fire doors would need to be installed as well and $90,000 to $100,000 would be required for Phase 1. The Village would then evaluate in 2008-09 and stop the update if there is not enough participation as anticipated. If there is enough participation then it would spend $150,000 to $200,000 for elevators and $75,000 to upgrade gyms and other rooms. Mrs. Smiley-Robertson wanted to know what the total cost would be. She said that the cost would be at least $500,000 and potentially $1 million for complete renovation. She also was concerned with what criteria will be used to evaluate success. Mayor Apking said if programs only have five people it is not successful. Ten to fifteen persons would be successful and thirty to forty would be very successful. The Cultural Arts Commission would be the best ones to evaluate this.

Mr. Lohmeier suggested that the village rent space to develop the programs and see if they are successful before be consider renovation of the Civic Center. Mayor Apking said that the Recreation Department could utilize some of the renovated space in the Civic Center. Mr. Albrinck said that he is not so much concerned with spending $100,000 to launch the programs as much as he wants to ensure that there are multiple uses for the space if the programs are not successful. He suggested comparing new construction with renovating a 100 year old building to ensure that they use the money wisely and appropriately. James Jeffers confirmed that the cost to demolish the civic center would be approximately $150,000 to $200,000 dollars. $100,000 will be appropriated in October for Civic Center renovation.

Mayor Apking said that he envisions an open air facility or shelter house on the parsonage property for rental to residents similar to Reading’s Vorhees Park. It would include a shelter with plumbing that could be utilized by patrons of the pavilion concerts as well.

Jack Cameron said that the residents have offered feedback on the color of street signs and Blue received 35 votes, Green – 27 votes and Black – 26 votes. Mayor Apking asked the Fire-Engineering-Service- GHF Council Committee to check into the cost per pole for new street signs if they are all installed in house. The Mayor also wants the light poles in the Village to be maintained internally to cut the $100,000 paid to Duke Energy yearly for maintenance on the lights. Mr. Albrinck asked the committee to also pick the color for the street signs. James Jeffers said that any color picked would have reflective materials used just like the highway signs you see that are brown, blue and green. All colors would be easy to read because of the reflective material as seen on the highway signs.

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