[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:12] I'd like to call the Monday, September 14th, 2026, Oakwood City Council meeting to order, would you please rise and join me with the pledge to the flag.
[0:25] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which
[0:31] it stands.
[0:32] My nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[0:42] May I have a roll call, please, Lori?
[0:44] Mayor Duncan.
[0:45] Here.
[0:45] Vice Mayor Buyington.
[0:46] Mrs. Turbin.
[0:47] Here.
[0:48] Mrs. Jackson.
[0:49] Mr. Doris.
[0:51] And may I have a report on our August on the minutes of our August third
[0:56] regular session and work session and our August 17 work session council member Dorf. Thank you
[1:03] Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I reviewed the minutes of the August 3rd regular session work session and the August 17th work session
[1:10] But if you mind your corrections, I recommend that we approve those minutes today. Do we have a second?
[1:16] Second all those in favor signify the saying aye. Aye. Thank you. So ordered
[1:21] Under status reports, we have no status reports this evening.
[1:28] So we will go immediately to the business portion of our meeting.
[1:32] If anyone here wishes to address council, this would be the time for you to,
[1:38] excuse me, come down to the podium,
[1:40] states your name and address for the record.
[1:43] We have approximately a three minute limit,
[1:47] and I will use my discretion.
[1:50] You know, on enforcing, on enforcing that, and so please come down and again state your name for the record, and we welcome you.
[1:59] Because I have to announce for two people two groups. My name is Karen Bartley. I live at 1-2-9, Oak, and all, drive.
[2:07] I'm representing the Oakwood Historical Society, as well as the Shops of Oakwood.
[2:11] We are joining together to announce an event called the Fall Stroll through Oakwood, which will happen on October 3rd.
[2:19] The shops of Oakwood include Park Avenue businesses and the business area from Ptorchard all the way to Dorothy Lane Market and we're trying to get all those groups involved
[2:30] It just so happens at the Circle Society at one 947 far hills this halfway in between and normally the historical society has their event called
[2:42] classics on the lawn which is a car show in August on a Sunday and this year we decided
[2:48] to have it a little bit later and when we found out about this event we thought we'll have it
[2:53] on the same day and people could stroll from one end of town to the other. It's only one mile
[2:58] between the two business districts all the way to DLM so that would be a fun thing for people to do.
[3:05] In addition to seeing cars at the long-romb sport museum, we will also have food trucks,
[3:13] activities on the sidewalks.
[3:15] In fact, if anybody knows a good food truck, we'd like another one.
[3:19] We have only one right now.
[3:21] At Jaffee Jewelers are going to have motorcycles, all different kinds of motorcycles that people
[3:26] can come and share their own and look at the ones that Jim Grant has.
[3:31] We're going to have activities for children and a lot of other things, and so it's a Saturday
[3:37] You can come to the event anytime during business hours and you'll be seeing these kind of signs look at the two-sided
[3:47] So these around town. So October 3rd all day long. Thank you very much. Thank you
[3:57] Can I just say that Karen maybe people don't know Karen is a committed walker and so our committed
[4:04] stroller I would say so I think it's very fitting that you share this information with us.
[4:11] Well and I think last year nine a gave us like a flyer for what you guys what the business
[4:18] restricted in December we're happy to cross from on our website so if you want to share that with us
[4:23] we're happy to put it on the city's website and Facebook as well.
[4:32] Thank you for your comments and Saturday, October 3rd, correct?
[4:38] Okay, make sure the people at home know the date and time.
[4:42] Thank you.
[4:43] Okay.
[4:45] Anyone else wish to address Council?
[4:48] Again, state your name and address for the record and we welcome you.
[4:50] This is my first city council meeting.
[4:53] Very exciting.
[4:54] Yeah, there's a couple things that have brought me here.
[4:57] One, I know you are all concerned with.
[4:59] I remember hearing you all talking about it during the last election cycle about businesses
[5:04] just leaving town.
[5:07] The recent news that graders is going elsewhere is heartbreaking to most of us.
[5:12] I live on Triangle.
[5:13] I can walk there in a block, but we're losing them.
[5:18] We're losing, I've been a patient at Orion Physical Therapy for years and years, they're leaving
[5:25] as well.
[5:25] Now that's sugar camp, which I understand is still equivalent.
[5:28] So what I want to know is what can we do to keep businesses here in town, especially something like, I mean,
[5:36] creators is a well-loved community business.
[5:41] We look across the street from creators.
[5:43] We see empty empty empty empty empty empty empty.
[5:44] I mean, we used to love to go to fly boys sit on the roof.
[5:48] It was so fun.
[5:49] That hasn't been filled.
[5:52] The barbershop, all that stuff that was,
[5:54] So I'm concerned about that and I'm wondering if anybody else here is concerned about the recent floods and so forth
[6:03] So that's my other issue, but I'll just be quiet because right now. I want yeah
[6:08] I don't know that's just my concern. I don't know when I speak to you folks. Are you going to say hey Pam
[6:13] This is what we're doing about those things, but if you want just tell you my concerns
[6:18] And I leave it with you
[6:20] That would be fine. We are planning. We are planning on having an update on business district here as
[6:27] Carter. Can you see that again? We are planning on doing an update regarding what's going on in the business district.
[6:33] We can several of our council members and our city manager. And that's going to happen later on in the meeting.
[6:39] It requires you to stay till the end of the meeting. Or you can go home and watch it on the cable channel.
[6:45] The news was quite shocking in my neighborhood, so anyway, thanks for listening.
[6:52] You're quite welcome as, as, was it, Yogi Barra, Casey Stangel, said, it's not over until it's over.
[7:01] Yogi Barra.
[7:02] Yogi Barra.
[7:03] Thank you.
[7:04] And again, take your name and address for the record and we welcome you as well.
[7:08] Certainly.
[7:09] Hey, great to meet you guys. My name is Michael Lopez. I'm at 704, Harmon Avenue. I moved into Oakwood about two years ago
[7:16] And I'm coming in with my concern that over the last six months, I've seen eight flop cameras come up into Oakwood
[7:23] One's on private property with seven or not on private property. And I'm just curious where the contract is is that with
[7:30] But the police department is there a use of privacy policy as we've seen the flock cameras or I should say, automatic license plate readers, because while all of ours are owned by the flock company, they do make other brands.
[7:44] So to be PC and automatic license plate reader, one is right next to graders kind of pointed north as you drive pass graders.
[7:53] So I'm just curious if we know what law enforcement agencies are allowed to access the data from the camera readers in Oakwood
[8:02] Is it being shared with other outside entities like the insurance companies because I certainly don't want insurance companies knowing every time I go to Ben and Jerry's
[8:10] Because the other one is over the post office as you drive by Ben and Jerry's and I just knowing that the city of Dayton has had huge issues with their flock readers
[8:20] What are we doing about our flock readers?
[8:23] That was my concern.
[8:24] Thank you.
[8:25] Thank you.
[8:26] We will counsel as aware of this issue.
[8:30] We are aware of all the pros and cons.
[8:33] And we are currently dealing with that with our public safety officers.
[8:38] They're the only ones responsible for accessing that information.
[8:42] We share it with other law enforcement agencies.
[8:44] We do not share it with ICE.
[8:47] Some of us think we should share it with ICE.
[8:49] we will we'll leave that to another day but we're taking a look at that issue and
[8:56] that's something that one council does there budget retreat which is coming up
[8:59] in October or November in November that's going to be one of the items that we
[9:05] talk about so we appreciate your comments on that and more to come on that as
[9:10] well thank you anyone else wish to address council welcome again state your name
[9:18] address for a record.
[9:21] Hi, my name is Emily Beginski. I live at 348 Monterey Avenue and I'm one
[9:25] of the many houses impacted by the sewage flooding of our basements. If you know a photo
[9:31] of our own, I had about a foot of sewage water in my basement. I'm out thousands of dollars
[9:36] had to throw away memories, had to throw away lots of things. And I just, I've heard very little
[9:41] from the city about the situation, about about what's being done, about what's being offered,
[9:48] about what's being done to ensure this does not happen again, because before I go through the expensive
[9:53] process of trying to replace items and trying to replace memories, what I had, I know this is not
[9:59] going to happen again. I just I felt very let down by the lack of response from the city government,
[10:06] and I would just like to hear an update on that and like to hear more about what you guys are doing
[10:11] for us. Thank you. Thank you. The event in question happened on the night where we received
[10:21] 4.2 inches of rain, which was pretty much unprecedented. The 10 days prior to that,
[10:28] we received 11 inches of rain cumatively. The people that have called and indicated that they had
[10:36] issue with this. We're looking at each one of those cases and are trying to determine if it was
[10:43] anything related to a sewer blockage or a storm water blockage in Oakwood and we're going through
[10:49] those one at a time. Do you have anything else you'd like to add to that?
[10:52] I do know that we have about 90 homes that not necessarily was sewage backup but either had some sort
[10:58] of water in the basement or a sewer backup or a clean.
[11:04] So if you want to email me with your contact information,
[11:08] I'll make sure that somebody reaches out to you
[11:10] because the sewer backups are eligible to go through
[11:13] our Highland, our insurance company.
[11:15] So that information should have been provided to you.
[11:18] So if you want to email me, Katie Smithy,
[11:21] I'm happy that they get that information over to public works
[11:24] and get you and talk to them, who can get you
[11:27] and touch with our insurance company.
[11:30] I know I had water in my basement not as much as yours and it was storm water and not sewer.
[11:37] So I feel like I'm rather fortunate, but that's something that we are looking at to determine.
[11:49] Yeah, please reach out to our city and we can take a look at that.
[11:53] I'm sorry, I'm curious.
[11:55] Did you reach out to the city and have specific people at city tell you that they?
[12:40] Our city manager, I, we went this week to a regional mayor's manager's meeting and this
[12:47] problem isn't unique to Oakwood. My name is Bird, West Carrollton. Both had some significant
[12:52] damage. You probably seen the Facebook and Kettering where the water came busting through there,
[13:00] they're ground floor. So it was a rather unprecedented storm, but we're going to take a look at
[13:06] issues and determine what if anything we need to do. Anybody also is to address
[13:13] Council. Yes. Again, state your name and address for the record and welcome.
[13:17] Hi. Kelly Deal, 344 Monterey Avenue. Also, a victim of the sewer. I live right next
[13:27] door to Emily. Okay. What was your name again? Kelly Deal. Like, let's make a deal.
[13:33] Okay, do you guys know the property 1313 for Hills Avenue that Oakwood bought my mom and dad that there's it's the 90's so that was our home?
[13:45] So that house Oakwood bought that partly because of the sewer issue because underneath that home was something that they needed to do.
[13:54] Now, their home had this sewer backup.
[13:56] So it's not just this random thing that happened.
[14:00] They had sewage backup often at that location.
[14:05] One thing, so that is a weird thing storm that happened.
[14:09] But it's two things that's not unique because, like I said,
[14:13] that happened at my mom and dad's house.
[14:15] Also, with climate change, if you believe in it,
[14:19] there are strange things or happening,
[14:21] and whether is strange, and I expect we're going to get more
[14:25] schools and weird events happening,
[14:28] whether why, as I think.
[14:30] So what I would like to propose, if I could, because I had
[14:33] sewage, Belfer cleaning came in and disinfected
[14:38] and cleaned everything for me.
[14:39] You cost $6,700 to do that.
[14:42] I worked with my insurance company.
[14:44] So I've got that open and happening.
[14:46] I also lost a washer and dryer.
[14:48] So I'm almost 10 grand, by the time everything is done.
[14:55] So one of the things, one of the fixes that I have a pretty dry basement, one of the fixes...
[15:00] Is that a backflow valve? You guys heard of that? Okay. So I'm going to be getting that through correct plumbing. So I'm doing all, you know, I'm doing all the right stuff.
[15:12] I'm got insurance, getting the plumber, getting all these people. But what I would like, especially my history with Oakwood, knowing that this is a thing and looking forward to the future.
[15:23] Like, if this is a problem, I know it's impossible for Oakwood to redo their sewer system.
[15:29] It's not going to happen.
[15:30] I understand that.
[15:32] But if you, if it is a way that Oakwood could contract with some plumbers, local plumbers,
[15:42] and say, hey, Oakwood residents, how about 20% off or will match you some funds, or you can
[15:49] a tax deduction of some sort.
[15:54] I think that is something that needs to be thought about.
[15:56] Some sort of money towards that for the fix. What happens already happened? But for the future,
[16:06] I think it's important to help us help ourselves. And it would like, like Emily was talking
[16:11] about, we would feel better. Nobody contacted me. I did call. And they said, talk to your
[16:15] conference company that they'll go through you guys is that right yeah so we
[16:23] basically give you our insurance information to talk with them to work out the
[16:28] clean between you and our insurance company okay I did call nobody said hey here's
[16:34] the email have your insurance company email this so you use that something about an
[16:40] email yeah if you want to email me your contact information I'll get with our
[16:44] I'd love to email you. Is that on the site or where you have to do it on our website?
[16:48] It's on the website. Can you tell me what that website is?
[16:52] Just the city of Ewoodwood.
[16:54] And you're Katie Smitty.
[16:56] Shitty of Oakwood.
[16:57] It's just right this down.
[16:59] We'll this over here.
[17:00] I don't know how to do it.
[17:01] Dot G-O-V.
[17:03] Oakwood-O-I-O.
[17:04] Dot G-O-V.
[17:07] I mean, it's a government deal, though.
[17:10] It's like you said G-O-D.
[17:12] Okay.
[17:12] It's not yet.
[17:14] We're not that far.
[17:16] Okay.
[17:17] Did we cover everything?
[17:19] Okay.
[17:20] Thank you.
[17:20] Thank you for your comments.
[17:23] And again, if you know any other folks that, you know, had similar situations and haven't
[17:27] reached out to the city, please encourage them to do the same.
[17:32] Anyone else wish to address City Council at this time?
[17:42] Hearing that?
[17:45] Yeah.
[17:46] Yes it is.
[17:47] But I know you're name and address.
[17:49] Please tell please let Lori know that. My name is Pam Badee. Pam Badee. I live at 2016 triangle. I did think I mentioned that because we're down the street.
[18:00] Yes. Thank you. Your daughter grew up in my basement. Your daughter grew up in my basement.
[18:06] All
[18:09] right. Well with that we will close the visitor portion of our meeting and we will go to legislation and Vice Mayor Biden has an ordinance.
[18:19] Yes, Your Honor, this is an ordinance to enact new section 145.10 contract provisions of the
[18:27] Oakwood Administrative Code to prohibit the inclusion of certain terms in the city's public contracts.
[18:33] This is an actually a second reading of an addition to the city's purchasing ordinance.
[18:37] It was introduced at our August 3rd meeting.
[18:40] Currently, Ohio law prohibits municipalities from signing certain contract terms that are otherwise
[18:46] common in the private sector. For example, cities are not allowed to agree to identify
[18:51] another party and they are not allowed to sign a contract that imposes a confidential
[18:56] reality requirement that violates the Ohio Public Records Act.
[19:01] Most contractors understand these requirements and take these terms out when they are
[19:04] dealing with a public entity. But sometimes contractors who work on a national or global
[19:09] scale are unwilling to amend their form documents to comply with Ohio law. The law director
[19:14] here at Oakwood is recommended that we update our purchasing ordinance to prohibit these
[19:19] unlawful contract terms ensuring the city is not bound by provisions that a contractor
[19:24] may refuse to delete. This is the second reading of this ordinance and I would move the
[19:28] Council adopted this evening. Do we have a second?
[19:32] Second. Does anyone have any questions or comments for Vice Mayor Buyington?
[19:38] Hearing none, Laurie, would you please call the roll?
[19:40] Mayor Duncan. Yes. Vice Mayor Buyington. Yes. Mrs. Turban. Yes. Mrs. Jackson. Yes. Mr. Dwarf. Yes.
[19:48] And that concludes our legislation this evening. So we will now go to our city manager report.
[19:55] Thank you, Mayor. First I want to recognize our public works employees for the response of the significant storm that occurred.
[20:03] and impacted Oakland over the Labor Day weekend.
[20:07] Public works initially focused on cleaning up and addressing immediate safety concerns
[20:11] and now have transitioned to significant amount of storm debris throughout the community.
[20:16] So we currently have three crews dedicated to storm debris collection,
[20:20] and they are working systematically throughout the city.
[20:23] Due to the volume of material, our regularly scheduled September debris pickup has been suspended.
[20:28] So those resources can remain focused on storm cleanup.
[20:32] Residents should place storm-related debris in the tree lawn or grass area adjacent to the
[20:37] curb and not in the street. Crews will make one pass through each area so we're asking residents
[20:42] to have their storm debris out as soon as possible and regular monthly debris collection will
[20:47] resume with the October schedule.
[20:51] The safety department recently took delivery of a second Chevy
[20:55] Blazer EV and a new detective vehicle. These vehicles replace a 2018 marked patrol vehicle
[21:01] and a 2018 unmarked vehicle respectively, and we're purchased using seized federal forefinger funds.
[21:09] The Blazer EV will be updated over the next several weeks before being placed into service
[21:13] as a day shift patrol vehicle. These purchases allow us to continue modernizing
[21:18] our public safety fleet while also supporting the city's sustainability efforts.
[21:25] We are also continuing our discussions with Oakwood United regarding the condition and future
[21:29] maintenance of the athletic fields at Old River.
[21:32] Staff recently met with representatives from Oakwood United
[21:35] and were continuing to evaluate several potential approaches,
[21:38] ranging from maintenance improvement to more significant
[21:40] long-term investment in the complex.
[21:43] We will bring additional information back to council
[21:45] as that work progresses.
[21:47] In on a lighter note, Gardner Pool has hosted
[21:50] our annual dogs' flash following the close
[21:52] of the regular pool season yesterday afternoon.
[21:56] We had 20 dogs register for this year's event
[21:59] and it was a fun way to wrap up another successful season at Gardner Pool.
[22:03] This event also received quite a bit of media attention with coverage from the date daily
[22:06] news, WDKN channel to NBCC and the Oakwood Register.
[22:11] Thank you to our Parks and Recreation staff for putting together another great community event
[22:15] and to everyone who came out with their forward-like family members.
[22:18] That concludes my report.
[22:20] Does anyone have any questions for the Amanda Smitty?
[22:24] All right.
[22:25] Thank you for that report.
[22:28] We will now go to...
[22:30] Do council comment, council member door? Oh, aye, aye. Well, things. I want to echo the thanks to our public works staff who've been working tirelessly.
[22:41] I have two other topics I wanted to bring up. One was two weeks ago, I attended the six triple eight kitchens from scratch food summit. This was a great showcase of food entrepreneurs and food startups.
[22:54] I got to reconnect with some regional food and beverage leaders, meet new folks, or looking
[22:59] to launch their business right here at Oakwood.
[23:01] We're talking about vacancies this week if you want to join me.
[23:06] You can see me popping in and out of the launch date and start up week programming, which
[23:10] will also be at the Hub.
[23:12] I believe strongly that supporting Oakwood's business community requires not only supporting
[23:17] the current businesses but also nurturing the future businesses that we want to call Oakwood.
[23:24] So this week I'm really excited to meet entrepreneurs and make sure they know that Oakwood is open for business, and I'll also probably see you on October 3rd as well.
[23:35] The second issue is just some thoughts. City leaders I think we have a responsibility to ensure that the city of Oakwood is a safe and welcoming community for everyone who lives, works, shops,
[23:46] learns our travels in our city.
[23:49] It's an idea I just want to affirm that I am committed to being a welcoming community,
[23:53] that discrimination of any kind is not compatible with who we are.
[23:58] I recently talked with a colleague, Lauren Kauai, of the Oakwood City School Board,
[24:03] and we share this affirmation. She's speaking probably right now that the school board meeting.
[24:08] And I share this and we share this together because rates of hate are stubbornly high in our region.
[24:14] Ohio is above average, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer database, with 287 bias offenses in the state so far this year.
[24:24] And it's critical that we work together as a community, not the city alone, not the schools alone, not the library alone.
[24:31] But we must work together, not only to affirm our values, but to meet our shared goals.
[24:36] And so I think it's easy to condemn things, but it's hard to think about what to do.
[24:42] So I wanted to offer three suggestions of things that we can do as a community.
[24:47] One is to attend OIC, that's the Oak Inclusion Coalition sponsored events.
[24:52] You can go to their website and find events that you can learn about, where you can show up.
[24:57] The second is to learn about upstander programs, a program designed to help community stand up against bullying and bias that
[25:05] that helps you prevent being just a bystander and watching it passively, and the last is
[25:11] encouraging everyone to talk to their kids, talk to their parents about these incidents because
[25:16] we cannot let these incidents just go by without acknowledgement or response so that when you
[25:23] see something, you say something.
[25:26] Thank you, Council Member Jackson. Thank you, Mayor.
[25:29] At our January 5th, 2025 council meeting, the council adopted a resolution supporting the Ohio Commission for the United States to America to 50 celebration.
[25:42] And the Commission was tasked with coordinating programs, projects, and events throughout the year and throughout the state.
[25:50] I just want to recognize, and to thank, the Open Historical Society and the Library who have really taken the lead in our community to coordinate these events.
[26:06] Some of the things that the Open Historical Society has done just to recap is they have a tree planting mayor you were there.
[26:13] as a family party featuring a revolutionary ban, participation in that day in May in costume,
[26:21] of the revolutionary times, and several lectures that have enriched our community.
[26:29] So I want just to express a heartfelt thanks to all the board members, particularly, of the Oakwood Historical Society.
[26:38] On a different note, if Chief Hill were here tonight, I'd have to ask him whether he received
[26:47] any calls from U.D. students reporting unreasonable noise disturbances coming from the
[26:54] Volugia block party.
[26:57] The organizers went all in, renting an inflatable outdoor movie screen that stretched the
[27:04] of the street for viewing the Ohio State Games.
[27:08] It was so massive.
[27:10] It made the road closure a barricade
[27:12] that the city provides looked like crops
[27:15] from a miniature construction site.
[27:18] They weren't needed.
[27:18] No car was going to get through that.
[27:20] They liked writing.
[27:21] So the entertainment lineup included two inflatables,
[27:25] a bounce house for the preschool crowd
[27:27] and a giant inflatable obstacle course
[27:30] for the future athletes.
[27:31] So, congratulations to Amanda Cross for organizing a fantastic turnout when the fire
[27:38] engine and I arrived at 630, the party was going strong, but I suspect that the crowd,
[27:45] the volume, and the buck-eye spirit only grew as Ohio State battled it out on the field.
[27:52] And as word gets around, I suspect property values on the Lucia, around the way up.
[27:59] That's all I have Mayor.
[28:01] And what was the score of that Ohio State game?
[28:04] All I could say is it was after 11 o'clock when it ended.
[28:08] But I just say, come to the back.
[28:11] All right, as I say, thank you for a full report.
[28:14] All right, Councilmember Turbin.
[28:16] Yes.
[28:17] Thank you, Mayor.
[28:18] Well, I wanted to give an update on the business districts.
[28:22] As payment indicated, I'm sure most of us have heard that
[28:25] is considering moving to another location.
[28:30] They have not made a decision yet.
[28:32] And you should know that the city has been in communication
[28:35] with greater retail broker for several months.
[28:39] So this has been going on for a while.
[28:41] And again, decision has not made,
[28:44] but I also heard they may be looking at
[28:45] another location here in Oakwood.
[28:48] So this is yet to be determined.
[28:51] So just stay tuned for more on that.
[28:54] You know, and sometimes it's really easy to focus on the negative, but honestly, there are a lot of good business things happening in our town.
[29:03] You know, the last Friday, the Shops of Awong Park had party on park.
[29:09] You heard Karen talk about the, the auger.
[29:12] I'm sorry, the October 3rd stroll through Oakwood, where they're going to have food trucks and entertainment and sidewalk sales.
[29:22] And as well, our retail district in Far Hills has brought on several new businesses.
[29:29] I was at the Hay Neighbor Market, Grand Opening on Saturday at Marolona, and she had the
[29:36] grand opening, and she's bringing heirloom quality clothing to Oakwood, and the owner's name
[29:43] is Caitlin Benton, and then we have Dayton Powder Browse, which is a permanent makeup studio,
[29:50] and they're moving into where Baha Reza is. In fact the owner shud shud shud shud
[29:57] shud shud shud shud shud shud shud.
[30:00] The Americans started her career on that location, so she's really excited about coming back. They're relocating it and they will be opening up soon.
[30:09] We have a youth driving school that opened in the 2533 Farhills Avenue, which I affectionately call the Sherman Barbershop Building.
[30:18] And I'm delighted to report that Marissa Ford and her husband, who live in Oakwood, purchased the Indy West Building, and there's now mindful movement Pilates.
[30:28] And then to complement her Pilate studio, along triangle, there are four other spaces in her building,
[30:37] and she has leased them to health professionals.
[30:40] So she has a physical therapist, a massage therapist, two estheticians coming in,
[30:46] and so that'll kind of complete her wellness boutique idea for Oakwood.
[30:51] And of course, we can't forget the very fashionable and ever popular swoon books and wine,
[30:56] which is just such a hit.
[30:59] It was the brainchild of our own Lindsay Wagner,
[31:02] who is the owner of Mara Luna, and Lauren Gay,
[31:06] and she's a certified Somalay,
[31:09] and the owner of a Juit wine in Dayton.
[31:12] So Swan has already become a great meeting place
[31:16] for us here in Oakwood.
[31:18] And while these aren't typical stores,
[31:20] the one thing they do is that they provide something
[31:23] that you can't get online.
[31:25] And so it makes people come in to Oakland and to shop and isn't that what we're really all looking for.
[31:32] And so please welcome these new businesses into Oakland and shop local.
[31:37] Thank you.
[31:39] Thank you, Lee.
[31:40] Vice Mayor Biden.
[31:42] Yeah, hopefully mine will be the same type of comments.
[31:46] One, I'd just like to reiterate Mr. Dorf's comments about our public service folks who are out there doing
[31:55] young ones work with all of the different branches and trees and all of the different things
[32:01] that are out there, they are working virtually around the clock to make sure that Oakwood
[32:08] is clean, safe, and the way that we would like it to be. The other thing I wanted to mention
[32:15] is I just wanted to say thank you to the folks who came to this meeting this evening to talk
[32:20] about issues, what I'd like, more of the reason I ask the question about how was your interaction
[32:28] with folks from the city is because, you know, as a representative of the city and my
[32:36] constituents, I want to make sure that you feel comfortable going to our city staff and asking
[32:42] them questions. I mean, it's fantastic when people show up for these meetings, but you know,
[32:47] would really like it if you had that comfort level of feeling like you could just come to
[32:52] the city building at any time and ask to meet with whoever might be the engineering
[32:57] department, Katie or so, for whoever it might be, you know, we want to make sure that this
[33:05] city is one that is interacting with our citizens and providing the level of service that you
[33:10] expect. You know, that is my sole reason for being on city councils, making sure that we
[33:16] the right staff here to provide the services that I know that we were capable of providing.
[33:23] So if you feel like you're having issues with not getting enough information or those type of things,
[33:29] please do come to these meetings, but please also make the effort to reach out,
[33:34] check out our website, come and set up a meeting, or all of our email addresses and our phone numbers are on the website.
[33:42] We would prefer to have a dialogue, you know, these meetings are, you know, for the most part it's a meeting and, you know, there's parliamentary procedures and that type of thing.
[33:51] I would much rather have a dialogue with somebody and say, hey, what's going on?
[33:55] How is it that we can provide the services to you?
[33:58] So I really hope that you take away the fact that we're trying to do the best that we can.
[34:04] We're all, you know, professionals here and we're all trying to make sure that you're getting the level of service that, you know, you expect in the City of Oakwood.
[34:15] So please come to these meetings with much of you. You want to, but also please reach out to our staff and we're to us so that we can have individual dialogues with everybody.
[34:25] Thank you. I would also like to echo the other members of Council on their comments tonight.
[34:35] We had 70 mile an hour straight line winds come through a good on that Labor Day weekend.
[34:40] I talked to many people in Catering and Centerville that didn't even know we had a storm,
[34:45] much less debris that rivaled that hurricane hike back in 2008.
[34:52] I had lost power for 24 hours.
[34:54] Some people lost it for a day and a half.
[34:58] And I remember back when I happened, some people lost power in Oakwood for 10 days.
[35:05] I also learned back in 2008 that the difference between civilization and an anarchy is 72 hours without electricity, water, water, water, yes, and so the staff, you know, doing their work in this cleanup mode, you know, is outstanding and I think that
[35:29] I want to also point out that we get little giddy males from Oakwood residents and normally
[35:39] we rely on our city manager to have an initial response to those people and I want to make
[35:45] a personal comment to Katie that sometimes when I read these emails you know I get
[35:52] and I am not the person that should be the initial responder, but Katie does an outstanding job of responding to our citizens understanding what their concerns are, explaining to you, explaining to them where we are in that process, and she's very empathetic, and I don't use that word often.
[36:16] But I want to just thank the staff for everything that they're doing.
[36:23] And one other thing, you know, we'll talk about this more next month, but we put something
[36:28] out on Facebook talking about a property tax renewal level that we have coming up in November.
[36:35] It does not increase taxes.
[36:38] It's been renewed since 1991, every five years, because we like our citizens to have an
[36:43] to use a vote on the taxes that they used to want to pay for all of our excellent city
[36:48] services and there were immediately to totally false posts that say, well, because of this
[36:54] revaluation, it's absolutely going to increase taxes. Nothing can be farther from the
[36:59] truth. We'll talk more about that next month. And so, excuse me. And so, that concludes
[37:08] my council comments and our next meeting is going to be on Monday, October 5th, it's coming
[37:14] up. So hopefully you all can come back and visit with us because we enjoy it when we have
[37:19] we have actually constituents in the meeting. We are adjourned.