City manager details snow response, staffing gap and community events; council schedules zoning public-input session

During the Jan. 7 meeting Scott Bauer, the city manager, summarized municipal snow-removal efforts, personnel matters and upcoming community events and requested council action to schedule a public input meeting on zoning updates.

Bauer described heavy snow operations in which the fire chief, police, public works and contracted drivers assisted to keep roads drivable and asked residents to "be patient" while crews finished cleanup. He noted that some staff (including the fire chief) were engaged in snow operations and unable to attend the meeting. "Let's be patient," Bauer said about allowing crews time to let salt work and finish plowing.

Bauer announced that Bill Knight, who handled property-maintenance duties, left his role effective in 2025 and that the city is currently without a dedicated property-maintenance official; the manager said options under consideration include hiring part-time or full-time staff, using public works for inspections, or training police and fire personnel. He also noted a $50,000 grant that may help support the position.

Bauer said he signed an electrical aggregation agreement and expected a new aggregated rate to take effect in April; he reported that the agreement preserved net metering protections but provided only approximate rate figures during the meeting.

He announced a tree-pruning class with the Department of Natural Resources on Jan. 17 from 12:30 p.m. to about 2:30 p.m. in the council chamber and that two consultants (Human Nature and Yard and Company) who completed assessments for Hamilton Avenue would present recommendations in a joint meeting on Feb. 4 following council.

On zoning, Bauer requested—and the council scheduled—a public input session to precede the Jan. 21 council meeting (discussed as starting at 7 p.m.; there was some on-record confusion about 6 p.m. versus first business at 7 p.m.). The session will cover proposed zoning-code clarifications, including replacing references to Hamilton County with Mount Healthy in inspection language and cleaning up daycare definitions and charts.

Council members expressed appreciation for snow crew efforts and agreed to schedule a safety-committee meeting before the next council meeting to address speed-hump questions. No formal votes were required for staffing options or event scheduling beyond the public-input meeting motion and vote to schedule it.

Next steps on these items include publishing materials for the Jan. 21 public-input meeting (manager expected to circulate materials once formalized) and determining recruitment steps for the property-maintenance role.