By Charlotte Caldwell
[email protected]

SIDNEY — Sidney Police Chief Mark McDonough recognized Telecommunicator Pam Goins as the 2024 Sidney Police Department Civilian Employee of the Year at a Sidney City Council meeting on April 9.

McDonough said this is the first year this award has been given out. Goins has been employed with Sidney Police for 30 years as of April 3.

According to the meeting’s agenda packet: “The selection committee recommended Pam for many reasons. Among these include:

• Her willingness to help whenever needed;

• Her handling of high stress calls with calmness and professionalism;

• Her willingness to work overtime to cover shifts, even on her days off;

• Her willingness to help train new employees;

• Her willingness to volunteer for extra duty assignments (including her assignment as the agency’s Law Enforcement Automated Data System’s Terminal Agency Coordinator, to ensure we are within federal, state and local compliance.)

According to Public Safety Superintendent Rob Jameson: ‘And for me personally as her supervisor, she has been the voice of reason and a huge help in guiding me on how dispatch is supposed to be run.’”

Mayor Mike Barhorst also presented a proclamation in honor of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which is April 14-20.

“The public safety telecommunicators of the city of Sidney Communications Center have provided critical assistance in the apprehension of criminals, the suppression of fires and the treatment of those suffering injuries,” the proclamation read. “Our public safety telecommunicators have exhibited compassion, understanding and professionalism during the performance of their job duties over the course of the past year.”

Along with approving the February 2024 summary financial report, the council adopted eight resolutions, including:

• Establishing 2024 Sidney Water Park rates to increase daily passes by 25 cents and individual season passes by $1;

• Approving a replat of two lots to create one new lot at 133 W. Parkwood Ave. The house there is built over a property line;

• Supporting the Ohio Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial (America250-OH) which is preparing the state to participate in the U.S.’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. The Shelby County Historical Society will be planning local activities. For more information, visit https://america250-ohio.org/;

• Reappointing George Newcomer to the Board of Building Code Appeals. Newcomer has served on the board since 2019;

• Reappointing Rick Pugh and Richard Kennett to the Airport Advisory Committee with terms expiring May 31, 2027;

• Reappointing Engineering Manager Chad Arkenberg as the city’s representative to the District 13 Public Works Integrating Committee and Public Works Director Jon Crusey as an alternate representative;

• Authorizing the resurfacing of state Route 29 by the Ohio Department of Transportation from Russell Road to North Street. The project will be 20% funded by the city, so the city is estimated to pay $165,000;

• Authorizing the city manager to waive building permit and annual contractor registration fees for Habitat for Humanity of Miami and Shelby Counties.

Three ordinances were introduced. They will return for adoption at the council’s April 22 meeting. They included:

• Revising the pay classification plan to create a full-time public safety technician position in the police department, which would replace the part-time administrative assistant position held by Tim Kennedy. This is because the workload has increased due to new state requirements. The position would be paid between $23.96 to $32.16 per hour;

• Assessing certain property owners the cost of junk removal. 11 properties will be assessed a total of $3,598.20;

• Assessing certain property owners the cost of inspection chambers, fittings and/or lateral transfer agreement filing fees related to the city’s I&I Reduction Program. Five properties have outstanding invoices totaling $927.

Councilmembers Joe Moniaci and Scott Roddy were not in attendance and were excused by the council.

A discussion then commenced about the next steps for the income tax levy after it failed in the March primary election, where there were 2,052 voters against and 849 voters for the 0.5% increase. The meeting’s agenda packet provided some options:

• Place a permanent, but restricted use levy on an August special election ballot;

• Place a permanent general use levy on an August special election ballot;

• Place a five year general use levy on an August special election ballot;

• Place a permanent general use levy on the November general election ballot (again);

• Place a permanent, but restricted use levy on the November general election ballot;

• Place a five year general use levy on the November general election ballot;

• Place a five year, restricted use levy on the November general election ballot;

• Seek additional feedback and revise the strategy altogether.

Council members discussed what they heard from citizens after the election, and city staff recommended not putting anything on the August special election ballot and waiting until the November general election.

“I think it’s important that we continue to fund our infrastructure and obviously our staff here, and that was what the last point that’s going to be sunsetting soon was for, infrastructure and the streets, and that was a lot of the feedback I received was, ‘why aren’t you just doing that again,’” Councilmember Mardie Milligan said. She suggested revising the language on the ballot to specifically state what the funds will be used for or splitting the funds up on the ballot for citizens to vote on each individually.

“I don’t think we did as good a job as what we could have in going out. Telling is selling, and we didn’t tell very well and we didn’t sell very well,” Vice Mayor Steve Wagner said. “We know by sitting up here and viewing the budgets that the 0.15 is not keeping up with the streets. It’s not enough because with the rising costs and the amount of decay, the 0.15 is not enough for it.” He also mentioned the new police patrol car costing $90,000 as opposed to the budgeted $45,000 and the personnel part of the levy, like how the money was going to be used to have adequate police, fire and rescue staff to handle every call.

Councilmember Jenny VanMatre said she heard people mention building a new fire station with the money, and she had to explain the funds were going toward staffing the current fire stations, not building the new one. She also said people were concerned about the money going in the general fund and not to specific funds.

Councilmember Cory Huelskamp heard people say “Piqua has one fire department, we can get by with one.”

“We know where we need to be. When we took a look at the 0.5, we were pretty methodical. It was not a fly by night; we really hammered it in,” City Manager Andrew Bowsher said. “Quite frankly, we probably needed more but we were trying to be as conservative as we possibly could with the understanding of the projects and the needs and the wants of the community that are out there. And knowing that when we did it, we were building a 10-year budget to try to get it all in. So that was an incremental increase over 10 years in order to knock off the projects, and that’s hoping that over the course of those 10 years that something doesn’t pop up that we don’t know about yet.”

More information will be presented by city staff to the council on the next steps at the April 22 meeting so they can make a decision.

During council comments, VanMatre read a statement she wrote about the Lodging Tax Committee disbanding on March 21. She mentioned Barhorst’s previous concerns about continuing the committee, and he said then he felt the decisions should be left to the city staff’s discretion. Barhorst was the only member who voiced those concerns then.

”I contend that while Ordinance A-3155 explicitly grants authority to the mayor to appoint, and even rotate, members, the spirit of the ordinance does not grant authority to disband. Council created this committee, and only council should disband it,” VanMatre said. “A decade and a half ago, tourism dollars were part of the general fund. In an effort to increase transparency, a committee was formed and tasked with oversight and distribution of the only dollars which council had direct discretion over. Through the guidance and recommendations of this committee, council was able to directly enhance the lives of our citizens by supporting the arts, our history, our downtown neighborhoods, our seniors’ well-being, and our collective economic development.”

She said almost $27,000 was left from when the committee allocated funds for 2024, and recalled a statement from an eligible nonprofit in February saying they were told no money was available.

“The recent tax levy was voted down by our citizens in part because expected revenues were targeted toward the general fund and not earmarked directly to the departments and projects advertised as the beneficiaries of those tax dollars. I’m glad to see that council addressed those concerns tonight regarding future tax levies,” VanMatre said. “Citizens are instinctively wary that monies can too easily shift from department to department without council and public oversight. My argument tonight as it relates to our lodging tax policies and procedures directly reflects the same concern our voters expressed on March 19 when our levy failed.”

“As we move forward and grow as a community, lodging tax dollars are surely going to grow, with the addition of more businesses, more traffic, and several more hotels. This is not the time to play games with tourism tax dollars or steer them away from their intended use within our community. This is the time to add even more transparency to one of the few, if not the only, remaining pool of monies over which council has discretion,” VanMatre concluded.

The council will discuss the committee disbanding further at their April 22 meeting.

The next council meeting will be held on April 22 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers.