SIDNEY — City of Sidney’s newest officer, Meggan O’Brien, was introduced and sworn-in at Sidney City Council’s Monday evening meeting. The meeting was Sidney City Council’s first completely open meeting to the public since March 2020.
When welcoming and introducing O’Brien to council members, Police Chief Will Balling said Monday was her first day on the job.
“We are excited to introduce Officer O’Brien as the newest Sidney Police Officer and we look forward to her and her family becoming part of the Sidney Police Department and the community,” said Balling.
He went on to say her supervisor at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, where she had been working as a dispatcher, praised her work and was sad to see her go.
O’Brien graduated from Bellefontaine High school and then from South University with a major in law enforcement. She also graduated from the Edison Police academy with her Peace Officer Training Certificate, Balling told council.
“The Sidney Police Department’s core principles are professionalism, integrity, courage and compassion. During the interview process O’Brien demonstrated those values. She also demonstrated that she is willing to commit to hard work to obtain to become a law enforcement officer. Meggan completed her degree in criminal justice in three years while working and taking care of her daughter. She also put herself through the academy while working fulltime as a dispatcher for the Logan County Sheriff’s department,” Balling said immediately before O’Brien was sworn-in.
O’Brien thanked the city of Sidney for the opportunity to serve the community. All in attendance, including several members of the Sidney Police Department and her family, gave her a round of applause.
In other business, City Council also adopted an ordinance for an economic development plan for the property included in the residential Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts for the MSGA Burr Oak development located north of Russell Road and between Interstate 75 and St. Marys Avenue.
The Ohio Revised Code, Cundiff said, provides City Council may, under certain circumstances, create one or more incentive districts in the city and declare the improvement (as defined in the TIF statutes) to real property located within those incentive districts to be a public purpose, exempt a percentage of such improvement from real property taxes, identify certain public infrastructure improvements that, once made, will benefit or serve that real property, provide for payments in lieu of taxes by the owners of the real property, and establish a public improvement tax increment equivalent fund.
In order to facilitate the development, he noted it is necessary for the city to provide for the construction of critical public infrastructure improvements. This infrastructure will provide access to new development for city residents and others, and will ease traffic congestion and other concerns associated with development. He added that as a part of this infrastructure improvement project, the city intends to use several means for financing, including the TIF districts, property tax abatement and the Revolving Loan Program in addition to other available economic development tools.
Council was also introduced to an ordinance to assess the cost of the demolition of a dangerous building at 314 N. Ohio Ave. in September 2020.
Despite multiple communications with the owner, Barbara Dulworth, community development director, said no substantive action was taken to stabilize or demolish an addition to the structure in danger of collapse. The city solicited bids from contractors in December 2020 and directed the selected contractor to demolish the dangerous portion. The cost to the city to complete the demolition totaled $19,350 and was completed February 2021. The owner has been invoiced twice for the cost of the demolition, but no payments have been made.
This ordinance will return for further consideration at City Council’s July 26 meeting.
