SIDNEY — Sidney City Council was introduced to Sidney’s new city planner at the Monday night meeting.
Timothy Hurysz joined the city of Sidney staff as the new city planner I on April 18, 2022, said Community Development Director Barbara Dulworth, when introducing him to City Council.
She told council members, “Tim, along with his wife, Rebecca, and their cat, Creamsicle, moved from Buffalo, New York, and are exploring their new home in the Sidney area. … His first 90 days will be spent familiarizing himself with Sidney and the regulations and policy documents related to planning and zoning.”
Hurysz is a graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo with a master’s in urban planning. His undergraduate degree, from SUNY, was in planning as well.
Dulworth said Hurysz’s experience includes several internships that included activities such as developing a tool that screens for social determinates of health, research on increasing access for pedestrians and cyclist, and a neighborhood revitalization plan. After graduation, he worked as a planner for Madison County, New York, for a year.
All those in attendance welcomed Hurysz with a round of applause.
In other business, City Council was also introduced to the following four ordinances:
• To make supplemental appropriations for the year 2022;
• To authorize the termination of a property tax exemption of the Menards TIF. This TIF was adopted in 2006 for the exemption of real property taxes on certain property, said Renee DuLaney, finance officer. In lieu of paying real property taxes the city required Menards to make service payments for the public infrastructure. This previous TIF ordinance also authorized City Manager Andrew Bowsher to enter into a compensation agreement with Sidney City School.
The city currently has a fund balance in the Menards TIF of $633,201, DuLaney said. These funds will be used to pay off the remaining debt service on the infrastructure of $231,300. The city will also pay the 2022 school compensation agreement of $15,000, the remaining infrastructure payment to the company of $6662, as well as professional services of up to $10,000 to close the Menards TIF. This Menards TIF Fund will be closed on Dec. 15, 2022. The remaining debt service monies will be placed into a bond retirement fund and surplus monies will be transferred to the general fund, she said.
• To assess the cost of Inflow and Infiltration (I & I) sanitary building drain inspections for the purpose of reducing I&I of clean water into the city’s sanitary sewer system.
DuLaney said the affected property owners were sent an initial letter providing them one year to have their building drain and building sewer inspected by a professional.
Litigation, she said, was initiated against those property owners who failed to have their building drains and building sewer inspected. If this ordinance is adopted, it would assess the costs of the now-completed inspections as liens encumbering the affected nine properties in the amount of $2,776.54.
• To amend the traffic control map to prohibit the parking or standing of vehicles on certain streets in Burr Oak Subdivision, phases I and II.
Public Works Director Jon Crusey said the residential streets in Burr Oak were constructed 32-feet-wide. Parking is prohibited on one side of the street to allow adequate access for safety vehicles and snow plows. Hoeswisher Road will be a major traffic generator when connected to state Route 29, he noted; therefore, parking is prohibited on both sides of the roadway. Crusey then went into a detailed list explaining the side of the street which parking is prohibited for each of the streets in Burr Oak’s subdivision phase one and two.
These four ordinances will return for further consideration at City Council’s May 23 regular meeting.
Council also went into an executive session to consider pending or imminent court action. No action was taken by council members after they came out of the executive session.
