City may crack down on trashy downtowners

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Some residents may be trashing up the city’s downtown, Delaware city officials say.

Council last week discussed trash along Sandusky and William streets in front of some restaurants and bars.

Officials said that some tenants living above the restaurants leave their trash out in front of the establishments, which is unsightly and unsafe, instead of tossing trash in dumpsters behind their buildings or making other arrangements.

City Public Works Director William Ferrigno said council may want to strengthen legislation against the property owners.

“We’re going to face this more because there’s more activity in the second and third floors of buildings downtown for apartments, so we’ve got to figure it out,” Homan said.

In other business at the Nov. 23 council meeting, there were no public comments during two public hearings on taxes and the city’s budget.

The first hearing was on adding a new chapter to the city’s ordinances regarding municipal income tax, totaling 45 pages. The changes were mandated by the state of Ohio as part of House Bill 5, the Municipal Tax Uniformity Bill. All cities will need to comply with the changes.

“We’ve really struggled with how to present these changes to council because they’re quite involved,” said city finance director Dean Stelzer. “They’re not going to fundamentally change our revenue stream; it’s just how we go about enforcing our income tax that’s going to change a bit.”

Among the changes are raising the entrant rule from 12 days to 20 days of work in the city before taxes can be withheld; lottery, gambling, prizes and awards are now taxable; and loss carry-forward, uniform penalties and interest rates are increased.

The ordinance will go to a third reading before it would need to go into place in 2016. Stelzer said additional changes may be necessary to make the code more readable. The current Chapter 191 of the city code would still be in effect until Jan. 1, 2024, for tax returns prior to Dec. 31, 2015.

The other hearing was the first of two public hearings on the 2016 city budget.

Council members discussed potential budget review session dates, and the topics of conversation at them. Some wanted the process to be streamlined so that the review sessions focused on significant changes to each fund. The total appropriations of all funds is $107,906,783.

“The increasing challenge is to deal with transportation issues as they relate to traffic,” said City Manager Tom Homan.

The second public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14, and its adoption is expected at the Dec. 21 council meeting.

In other business, council had no objection to an application of a liquor permit transfer from Ballacinos of Columbus Inc. to IC of Ohio LLC for Shorty’s Casual Cuisine, 554 W. Central Ave.

Police Chief Bruce Pijanowski said Thom Ibinson is the new owner, and there will be no major changes to the business.

By Gary Budzak

[email protected]

Gary Budzak may be reached at 740-413-0904 or on Twitter @GaryBudzak.

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