Chardon City Council met under the glow of emergency lights in a generator-powered city hall Aug. 8 after a powerful storm knocked out electricity in the region last Tuesday.
Chardon City Council met under the glow of emergency lights in a generator-powered city hall Aug. 8 after a powerful storm knocked out electricity in the region last Tuesday.
In a statement earlier that day, FirstEnergy Corp. said the storm — which produced multiple tornados across Northeast Ohio — was the most impactful storm to hit its service territory since July 1993.
While City Manager Randy Sharpe said at least 60% of the city was still without power, he gave kudos to the city’s public water and sewer division, and service and street departments for their efforts to keep the city running.
“They’ve been busy. They’re working pretty much 24/7 keeping things hopefully as organized as we can be,” he said.
Sharpe also thanked the Chardon Fire Department, which he said had been instrumental in coordinating a comfort station for the public, first at Chardon United Methodist Church and then, after the church lost electricity, in the community meeting room near their station.
Sharpe said brush collection will continue until the end of next week and encouraged residents to put yard waste on their curbs for disposal over the weekend.
The city made the right choice a few years ago in purchasing their own brush disposal machine rather than having to wait on a contractor to schedule collection services, he said.
Mayor Chris Grau said the storm was a good reminder to get to know your neighbors.
“You never know what you might need in a pinch,” he said.
He also urged residents to sign up for the city’s NotifyMe alert system, which will automatically send out updates to residents. The service is available by signing up online at www.chardon.cc.
Council member Dave Lelko asked Chardon Police Lt. Matt DeLisa about the city’s tornado siren, which is usually tested the first Wednesday of the month.
“If you guys didn’t hear it this Wednesday, we did cancel it, because we actually (used) it on Tuesday,” he said. “We didn’t want to alarm anybody.”
Lelko clarified the alarm is meant to alert people who are outside that a tornado is coming — not people inside their homes or other buildings.
“So, if you get a complaint that I couldn’t hear them in my house, that’s not what the intention was,” he said.
In other business, council unanimously passed a resolution agreeing to pay about $25,000 toward a road repair project the county is undertaking on Chardon Windsor Road.
Part of the project falls within city limits, Law Director Ben Chojnacki said.
Paul Hornyak, director of public service, said as part of a project with the Environmental Protection Agency to help identify lead pipes in the city, over 1,100 flyers were sent to homes to gather information and help residents determine if they have pipes that need to be replaced.
The city got responses from about 12% of the flyers and Hornyak said they’d like to get that number closer to 20%. Residents can schedule directly with city staff to inspect worrisome pipes.
“We still firmly believe that there aren’t any lead service lines in town, but never say never,” he said.
