Tipp Council repeals city-wide state of emergency

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TIPP CITY — A resolution repealing a state of emergency set in place in March 2020 was unanimously passed at Tipp City Council’s Monday meeting.

The resolution was added to the agenda at the start of the meeting by council president Katelyn Berbach. According to city law director Jonathan Freeman, it is anticipated that following the lifting of public health guidelines and mandates from Gov. Mike DeWine on June 2, the state of Ohio will move forward with lifting the state’s state of emergency. As such, passing the resolution would set Tipp City a step ahead with getting back to pre-pandemic operations.

“Back in March of last year, we went ahead and passed our own version here in these chambers of our set of guidelines for our state of emergency. To my knowledge, I don’t know if we ever ended up using those powers that we gave ourselves, but in light of that, I think what we are best to do looking forward is take care of exiting from our own city state of emergency, and then begin to pave the way back to our formal meetings here in this room as we have done in the past,” Freeman said.

At the current point in time, virtual meetings are still allowed under the Open Meetings Act until at least July 1; according to Freeman, there is a possibility those orders will be allowed to continue through the end of the year and currently, DeWine has not been presented legislation stating otherwise.

“It’s very conceivable, in short, that to mix the lifting of many of the health orders and the lifting of the state of emergency in Ohio could certainly happen by the end of June, and we want to be ready for that. I think it might be a little disingenuous for the city to keep under its state of emergency when in fact, it hasn’t really been operating in that way,” Freeman said.

Prior to voting on the resolution, city mayor Joseph Gibson raised concerns that the city was jumping the gun and that it might be more beneficial to wait for specifics from the governor’s directive to come June 2. Freeman said that after discussing it with city manager Tim Eggleston as well as other law directors, it was felt that if the city wasn’t going to use the powers granted to them through the state of emergency, then it would be best to move out of it in order to make a clear direction toward pre-COVID functioning.

The following items were also unanimously passed at Monday’s meeting:

• An ordinance approving the final plan for phase four of the Cedar Grove Subdivision project;

• A resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with John R. Jurgenson of Springfield for the 2021 Asphalt Resurfacing Program at a cost of $587,032.01;

• A resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Visu-Sewer, Reynoldsburg, for the 2021 Sanitary Sewer Sliplining Project at a cost of $222,947.50;

• A motion to request or not request a public hearing for any or all liquor license renewals in the city of Tipp City.

The next city council meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 7.

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