Highland Heights (Ohio) Happenings: July 2016

SETTING: Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, downtown Cleveland, Wednesday July 6, 2016.
WHAT: Oral argument in the Neighbors’ appeal, challenging the retroactively-permitted, gigantic Rutland Drive deck placed11 feet from a rear property line.

IN ATTENDANCE: Several of the neighbors, the neighbors’ attorney, the deck owners’ attorney and Highland Heights Law Director Tim Paluf.

According to a neighbor in attendance, the judges were well prepared.
They had obviously read the submitted briefs and demonstrated good familiarity with the relevant facts.

As frequently happens during oral argument, the judges almost immediately interrupted the attorneys’ canned presentations and peppered them with questions, zeroing in on the crux of the case.

Quite telling, one judge’s kick-off question to Paluf:

Does the City ever enforce its ordinances?

Paluf responded:

Yes

He then stood there in silence.....

The Court of Appeals keeps its own timetable, but the neighbors think a ruling might issue sometime in the next couple of weeks.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed…..and you posted

HIGHLAND ROAD WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT A GO

On June 21^st Council discussed and approved Engineer Brian Mader’s recommendation to award a $3,327.958.00 Highland Road Water Main Replacement contract to Fabrizi Trucking & Paving Co., Inc.

The project involves installing a temporary by-pass line while the existing water main, which runs along the north side of Highland Road, is dug up and replaced.
According to Mader, the project will start late this year and extend through most of the next construction season:

It will have 5 phases: the western City line to Bishop Road, East of Bishop to Miner Road, East of Miner to the eastern City line, and the Bishop/Highland and Miner/Highland road intersections….

The order (of construction) just depends on how the contractor wants to approach the project.

Mayor Scott Coleman was pleased that the project was finally going forward.
He also complimented Mader on the accuracy of his construction estimate.
Mader had projected the cost as $3.4 million.
Coleman said:

We have been talking about this for at least 6 years and had 1 unsuccessful attempt at getting Issue 1 funding.
We are effectively getting 74% of the project financed by an interest free loan, which will cost us $85,000 a year, and the rest is a grant.
Our pocket money up front amounts to a little over 25% of the entire cost…

I am excited to get it started although it will be alot of inconvenience to residents.

Some inconvenience, for sure, but the benefits will be great.

Homeowners along the north side of Highland Road will receive new driveway aprons as part of the project and Highland Heights residents in general will be spared the nightmare of a catastrophic failure, which would end up costing much more to fix.

HAPPY GARDENING TO ALL

This year’s warm weather has made a huge difference for this year’s Community Garden participants.

This is what my beginning garden looked like this year:

With all the warm weather---and also thanks to the generosity of the City, which provides water for the Community Garden---everything is growing like crazy.

Just to give you an example.
Last year I had to wait until mid-July to pick my first zucchini.

This year I’ve already resorted to making zucchini bread from the abundant crop I’ve picked so far.

It’s a good thing that I love broccoli....
I've got a couple of giant heads that should make for great eating, if the pesky groundhogs don't get there first.....