Mayor asks for detective dedicated solely to drug cases

At the July 27 New Philadelphia City Council meeting, Mayor Joel Day outlined the need for additional police officers to fight the city’s increasing incidents of drug overdoses.

“There’s another health emergency in New Philadelphia,” Day said, “drug overdoses.”

Day specifically recommended hiring a detective who would focus strictly on drug cases, asking Council President Don Kemp to assign the need to the finance committee for study.

Day said he received alarming numbers from Wes Halter, the New Philadelphia Fire Department’s emergency medical services coordinator and a member of the county’s Quick Response Team. Halter said there has been a 283% increase in drug-overdose deaths in Tuscarawas County since 2017, and in the past year, there have been 97 drug overdoses in New Philadelphia alone.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is likely playing a role in the rise in drug-overdose deaths this year,” Day said, noting people often turn to drugs to cope with stress and uncertainty.

Halter’s QRT report indicated fentanyl and carfentanil are the leading cause of the drug-overdose deaths and that methamphetamine is currently the drug of choice for abusers in New Philadelphia and countywide.

In council comments councilman John Zucal said statistics in the WJER news radiogram stated that there were 17 fatal overdoses in June of this year, compared to only six in the first half of 2019. Zucal thanked Day for bringing the problem to light and urged council to continue to brainstorm possible solutions to a problem that plagues people from all walks of life.

“I think we tell ourselves it only happens to people who fit a certain profile of a drug user, and that’s not necessarily the case,” Zucal said.

Other notes from the mayor

In his report to council, Day encouraged all city residents to follow Gov. DeWine’s statewide mandate to wear facial coverings in public places. “If simply wearing a mask in crowded places can help bring this pandemic to an end sooner rather than later, let’s do it,” Day said.

Administrative reports

Service director Ron McAbier reported Newton Asphalt started paving last week, completing work on University Drive at Robinson. McAbier expects phase one of the paving project to be complete at the end of next week and phase two to begin in late October.

Paving work on state Route 39 should start by Aug. 10. All work will take place at night and is estimated to take three weeks to finish.

Safety director Greg Popham reported the New Philadelphia Police Department received official notice from the New Philadelphia Civil Service Commission that the Ohio Police Sergeant Promotional Exam was given several months ago, and as a result, the mayor will swear in officer Tessa Pohovey as a new sergeant.

Popham yielded his remaining time to Fire Chief Jim Parrish, who reported on the Pulse Point program that uses technology to increase the out-of-hospital survival rate for people who experience sudden cardiac arrest.

At the July 13 council meeting, Parrish said implementing the life-saving program would cost $10,000 and that $5,000 of that has been donated by the Marsh Foundation. Parrish said he has been notified of two other donations that, together, will fully fund the program: an anonymous donation of $2,000 and a donation of $3,000 in memory of Raymond and Patricia Ricklic. The program will be implemented in four to six weeks.

Law director Marvin Fete said he consulted with City Health Commissioner Vickie Ionno and the New Philadelphia Police Department regarding DeWine’s statewide mask mandate. He said health orders are enforced by the local health department, not the police.

“The New Philadelphia Police Department and county sheriffs’ office are not the mask police,” Fete said. “They have other situations to deal with.”

Do not call local law enforcement to register a complaint about someone not wearing a mask. Instead, notify the health department.

Fete also said businesses have the right to deny entrance to anyone not wearing a mask. Law enforcement will only become involved should a person become belligerent or refuse to leave a business when asked. Such behavior may result in possible criminal charges of disorderly conduct or trespassing. In the case of such an incident, the police should be contacted.

Committee reports

Rob Maurer said the finance committee had met prior to that evening’s council meeting to address the need to remount an ambulance box on the new Ford truck chassis. The committee also discussed appropriations in order to accept money from the government’s Coronavirus Relief Fund in the amount of approximately $500,000.

John Zucal said the salary committee met prior to the council meeting and held a lengthy discussion regarding the retire/rehire process and came to a consensus that, moving forward, council should be notified by the mayor when a retire/rehire situation is going to occur and allow council members to ask questions of the mayor in an executive session.

In that meeting Zucal expressed concern about a person who recently retired and was rehired without council’s knowledge. Zucal said he was not opposed to the hiring but that council should have been filled in as a courtesy instead of having to learn about it from people in the community. He also is concerned because the retire/rehire process made changes to the budget that council had previously approved.

Councilman Kelly Ricklic agreed. “I do not want to affect what the mayor chooses to do or to pay someone,” he said. “I want two things: I want to be told about it when a retire/rehire is initiated by the administration or the employee, and I want to know that offers like this will be put forth across the board, not just to certain persons or for some positions.”

Ron McAbier said everything that happened was done correctly according to the handbook.

“Here’s my bottom line,” Zucal said. “What concerns me is that the position to be filled was posted, and there were two applicants that were not given an interview. Then people in the community asked me to explain the situation and I had no answers because it was news to me. In the future I want to be able to answer questions truthfully and transparently.”

Zucal said the committee also asked for a resolution to be brought to council regarding a 100% funded ODOT transportation aviation grant that will pay for upgrading lights at a runway at Harry Clever Field.

Councilman Dan Lanzer said the special/contact committee met prior to the council meeting to discuss replacement pages to the city’s codified ordinance, saying a proposed ordinance needed to be passed on an emergency first reading.

Public comments

Stephan Cameron of 1133 Glen Drive NE said residents there are experiencing serious storm-water drainage issues. He said the city allowed too many houses to be built, and the water drainage system is now inadequate. He asked if building activity could be blocked in that area until the drainage problem is addressed and said he spoke with Lloyd MadAdam, chief engineering and assistant director of ODOT.

It was said the place to turn to for funding for storm sewers is the Ohio Public Works Commission and council was asked to contact them. Kemp said the mayor has asked SD McAbier to look into the issue, and Zucal has met with residents of Glen Drive.

Terry Everett of 132 Poplar Ave. NW said in March water department workers drove a backhoe and a pickup truck onto his property without his permission while they did work that had nothing to do with his property. Because the ground was soft, the vehicles left large ruts in his lawn. He said the vehicles could have been parked on the road while work was underway and that he sent an invoice to the department asking them to cover the cost of repair for the damages over three months ago and has received no response and no payment.

Legislative action

Council approved the following emergency measures:

—An ordinance amending and adjusting permanent appropriations for 2020 in an emergency first reading.

—An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact replacement pages to the codified ordinances in an emergency first reading.

—A resolution allowing the safety director to enter into an agreement with Excellence Inc. to remount the ambulance box onto a 2020 Ford 500 chassis at a cost not to exceed $115,155.47.

—A resolution to submit an application to ODOT for a grant in the amount of $48,875 for lights on runway 1533 at Harry Clever Field and, if awarded, to accept and execute the grant in an emergency first reading.

The next meeting will be Monday, Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers at the John Knisely Municipal Centre, 150 E. High Ave., New Philadelphia.