Board reviews resignation from councilman
Bruce Tuttle steps down from Ontario slot

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Barnett said the council needs to accept the resignation and declare a vacancy. However, after councilmembers accept the resignation, they have two options. The first is to offer the appointment to the next qualified candidate from the most recent election. In this case, that candidate would be John Gaskill, who garnered 1,685 votes. The second option, Barnett said, is to solicit letters of interest from qualified citizens in the city.

“John got the most votes,” Councilman Lewie Allen said. “Just let him carry on.”

Ontario resident Gary Halcom said he believed Gaskill should be allowed to complete Tuttle’s term because of the fact he ran in November shows he is still interested in serving. In a phone interview Wednesday night, Gaskill, who was not at the meeting, said he would consider the offer if it were presented to him.

The council also discussed accepting responsibility for maintenance and liability for the segment of Northwest Washington Avenue, between the end of North Oregon Street and the Yturri Beltline, and some portions of East Lane and Goodfellow Street north of East Idaho. In his report, Ontario Public Works Director Chuck Mickelson said the city has already accepted North Oregon Street for perpetual maintenance. However, this remaining section connects North Oregon Street with the Yturri Beltline. In his report, Mickelson said the city has been in talks with ODOT for a number of years about taking over this roadway.

“This is simply the final step in this process,” he said.

 In its 2007 to 2009 budget, the city has already set aside $300,000 for the design of the realignment, which is almost complete. The realignment would allow vehicles to travel on the corner faster than 15 mph. If the maintenance and liability resolution is approved, ODOT will contribute a one-time payment of $326,443 to the city to be used for improvement or realignment of Northwest Washington Avenue. Mickelson said this money will be used to construct curbs, gutters and sidewalks in the area if the realignment were not pursued.

However, area resident Ralph Poole spoke up at the meeting and said he believed past documents indicated that ODOT had already agreed to pay for the realignment as well as curb, gutters and sidewalks.

“Don’t let the city eat that,” he said.

Ontario City Councilman Dan Cummings said he doubted the money from ODOT would cover the realignment as well as adding curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Dominick requested  the resolution be pulled from Monday’s agenda so the issue could be researched further.

In other council news:

—The council discussed charging an additional overtime fee of $250 for Saturday cemetery services and increasing disinterment charges from $467.25 to $600 for adults and from $273 to $400 for infants.  Ontario Parks and Recreation Director Kathy Daly said these fees were more in line with what other area cemeteries, such as Valley View Cemetery and Riverside Cemetery, were charging. Lawrence suggested Daly also increase the rates for out-of-district residents, since the cemetery is city-subsidized.

—The council will also hear an update from Judge Frank Yraguen regarding his work on the second story of the Ontario Train Depot.

—The council is also slated to decide whether or not to increase the current city parking fines.

In his report at the work session Thursday, Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee said the city might see a slight boost in revenue from the increase for disabled-parking and fire lane violations.

Kee said this is because the department issues very few of those types of citations because of a lack of manpower to issue those tickets.