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LISBON -- Lisbon village council talked pool repairs, the proposed skate park, a single trash hauler proposal and fees for food trucks this week.
Regarding the pool, council agreed this week to spend up to $8,000 for Joe Colian of Salem to dig out the concrete around the pool to get a better look at cracks and where the water's leaking.
"We have to start moving. Summer's almost over and we haven't done nothing," Councilman Jerry Cox said.
Cox met with Colian at the Sadie Van Fossan pool at Cedar Park. He said plans will be to remove 2 feet of concrete all the way around the perimeter of the pool, except for the north side where 5 feet will be removed. This will expose the area behind the walls and the skimmer.
"We know there are leaks all around," Councilman Joe Morenz said, with Cox commenting he thinks they're going to find a big hole.
As for an engineer, Morenz said he spoke with a pool company that has an engineer on staff, but wasn't interested due to the distance from Cincinnati. He's checking to see if they can just engineer the project. Councilwoman Melissa Hiner, who serves as council president, asked if they can just get an engineer or are they required to do a request for proposals.
Howells & Baird had prepared a cost estimate of more than $700,000 from one contractor and Mayor Peter Wilson said he learned the second cost estimate from a second contractor they contacted was even higher, over $1 million.
Two new topics that came up dealt with fees for food trucks and a proposal for a single trash hauler.
Hiner brought up the new zoning code and said no fees had been collected for food trucks this year and she questioned why not. Council agreed to let it go for 2026, but start collecting in 2027. Council also agreed to include a definition that annual means from January to December for any zoning fees. Six months will be defined as January through June or July through December. The fees for food trucks were set in the new zoning code as $100 per day or $250 for six month or $500 for the year.
For the single trash hauler idea, Wilson said he received a complaint that the road on Sunset was deteriorating from the garbage trucks, claiming there's five different trash collectors coming through Lisbon and that's hard on the streets.
He told council members they're always wanting to save money. This would be a way to save money for the village and the residents.
"I think this is something that should be looked into seriously," Wilson said.
Fire Chief Mark Hall called the idea a monopoly.
Hiner said they've already gone through this a number of times and suggested just taking a vote now on whether to look into it. The vote was tied 3-3, with the mayor casting the deciding vote in favor of exploring the idea. Hiner, Cox and Councilwoman Linda Donnalley all voted no. Morenz, Councilman Zachary Smith and Councilwoman Susan Temple all voted yes.
Council members spoke again about the proposed skate park, acknowledging an email sent to them by Village Solicitor Alec Beech, which was confidential. There was apparently no issue with the zoning, but Beech said during the meeting the skate park group should have to have all the money up front, which would require a lot of work on their part.
If there's a lease, he said they should include any conditions on the lease, with Morenz stating that the skate park must be public and the land can't be used for anything else.
Hiner agreed the money would need to be fully raised.
"I wouldn't want to commit to anything," she said.
She went on record saying she doesn't favor the location or the skate park at all. The location is off of South Jefferson Street, east of South Market Street, near the Columbiana County Park District maintenance building. Wilson said he spoke to someone in Canton where there's a memorandum of understanding with the skate park association which spells out the association must maintain the facility.
Cox made a suggestion of putting the skate park where the pickleball courts are now at Cedar Park and then putting two pickleball courts in the dead space near the volleyball court. He said there would be parking and a police presence.
In other matters, Wilson updated council on the state Route 164/state Route 45 paving project that the Ohio Department of Transportation is going to be starting soon on village street, noting that it no longer includes Jerome Street to Saltwell on state Route 45.
Hiner raised an issue for future projects, noting that there had been discussions previously about doing catch basins on West Washington Street to alleviate flooding prior to ODOT repaving, but then nothing happened. At the last meeting, the mayor said there wasn't enough time to have the catch basins done once the village was notified about the paving.
"These are things we need to make a priority," she said.
Then she pointed out that the catch basins were discussed at meetings in October 2025 and again in January 2026. She said there would have been ample time to do the catch basins, noting there's flooding on both Washington and Maple.
Wilson said the street committee of council decided on other projects.
In other business, council hired Madeline Sekely and James Lewis as part-time dispatchers for the police department, approved an expense of $3,411 for brake repairs by Brothers Mechanical for the street department truck, second reading of the payroll ordinance, authorized the purchase of two properties on opposite sides of the Pritchard Avenue bridge from Ohio Edison for $1,500 and settled the lawsuit with Ohio Edison over the two properties, agreed to let the Columbiana County Park District to place two benches at the village's portion of the rock climbing cliffs and approved a project for storm sewer repairs on Pritchard Avenue for $7,800 by Gary Dailey.
The next council meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8 at village hall.