The city of Bay Village has started gathering facts and exploring the possibility of switching to an Automated Refuse Collection System for all residents within the city. On Monday, June 21, the city’s Services, Utilities, and Equipment Committee held a meeting during which Dave Kidder of Allied Waste/Republic Services made a presentation outlining the benefits of automated refuse collection. The company currently has a contract with the city for picking up residential trash one day a week.

Under the proposed system, all homes in Bay Village will receive a 96-gallon wheeled refuse container, which holds the equivalent content of four trash cans, and a 64-gallon recyclables container which residents will place on the tree lawn on their collection day. Although trash is presently picked up city wide every Tuesday, collection days have yet to be determined for the new system. They may be spread out over a three-day period throughout the city, possibly Wednesday through Friday.

 

Bay Village is organized around a Charter form of Government. In 1948, a charter commission was elected and on April 12, 1949 the present charter was adopted at a special election. It became effective January 1, 1950. At that same time, the Village of Bay became the "City of Bay Village," having been certified as having 6,917 residents as of 1950.

Currently the population is Bay Village is slightly above 14,000.

The Bay Village charter provides two means for residents to directly influence legislation.

1. Initiative – This allows the electors to propose an ordinance or resolution.

2. Referendum – This permits the electors to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance or resolution passed by the council.

New part-time police officer Eric Tuisku was sworn in by Mayor Debbie Sutherland during the September 21st meeting of City Council.

Irene Burkhardt retired this year after spending 29 years as a School Guard for the city of Bay Village. Irene started in 1980 and spent ten years as a backup guard before becoming the regular guard at the corner of Normandy Road and Douglas Drive. She was honored with a resolution during the City Council meeting on September 21st.

Bay Village Mayoral Candidate Jim Scott is using the social networking site Facebook to reach an online audience. The Councilman-at-Large is the focal point of the "Jim Scott for Mayor of Bay Village: Facebook Headquarters" group. According to the group's description, it is intended for Facebook users interested in the mayor's race to share information, concerns and suggestions, as well as for supporters of the Jim Scott campaign.

The Regional Income Tax Agency (also known as R.I.T.A.) taxes every penny it can without any regard to the message it sends to those who serve the United States.

Tax time can be sobering for many Americans filing to good old Uncle Sam but this year it wasn’t the man in the big top hat that was sobering, it was R.I.T.A.

While serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the country of Kazakhstan from August 2006 – November 2008, I learned that R.I.T.A had taxed my yearly income of $2,400. I thought, “This can’t be, there has to be an exemption for those members of the community who serve our country.”

Two questions I often hear from Bay Village residents are “Why are you running for Mayor?” and “What are you going to do that’s different?”  Here’s the answer.  I’m going to:

• Reduce city spending and save taxpayers money. 

• Hold Town Hall meetings and answer residents’ questions. 

• Implement a long-term plan to maintain and improve our city infrastructure – buildings, sewers and streets. 

• Bring transparency to every aspect of city government.