City Council Meeting Recap - 05/12/26
Speaker: Heath City Manager Steven Alexander

Hello, I'm City Manager Steven Alexander, and I'd like to share highlights from the May 12th City Council meeting.

The meeting began with Mayor Jeremiah McClure, council member Ryan Moorman, place three, and council member Scott Dodson, place five, taking the oath of office for their second terms on the City Council.

We look forward to continuing our work with these dedicated community leaders and thank them for their ongoing service and commitment to the Heath community.

The first item on the agenda was the election of Mayor Pro Tem, and council unanimously voted to reappoint council member Scott Dodson to that role.

Council also unanimously approved updated parks and recreation programing, reservation policies, procedures and fees for City amenities.

The updates were recommended by the Park Board and presented by Assistant City Manager Chelsea Gordon.

These amenities include the new pickleball courts, soccer and baseball fields at the renovated Towne Center Park, which will open following the July 4th grand opening celebration, the newly renovated community room and the City's park pavilions and gazebos.

City staff is currently implementing a new rental reservation system, designed to provide a more user friendly experience. The system will offer real time scheduling, online reservations, payment processing, and reservation tracking.

In addition, the City website is being updated to serve as a central hub for information related to our parks and trails system, including access to the new reservation platform, which we look forward to launching soon.

City Council also approved the use of existing parks and trails funds as seed money for a future Mayor's Ball, which will benefit the Parks and Trails of Heath or PATH fundraising program. These funds will be reimbursed through proceeds generated by the event.

A volunteer committee, is expected to organize and host the Mayor's Ball on February 18th, 2027 at Hidden Creek in Heath.

Council also unanimously approved a facilities agreement between the City of Heath and The Estates of Bristol Valley LLC and The Bristol Valley LLC for the construction and reimbursement of a ten foot wide trail along McDonald road.

The new trail will connect the Estates of Bristol Valley subdivision to the existing trail system and the Stoneleigh subdivision.

Previously, council approved the developer's request to use development fees for parkland owed to the City totaling $450,000 to fund construction of the trail. This project will be a valuable enhancement to our growing trail system.

Also, during the meeting, Department of Public Safety Chief Brandon Seery presented information regarding a third party company that assists municipalities in recovering eligible costs associated with fire department emergency response activities through insurance reimbursement

These programs are often underutilized due to limited municipal staffing resources and council expressed support for further evaluating the service.

Also during the meeting, Director of Finance Jay Ayers presented the March 2026 Financial and Investment report.

The full report is available in the May 12th meeting packet posted under the government section of the City website. I'm pleased to report the sales tax revenue is currently at 110% compared to the same time last year.

We encourage residents to keep their sales tax dollars working here in heat by shopping locally, dining locally and using local service providers.

We also encourage residents to designate Heath as the billing City for online purchases whenever possible.

As always, thank you for taking the time to stay informed about our community. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at City Hall.