STEUBENVILLE – With just 13 days before Nutcracker Village and Christmas at the Fort kick off the 2024 holiday season, city officials moved forward Tuesday with plans to reinforce the wiring vendors and event organizers need to grow the event.

With council approval, City Manager Jim Mavromatis said crews will install new wiring and new receptacles and “increasing the amperage” to better serve the needs of the people.

“This needs to be done. “The (wiring) is outdated… you can’t really connect anything else to the circuit that is already there.” he said, adding that, “Possibly next week 4th Street will be blocked so that workers can enter and travel this line.”

TS Electric will do the work for $30,000.

Mavromatis also shared with event organizers the emphatic “no” that AEP gave to the city’s request for permission to hang lights from power pole to power pole or from power pole to buildings, saying “Seasonal accessories” such as the Christmas lights that Nutcracker Village organizers hoped to place across the street violate AEP’s pole attachment policy, as well as the National Electrical Service Code, if installed on power poles.”

“AEP does not allow certain free-standing seasonal signs, flags or decorations on its poles.” Mavromatis said. “We have a pole agreement with (them) that takes care of our banners and our decorative lights.”

This agreement on the poles has existed for years, “So you can’t put anything else in those polls. “We can’t stretch anything from one pole to another or from one pole to a building.”

He said along the way, the city “In theory, we could put up our own poles and put lights on them, but that won’t happen this season.”

“It’s going to come at some cost, but it’s worth exploring.” Mavromatis said.

The council also heard from Mark Nelson, founder of Nutcracker Village, who offered a retrospective on the festival’s humble origins 10 years ago, as well as the trash pickup and street sweeping schedules during the festival.

“If we think back 10 years when we started this, many of us…were involved in the Steubenville Revitalization group at the time or the activities that were going on,” said. “Many Nutcracker Village Activities”“It grew out of that work and a sincere desire to see Steubenville revitalized.”

This year’s festivities will feature 215 life-size Nutcrackers.

Retired Urban Projects Director Chris Petrossi also announced that Chipotle is finally ready to move forward with plans to build a restaurant in the Lowe’s parking lot.

“They have site plan approval and are proceeding with their architectural plans.” Petrossi said. “I spoke to the developer last week and he told me they hope to start construction sometime in March.”

After delaying the wastewater department’s CSO12 removal project for weeks, the council finally authorized Mavromatis to enter into a modified agreement with HDR Engineering for the design work. The revised contract is for $198,918, less than the original estimate of $290,438.

The Council passed legislation designating all budget surpluses on wastewater projects to be reallocated to the department’s core works project and declaring an emergency, avoiding the possibility that the city would have to return some of the ARPA money from its general fund. Funds must be allocated before the end of the year.

Legislation was also introduced that would amend the Table of Organization as it relates to the wastewater department. The change, as proposed, would reduce operator positions to four and add an assistant operator position, saving the city money on base pay and overtime.

The final reading of the ordinances authorizing Mavormatis to contract with Arcadis for design services for the Belleview Tank rehabilitation project and to amend the property’s maintenance code was given.

The council also learned that the city’s preliminary budget will be presented Dec. 3 and voted to meet in executive session to discuss a personnel matter related to salaries at the Parks and Recreation Department.