Joint Meeting with City of Adams — Minutes

CITY COUNCIL JOINT MEETING WITH THE VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP BOARD June 15, 2026, PAGE 1 The joint meeting was called to order by Mayor Justin Grooms followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by all present. Roll call was taken; present from the Village of Friendshi p Board were President Bob Berry, Trustees Ernie Klicko, Melvin Waller, and Justin Hutter. Also present were Treasurer Sandy Shawback and Clerk Rebecca Reuter. PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS None GENERAL MUNICIPAL UPDATES Berry introduced himself as the new Village Board President. Groom welcomed the Village of Friendship. There are items from time to time that we need to take care of together, and he feels that this is a good thing to do occasionally from time to time to sort those items out. GENERAL BUSINESS: 1. DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATION ON ATV/UTV ORDINANCE Berry asked the City where they stand on getting Hwy 13 open to AVT/UTV’s, and to the Sheriff have there been any issues on Main Street with ATV/UTV’s? How have things been going since the County Roads were opened up, have there been any issues? Chief Wollin stated that the City of Adams side roads have been opened. There have been a few times he’s had to tell someone that Main Street isn’t open to traffic when he sees someone driving on it and for the most part, they have been receptive. Berry asked if the city has had any ATV/UTV crashes since opening the side roads? Wollin replied that there was one with an older gentleman. Berry asked Sheriff Brent York how he feels it has been going, and if they’ve had any issues? Sheriff York replied that in 2025 there was a total of 10 accidents within Adams County that report to the Sheriff’s office (that does not include the City) 4 of those 10 were on privet property, so we had 6 accidents, none of which were on county highways. Last year we didn’t have any fatalities, the year before the Town of Rome had a person fall through the ice in a UTV. Over Memorial weekend we had a fatality. So, it really hasn’t been a problem. There have been no accidents on county road J and 13 since the county opened up that road. We do get people from time to time that will take a right turn onto Main Street who don’t know that they can’t go that way. They generally stop them and just advise them. The clubs talk about the fact that the riders need to know where they are going. It’s their responsibility to know what roads you can and can’t ride on. Berry asked how the Sheriff would feel about the Village opening up Main Street down to Moundview Dr.? York stated that he doesn’t have a problem with that. He feels if would avoid a lot of confusion. Just a few months ago he was at the Duck Derby at Friendship Park, and a lot of folks came on their UTV’s, and they asked if they could get to town by riding on Hwy 13, and he had to tell them no. Wollen asked if the Village is considering all of Main St.? Berry stated that is what has been discussed. We have had some brief discussions at Public Works on it. Everything was tabled until we could sit down with the city. He asked how the city feels about opening up Main St. Klicko stated that we only have 1 alleyway for close access to Main St. For everything else they have to stay a block away. Wollin wanted to share a point made by Alderperson Kierstyn, that if Main St. is open, they are running Main St., and not through the residential areas. And that is one of the complaints that they get is the noise from the ATV/UTV’s in the residential areas. With Main St. opened that could reduce some of that noise through the residential areas. York feels that the City and the Village need to open it up together or close it together, but it needs to be consistent through all of Main St. He feels it would cause a lot of confusion if one were to open it but not the other. Berry asked what the best way to move forward would be? CITY COUNCIL JOINT MEETING WITH THE VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP BOARD June 15, 2026, PAGE 2 Groom said that we need to move forward consistently. The last thing we want to do is confuse people. He wants whatever we do to be done together. Berry 100% agrees. Groom feels we have so few tourism industries in this area. Adams County in particular one of the industries we can offer is ATV/UTV’s. He thinks it would behoove us to consider those tourists, and what makes it easy for them to visit this area. Beyond that he feels there is a benefit to taking some of the traffic out of the residential areas. He lives on one of the commonly traveled ATV/UTV streets and it is well-traveled by both ATV’s and UTV’s. There is a safety issue too. Berry stated that’s why he asked about accidents. The Village and the City have both had their ordinances for a while now, and he thought we should look back to see if there have been any issues. It sounds like there haven’t been any major issues. Groom feels that it is getting people used to having ATV’s around. It’s getting people to start looking for ATV or UTV’s, your mind is thinking about cars, trucks, potato trucks. He feels there will need to be some public education on it moving forward. Alderperson Austin feels that having the ATV/UTV’s on Main St. will slow them down a little, because some of them go pretty fast down the side roads. His only concern is the youth…the new drivers. A lot of them don’t know the old hand signals that are used by the ATV/UTV drivers when turning. MOTION by Berry, second by Hutter to have the Village of Friendship work with the City of Adams to revise their ATV/UTV ordinance to have the same principles and be consistent throughout, and also to work on the E-bike and E-Scooters ordinance, motion carried. The discussion ended with Klicko from Friendship, and Murphy from Adams will get together and come up with joint ordinances that will work for both municipalities and bring it back before their respected boards. 2. DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATION ON E-BIKES AND E-SCOOTERS ORDINANCE Groom stated that again we want to make this consistent. The city feels that they need to update their ordinance to include E-Bikes and E-Scooters. He doesn’t know if the Village has had any problems with them, but they have become a problem. Berry asked if it would make sense to have Klicko and Murphy also go over this ordinance? Groom stated that he thinks it would. The Motion above was amended to add the discussion on E-Bikes and E-Scooters. 3. DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATION REGARDING FUTURE E NORTH ST. RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT RELATER TO REDOING THE STREET Berry asked what the city’s timeline is on that? Because another street that they should look at is Park Street. Is one worse than the other? Klicko stated that he feels North Street is a worse problem. It certainly gets a lot more traffic with the school on that road. Groom stated that it’s going to be a big deal because they are going to have to work with the 3 municipalities on the road. Klicko stated that 20 years ago when we redid North Street, we had to pool 2 years’ worth of LRIP money together. Berry asked when they redo it if they plan on looking into utilities underground also? Groom answered that he feels they should. Berry asked what kind of timeline they were looking for, or haven’t they really gotten that far yet? Groom replied that the first thing they wanted to do was talk with the Village to see if we were on the same page. He also felt it was an issue that needed to be addressed. He said that they still need to talk with the Town of Adams because this is going to take all of them to get their timelines to matchup. He feels it would be a very high priority for them. CITY COUNCIL JOINT MEETING WITH THE VILLAGE OF FRIENDSHIP BOARD June 15, 2026, PAGE 3 Berry stated that the 2 priorities for us would be Park Street, and Hillwood Lane, but with the school being on this road and with all the potholes we should make this our priority also. Groom stated that he feels that they will need to also look at the water and sewer under the road but also curb and gutter on the side of the road. That would help with keeping that road from looking like this again in a couple of years. That’s the only thing that’s going to keep people from driving off the side of the road, and that is what’s destroying it in large parts. He will get with Bill from the Town of Adams and see what they are thinking about it. 4. DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATION SCHEDULE A TENTATIVE NEXT SEMI-ANNUAL JOINT MEETING Groom asked if this was a good thing to do twice a year? Berry replied that yes, he thinks it is. Groom stated that’s, good, we will plan on doing this again in a few months. We can do alternating locations. Berry stated that this was something that he talked about 15 years ago. That we should try to coordinate between the City and the Village, because we need to work together. We are right next to each other, granted we are our own municipalities, but we need to work together on lots of things. Tonight is a prime example of how and why we need to work together. Groom replied absolutely. Being of no further business to come before the board/council, MOTION by Berry, second by Hutter to adjourn, motion carried. Meeting ended at __________________________________________ Rebecca Reuter Village Clerk