Butler City Council signed on Thursday, Nov. 2, to support Butler County in seeking funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assessment Coalition Grant Program.

The vote was the only one made by council at its meeting Thursday evening, which was scheduled for a week ahead of the usual meeting time because council’s regular voting meeting would fall on Thanksgiving this month.

According to Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy, the county is applying for the Brownfields Assessment Grant, which can award up to $2 million to applicants. This federal grant provides funding to “inventory, characterize, assess, conduct a range of planning activities, develop site-specific cleanup plans and conduct community engagement related to brownfield sites,” according to the EPA.

“What Mark (Gordon, Butler County’s chief of economic development and planning) feels we are able to do is if we enter into the coalition with the county … and apply together, we will have a better chance of getting this money,” Dandoy said. “This is money that could be applied to cleanup of Armco, or perhaps even the middle school project, we don’t know. He just feels we received better by the government if we all go in together on this.”

Dandoy said the agreement has no financial cost to the city, and it could help with cleanup projects the county takes on within the city, but the county has not decided on a specific project for which to request funding.

Also at the meeting, Councilman Don Shearer said he has a meeting with stakeholders scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, regarding a pending rental inspection program ordinance — an initiative he announced a few months ago. The proposed program would implement inspections of rental properties under certain conditions. It is intended to prevent blight, improve property maintenance, reduce slum housing, promote tenant empowerment, strengthen the rental market and improve tenant-landlord relations, Shearer said.

The meeting will take place at Butler SUCCEED at 150 N. Main St., and is open to the public, according to Shearer.

“I’m calling stakeholders, basically anybody with vested interest; landlords, tenants, property owners,” he said at the meeting.

Councilman Larry Christy said he will likely have a motion to request bids for a rescue truck for the Butler Bureau of Fire. Bureau chief Chris Switala said the truck the department is looking at is a F-250.

“We found one, but we have to bid it out; they won’t accept the COSTARS (cooperative purchasing) price,” Christy said at the meeting.

Council will also discuss the 2024 budget at its next meeting, which is Nov. 21.