Written with the help of AI from the Trenton City Council minutes, Thursday, October 15, 2026.
What council discussed and decided
This recap is based on the approved minutes of the Trenton City Council work session held Thursday, October 15, 2026, which began at 6:30 p.m. The minutes record discussion of several proposed motions, but they do not record final votes on those spending items. The only votes recorded were the roll calls to enter and leave executive session, and council’s agreement to table one ordinance.
Council agreed to table Ordinance 27-2026 until November 5. The ordinance would establish the Trenton Square New Community Authority, a body that is organized under state law and governed by a board of trustees, and would set the boundary of the Trenton Square New Community District. City Attorney Nick Ziepfel said council has considered the authority since July and that the ordinance had been set for second reading and adoption that evening. He said Chapter 349 of the Ohio Revised Code requires trustees to be appointed within 10 days after adoption, and the meeting schedule would not comfortably allow that. Tabling to November 5 would let council consider adoption and, if it approves, appoint trustees at the same meeting. Mr. Ziepfel also said he had prepared information on the trustees’ roles and responsibilities, which were questioned at the previous meeting.
Conference room audio-visual equipment: up to $101,387.21
Information Technology Director Lon Green presented a motion to let the City Manager buy and install commercial-level audio-visual equipment from TechKinect for four conference rooms in the new municipal building, at a cost not to exceed $101,387.21. Each room would have interactive smartboards and video-conferencing capability. The main Police Department conference room and the main administrative conference room would also get a second monitor.
Vice Mayor Croucher asked how many estimates were obtained. Mr. Green said only one was sought for this phase because TechKinect is already providing the primary audio-visual system for the building and staff wanted compatible equipment. He said the city originally reviewed about six companies and that this one offered the best mix of cost, capability and local service, and was among the lower-priced options. He described the company as local to the Middletown area and said this would be the city’s first project with it.
Safe Haven Baby Box: up to $20,000
Fire Chief Brian Sebald asked council to authorize up to $20,000 to complete a Safe Haven Baby Box at the fire department. The proposed agreements are with Mathew Hubbard (DHA Homes, LLC) for $9,645.00, White Electric for $6,080.00 and Sensaphone for $945.86, totaling $16,670.86, with an approximately 20% contingency, a cushion for unexpected conditions during construction.
Chief Sebald said about seven contractors were invited to bid, six visited the site and four submitted bids. Construction bids ranged from about $9,600 to as high as $38,000. Staff chose a local contractor that built the Baby Box in Hamilton. No completion date has been set, because the agreement still has to be finalized and the work scheduled. He said Oxford’s Baby Box has been installed but is not yet in service, and council briefly discussed Trenton becoming one of the next Butler County communities to put one into service.
Stair chairs: $40,000 grant, $21,919.16 from the city
Chief Sebald also presented a motion to accept a $40,000 Safety Intervention Grant through the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and buy three Stryker stair chairs at a quoted $61,919.16, leaving the city to pay $21,919.16. The department now has three Ferno stair chairs, one manual and two battery-operated with older battery systems. The Stryker chairs would use the same batteries as the department’s existing Stryker cots and LUCAS devices.
He said the chairs have motorized tracks that help crews move patients up and down stairs and reduce lifting injuries, and that one would go on each squad. Assistant Chief Perkins found and applied for the grant. Chief Sebald said replacing the chairs was already in the department’s future Capital Improvement Plan, and the grant allowed the purchase to move up.
Sidewalk design and event storage building
Service Director Brad Baker presented a $42,900 agreement with The Kleingers Group for surveying, design, bidding help and construction administration on the Hamilton-Trenton Road Sidewalk Extension Project. The sidewalk would run west along Hamilton Trenton Road and include about 1,500 feet of five-foot-wide sidewalk and roughly 95 cubic yards of concrete. Responding to Vice Mayor Croucher, Mr. Baker said the request covers engineering only, no construction bids have been obtained, and Kleingers, the city’s engineer, is the only firm consulted at this stage.
Mr. Baker also presented a $21,770 contract with LJ Stone LLC / Urban Structures, on South First Street, for a 30-by-40-foot metal storage building at Trenton Community Park for city event storage. The price includes installation. The city would separately provide a concrete pad and electrical service. He said another local bidder withdrew and that comparable prefabricated buildings from large retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe’s were significantly more expensive.
Finance update and project reports
Finance Director Matthew Mesisklis said spending and revenue trends in the September snapshot were generally consistent with prior months. General Fund income tax collections continue to improve, and RITA receipts have been catching up month to month. Second-half property tax payments, normally received in August, were not received in August or September, but arrived the week before the meeting. He said many owner-occupied homes should have seen roughly a 10% to 15% cut on second-half property tax bills because of recent changes in state law, with the larger revenue loss generally falling on school districts. The city also received a Bureau of Workers’ Compensation dividend tied to the 2022 policy year.
City Manager Marcos Nichols said the Veterans Memorial location was moved away from the street intersection and closer to the municipal building after earlier council feedback. Council showed consensus, and staff will proceed and prepare updated signage.
On other projects, he reported that the elevated water tower’s steel work is expected to be finished by November 18, followed by about two weeks of painting. Temporary traffic signals for off-site improvements are installed but not active, and once turned on are expected to flash for about 10 days before becoming fully operational. A laser road profile will check the ride quality of the State Street paving. Milling is done on Brelsford and Greenwood, and John Street and Brelsford have had scratch coat paving. Twenty-five water service replacements are complete under the OPWC waterline replacement project. Demolition of 301 State Street is expected to begin within several weeks. State Street signal timing upgrades are about 60% complete. Architectural proposals have been obtained for a proposed live fire training prop, and a motion for design services is expected at a future meeting.
Questions from council members
Vice Mayor Croucher asked about a resident’s concern over the city’s fence regulations. Mr. Nichols said a resolution would change the Citizens Zoning Review Board from six resident members and one Planning Commission representative to seven resident members. The board is meant to review matters such as the fence rules. He said council could amend the agenda by voice motion, consider the resolution that evening and, if it takes effect immediately, appoint the seventh member. Council had previously identified a short list of two or three candidates, and the appointment could be discussed in executive session. The Board of Zoning Appeals remains available for individual fence matters.
Councilman Nichols asked about large black plastic pipe being assembled near the railroad tracks. Mr. Baker said a contractor, American Boring, was working on an AWS-related project and planned to bore beneath the railroad near East State Street behind the former skateway. He said the crew had no right-of-way permit yet, so he told them to leave city property and move closer to the tracks, and boring will not proceed until a permit is approved. He said the work does not involve cutting into the newly paved State Street.
Public comment
The minutes do not record a public comment period at this work session. A resident’s fence concern, raised at an earlier meeting, came up through Vice Mayor Croucher’s question.
Routine items and executive session
Police Chief Patrick Carr presented a proposed payment for annual maintenance and support of the CentralSquare (formerly Zuercher) technology system used for dispatch services. He said a service agreement ensures help is available if the system has an outage or other problem. The minutes give no dollar amount.
Council voted 7-0 to go into executive session at 6:59 p.m. The stated reasons were to consider confidential information about a request for economic development assistance (AWS and townships) and to confer with legal counsel, and to discuss hiring, firing or discipline of a public employee or official. Council voted 7-0 to leave executive session at 7:23 p.m. Voting yes both times were Perry, Croucher, Proffitt, Butts, Montgomery, Nichols and Roark.
Source: Trenton City Council minutes, Thursday, October 15, 2026.
By the numbers: Companies bought 26.6% of the City of Dayton homes sold in 2025, by county records. Source: Montgomery County Auditor, tax parcel and sales records (public GIS layers). See the data. Montgomery County’s unemployment rate was 3.9% in September 2026. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics. See the data.
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