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Rescheduled

September 13

2018

Regular Meeting

Minutes

This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Present: Ron Betts, Clark Baird, Sue Bartow, Beth Thompson,

Jeffery Miller- Solicitor, Council President Aaron Bouch

Absent – Mayor Tom Pickup


Gen Public - Dan Short Jr, Ligonier Echo Representative- Alexander Ashcroft, Melissa Miller, Amy & Lori Lichtenfelt, Officer Salley, and Officer Chilcote, Kevin Muir, John Kovac


Meeting called to order 7PM by Aaron Bouch


Approval of August minutes was presented. Motion was made to approve August minutes by Ron 2nd by Beth. All agree, motion carried.


Treasurer Report. Clark questioned Dean's Drain Service bill. Ron explained he was trying to find out where the plug was on the drain at 4th & Walnut and also by Boone's house at 675 Washington Street. Aaron read the description of service, 1st drain located at 4th & Walnut. Ran camera about 25ft before hitting a wall of dirt and leaves. Located camera head and marked with white paint, line was approx 2 1/2 feet deep. 2nd drain was at 671 Washington Street. Camera went 15 feet and found another wall of dirt and leaves. Located camera head and marked with white paint. This line was 3 feet deep. Total cost $250.00 Aaron stated he signed the check because of the detail in the bill and services were rendered. Clark mentioned that council as a whole did not approve for the drains to be cameraed. Sue mentioned she found in August minutes that no action was taken on the drains. It was not approved to do at this time. This is a five member board and everyone needs to approve. Ron said it was already done and it was a mistake but the services were done. In the future it should be done properly. Ron thought it was approved when Rotor Router came out and could not get the drains opened. He was wrong. After further discussion, Sue motioned to approve Dean's Drain Service payment, Beth 2nds, Aaron approves. Clark opposes. Motion carries.


Sue questioned on the parks page on Treasurer Report, Sue wanted to know where the start up funds came from. Pat stated it came from the parks account and was approved by the parks board. She also questioned Lamantia Produce bill and wanted to know why it was not paid by parks. Pat explained that was for the summer program by the Borough and not parks therefore, it comes out of the Borough account.


Sue also questioned the franchise fee from Comcast. Wanted to know if the fee was once a year or twice a year. Pat stated it was twice a year fee. Aaron motioned to approve treasurer report, Beth 2nd, all in favor motion carried.

Police Report for August was given by Officer Salley.
Total Incidents 5
Total Arrests 0
Total Accidents 0
Total Parking Tickets 0
Total Non-Traffic Citations 0
Total Traffic Citations 0
Total Written Warnings 3
Total Traffic Stops 3


Assists
PSP 0
St Clair TWP. 0
Seward Boro 0
Fire Dept 0
EMS 0
Ligonier TWP 0
Ligonier Boro 0
Sheriff Dept. 0
Total Assists 0


Mileage

Beginning 15038 Ending 15368 Total 330
Fuel 43.4 gallons Hours 64


Aaron questioned about the dog situation on 6th street. The Mayor is still getting complaints. Officer Salley said to notify us immediately so they can notify animal control.
Sue asked about 547 Market Street is going into repossession. The grass is very high and needs to be cited. John Kovac said he would cut the grass if need be. Officer Salley needs the ownership information. Property under the name of Ed Auen.
After review with rest of council members Aaron motions to pay police bills. Clark made motion Beth 2nds to pay both bills. All approved motion carried.


Solicitor Report: Jeff has two matters to address. 1st. One is the amendment for the Road Ordinance # 5-92. It states when opening roads full pavement overlay of excavated areas are to be from curb to curb to maintain the premature deterioration of streets. This Ordinance needs to be advertised and then if agreed upon signed at next Council meeting. Clark motions to approve and Beth 2nds. Ron wants to have a correction made. Jeff to do this.


2nd is a Resolution for the Early Intervention Program. This does not need to be advertised. All agreed to approve Resolution and Council President and Secretary signed. Pat mentioned the Borough received the $4,000. from Westmoreland Community Foundation to cover our portion of the EIP grant we received last year. Sue motioned to approve Resolution Clark 2nd. All approved, motion carried.


USDA Program - update for garage. Mr. Robson was to be here this evening and did not show. It was discussed that Mr. Robson was to have the necessary documents here to be signed.

Public Comment: John Kovac
John stated that he has excess gravel left over at Legion from their project and would like to know if the Borough wants it. He can get it down to Quonset hut. He also wanted to thank the Borough for the extra cold patch that was given to the Legion for their parking area.

He also wanted to talk about the meeting this morning that several council members had with the county. He was talking about the flood plain plans. John wanted to know who can help in getting the maps updated so he doesn't have to pay for flood insurance. He would like to be notified when they come to update the flood maps. Currently maps do not show the elevation on the maps.

Amy commented that she thought Arch Dodson met with flood plain people when she was on council. Jeffery said the county did an updated map within the past 6 or 7 years. The updates were done at the county level.


Aaron asked for other public comment. None was given.


Update on boat dock grant. Pat stated she and several members met with Mr. Crounaur this morning along with the engineer. The plans were brought in showing the project. The drawings are available for all to see.


Update on Gas Company for street repairs
Jeffery stated he forgot about the letter to send to Gas Company. He will do so.


New Business. Next meeting October 4, 2018 - 7 PM.


CDBG road grant for 2019 thru 2021. We have two engineers. Bankston Engineer and McCormick Taylor proposals. Pat spoke to John Petulla from McCormick Taylor approx 2 hours ago. She had asked to have two additional areas to be added to the CDBG grant. They stated that because they have most of the items already from the past CDBG grant then their price for this project will only be $2,000 to do whereas Bankston Engineers would have to do all the aerial photos and income analysis. McCormick will only need to do a supplement to the agreement. McCormick will do all the inspections, file the CDBG, and whatever else is needed including an inspector on site during the entire process. There will be additional cost for construction engineer if we are approved. We need a 15% match, but the $2000 will go also toward our 15 % match. Sue also spoke to Terry Antonacci at the county level and he said if need be we can still get in a couple days late if we let him know. Sue made motion to spend the $2000 to McCormick Taylor to proceed with CDBG grant. All in favor, Motion carried.

John Kovac asked if they will be closing the old drain at Lear Street or are they going to make a new one. He wanted to know why we don't wait until after the bridge is done. Sue explained this is a three year project and the bridge will be done before that. If the state fixes the drain before then, then we can take the drain off our CDBG grant.

Dirt & Gravel Grant Project. 1st Priority on the grant is 4th & Walnut. They to do 2 inlets, 1 on the Coal mine side in the middle of the 4th street extension and the other across the street. They will then tie both into the drain on Walnut Street by Darrel's house. This will keep the water from running the whole way down 4th street to McKinley Street making a right turn and running down to 3rd Street and going down that hill until it hits the first inlet on Lincoln Street across from Lamantia' Auto Parts Store. Because this is water runoff from the mines and causing erosion it can be done with the Dirt and Gravel Grant. Mr. Crounaur gave me the exact amount of piping to ask for an amount of inlets to ask for.
2nd Priority. Alley way behind Don Penrose between Washington & Lincoln. It was suggested we put pavers in and 2 inlets one on each side of alleyway, plus put line's down to 7th street drain.
3rd Priority. We currently have two drains by Boones' to add 2 x 4 ft x 6 ft deep. Along with inlet drain across street from that one and then also 2 additional drains farther down from Boones. They will tie all 4 drains together and then go over the side of road, including the paving.
Mr. Crounaur is also the head guy for the Dirt and Gravel Grant. His site visit was to let us know what can be covered and what cannot be covered and what priority to put them in. Shaffer and Lear Street are not eligible for the grant because there is no erosion on either place. Aaron and Pat are to get together this upcoming week to work on grant.


Meeting at Ligonier town hall on the bridge replacement on RT 259 between Bolivar and West Bolivar at 4 to 5 PM. Sept 19th.


Computer crash from the outage update. Aaron said he spoke to Tom and maybe able to come down this weekend if he can. Pat explained the windows driver is corrupted so therefore Windows has to be reinstalled. She tried to get Windows to fix the problem with the program and it still could not, even tried to restore from an earlier version and could not do it. The good thing is all the files are on a backup flash drive. Jeffery suggested to get windows 10 to install. Pat said because of the size of the drive in the computer it will not support windows 10. Discussion was made on the possibility of getting an external hard drive. Pat explained part of the problem is that Kelly and she were told they were not allowed to shut down the computer only to log off. This is part of the problem as to why the computer crashed with the outage. Pat stated she has bills to pay and payroll to pay. Without the computer she had to go into Intuit and download Quickbooks onto her computer from home just to pay the bills.
Pat suggested to have her son fix the computer because he is certified in computer repairing and replacement. Has done it for years with his job. Aaron motion to purchase an external hard drive for no more than $200. Beth 2nd. All approved. Discussion was made to get the computer fixed as soon as possible. Sue motion to do this 2nd by Aaron. No cap put on a price tag to have it fixed. All approved. It was discussed also to see how much it will cost to get a new computer system.

Next, Fairfield Township drain by Deemer's update.
Ron said he spoke to Paul Altumus again on this matter. Mr. Altumus said he was not handling this project but he would check with the person who is and get back with us. Jeff said nothing was even said about the drain issue at the meeting this afternoon.


Fairfield Twp request for payment to help with the diesel inspection fees. Because we go there to get Diesel fuel they are asking for us to help pay for the maintenance with a cost of $100.00
Clark questioned how much diesel fuel we get from them. Ron said we get quite a lot approx 30 - 40 gallons of Diesel per month now. The diesel tank we have there now is only a 500 gallon tank, has no pump for it. Clark motion to go ahead and pay, Sue 2nd. All in favor, motion passed to pay $100.00 to Fairfield Twp.


Comcast renewal contract. Aaron and Ron said they read and reread the contract. Have not seen much change in the contract at all. Clark questioned whether the cell tower project was part of Comcast. Pat said no, it was Verizon. She spoke with the Verizon contact on this and was told a letter of request must come from the Mayor. Pat said she spoke to Tom several months ago on this and still nothing has been done. Clark wanted to know if Council could do it. Pat said it has to come from the Mayor. Sue wanted to know if Jeffery could write the letter and have Tom sign it. Jeffery wanted to know what has to be on the letter. Jeffery said to contact New Florence Mayor and see what they asked.
Sue said back to the Comcast contract. What needs to be done on this? Jeffery said to slow down on this. Jeffery wanted to know if we have to pay for service here. Pat said the TV is free but we pay for phone and internet. Jeffery said to check with them to see if we could get free internet with the renewal. Jeffery explain to Council what the Franchise fee is and how it works. He also said it does not have to be for 10 years. We can ask for a lesser time frame.
Pat is to contact Comcast to see what can be worked out with them. We will table this renewal until next month.


Police contract is up for renewal. Sue said it was brought to her attention and we need to put into the contract they to be here during events that parks have. We would need to get them a schedule. We also need to have a Police Committee as was stated when we started the contract with the police and also week-end coverage. We still don't have a Police Committee from a year ago. The Mayor said we were going to have a Committee but everything has to go through the Mayor to the Mayor. Council is out of it. Discussion was made to have 2 Council members and 2 people from the public to oversee the Police Committee. Sue volunteered to be on the committee, Clark also volunteered. Beth said she can be an alternative. Pat to put sign up to advertise for two citizens from the town and to attend the next Council meeting in October.


Need to set up budget workshop for 2019. It was decided to set up first meeting Oct 6 - 10 AM.

Next, request refund. 3 people requested refund of per capita tax for 2018. Pat wanted to know if anyone else got or knew about a per capita tax in the fall for the school district. The school district said PA Municipal send them a list of people in the Borough for the District to send out. The school district said they can only send a per capita tax bill according to the list that is sent to them. So some people get the tax and some don't.
Discussion was made for the spring per capita tax bill asking for a refund of their tax paid. Sue wanted to know where the money comes from. Pat said it comes from the General Account. That is where the funds were put. Sue wanted to know what about the tax collector commission on the money. Jeffery said it is only 5% amounting to 15 cent commission. Motion was made to repay the three people requesting the refund. All agreed to pay back.


Next, Per Capita Ordinance Amendment. Discussion was to decide what amount to charge. Sue wanted $5.00. Aaron said $10.00. This was written in 1976. The town really needs the money. Pat also has another question. How do we go about getting those people who don't pay their per capita tax? Jeffery said to sue the people. By the time they get done with the law suit they end up paying over $200 for not paying their per capita. Jeffery will revise the Ordinance working out late fees and court costs.


Sewage Report. Sue said working on grant for grader and road. Dealing with issues on people who have taps and not taps.


Mayor Report: Aaron said the Mayor wanted to let everyone know how happy he was with how the Brickfest was handled. Had lots of good reviews on it.


Street Commissioner Report:
Ron said had to call Thermadoor on the garage door again. The springs broke and jumped off track. Cost $142.50 He asked them to also give us a cost estimate on replacing the entire door. Estimate is $2600.00.
Sue said we need to get several bids with and without the opener and also an un insulated door. Aaron said he will get hold of Ted Moran to come down and look at it also to get a bid.
Sue motion to retroactive the payment of $142.50 to Thermodoor from 9-6-2018. Door needed repaired to get it open. Aaron 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed.


Greg has been removing the old fence at the lower park to get ready for the boat dock project. Also cleaning out the kudzu and brush. Between the zero turn, and truck and weed eater used 76.3 gallon of gas this month. Ron also contacted Hercules Truck on the plow part. They said it should be in by the first of the week and they would call. Ron has contacted them every week for two months now and still not in. Will probably have to go down there to see what the problem is. Greg purchased a pruner, shearer equipment tools we need. Clark asked if we have a tool account. Pat said that was done away with. Pat also stated it was passed by council several years ago that tools and equipment needed could be purchased for up to $1,000 
without rest of council approval. Sue motioned to repay Greg for the items purchased, Aaron 2nd. Motion carried.

Parks & Rec. Beth said we just completed the Brickfest. Went well. We do need to change some things for next year but everything else went ok. We have hayrides coming up in October that we need to discuss on Wednesday at the Parks meeting. Pat said by the time we had all the bills paid Parks made approximately $1000 in profit. Clark asked about signs for the Park about alcohol and other things in the park like the lower park has.


Sue asked about the different classes coming up. Pat said she gets this type of information and it gets forwarded to Council if they are interested.
No other business at this time.


Motion to adjourn meeting made by Clark, 2nd by Beth. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM


Respectfully,

Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer