This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Meeting opened by Lou McLaughlin, President
Present: Michael Smith, Jeffery Miller, Clark Baird-Mayor, & Lou McLaughlin- President, Gladine McMaster and Sue Bartow
Absent: Keith StClair
General Public: Mellissa Miller and Heidi Speidel
Approval May minutes
After review motion made by Jeffery 2nd by Sue to approve minutes. No objections. Motion passed.
Approval of Treasurer Report
Sue asked why we would buy cyan ink. Pat said it is printer ink. Sue wanted to know if we use color ink. Pat said yes, we use it all the time.
The other question is under General expenses you transferred $100 to parks from Benevity. What is this and why.
Mellissa answered this question. Her daughter works for a company that donated to various organizations and the employee has a choice of who to donate to. Hannah wanted the funds to go to parks, however it had to go thru the Borough first.
Pat said the funds came in the last day of last month and could not transfer to parks until the new month. That is why you do not see it in as a deposit on this month’s report.
After review motion made by Jeffery, 2nd by Sue to approve treasurer report. No objections motion passed.
Solicitor Report:
Michael received an email on the dyke issue. He wanted to see the documents on the dyke before commenting to DEP.
Lou said we have the situation put thru in a grant. Pat said actually we have that location as well as the 5th Street project is on both the CDBG grant and the Small Water Grant.
Lou said there will still be water lying on the ground because of the way the area was cleared out of trees and brush and is not level. Our storm drain is the only thing that runs thru Kovac and StClair area.
Jeffery wanted to know what happened all of a sudden to that area.
Lou said they built the house on top of our drains. How is this our problem?
Gladine said she commented on the incident and sent a letter explaining the situation. They skimmed all the vegetation off the area and now the water just lays there. It is not the dyke that is causing the problem, it is what Kovac did to the property.
Lou said he was going to send a letter to DEP and we are working on getting a grant. If we get the money that’s fine if we don’t then it is their problem.
Discussion was made and Jeffery motions to send a letter to DEP disclaiming the issue, 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motion passed. Michael to use also Gladine’s comment when he responds to the letter.
Clark asks if Michael heard anything else about 745 Lincoln Street. Michael said ne he has not. He not sure what council wants him to do now.
Jeffery asks if council wants to address to the new replacement solicitor now.
Jeffery said normally it is just Brian Litzinger who attends the meetings.
Jeffery said we probably could have him on an as needed basis. Lou asked if he would be alright with it. Jeffery commented he probably would be ok with that.
We need a motion for Mr. Litzinger to be the town solicitor or not.
Clark asked if he was willing to take it for the same as Michael. Lou said it was $150 plus mileage.
After further discussion Gladine motions to accept Brian for Borough Attorney on an as needed basis, Sue 2nd the motion, all in favor motion passed.
Lou said before we go to public comment he wants to make a little statement.
He has been getting beat up on the internet. They are wanting to know why he has been voting against Kim. If they would read the minutes it shows that he voted to leave Kim alone. The Borough did not need to get involved. According to the complaints the council members are not educated and just need to leave her alone. Clark said there was actually a tie and Clark voted to leave her and her business alone
Public Comment:
Heidi, had an issue with her neighbor’s high grass. Wanted to know if we could take care of it.
Discussion was made and Pat is to issue a letter to owner for the Ordinance property neglect.
Heidi says there are people in and out of the house all the time.
Old Business:
Update on recall of Borough truck.
Pat said the dealer is still waiting for the parts to come in.
No other old business.
New Business:
Sign Up sheet for Cleanup day June 28th
A sheet is being passed around for council to sign up for a time frame of 2 hours.
Clark was asked why he wasn’t signing up by Sue. Clark said he can barely walk to his car from his house so no he is not signing up.
Lou to talk to Keith about his signing up.
Complaint from DEP.
Council has already discussed the situation.
Trees in Lower Park.
Lou asked Mellissa if the was going to be discussed during parks & Rec time or now.
Mellissa said at the bottom playground there are several trees that are very dangerous. We did get an estimate. We are going to do it, but parks would like to know if council would be willing to go halves on it with us.
Sue asked why we only got one bid. Mellissa said we got more than one before and we are just not going to get anyone to cut down the trees or trim them. The fees were all over the place.
This estimate is an arborist who is not going to take advantage of us. We are putting a lot of money into that park area. We just put a new pavilion in, put mulch down and are working on another grant for more playground equipment down there. We have someone coming to sandblast and paint the equipment. We hate to see the trees fall on the equipment and damage.
Gladine asked if we have any budget money we could squeeze from to help parks out.
Pat said we have $8,900 in the storage fund. We were saving up for a roof over the salt bin.
Mellissa asked if we could request that maybe council could put funds in the budget for parks.
Jeffery asked about the funds. We are working on eventually putting a cover over the salt. We are currently using a tarp over the bin. We get 2 tarps per year currently.
Gladine motions to take $2,000 from storage fund to help cover the cost of the trees. 2nd by Lou all in favor motion passed.
Correspondence
PA Municipal INC- name change letter along with an I-9
Westmoreland County Borough Association - The meeting ended up being over on May 29th
Mayor report
409 4th ST – high grass issue
112 Lear Street – high grass issue and junk
541 Market St – high grass issue
841 McKinley St – high grass issue
Pat to issue certified letters to home owners giving them 10 days to fix and clean up or Borough workers will clean up and put a lien on property.
Clark asked if Sewage Co is going to pay ½ for street repairs on 3rd Street. Sue said they are not.
Sewage Report
Meeting next week at the sewage authority building at 6:30 PM
Lou asked if they got our letter. Sue and Jeffery said we did not have a meeting yet. Sue said it is in the minutes for this month.
Lou said next time we will just shut down the road until Sewage Company looks at it for themselves. We are going to have to start looking into the rest of the roads in town. Everywhere there is a sink hole is where the sewage line has come through.
Street Commissioner Report
Lou said they worked on the drain by Boones. Going to get the fire company to come up and blow out the line. Already talked to Aaron Bouch and he will talk to John about it.
The pipe looks like it is going uphill.
They are also working on other storm drains. Started edging roads and spraying for weeds. Started at the lower part of town.
Truck now has 3737 miles
Kubota 99 hours
Zero turn has 1376 hours
It seems the tires are rubbing on the side of the zero turn. Mostly when running up hill.
Gladine asked if we have any cold patch left. McKinley & 9th the street sweeper ended up taking off the patch that was on the road.
We bought a new weed eater at a cost of $159.96. We got the same type so we can use parts from the old one.
Pat asked Jeffery if Paul talked about the vacuum cleaner for the Borough. It stopped working. Jeffery to take home to fix again.
We also had a problem with the push mower. Bill Pease fixed the mower. Haven’t gotten a bill yet for it.
Parks & Rec
Upcoming events: June 22 Krazy Kat Daddies and ice cream social
Mobile zoo is June 27th
July 10th Hosses fundraiser – need invitation and give to Hosses. We get part of the profit.
No Other business
Motion to adjourn at 7:45 PM by Jeffery, 2nd by Sue, all in favor motion passed.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer