March 5th, 2026
This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Meeting opened by Lou McLaughlin, President
Present: Keith St.Clair, Sue Bartow, CJ Stoffer- Mayor, Tyler Hughes, Myers Miller, Lou McLaughlin- President, and Brian Litzinger- Solicitor
Absent: none
General Public: Mellissa Miller, Jeffery Miller, Annabelle Chipps- Latrobe Bulletin, Joe Wood came in late.
Approval of February minutes
Sue brought up an error on the minutes. The exemption that Brian was going to Greensburg to appeal was not for K & K Shop it was for the Methodist Church. Pat said when the Church was purchased it was in the name of K & K. Kim had it changed to Favor of Western PA so she could get it as tax exempt. Sue commented that it was similar to the old Funeral home which is now a church and they also tried to get it exempt but could not because of an apartment in the upstairs.
After review, Keith motions to accept minutes, 2nd by Sue, all in favor motion passed.
Approval of Treasurer Report
Sue question in the general account expenses an item concerning the town insurance. She asked what the #2 was. Pat said it was installment # 2 of the town insurance.
Sue asked next question concerning Houck wages from Feb 4th. He worked 40.5 hours. She wanted to know if we had to pay him time and half for the .5 hours. Pat said no, that was the total for two weeks not one week.
Sue also questioned what Nanna Stuff was under the parks deposits. Pat said it was the name of Vendor # 1.
Sue also questioned the sponsorship for Pittsburgh Zoo and Carnegie Science Center. Why was the funds taken out.
Pat said the funds were transferred to project fund where the money is held until the event comes due.
Myers was asking about the zoo which he thought was free. Pat said park does not have to pay for it because the event is paid for by a sponsor. Pat also said that we have 2 different zoos coming this year. Pam St.Clair paid for one and the other is paid for by another sponsor.
Tyler had a question. He said since he is one of the new guys on council. He is looking at the CD we have on the last page and wants to know if we could put the interest toward paying off the truck rather than keeping it in the CD. Pat said it is not like a private loan with a Municipality. When a Municipality takes out a loan it is based on the Municipalities financials. The loan is spread out over a 5 year period and does not reduce the amount of payment and we do not refinance the loan to try to reduce. The loan is a government loan at 2%. They look at what revenues come into the Municipalities and whether they can afford to pay a loan back based on revenues.
Sue asked if the payments for the truck comes out of liquid fuels. She thought it came out of that. Pat said no, it comes from the general account. Diesel fuel for the truck can come from liquid fuels. The truck because it is used for everything and not just liquid fuels the payment has to come from general fund.
Pat said the street lights could come from liquid fuels but because it uses up too much of the funds we pay from the general account. The lights haven’t come from liquid fuels for almost 15 years.
Loud asked if there are any other questions.
After review, Keith motions to accept report, 2nd by Lou all in favor motion passed.
Solicitor Report,
Brian, handed out a copy of letter he supplied to the auditor. Brian reported on the hearing of the tax exemption request for Favor of Western PA using the Old Methodist Church. He appealed and seems to think the county will deny the exemption request. Favor hasn’t done any work on the property yet and the jest Brian got from the ordeal is that eventually the property will get fixed and be used by Favor but not right away. They are in the planning works and haven’t done anything yet on the building. She was late for her hearing. She is also having issues with DEP of Labor.
Pat asked any update on the per capita. Brian said he hasn’t gotten any update from the courts on it yet.
Public Comment.
None at this time
Old Business:
Update on the concerned citizen letter from February
CJ and Lou both went up to look at the issue. If it goes anywhere the trailer is going down over the hill and not out onto the street. The wheels are supposed to be blocked.
CJ said once the trailer is disconnected from the cab the wheels automatically lock. Joe Wood also said he had talked to other people about this and they all said it was ok. CJ told Mr. Wood that the next time if he decides to do this to inform council about it and get their approval.
Tyler asked if Mr. Wood said what he was doing with the trailer. CJ said it was to make a tiny house but it would not stay on the property after he is finished.
Update on new Secretary / Treasurer
Pat said she and Barbara have been meeting up several times a week not counting work days going over the requirements needed for different items, such as the Right to Know Law, workers comp, Secretary Requirements for documents preservations and the QuickBooks reports. She is now on the checking accounts. I am still in the process of applying for the government ID’s so she can file all necessary reports.
Update on LSA Grant Funds.
Pat gave everyone a copy of an email she got today from Harrisburg. We have been assigned an analyst for the Market Street Storm Sewer Project. Mr. Nathan Summey was letting us know that the earliest we anticipate award announcements for the project is September 2026 when the CFA board meets again. The submitted project cannot commence / start prior to award announcement by CFA of it will be deemed ineligible for funding.
Pat said to keep in mind this was a grant we applied for in 2024. It was not approved until Sept 2025. Release of funds will not take place until Sept 2026. We then will be able to put together the bid documents and advertise for the project. This project will not be able to start until 2027. This is how the government works.
Jeffery asked how much the grant is. The LSA grant is around $588 thousand. We also got the CDBG grant which will complete the rest of 5th Street.
Lou said Keith will be coming down and meeting with Lou so they can start the drawings.
Sue questioned the letter states the letter says it is for the Market Street project. Pat said when Keith applied for the grant in 2024 he just put the LSA grant that way but also included the 5th Street project area that still needed worked on.
Sue said she talked to Keith about the sidewalk out front. He said there was money thru LSA and the MTF Fund for this.
No other old business
New Business:
Westmoreland County Boro ASSOC meeting March 26th. Program: Municipality liability blind spots and lawsuits Borough’s never saw coming.
Pat said the meetings are actually free to us. When we go down there they always have a speaker with items the Boroughs would find very important and necessary to know. Plus you also get a free meal out of it. Ron and Pat used to go there to the meetings and was very informative. Anyone who is interested can go.
2025 Audit results and cost
Pat handed out to everyone a copy of the financial statement and letter from the auditor. The audit is complete and will be forwarding a copy of the DCED report. The cost this year is actually $500 cheaper than what she had put on the contract with us.
Liquid Fuels allocation received this year is $18,476.79
Pat said this gets added to what we currently have left in the liquid fuels fund account of $10,151.06
The DCED audit needed to be also completed before we could get our allocation for this year.
Any other business:
Letters:
Lou received a complaint from a homeowner living at the corner of 2nd & Market Street. The complaint states that the sidewalk was torn up and that street gravel was thrown into his yard and will be clogging up his lawn mower. He wants the borough to fix it up. Please see that this is done as soon as possible. Lou assumes what the homeowner is talking about is on the side street. He has told him before that if the borough worker damages something in a person’s yard when plowing that the borough will fix it in the spring. Lou said he will go look at it.
Next letter is from the fire dept.
They are asking for a donation. Council normally does not give anything additional because we pay for their workers comp and also give $2,000 in funds toward their insurance on the fire trucks.
Next letter is for the county banquet for the boroughs.
Banquet is April 24th. The cost is $35 per person. If anyone is interested please contact Mary Lou by April 15th.
No other business to discuss.
Sue asked Barbara what her hours are going to be at the Borough. She wanted to know if they would remain the same.
Barbara said she would keep it the same.
Sue also has a question for Brian concerning the Per Capita. WE are taking all these people to court for not paying their per capita fees. Does anyone know if these people were sent a copy of the Ordinance so they know they must pay the tax?
Pat said every person was sent a copy of the ordinance with their per capita bill, and also again in November to remind the parties involved they still owe the funds.
Sue’s other question was we have new people moving into town and wanted to know if they were sent a notice. She had asked Myers to get together with her and if we had a copy and tax collector has a copy of a list of people for Tammie. Sue wanted to know if we had a roster of the current people in town that pays.
Pat says the tax collector uses the tax duplicates that she gets plus any new residents that purchase a house and we are notified of the deed transfer. She adds the name to her per capita list which shows the year of when they paid or did not pay. It still is not her job to go around town every year to find out who lives in the home and the age of the person. It also is not our job to do this. We cannot get it of the post office the name either. Now if the property is a rental property the tax collector sends the per capita to the homeowner and marks it for the renters. It is then up to the homeowner to either give the tax collector the names of the renters or the owner pays the per capita bill.
Anything else under new business.
Joe Wood wanted to apologize for not letting the council know about the tiny home he is building with the trailer on his property. In the future he will notify the council if he builds another tiny home.
Mayor Report
CJ said he has nothing else to talk about other than the trailer.
Sewage Report
Sue said meeting next Wednesday.
Street Commissioner Report
Zero turn mower mileage has not changed since it is winter.
Kubota has 124 hours
Truck has 5,135 miles on it. The plow and spreader is coming off tomorrow. We are going to get cold patch to fix potholes in town that has come up. Also we will be cutting up the tree branch that has come down at the upper park.
Lou said he will be bringing the workers back full time soon. They currently are still on as needed basis.
Parks & Rec
Mellissa said trivia night is March 21st at the Legion. We are also doing subs and pies for the holidays.
Also Laurel Highlands Heritage Trail will allow us to get markers for free for the upcoming 250 year anniversary. We have a form to complete and we will check with the Historian in town to see what we can put on it. Lou asked if we are spending any money. Mellissa said you will not.
Tyler asked where they would be going. Mellissa said one on each side of the town.
We applied to Erie Insurance again for a grant for the upper playground for another piece of play equipment. We have the funds to buy a piece right now but if we can get a grant to pay for it then we can use the funds to get security cameras up there. We are having different things broken and would like to catch who is doing it. Last year the stage floor walkway and banister was busted. Myers had to fix it.
Pat said Mellissa’s term was up Dec 2025. When we had the parks meeting we nominated her for another 4 years term. Lou motioned to approve 2nd by Keith, all in favor motion passed.
No other business motion to adjourn made by Lou 2nd by Keith at 7:45 PM. All in favor motion passed.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer