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Regular Meeting

May 3



This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Present: Ron Betts, Clark Baird, Sue Bartow, Beth Thompson, Jeffery Miller- Solicitor,

Absent – Mayor Tom Pickup, Council President Aaron Bouch
Gen Public - Dan Short Jr, Ligonier Echo Representative- Alexander Ashcroft, Pastor Lent- Independent Baptist Church, Melissa Miller, Pam & Joe StClair, Amy Lichtenfelt, Officer Salley, and Officer Chilcote


Meeting called to order 7PM by Beth Thompson


Approval of April minutes was presented. Sue asked about the port-a-john time frame for parks. Sue said she had commented the time frame for the rental from May to Sept for total of $660.00 This amount was not in the minutes. Clark motion to approve minutes 2nd by Sue with corrections. All agree, motion carried.


Treasurer Report- Motion to approve made by Beth 2nd by Sue. All agree motion carried.


Police Report for April was given by Officer Salley.
Total Incidents 4
Total Arrests 0
Total Accidents 0
Total Parking Tickets 0
Total Non-Traffic Citations 0
Total Traffic Citations 1
Total Written Warnings 5
Total Traffic Stops 4
Assists
PSP 0
St Clair TWP. 0
Seward Boro 0
Fire Dept 0
EMS 0

Ligonier TWP 0
Ligonier Boro 0
Sheriff Dept 0
Mileage
Beginning 13701 Ending 14004 Total 302
Fuel 37.7 gallons Hours 64


Officer Salley also spoke up concerning the Police cruiser with continued turn signal issue and brake lights. Had part fixed worked for 2 weeks and went again. Lear's state electrical issue. Request to take to Team Force to trace issue. Officer Salley to get a price for us. Lear's also presented a bill from Lears to cover cost of repairs they already did.
Ron motions to pay $230 for car repairs, Clark 2nd. All approved, Motion carried. 


Officer Salley stated the police force will start to enforce the Ordinance's since it is spring. New Florence is purchasing a camera to take photos for court. Clark gave Officer Salley his copy of the Ordinance's that is used the most. Jeffery stated the court is requiring the Original signed version's with seal.

Solicitor Report: Jeffery stated the Arbitration Hearing decision was made in favor of MJ Construction in the amount of $2,620.00. Either party has 30 days from the date of the award to appeal. Award date was April 23, 2018. Clark motioned to pay the bill for MJ Construction when it comes due. Ron and Beth 2nd. All in favor, motion approved.


Public Comment: Pastor Lent wants exempted from paying taxes on church property. Pat presented to council a copy of the documents from Tax Collector and letter Pastor sent to Borough requesting council to cancel his debt. Pastor Lent needs a letter from the Borough and School District before the County will exempt the taxes. Spring 2017 taxes were paid, however the fall school district taxes were not paid. The church racked up an additional $250.00 in penalties and interest. Jeffery looked into the code that was sent to him in reference to the Pastors situation. It does not exempt him, however if the council wants to consider his exemption then Jeffery would have to look further into the law to see if we could exonerate 
him. For 2018 the church has received their tax exemption. Jeffery explained the difference between the 3 three taxes. The Borough taxes run from January through December and are paid up. The church did not become exempt until January of 2018. If the county and school district need a prerequisite for them to be exonerated from the fall taxes then Jeffery will research. Sue motion to refund up to $20.00 contingent upon Jeffery findings. Ron 2nds. All in favor, Motion carries.

Dan Short, JR - wants stump farm checked out. Vehicles 4 wheeling up there and going through the cemetery. Ron to check out. There are trails that drive around the top of hill.


Amy Lichtenfelt nothing. She just came to observe. Amy said mussels are now on the dogs. No more noise.

Joe St Clair called gas company on gas house. Back of house has steel door with lock on, there are 3 windows with shutters. 2nd window shutters are open. Bldg is in need of repairs, roof is sagging, and the boards on the back are falling apart, gas can be smelled from there also.
He notified Peoples Gas, been over 6 weeks and no-one has come out to check it out. Wants Borough to do something about it. Joe called the number on the door so the gas company knows exactly which one.


Trash burning, people are burning trash bags, shingles, tires. Wants to know what the Ordinance says about this. Amy commented that DEP showed up because she was burning milk jugs. Always burning after dark so you can't get photos or see who is burning. Discussion was made who to notify. Clark questioned if the people are in town or not. Pam said not sure because of the closeness of Fairfield Twp and Bolivar.


Constant speeding- it is starting again. From the bridge to pizza shop. The people slow down when they hit the pizza shop because they know the police are sitting there. Between Kovac's and the trailer there is an alley between. The police can sit there.


Last item - conflict with clean up days in Bolivar and Fairfield Community Days. What are we going to do about it.


Pam St Clair turn: She is happy Council is following up with draining problem at bottom of town. Ron spoke to Dick Galbraith on where the drain is. 2nd, Up by Donna Pardee beauty shop, she had heard about possible gravel to go behind her shop.
Good news- Bolivar Borough web site received an award for their web site so she brought Pat a present of two bottles of coke.


Melissa Miller- nothing
.
Next item. Boat dock grant. No news on whether we got the 2nd grant or not. Jeffery wanted to know if we got an engineer on the project. Pat said that Mr. Cronour is designing the project.


Next item, Drain issue at John Kovac property. Ron said he hasn’t been able to find the drain yet. Mr. Galbraith said he thinks he remembers where the drain is. If he cannot find, then we will probably need to put a pipe across the dyke for drainage. Fairfield is going to try to open the drain on their side of the dyke to see if that will help.


Next Item. Nims training for all council. Pat said she only has a copy from Beth and Ron. Clark spoke up and said he thought he had taken the class before. He to look for his copy of certificate.


Next item: Street Sweeper prices. Ron said Suit-Kote gave us a quote for $100 per hour and he said he can have it done in less than 8 hrs. He charges travel time 1 Hr@ $100 also. the other sweeping company charges $118 per hour on regular time and $140 per hour for overtime hours. Suite-Kote is going to be over at Fairfield with in the next two weeks. They will also be doing Ridgeview and West Bolivar within that time frame and then they can come over here. After next several weeks then the cost will be more because they will be farther away in another county. Clark made motion to go with Suit-Kote for up to 8 hrs. Sue 2nds all in favor, motion carried.


Next item: YMCA Summer Program. Pat stated she did receive Fairfield Twp portion request of $150.00 to offset the cost of food and drink for program. Have not heard from West Wheatfield yet.


Next item. Fairfield TWP still hasn’t paid for their portion of the W/C for 2018 Jeffery stated this will be resolved within the upcoming week or so.


New Business:
Next meeting June 7, 7 PM

Reimbursement for tax collector training class. Pat stated back in 2015, council had approved to take the class and council would reimburse for the cost of the course since it was and is required to be tax collector.
Beth requested an executive meeting concerning personnel. Time is 8 PM


Executive session returned 8:20 PM.
Clark motion to give Greg Hughes a raise of $1.00 per hour effective this evening. Sue 2nd. all in favor, motion carried.


Beth made motion to accept Jess certification effective April 13th. Sue 2nd. all in favor, motion carried. Sue motioned to deny the cost of the course for tax collector. Silence. No one would 2nd. Motion dies. Pat showed Beth the Minutes from 2015 where council approved the payment of courses. Beth asked if this is required every year. Pat explained that the 6 courses were changed to 2 courses within a four year period instead of every year. Beth said she has no problem paying for the first $200 but after that any remaining courses are tax collector responsibility to maintain. Beth then motion to pay, Clark 2nd. All in favor. Sue denies, Ron abstains. Motion passed.


Next item: Mileage reimbursement form. Ron stated he found out the Borough does not have a form to get paid for mileage when their own POV has to be used for Borough business. Sue spoke up that Greg has been using his vehicle to get parts rather than using the borough truck because of the poor mileage the truck gets. Clark made motion to accept the reimbursement form, Beth 2nds. No changes made to form. All in favor, motion carried.


Servicing A/C unit. Sue asked when the system was serviced last. Pat said it has been two years. Mullens quoted $100 to have system serviced. Sue motion to have it serviced, Clark 2nd, all in favor motion carried.


Next item: PSAB web site for Bolivar. Pat received notice from PSAB informing an award for 3rd place on Web site. Requesting presence at the PSAB conference in June to receive the award. After research she decided the cost for the conference was too much money. She notified PSAB that she would not be able to attend and they would then send award end of June after conference.


Next: May 12, Firemen's car wash. They are requesting to close street from 3rd street between Market and Shaffer for car wash. Ron make motion to close street, Clark 2nd. all in favor, motion carried.

Next: First annual First Responder Appreciation day at Idlewild Park June 17th for free admission for all active police, firefighters, EMT's, Dispatchers, Military Personnel. Family and friends have special discounted tickets also.


Clean Up day Sign Up sheet. Time slots available for council members to help out at Quonset Hut site.


Correspondence
: Council is reminded to check their mail boxes and clean them out. Boxes are over flowing.


Sewage Report – nothing.
Mayor Report – nothing
Street Commissioner Report.
Since February the Borough truck and police car have used 337 gallons of gas. Borough truck uses approx 35 gallons a week.
Greg has been cleaning up the streets of trash and cleaning the drains out.
Ron asking to contact Roto-Router to see if they can open 3 street drains with their jetter. Flushed 3 times with fire truck and snaked them and still can't get opened. Two at Boones, on Washington St and one on 5th street. Sue asked about the rate they would charge. Pat said it was approx $2000 to camera and flush. Clark questioned if we can use liquid fuels, and Pat told him yes. Clark made motion to pay and Beth 2nd. All in favor, motion carried.
Ron had 400 shrubs and trees to plant. He asking for help to plant them. They will go in the banks at the park for wildlife and to keep the bank in tack. Beth said we can push to parks and rec and get volunteers.
Ron also said he talked to Suit-Kote on doing the alleys with gravel. Should be less than $5000 and do the two worst streets in town and put a surface treatment on them. Discussion was done on possible future paving on the alleys. It was suggested to put on agenda for next month.


Parks & Recreation Report:
Community Day May 19th 10-5 PM Lot's of activities for everyone that day. spread the word.


Letter: Letter from University of Pittsburgh on lead paint clean up for those who wish to attend.

No other business: Clark motions to adjourn Beth 2nd. All in favor. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned 8:45 PM.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts

Secretary/Treasurer