This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Meeting was opened by Lou McLaughlin at 7 PM.

Present:  Lewis McLaughlin, Solicitor Michael Smith, Keith St.Clair, Gladine McMaster, Dan Short, JR, Sue Bartow

Absent:  none

Public Attendance:   Eileen Clawson-Gaul, Mellissa Miller

Old Business:

Approval of January minutes

Motion made by Sue , 2nd by Keith with correction on page 6 of January minutes to change the sentence of "Lou said he wants to write a letter for all he has done", to read," Lou said he wants to write a letter to Ron for all he has done".  All in favor, motion passed.

Approval of Treasurer Report

Sue asked about the funds for checks being made for liquid fuels as to why the fee did not come from liquid fuels account.  Pat said because they have to come from General account.  The funds are not allowed to come from Liquid fuels account.

Keith commented that he noticed the Methodist church has a donation to parks for $8500 and not the Borough.  Pat said that is correct.  Parks was told the church elders each decided to divide the proceeds from the sale of the church to an organization of their choice. 

Gladine said that was nice of them. 

Pat commented that parks decided to use the funds to redo the basketball court at upper park and was dedicating the project to Andy Pahach.  We already got the approval from Jean Pahach.

After review Keith motions to approve treasurer report 2nd by Gladine.  All in favor, motion passed.

Solicitor Report:

Attorney said he has not sent any per capita tax letters out yet.  Will go out before next meeting. 

He received a letter from the Accountant who audits our books and to his understanding there are no legations against the Borough so he will draft up a letter to their response. 

I also looked into a couple issues.  Last month he did put a call into the election bureau concerning Mayors salary which he did not get a call back yet from them.  Based on his understanding the Mayor can be paid as a Code Enforcement Officer or the Mayor but not both right now.  The Mayor salary is governed and changed by Ordinance.  At the next full election then the funds can be issued.  The argument is the fact that the Mayor got elected on a two year term rather than a four year term.  If we consider this as not your full term then you can get paid as a Code Enforcement officer.  If it is your full elected term then you could not get paid as Code Enforcement and Mayor both.  

Clark stated that the ex Mayor did do his full four year term so this would be my four year term. 

Discussion on the subject got a little heated between Sue and the Mayor, so the Mayor asked to just drop the discussion any further.

Clark said he contacted PSAB and the Magistrates office but did not get to speak to anyone. The Attorney said he also had a call into the election Bureau.  Gladine asked which salary was greater.  Lou said they were both the same salary. 

Sue commented the book says the Mayor is doing the same job, both Code Enforcement and as Mayor.

Clark said the Borough made an Ordinance for the Code Enforcement officer so Clark could get paid because he originally was appointed to the position until election rolled around again. 

Clark had asked the Attorney also about the ticket booklet he has whether Clark could use them to enforce the Ordinances.  Michael response was yes he could use the tickets as Code Enforcement Officer.  You can go to the Magistrate with the tickets. 

Clark said we should probably order more of the citation booklets and to have them state Bolivar Code Enforcement Officer and not the Bolivar Police Department. 

Pat said she has no contacts any longer with the county police dept.  She will contact StClair TWP police dept to help in getting the books made up. 

Lou motion to go ahead and spend the funds to get the booklets, 2nd by Boone, all in favor, Sue and Keith both voted no, Gladine, Lou and Boone voted yes.  Motion passed. 

Public Comment.

Eileen has a question about Ordinances and Zoning.  She handed out an article from the paper on the sale of the Methodist Church to FAVOR and what she is doing at that location.  They are using the church as emergency housing.  She said she is not using any funds from the Federal or State government so she can choose who stays there and who does not.  She does not want them to send just anyone to her.  As a small community we do not have the resources to take in and handle homeless people. 

That is not what she is planning.  The county commissioner office was at the opening ceremony and said he would love to have more communities do this type of thing. 

Is there any zoning ordinances in place and if not can we have a zoning ordinance that will restrict what and who is to be able to have these types of buildings. 

Eileen is very concerned about the elderly and Sue mentioned we have over 15 children under age 11.  When we get homeless people here our elderly are very vulnerable and don't need these people breaking in and stealing money or whatever to get a fix.  We also have folks working during the day. They don't want people wondering around and looking into their houses for possible break-ins. 

Eileen said Kim did tell her it would take up to two years before she would be ready to put up people for a night or two until they are ready to go into rehab. 

Discussion was made further into this because everyone was told the church was going to be a community center. 

Lou said the moral of the story is that place will never get up to code in the condition it currently is in and what she wants to do with the place.

Clark asked, "How can the Borough tell them what to do with the place" 

Lou comment is, "if we zone it, we can". 

Lou said we also cannot stop someone from buying a home or business in town.   

Michael to research how we can, and if we can do a zoning ordinance for things such as this. 

Eileen was concerned about people also setting up tents in the parks. Do we have anything to stop this?

Mellissa said we do have an Ordinance for the parks.  No one allowed between dusk and dawn.  The electric is turned off at the park also. 

Clark to ask Kim to come to March meeting to discuss the Methodist church issue. 

Update on tires for the truck. 

The tires were purchased from Carmen's Wholesale for $700 for 4.  The tires were installed by Sower's Tires for $100  They were winter tires. We kept the other tires and will use them in the summer. 

Any other old business

Lou said before we start into new business he has a letter to read that was addressed to the Mayor.

Mayor, could you help us with a big problem.  There is two men and a dog. They are in the post office 1 hour or more 6 days a week.  They park right in front of the office. They watch what mail you get or send. We have a little hard time walking. So when they park in front we have to walk a block. We want to write to our "REP" Thanks.  "Why the Post office?"  It's been going on for months.

No signature on the letter.  Sue said this is an issue for the Post Office, not us.  Lou said we know who it is.  His opinion is this is the post office issue and not ours.  Lou said he will bring it up with Tony in the morning. 

New Business:

Comcast issue.

Pat said if everyone remembers that back in November we had a problem with the security cameras going out and we had to contact the security company to reprogram the cameras.  Well they went out again first part of December.  Had to notify the security company again to come out to reprogram.  This time when they came out the router completely wiped out the password to get back into the system and had defaulted back to the original password. 

When I finally got hold of Comcast after 5 days of trying and spoke to one of the IT tech's I explained what was going on and asked about making the Static IP address permanently locked in place so we do not continue to lose our cameras each and every time they work on the Comcast lines, or we have a power outage.  He told me the static IP address slot has nothing in it.  I was told that he could put an address in that slot if we paid Comcast $24.95 per month.   I asked about getting a battery for the router since it does not have one in it.  He said they don't come with batteries and we cannot purchase one for it.  I told him each time you take down the system it costs us $108.00 for the security company to come and reprogram.    After this conversation with them I sent a complaint letter to Cheryl McCabe who is in charge of Comcast for Western PA.  I am awaiting her response.   Superior Security was here for almost 4 hours trying to get the router reprogrammed after we figured out the old password it defaulted back to and he managed to get one camera backup and now has to come back out to reprogram the other two cameras because he had another location that needed to be tended to. 

Council now has to decide whether to pay the $24.95 per month to have the static IP address locked in to prevent loss of cameras each time Comcast takes the system down for upgrades and repairs or pay $108 each time the security company has to come out to reprogram the router to what it defaults to.

Lou asked about a battery.  Pat said she has not received an answer from Comcast on a cost for a battery. 

Sue wanted to know if we could wait until we hear back from Comcast.  Sue asked if anyone else had this problem.  Pat said our problem is because our router for the cameras are down at the hut and our monitors are up at the office.    None of the routers come with a battery and you cannot get one from anyone else. 

Pat wants to know if council will approve $24.95 a month for the locked IP address if need be or if battery is cheaper to get the battery if possible. 

Decision was when I find out what can be done with Comcast then let everyone know and we can retro the decision next month. 

Dirt and Gravel & Low Volume training

On March 20th and 21st in Johnstown.  The training is good for 5 years.  Greg, Ron and mine had it last time.  Ron and Greg no longer here and mine is up. I do not wish to go back again. 

It is a 2 day class, 8 hours each day.  They do feed you also.  You need this to apply for a dirt and gravel grant.  Discussion made as to who to attend.  Lou said he will try to attend, Gladine said she could go.  We can also get Paul to go.  Pat to register Lou, Paul and Gladine for class. 

Municipal Round Table Feb 23 - topic flooding, & storm water issues.

Anyone interested in this event. 

GAI Consultants - supplemental contract

Pat said this is dealing with the ARPA funds.  Keith has been running around with the county and state with all kinds of requests.  Pat said she had to research clear back to 2017 invoices and they also requested copies of cancelled checks to prove the fees were paid.   Pat said we have been dealing with this for over a month.  The supplemental contract is for an additional $1500 for all the extra time he has had to put into it. 

Sue motions to take $1500 out of the engineer fund to pay Keith for the supplemental contract # 4 to help get us the $91,000 back. Lou 2nds all in favor motion carries.

Any other business to discuss.

Sue said she has been talking with Zack Stull up at the cell tower.  Verizon workers have been staying in a hotel in Blairsville. They have poured cement up there and have been hauling equipment up there and they have assured me they will be operational by Easter. 

Also we should be hearing from Mr. Magelish about the Dollar General store in Robinson.  They put so many stores up at a time in an area.  A meeting was held on Wednesday to see if this area was picked to proceed now.  It will go up at the truck turn around in Robinson in the wooded area. 

Mayor report:               

Was contacted by Carol Sisitki. Wants to know if we could put a sign up on Lear Street that says No Exit.  Apparently a UPS truck got stuck back there and tore up the yard. 

Lou said if we don't have a sign we can get one.

Clark said he attended the ribbon cutting at the church. 

We have a lot of illegal cars parked very close to the stop signs on the yellow line.  Lou said he has been getting complaints from homeowners close to the old Catholic church when they have meetings.  They cannot park in front of their homes. 

Clark is concerned about not having hand rails on the steps that was put in by the slide upper park. 

Mellissa said maybe within the next month or two.     

Street Commissioner Report:

Lou said put 185 miles on truck, 4.9 miles on Kubota.  Moving old salt out of bin to make room for more salt to meet the contract for this year at the cheaper price.  We got a new tarp to cover the salt.

Paul has been checking the drains weekly.  Haven't gotten any complaints from anyone.  People have been saying he is doing a good job. 

Sewage Report

Sue said the minutes did not get done.  She was told that Libby was going to be here but she is not.  She wanted to see what type of recorder we had.  Sue wanted to know if it plugs into the computer or do you have to listen to the recorder and type from it.    Pat said she has an attachment to plug into the computer to transfer the recordings onto the computer and types from that.  If need to stop then can be done. 

Sue said they got a fancy recorder that doesn’t work. 

Keith asked what our recorder cost us.  Pat said it cost $49 at staples. 

Parks & Rec

Parks and Rec had a meeting and are asking council to reapprove Jessica Betts to a 5 year term.  Keith motions, 2nd by Lou all in favor motion passed. 

We addressed the steps.  Mellissa thinks it will be an added bonus especially for the elderly. 

We applied thru the Wagner Foundation and had given them a proposal for building a new playground up there.  We are keeping the old stuff, the merry-go-round, jungle jim, teeter totter.  Getting rid of the old swings.  We are getting new swings.  Getting rid of the wooden structure, also known as the bee hive.   The old house is going too.  We got $8500 from the Methodist Church and we are going to use the funds to pay for some of the new equipment and also going to redo the basketball court.  We got three bids, one from Parrish Concrete, 1 from Shauly Concrete, and Tom Wagner concrete who came in at the lowest bid.  Mellissa talked to the Wagners today and they are going to go halves with us to replace the structure.   Mellissa said she would like councils ok for us to dedicate the court to Andy Pahach.  We already got Jean Pahach blessing.  Andy was the most winning basketball coach in the state of PA.  Around the outside of the court we will be selling bricks.  We have order forms and we would like your approval for us to do this.  We need 180 slots to go around.  We are charging $40 per brick.  I have a sample brick to show you.  Since we are known as the Brick capital we thought it would be appropriate for us to do this.  The cost also includes the engraving and shipping. 

We just need your blessing.  We will put a plaque up there.  There are two people also from here that has records in basketball. One being Woody Burkett and the other Billy Golis.  Woody scored the most basketballs in the history of Laurel Valley and Billy had over 2,000 goals. 

Keith motions to approve 2nd by Lou all in favor motion passed.

Motion to adjourn made by Boone, 2nd by Lou at 8:20 PM. 

Respectfully,

Patricia Betts

Secretary/Treasurer