This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Meeting was opened by Lou McLaughlin 7 PM

Lou announced that Sue would not be attending because of brother's health.

Attendance:

 Keith St.Clair, Ron Betts, Lou McLaughlin, Jeffery Miller, Clark Baird, Mayor, Gladine McMaster

Absent: Sue Bartow

Public - Melissa Miller, Dan Short, JR,  Paul Hall

Approval of Minutes from November 3, 2022.

 Motion to approve minutes made by Ron, 2nd by Keith.  All in favor motion passed.

Treasurer Report

Keith asked if Pat got the battery for the backup system for the computer.  Ron commented that we did not charge for mileage to get it.

Motion made to approve Treasurer report made by Gladine , 2nd by Lou, all in favor motion passed.

Solicitor report. Nothing  at this time.

Public comment.

Melissa, nothing.  Boone, 1 thing .  He wants to know why the taxes are being raised again. He not happy with the tax raises.  They were raised last year, why do we have to raise again this year.   Boone commented again with fowl language on the tax raising.  He said he is going to run for council to stop the excessive spending.    Lou said the taxes are going up because of inflation and the operating costs of the borough.  Boone asked Lou if he knew how many people were in town.  Boone said 300 some.  Lou commented that we have engineer fees to pay for getting the streets done and lines replaced.  Boone said then let's just raise to 1 mil. instead of 2 mils.  Lou commented 2 mils is what we voted on.  Boone's comment was using fowl language again. 

Gladine went to speak up and Boone cut her off by saying that last month Lou commented we had $90,000 in the borough.  Lou commented that it was designated already to help defray the engineer costs for the grants on the streets, to get them fixed.  Boone said, "He doesn't care"  Again using fowl language and then commenting that the people in town have to go through all this money.  Taxes were raised last year and now again this year.  He said he was going to put his name on the ballot next year. 

Lou asked Boone if he had anything else to say.  Boone commented that he was done bitching. 

Old business:

Tax Ordinance for 2023 - Jeffery

Jeffery said he produced the Ordinance to set the millage for next year.  Jeffery asked what the Ordinance number will be.  Pat said # 3 of 2022

Need motion to approve the tax Ordinance.  Gladine motioned to approve, 2nd by Keith, all in favor motion passed.

Tax Collector Resolution - Act 57 - Jeffery

Jeffery explained this Resolution is to cover anyone who does not receive their tax bills because of change of ownership.  This allows the tax collector to not charge the penalty and interest.  

Ron motion to approve the Resolution, 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motion passed.

Ordinance for Code Enforcement Officer- Jeffery

Jeffery said that at the last meeting everyone discussed this to post in newspaper for the Mayor to be the Code Enforcement Officer by Ordinance.  He did not have in time for posting so everyone has a copy to look over and let him know of any changes they made wish to have before the next meeting when it gets approved. 

Clark asked who has the citations for him to issue.  Jeffery said he needs to go the Magistrates office and get your number assigned for you to be able to issue citations.

 Jeffery also stated you may have to sign up for an online account to issue citations. 

Approval of budget for 2023.

Lou said we need a motion to approve the 2023.  Gladine motions to approve the budget, 2nd by Keith, all in favor motion passed.

Boro worker position -  Lou asked to go into executive session for personnel reasons.  Time is 7:15 PM

Executive meeting convened 7:18 PM. 

Hiring of the Borough worker.  It is council's recommendation to hire Paul Hall, Jr for the position.  Lou asked Paul if he agreed to the 90 day probation period at $13 per hour.  After 90 days then will bump up to $14.00 per hour.    Lou also suggested to keep Paul thru the winter instead of laying off because of the lack of a work for several months.  We need to have the drains cleared out and the leaves. 

Motion made by Keith and 2nd by Gladine to hire Paul.  All in favor motion passed.  Boone asked about a backup.  What happened to Art Sisitki.  Lou said he personally talked to Art and he is not interested.

Clark said for the record, Paul has two bosses and only two bosses , that is Ron- Street Commissioner, and Gladine- Assistant Street Commissioner.   You answer to no-one else.  If he has any problems then we will take care of it. 

We also have a cover for the storm inlet that is missing a grate. 

Pat said she has to get his physical setup and also to get him on the insurance before he can start.  Hopefully within the upcoming week he will be ready to go.

2020 CDBG update. 

Pat said she got a notice from McCormick Taylor and The county concerning the CDBG.  The sub-recipient agreement expires on 12/17/2022.  The borough and Engineer will both need time to approve the project so the county can pay out and close the project all before the 17th of December. 

Jeffery asked if the contractor  is aware of this?  Pat said yes they also got a copy of the notice. 

New Business.

Resignation of current tax collector as of Dec 31, 2022 - Lou read the resignation to council.

Clark ask if Jessica would be interested.

Jeffery said from the date you accept the resignation you have 30 days to act on the resignation. 

He said you should appoint someone this evening if you are ready to act on this. 

Keith asked Jeffery if we could accept the resignation of one and appoint the other at this time.

Jeffery said yes, you can. 

Council approve and appoint a new tax collector effective for January 1 2023

Lou read a letter of interest from the prior tax collector, Jessica Betts. 

Keith suggests we accept the resignation from Cassandra and appoint Jessica as the new tax collector effective January 1, 2023, 2nd by Gladine, Lou approves, Ron abstains, motion passed.

Pat asked Jeffery if he checked with the county to verify whether Jessica's certifications were still active.  Pat emailed Jeffery a copy of her documents in November.  Jeffery said he did not.  Pat said when you had asked me to check with the county on this, Pat had called and was told that the solicitor had to contact the county to verify the credentials.  Pat to forward again to him so he can verify this.  

New CD rates and balance. - Pat

When the new Kubota was purchased, I contacted the bank to make up the difference like I was asked to do.  The bank transferred $11,100 from the CD of $ 23,522.59 plus $95.86 interest.  This left a new CD in the amount $12,518.45 and has a interest rate of 2.23% for a 12 month period.  The old CD had an interest rate of 1.25 %.  Then took the funds from the equipment fund of $7,657.64 and the $3,932.33 from the 2 mil tax increase to cover the purchase cost of the Kubota which was $22,689.97

Skidsteer title issue- Pat

Pat said what we had was a copy of a title application and a bill of sale from Cambria Tractor Equipment. 

The serial number of the skid steer matched the bill of sale but the title application did not match at all. 

When the title search on the system was done the title could not be found.  A research has to be done in Harrisburg for this but also had to pay for a duplicate title fee of $58.00 If the paperwork comes back and not in our name then Cambria Tractor has to apply for a duplicate title in their name and then sign back over to us before we can get the title to sell.  I also had to pay the Geistown tag and title service to handle the paperwork and that cost $33.99 which I had to pay out of my pocket.  So I am asking to get  reimbursed for this amount from council.  We may see a title for the skidsteer in maybe 8 to 10 weeks.  We cannot sell on Municbid until then.  

Gladine motions to reimburse Pat for the $33.99, 2nd by Lou all in favor, Ron abstains, motion passed.

2023 Sunshine Notice Dates

Everyone needs to review the 2023 sunshine notice and let me know if any dates need to be changed before it gets advertised.

Any other business

Lou has something to say.  The new project has been started.  Large rock has been taken out by Connie D's.  They were going to turn right around into her back yard.  She proposed for them to go straight down over the bank instead.  We would have to get an easement to go over the bank.  Our engineer wants $4,000 to take the shot.  Lou contact Joe Hood to see if he could survey for us.  Should be around $900.  He is to survey 20 feet of temporary construction with a 5 foot on each side after work is done.   IS there any reason why the original plans did not go straight down.  Lou said we had to follow the easement and that is the way it went.  Billy Cunningham owns the property.  Connie D was talking to him over the phone.  She is trying to get him to agree  to allow us to change.  Ed is not going to do anything until we get the easement approval.  Also they are planning on boring Dec 12th under SR259. Ed said he talked to the engineer's and the county on moving the line to the other side of the road and follow the gas line . 

Jeffery said to be cautious with the engineers and making decisions for the Borough.  We do not want to have to pay anything additional.  they already have made changes and did not ask us about it.  They are just spending our money and they do not have a right to do it without our knowledge. 

Apex Inspector Schedule.

Katie wanted to know on what days we will be inspecting what Curry and Kepple is doing  so they can make sure they are not over lapping with their inspector.  Sean said there is enough money to have Apex come out 1 day a week thru February. 

Keith said to get Apex to put in writing that it will not cost us anything additional. 

Pat to get clarification from them that the inspector fees are already included in the 15% engineer fee and not costing us nothing additional. 

GAI Consultants supplemental contract 

Keith sent us a supplemental contract to cover all the grants they are working on.   They did work for Westmoreland county ARPA application, LSA grant, CDBG grants and the PA Small Water and H2O grant.  The supplemental agreement is $900 more than the original contract.  The new amount is $8500.

Gladine motions to accept additional funds, Lou 2nds all in favor motion passed.

Mayor Report. 

Clark mentioned  Curry and Kepple tore out the curbing on McKinley St and redoing.  Ron said it was not up to specs so they had to tear it out and redo.

Sewage Report:   

Jeffery said there was a meeting last month and nothing much was going on.  They were talking about raising the rates for a couple of projects coming up.  Pat asked about minutes from months ago that has not been approved.  He said no-one will say what is wrong with the minutes so how can they make any changes if they don't know what needs to be changed. 

Street Commissioner Report  

Ron said no mileage on truck as it has not moved, nothing on zero turn, no gas used, no hours on it also. 

Jeffery asked what the Kubota has on it.  Lou said just the bucket right now.  Ron said we do need weights on the back of Kubota. Had to put into 4 wheel drive to lift the spreader. 

Keith recommends we get several diesel fuel cans.  We need cans or tanks for diesel fuel.  The Kubota, and truck both use it.  the zero turn mower and regular mower only things using regular gas.

Jeffery asked if we could go to Fairfield TWP to get diesel.  That is off road diesel that can be used in the Kubota but not the truck. 

Jeffery suggested to use the tool fund to get cans. Pat said we do not have a tool fund any longer. 

Gladine motions to get several diesel fuel cans not to exceed $100, 2nd by Ron, all in favor motion passed.   

Parks & Rec-  

Melissa said we had a vacancy on parks board.  We had someone apply for it.  Pat said Jessica Betts applied for it. 

Melissa said that council needs to approve or disapprove parks recommendation. 

Keith motions to appoint Jessica for the vacancy on Parks & Rec, Lou 2nd motions all in favor, Ron Abstains, motion passed.

Melissa said we are making a schedule for next year. We are meeting again on Dec 8th.  5 or 6 people cannot do everything.  We really need help.

 No other business.  Motion to adjourn made by Keith 2nd by Lou, all in favor motion passed to adjourn at 8:15 PM.

Respectfully,

Patricia Betts

Secretary/Treasurer