This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Meeting opened by Lou McLaughlin, President at 7 pm.
Attendance:
Ron Betts, Keith St Clair, Sue Bartow, Lou McLaughlin, Michael Smith-Solicitor, Clark Baird- Mayor,
Absent: Gladine McMaster
Gen Public, Mellissa Miller, Jeffery Miller, Cindy Shetler for Sewage Authority
Old Business:
Approval of June minutes
Cindy mentioned on Sewage report page 4 of 4 we ran the newspaper ad for 2 weeks not 1 week.
Motion made by Ron to accept minutes with correction, 2nd by Keith, all in favor motion passed with no nays.
Approval of Treasurer Report
Sue gave Pat another $10 for cleanup day. Resident did not have any money with him that day.
Motion to approve treasurer report made by Sue, 2nd by Lou, all in favor motion passed with no nays.
Solicitor Report
Michael thanks everyone for accepting him as new solicitor. Jeffery did give him the easement documents to record at the court house and he intends on doing so possibly tomorrow.
We have signatures from all three owners of the property. He intends to have all copies for everyone by the next meeting.
Public Comment.
Cindy here for Sewage authority concerning Zach Burtop on the board. Complaining he used profanity toward another board member on May 11 2022 board meeting which was in the minutes. This year he was nominated as the Chair Person. He has not fulfilled his duties as Chair Person. In the past 7 months he has only contacted me once which had nothing to do with sewage, it was for 2 dead geese which was shot and he wanted to let me know the game commissioner was coming in.
I have a record of each time I call him and have to leave a message and he never returns my calls. He has changed our agenda as far as how our meetings have to go and we did not have a Resolution for the change. He has changed our meeting times, they are monthly now and not bi monthly without a Resolution. He says the amendments to the bylaws are not signed therefore they are not legal and we are going back to the originals.
Lou asked if Zack was attending the meetings at which Cindy said yes he is attending the meetings.
The last two meetings we have had we went into executive meeting and all the years of the sewage authority we only went into executive once for the workers for a raise. For what I can hear when they are outside, they get really routy. He was put on the checking account in January, he did not go to the bank until May to be put officially on the account. He was to go to the bank to sign because personal information on the documents. He did take the documents out with him and had for at least a week.
When we had our other solicitor there was a controversy about office keys and it was for the best interest of everyone that no one should have keys. Now he has both keys to the gate and to the office. He can come and go anytime when he wants to. A lot of the records are open, such as individual personal information that contains social security numbers. Now they have access to look at those files. Nothing is locked. They had a meeting last night pertaining to a new solicitor and someone did go into the back room where all the files are located.
Pat asked why they did not have file cabinets they could lock and was told they are in open bins. When the auditor comes he just takes the totes. My desk does not lock so anyone can get into that. Same way as upstairs. You can go into the chemicals and mess with them. There are papers with DEP they can go through as well. My concern up there is someone could fall over the chlorine bins and pass out or get hurt or mix up other chemicals that cause a fatality.
He was questioned why he could not come in when someone is there. He said he wanted to look at a map. He felt he should be able to come in when he wanted to and check on things.
Keith asked if he was the board president.
Lou stated we are calling an executive meeting to discuss. Time is 7:10 PM
Executive meeting over at 7:30 PM. Solicitor to check on several issues and get back.
Update on Curry & Kepple on 5th street project.
Lou's favorite project. They have everything done except for the punch list. They are coming back next Monday. They were here the other day and had the check with them expecting him to sign before all the work was completed.
Pat said she got a phone call from the county on the project. They wanted to know if it was done yet. I told them about the punch list still needing to be finished.
I had a question on their paperwork that also needed answered. I received the answer from Curry and Kepple on the difference on the funds. It was stated the difference was on the stored materials that were already paid for.
The county also suggested that we give them a dead line of an earlier date when all paperwork is due so they could get it done on time before the county deadline for us to get paperwork into them for payment. The date I gave them was July 17 to have everything completed. I then have until July 21 to get to the county.
Pat said that Vera from the county also called and said back in October 2022 we had submitted to the county paperwork for $566,667.35 for unfinished projects and we could ask for ARPA funding for reimbursement on those projects. Verna informed me that we got approved to receive $91,725.35 which was the engineer fees that have been spent on both open projects.
We had matching funds of $474,942 which is 84% of the cost. We were requesting 16% back, our source of matching funds were from both CDBG funds from the past two years.
This is good news for us. We will get our timbering money back. We will be getting a letter in the next couple days.
Clean up day results from June 24th
Sue said Kathleen donated subs for cleanup day. Sue requested to send Kathleen a “thank you” letter. Sue donated sodas. We received $200 + $93 for scrap metal.
Lou said in his opinion we don't make anything on this and even though we charge, it does not cover the cost of a large hopper. A person in town had their stuff set out all night and got rained on. Paul and Lou were trying to unload from their trailer while the owner sat in his car and kept tapping on the steering wheel because we took too long to unload. It is good for the community but we are not down there as a personal slave for the people.
Update on small trailer for Boro worker.
Pat said for a 5 x 7 trailer we picked up at Lowes and because of our CoStars status we were able to get the trailer for $948 instead of $999. We did have to go immediately and register with the notary and get plates for it before we could move it off the lot so it cost me $100 to do this. We did have to purchase regular trailer tags for this year because the notary did not have municipal tags.
The trailer can be used on the Kubota and the truck. Both have hitches.
Lou said also under old business he and Paul took the back pack blower back to Pristows and exchanged it for a smaller blower. He said it was too cumbersome to have on his back. They gave us a credit on our account for the difference. Our credit is $186.87 up there.
Any other new or old business?
New Business:
New Mower results
Pat said Keith wanted me to check on prices for two types of mowers. 1 Regular mower and 1 commercial mower.
Results are as follows.
From Pristows: a Toro 22 " recycler RWD personal pace mower $469.99
Tractor Supply - same mower $529.99
Andrews Sales & Service $479.00
Home Depot $ $469.99
Lowes does not carry Toro mowers
For a commercial BadBoy mower
Pristows $1091.30
Andrews $ 1249.00
No other place carries the commercial mower.
Lou asked about the regular mowers again.
Pristows was $469.99 with our credit of $186.87 that would leave us with a balance to pay of $283.12
Andrews does not have the mower in stock and would have to order one if we went with them.
Keith asked Ron about the current mower we have. Is it all wheel drive? Ron said rear wheel drive. It was just a regular mower. It is about 15 to 20 years old.
Lou thinks with the credit we have at Pristows then we should go with Pristows and get the regular mower. We need a motion from someone.
Keith motions to buy from Pristows and use our credit. , 2nd by Ron all in favor motion carried with no nays.
Sue asked what we are going to do with the old mower. Keith said keep as a spare. Sue said she knows someone who is interested in buying the mower. Sue said Jeffery. He likes the mower. Mellissa said absolutely no.
Keith said if we get rid of it and it does not go on Municibid then we get rid of it for scrap. It is dangerous.
Mini Library- Keith
Mellissa said” it is me.” I need to get to it. The kids during the school year do take the books home and use here for story hour. The ones who take books home I tell them to keep them.
With my recent illness it just had kept me unable to clean up more. I did take some boxes out but now we have the adult and children classes that take a good bit of the books. She said she tells them to keep them. When we started the library we did not turn anyone down who dropped off books.
2024 CDBG application deadline is Sept 30, 2023
Pat asked if the Borough wants me to contact Keith Vasas from GAI Consultants to do the 2024 CDBG. He already has phase 3 & 4 of the 5th street project completed. He now would just need to update the figures.
Keith questioned for himself about the $91,725.35 money from the county. Are we getting it all back? I mean what we used for engineer fees on the other projects to do with what we want. Pat said yes.
Lou makes a motion to start the 2024 CDBG due by Sept 30, 2023. Ron 2nd motion, all in favor, motion passed no nays.
Street closure for Brickfest
Mellissa requested approval to close the follow streets for Brickfest on Aug 11 starting at 10 PM thru Aug 12, 10 PM.
2nd & Lincoln to 5th & Lincoln
5th & Lincoln to 5th & McKinley
5th & McKinley to 3rd & McKinley St
4th Street from Alley between Washington and Lincoln St
Sue motions for Mellissa's closure for Brickfest, Keith 2nd motion, all in favor motion passed.
Pat also asked about gas usage in case we need to use portable generators. Do you have a problem for us to use the gas? Lou motions to use the gas, Keith 2nds and can we use the Borough truck to haul items in. All in favor motion passed, no nays.
Sewage Authority request for posting their agenda of meetings on our web site.
Pat said Zack came to her and ask if we would post their agenda on our web site. Apparently they do not have a web site and they are in violation of not posting within 24 hours of their meetings. Zack said he was also going to ask West Wheatfield and Fairfield TWP in case we do not want to do it.
Pat said they need to create their own web site and post. She cannot authorize this without council approval. Whether you have internet or not it has to be posted. This is a requirement for the past two years.
Sue said Zack is not here and this was not brought up before the board, so she is not good with this.
Lou said the Sewage authority needs to bring this up at their meeting first and they need to decide what to do. We can make a decision after that. Lou said the sewage authority should have their agenda on their own sewage board web site.
Any other business.
Lou said we had a complaint about smoke in the borough. Mr. Boyko is complaining about smoke from us burning, irritated his eyes and got into his house. Also we left a fire unattended after clean up day.
Cecilia's renters were burning trash every night and they are in Fairfield TWP which has no burning ordinance and can burn any time. They live across the street from the Boykos. Also after clean up day it was raining. The fire was out but was smoking badly until it rained again and put the remainder out.
He spoke to some people from up around his house and no one was burning.
One more thing under other business. The garbage hopper. Someone took a car hood and put is down there. It was 3 weeks ago or more. People who live down there see others put their trash in there. Sue said we could bring it up here. It doesn't matter where it is, if people want to use it they will.
No other business.
Mayor report:
Did we ever get the insurance from the fire dept. on fireworks? Jeffery said there was a change in the law. They just have to be 150 feet from a building. Pat said we haven't gotten any insurance proof the past couple years. Jeffery said you can tell them that if we don't get a copy of the fireworks insurance before Friday next week, the permission to shoot off the fireworks is off. They should give you the insurance.
Sue said she just talked to John and said he would have the insurance by next week.
Also Clark hasn't been able to find Joe Short. He has a car parked on the street with an expired inspection from 2022.
He said he heard the fire dept purchased the Shetler property across from the fire hall. It's going to be September when they take over the property. The current residents will be out by September.
The only other property that has high grass is the Quonset hut at 2nd & Lincoln St. Clark will be up on Tuesday to get address from the Borough Office.
Sewage Report
Sue said nothing to report other than what we already talked about.
Street Commissioner Report
97 miles on truck, no diesel fuel put in truck yet. While zero turn was broke down we used 68.8 gallon of gas. When using the zero turn we normally use only about 35 gallons. We used twice as much gas. Zero turn has 1200 hours on it. The truck has 1984 miles on the truck.
Have another problem with garage door again. All-star is supposed to come back down tomorrow to look at it. Robin from All-star said they have been having all sorts of issues with all different types of garage doors because of the power surges and outages we have been experiencing, burning out the mother boards in the units. The garage door won't stay down on its own. We have to pull the string to keep is down.
Parks & Rec
Mellissa said we have a concert this Sunday from 4-6 along with ice cream social. Giving advance warning, Brickfest is coming up and we really need the help and support from the town. We have more people coming from out of town to support us than people in town.
One other thing. We have a tree that came down in the lower park. Is was not one on the list of bad trees. Is came down and damaged the fence. Lou said Paul and he cut up the tree and fixed the fence. No kid can stumble over the fence and go into the river.
I just happened to be here when you said you are getting $91,000. Is there any way we can have some of that to get the trees done.
Keith said we don't have the money yet. Keith's thought on that maybe if you bring it up again later we can discuss.
Pat asked if Lou wants me to contact the fence company to have them check the fence.
Also Verizon notified us they are applying for a grant to come into town to install broadband internet system.
No other business to discuss.
Motion to close made by Lou at 8:25 PM, 2nd by Keith all in favor motion passed.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer