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, Gladine McMaster
Absent: none
Gen Public, Zach & Cassandra Burtop, Cindy Shetler, Sherry Burtop, Keith Vasas- engineer, Shawn Conway- Representative for Congressman Guy Reschenthaler to speak on several new grants
Old Business:
Approval of July minutes
After review by council Keith motioned to approve minutes, 2nd by Gladine. No opposes, motion passed.
Approval of Treasurer Report
After review by council Gladine motioned to approve treasurer report, 2nd by Lou. No opposes motion passed.
Lou called executive session – personnel matters at 7:05 PM
Executive session returned at 7:10 PM. Issue resolved.
Solicitor Report
Michael stated the easement for Cunningham property has been recorded and has copies for each owner and the Borough.
Special Guest- Shawn Conway – Tasked with grants for the Congressman, both Federal and State grants. He to work with us to help get grants and show support for any we wish to apply for.
Lou said we are trying to do the infra structure in town which has collapsed. We are trying to have the entire town replaced before we pave the roads.
Keith spoke up and gave details on our current system and how they are failing. They have various size piping though out the town.
Keith spoke about the grants which have been applied for, what we won and what we did not win. They had applied for Small Water and H2O grants and did not get that one. He went into detail on several of the project costs. Keith also said we could apply for the Westmoreland County one and the State program as well. Keith said he would communicate with Shawn on what programs we could apply for and need help in getting approved thru Congress. Once we get all the infra structure completed we were going to apply for the grant to fix sidewalks put in new lighting and other things to entice businesses. Will go thru the multi model fund. Keith looked at the Application fund program but they only provide 50% and the small communities cannot apply. Discussion on several programs we have already applied for and used for match funds came up. Keith showed how we already did this.
Pat asked if Shawn’s services also cover cell phone service. Pat said we have been trying for almost 6 years now and have not gotten anywhere. Pat explained about the tower we have on the side of the hill and cannot use. Apparently it is not stable enough for the signal sources that need to go on the tower. It was said that underground areas keep it from being stable. Each company we have been in contact with said we are covered by service but we are not. Our town is down in the valley and the signal goes overhead.
Shawn stated he noticed that when coming in. He could not get cell phone service.
Pat said you need to go at least 5 miles either way of the Borough before you get cell service.
Shawn said he could definitely put in his agenda.
Lou thanked Shawn for his input and asked if any further questions were needed.
Public Comment.
Lou asked Cindy Shetler which stated not at this time. He asked everyone else and no comment from any party.
Update on Curry & Kepple finishing 5th street project.
Lou said Curry & Kepple still need to fix sidewalk at church. They are done with everything else.
Update on sewage authority request for posting agenda of their meetings on our web site.
Lou asked Zach about this. Zach said to put on hold because it was not discussed at their meeting.
Any other new or old business?
Nobody had anything.
New Business:
Recall on truck- OBD system- reprogram the powertrain control & transmission control modules
Ron took the truck to Tri-Star this past Monday and had the recall completed.
Staples contract with CITI Bank has ended and all accounts are being closed as of July31
Pat said that Staples has no intention of setting up another contract with CITI. Any business supplies we need from now on will have to take a check to get.
Sue asked if we had a credit card for this. Pat said no. She wanted to know how we pay for diesel fuel for the truck. Pat said that is a WEX card and used for the truck. We had a staples account card but not a bank card to do purchases. Sue wanted to know if there is a reason why we do not have a bank card for the borough. No answer was given. Sue motions to get a bank card from S & T to make purchases as needed, 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motion passed. No one opposed. Pat to contact Wendy at the bank and have a card ordered. Pat also asked if council wants the president to have a card too. It was stated no just the one is needed. The card will be under Bolivar Borough name but needs a person’s name on it. It was said to put my name on card since I was the Treasurer and bonded.
Transfer of funds from gen account to cover payroll for rest of year.
Pat said on January 1 we transferred $15,000 to payroll. Payroll needed for year is $35,740 and right now we have $500 left in payroll. The balance left for payroll is $20,740 to take up to the end of the year. Sue said it would be easier just to transfer $21000. Pat said that is up to council to do this.
Keith motions to transfer $21000, 2nd by Sue to payroll. All in favor, motion passed no one opposes.
Park Permits.
Pat said last month there was an issue of parks letting FAVOR use the park for a corporate meeting.
It is not up to me to show favoritism. They produced to me their agenda, explained what the meeting would be about. There seemed to be an issue with the people in this town with having them up there because of the kids playing at the playground. The people did not want FAVOR up there because of what they do. This was a corporate company that wanted to have their meeting outside rather than in the building because of being so hot in their building.
Lou spoke up and said, he had the issue. He said this is how it went down. He got a call. He was questioned about a town meeting. Lou said we were not having a town meeting. The lady said,” I can see you don’t know what is going on in this town. The people over at FAVOR was having a town meeting at the park.” Lou said he just wants to know when the park is being used so he knows what is going on. We don’t need a council meeting to discuss when the park is being used. He does not want to be called an “idot” when he gets a phone call from someone. Also the person called from a Blocked number. Pat said she will in the future let Lou know when the park is being used. FAVOR’s problem was when they posted a flyer and said it was a town meeting invite.
Pat said she does not issue permits unless they are willing to give the reason.
Sue said someone before had used the park for a birthday party and she wanted to know if they paid for it.
Pat said parks does not charge for usage. We only charge if requested to use our small bouncy house. The fee is $25. You can have birthday parties, reunions, meetings or whatever up there. They complete an application and I issue a permit to them. The paperwork has an indemnity clause on it to protect all parties involved. If they give a donation then we accept and it goes into parks account for general use. It is not a requirement.
Destruction of Records Resolution.
Pat said she is destroying records according to records manual and the year covered 2015, which is over 7 years old.
Sue motions to destroy records Resolution 1 of 2023 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motioned passed no one opposes.
All council needed to sign the Resolution.
Emergency MGMT Coordinator position.
Lou asked if anyone knew of anybody who may be interested in becoming our EMS Coordinator.
Pat received documentation from the county stating that BJ Brett resigned as our coordinator.
Lou said we can asked Matt Laskosky if he would be interested. Lou asked if he has to do on-line classes as well. Pat said they do not.
Keith said if no one else wants to do it then he would look into the classes.
Assessment appeal hearing for Sue Bartow property is on Aug 8th.
Does council want to attend hearing and oppose. Sue said she filed an appeal because her property was on 2 separate pieces and now she wants them to be on one. Sue said when Nell Wakefield had the property she separated them and now she wants them back together. It has to do with land assessment and she did not get a chance last year to do because of family situation.
Pat said she wants to know if council wants to appeal or let it go.
Lou motions to let it go 2nd by Keith. All in favor motions passed. Sue abstains.
New LSA Grant for both State and County.
Pat presented to council a letter that Keith needs to file the CDBG grant. It states that council will do the 15% match.
Keith said prior to the next meeting we should look at how the county wants to program the project.
He said he would talk to Janet at the county to see how they want to phase the project.
Sue motions to match 15% for phase 3 & 4 on the 5th Street project. Gladine 2nd the motion, all in favor motion passed. No one opposed.
Sue asked why we got engineer fees back form the other project. Keith said, the county had the ARP funds and contacted Pat on what projects were still open. Pat got together with Keith and showed the funds spent on both projects that were still open. This is the funds we got approved to get back the engineer fees on. The open projects opened up the door to apply for recouping the engineer fees. It was $91,000.
The LSA Grant is also coming up. Sue motions to appoint Keith Vasas with GAI Consultants to apply for LSA Grant for the State and County. Gladine 2nds the motion. All in favor, motion passed. No one opposed.
Keith said for the next meeting we have to sign Resolutions for the grants. Keith said he will send to Michael so he can prepare the Resolutions. Keith discussed with Michael what needs to go into the Resolutions.
Any other business.
No other business.
Mayor report:
Clark asked if anyone knows what happened to the stop sign at the intersection of SR259 and 2nd Street.
Clark said it has been gone for almost 2 weeks. Lou said the state needs notified since it is their highway.
841 McKinley St, owner on vacation. Unable to contact.
834 McKinley St. The owner went out and dug up the grass between the sidewalk and the curb which is Borough property. He started laying bricks down then started standing them up. Someone could trip over the way he had them. Clark called him and said it was illegal to do that and he would be liable if someone falls. The next day he took the bricks back out and laid them back down.
Diane Wynn, her disabled parking sign disappeared. She thought the wind blew it off somewhere. The bolts are still there just not the sign. She paid for the sign last time, so Clark said he would bring up to council to get her another one.
He posted 2 properties – 1 on Lincoln St. 1 on McKinley St. Mr. Short has moved out of Borough and his vehicle is still on the street. He said he will go to West Bolivar some evening and try to find him.
Clark also called John Speidel on his high grass on his bank. He said it is partially done and will be finished soon.
Down at Kovac property. He is arguing with his neighbor about the bails of straw blocking the driveway.
Lou said” Kovac says he owns the property”. Clark said it was Borough right-a-way. Sue mentioned that Dick Galbreith owned it at one time. Lou said someone has to get in and out of the trailer.
Sue said the hay is going to be used in the back area that John leveled off.
Discussion was made on what Bo should do. Lou said he needs to call the PSP and check on this. Ambulance and Fire Trucks needs to be able to get in an emergency.
Clark mentioned the shooting range. It supposedly is in Fairfield Twp. According to John he shoots into Fairfield Twp. and has a silencer on his rifle.
Lou said silencer or not he is still discharging in the Borough and this is illegal.
Sue asked how we find out if we have a right-a way down there or not.
It was decided to have the solicitor look at the county records to see what can be done.
Sewage Report
Zach said they finally hired a new Solicitor who is looking into several items. The minutes were not approved so that is why you did not get any this month.
Street Commissioner Report
Truck now has 2,021 miles on it. Zero turn used 29.33 gallons of gas and put 15 hours on it. The Kubota had put 34 miles on it this month.
Parks & Rec
Brickfest is coming up next Saturday Aug 12th. Would like to have the support of the town by coming up. We are doing set up on Friday night. Keith asked if this is the time frame when Ron marks the lines for the vendors. Parks is asking even for help even if it is for 1 hour or 2. Anything would be appreciated. We are still collecting baskets and if you can’t do that and wish to donate money we can make a basket for you.
No other business to discuss.
Motion to close made by Keith at 8:25 PM, 2nd by Sue at 8:05 PM. All in favor motion passed.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer