This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Present: Amy Lickenfelt, Sue Bartow, Ron Betts, Clark Baird, Mark Scribe and

Solicitor Jeff Miller

Absent- Mayor Tom Pickup.

Public Attendance - Ligonier Echo - Alexander Ashcroft, Dan Short, JR, Melissa Miller, Pam and Joe StClair, Brad Foust, Beth Thompson, Joe Robinson

Meeting called to order at 7 PM by Amy.

July 6 Regular Meeting Minutes were reviewed. Motion to approve was made by Clark and 2nd by Sue and Mark. All approved.

July Treasurer report was reviewed. Motion to approve was made by Sue and 2nd by Clark and Mark. All approved.

Solicitor Report - Jeffery stated he will answer whatever comes up as we go along.

Public comment. - Joe StClair- nothing. Pam StClair – commented on two extra flags in front of Borough looking great. Other thing – Brad Foust attended the EIP Program meeting will update later this evening.

Dan Short, Jr – Last week during rain storm, both drains by my house on Washington Street clogged. Had river coming down by my house. Request to have drain cleaned out. Also wanted to know about the Ordinance. He wanted to know about the chicken Ordinance. Clark looked at the book from the police car and Ordinance was not in it. Jeff stated that a lot of records are not here any longer. Amy said we are still working on it.

Brad Foust – next public attendee. Nothing. Beth Thompson, nothing. Melissa Miller – EIP,

Playground program will end next Friday August 11th. Both girls are going back to school.

2nd thing – EIP meeting with George. Came up with 5 things would like to get done.

1. Lower playground – including renovation of ballfield, floating boat launch, Water Park not a pool, including tennis courts, basketball courts, and fencing, and track and parking. Plan to put into one large grant.

2. Blighted houses in town. Working with real estate agents and Westmoreland County how to remedy the problem.

3. Sidewalks. -

What we need now is to approve or not approve what we have come up with so Mr. Dougherty can get started with writing to appropriate people in the state and county levels so he can bring additional people into the projects and write the grants.

Council needs to approve the ideas and EIP will work on the funding over a 5 to 10 year program. With blighted housing – Pam wants to take photos of the empty houses with owner’s approval and would like to place on the web site for all to see.

Melissa is to notify Mr. Dougherty in the morning on the outcome of council decision. Technology and security camera grants are out there and we have none of that here. Ron asked about the old grant conditions. Mr. Dougherty will have to look at the original grant but doesn’t seem to see where a problem would be. The lower park is just being upgraded.

We also talked about a "Rails to Trails Program" and Mr. Dougherty is also looking into that.

Brad Foust said another thing they were talking about was building a trail bridge across the river to connect to a trail.

Motion was made by Amy to move forward with EIP committee suggestions and plans and approving the priorities. 2nd by Clark and Ron. All approved.

Joe Robinson, still feels there will be a problem with his drain since the railroad company has been there. Ron explained the process to Joe, he still doesn’t quite understand. Joe said he will probably have to get his drain camered then to see what is going on. Ron said during last rain storm the only problem we had was the drain by Quonset hut that was completely clogged and needs flushed out.

Next on agenda. Update on garage ligation. Jeffery said nothing at this time.

Next- BCS Construction Update - Jeff said Penn DOT has determined approx. $6,000 overpaid on the project. BCS updated their invoice for revision and sent off to PENNOT for review. If they do not approve then Borough will have to pay back to Liquid Fuels Account. Jeffery also said the County is not concerned about their funds. They know they were used appropriately and will not request anything to be paid back to them.

Next Item of discussion – New parks and rec. committee. - Beth Thompson agreed to take head of the parks committee. Gladine McMasters will help, Melissa Miller, Amy Lickenfelt, Ron Betts, Pat Betts, Pam St Clair, Joe StClair will also be on committee.

We now have to adopt an Ordinance for the new parks and rec committee.

Sue motioned to have an Ordinance enacted by next meeting for the parks and rec committee and Ron 2nds. All approved.

Pam said she has been contact by several companies from the Blairsville Parks and Rec web site

On equipment for our parks. Amy said the committee will only come to council if they need us. Council is not involved in how the committee makes their decision.

Next item: Hiring of Borough Worker. Clark motioned to hire Bill Rigby since he was employed by Borough before and most qualified of the 3 applicants who were interviewed for the position.

An executive meeting was called at 7:34 to discuss personnel.

Executive meeting returned at 7:42 PM.

Clark motion was made to pay $10.00 hr. hour and work 30 hours per week pending clearance on drug, alcohol, physical testing. Also have a clearance on driving record. Sue 2nd motions and all approved.

Drain on 5th Street. Ron said what was found was a large rock approx. 30 feet down. Using terra Cotta piping. The belief is the rock is blocking the water and also several other areas with crushed piping. He was up there for over two hours trying to get past the blockages in the line.

Dean’s Drain Service is to give us an estimate on the project. Amy asked about Bill Hughes for the project. Ron cautioned on the use of Bill because of the $10,000 per year limitation to use one person. Penn Dot views all the different projects as one project and not several different projects. Ron will notify several different companies to get bids for the project.

Sue stated that if Deans Drain service was awarded the project, when he gets the clog portion done he will include camering the additional line down the road for no additional cost.

Request letter to be sent to Mr. Eckels on the work performed on his property at 110 Shaffer Street stating amount owed is $110.26 for the work Borough had to do on property.

Update on police coverage – Jeffery said he talked to New Florence solicitor. He to make changes to the agreement and get back with council on this. New Florence is very anxious to get this done. The agreement is for 6 months only and let’s just see how it goes and if need changes after this then new terms can be made at that time. Jeffery discussed several issues on 911 calls and explained to council different events that may happen and how it is handled.

Sue questioned if a conflict of interest will arise if Jeffery gets the solicitor job with New Florence also. Jeffery doesn’t seem to think there will be a conflict.

Amy wants to know who is still interested in continuing the police contract and who is not. Clark and Sue both stated no. Mark, Ron and Amy are still interested will move forward. Amy said that since both Sue and Clark are not interested then they are out of it. Jeffery said that the current agreement is that we don’t like the current agreement and will make changes as needed to get the agreement ready and signed by their next meeting.

Next meeting will be held September 7th at 7 PM.

Parks and Rec Permit issued for Houck birthday party on July 16th. There may be times when a decision must be made before the next meeting. Jeffery said to enact a Resolution on enacting policies. Sue motions for Jeffery to draw up a Resolution in reference to parks and rec issues to make decisions prior to or following council meetings to authorize the president or vice president to act on decisions to approve permits on behalf on council. Everyone agrees.

2018 GDBG grant applications next on agenda. Sue spoke with Terry from county and said we must have an engineer to oversee and apply for a grant. All CDBG projects must now have an engineer do a work up prior to applying for a project. Council does not currently have an engineer in mind and Sue is not comfortable with using McCormick Taylor at this time. Jeffery suggests to skip this year’s CDBG project and just work on a project for next year. Jeffery said rather than putting together a quick project for this upcoming year, have more thought put into a project for the following year. We cannot send anything into CDBG without an engineer approval for the project in advance.

Next item. – Copy-write laws for parks and rec. Ron would like to have Jeffery check into this for next meeting. Pat said that prior parks and rec leased movies. The new parks and rec committee - If the Borough purchased from the store a movie, showed at the park and not charge to show. Can we be able to do this and not violate the copy-write laws?

Hedge clippers, zero turn mower battery and skid steer tire, grass killer for roads. Ron said he would like to get Nathan Howe to look at hedge clippers to see if he can put it back together. New battery is needed for zero turn mower – had a dead cell in battery. Won’t hold charge. Lamantia’s to check on skid steer tire and rim. We also need grass killer for roads. Amy said council had allotted $1000 purchases without prior approval as needed for borough worker.

Mark said he will take the Street Commissioner position back. Amy said she appoints Mark Scribe as Street Commissioner effective immediately and everyone needs to stay out of their business. Sue 2nds the motion. Clark said we don’t want everyone on council telling the Borough worker what to do. Everyone needs to keep their nose out of it. Mark and Charlie are the only two people that needs to tell Bill what to do. Amy said to Mark to make sure Bill goes to the Assistant Commissioner when he is not around.

The fire department sent a letter thanking council for their help during the carnival. They are also requesting street closure on August 12 for their annual picnic. Everyone approved.

Beacon Independent Baptist church, is appealing their property to be tax exempt from taxes. Jeffery stated the rental portion of the property should not be exempt. The Borough needs to appeal the reassessment on the property. Ron and Pat are assigned to go to appeal meeting on August 17th on behalf of the Borough.

Sue said she wants to personally thank Clark for helping Diane Gropp get her property in compliance by having her old foundation hole filled.

Sewage Committee: Ron said working on getting the road done and are putting a draining system in beforehand.

Mayors report. – Nothing was given to Pat. Pat said, Tom had given her a grant this morning that was due today. It was a private grant for up to $25,000. The grant was for "Community Boat Docking Ramp Access Point". Items of coverage would be parking lot, paved boat launch ramp, rest rooms, and so forth. This would be an upgrade to the park and how it would bring in new business to the area and how it would benefit the community residents.

Street Commissioner Report: Mr. Penrose brought up before about his alley that washes out all the time. Borough needs to do something about it. It is a safety hazard for residents. Amy suggested that you and worker get together and see what can be done with it.

Parks and Rec – Amy again thanks Beth, and Pam for volunteering to start up Parks and Rec Committee.

Sue said she spoke with Keith and said that the initial grant is good for 5 years and not 3 years. In 2018 it will be three years so we still have that first grant.

Amy motioned to adjourn at 8:30. Mark 2nd. All approved.

Respectfully,

Patricia Betts

Secretary/Treasurer