This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Meeting opened by Lou McLaughlin- President at 7 pm.
Attendance:
Ron Betts, Gladine McMaster, Keith St Clair, Michael Smith, Attorney, Clark Baird- Mayor, Lou McLaughlin- President, Sue Bartow
Absent: none
Gen Public: Everett Saxton, Sheri Burtop, Cindy Shetler, Denise McGinnis,
Mellissa Miller
Old Business:
Approval of October minutes
Sue asked about the motion to close streets for Halloween parade on page 3 not in minutes. Pat said council signed off the paper to close streets. Pat does not recall on tape a motion being made for it.
Lou said it was approved, we voted on it. We made the motion because the Legion wanted to close the alley behind the Legion. Pat said we can retro the motion. Sue commented it doesn’t really matter now.
Clark said on the first page he thought it was 250 yards from the property line for shooting. Lou said he called the game commission. They have no rules unless you are hunting. They also said it was a State Police matter. Lou said that Mr. Kovac had the police down there. Lou said our Ordinance does not have his type of gun in it. Lou said he did call the game commission and they said since he was not hunting deer down there they have nothing to do with it.
Gladine wanted to know if we could update our Ordinance. Lou said we could but with any Ordinance update, the people who currently have something set up would be grandfathered in.
Motion made by Lou 2nd by Gladine to approve minutes, all in favor, no nays, motion passed.
Approval of Treasurer Report
Sue questioned the electric bill for the Quonset hut. Wanted to know why the bill was up. Pat said the electric company raised the rates and it is getting darker earlier. Lou said the kilowatts went from 8 point something to 11 point something.
Motion made by Gladine, 2nd by Lou, all in favor, no nays, motion passed.
Solicitor Report:
Michael said nothing at this time.
Public comment: No one had anything to say.
Update on Emergency Management Coordinator
Pat said that Keith volunteer to hold the position. He completed the paperwork and it was submitted to the county for approval.
Lou motioned to accept Keith as the new Emergency Management Coordinator, 2nd by Ron, all in favor, no nays, Keith abstained, motion passed.
Keith asked if John Speidel does it for the fire department. Pat said yes.
Update on LSA Grant
Pat said that Keith Vasas commented there is a new official in charge of the government project. He went over questions they had and made several adjustments so we still will not have any percentage to put up front.
Update on ARPA Grant refund.
Pat said she received documents from the county which were wrong. After Keith reviewed he spoke to the county and to Harrisburg and we were then asked to send back to the county for them to revise the paperwork. Pat is still awaiting to get the documents back so we could receive our $91,000 back.
Anything else on old business.
Lou said we can now talk about the shooting range.
He asked if anyone on council wanted to contact the PSP on this. He said he knows that John said they did come down but to satisfy council he wanted to hear for himself on this subject matter.
Someone from the PSP needs to tell us that it will not be our responsibility if someone gets shot down there. We don’t need it come back on us for being sued for not stopping the shooting range.
Lou appointed Michael, our solicitor to contact PSP on this subject.
Lou said we could still look into drafting a New Ordinance on shooting in the Borough.
New Business
CD coming up for renewal.
Pat said that Somerset Trust is running a special this month. For a 7 month, 15 month, or 22 month cd would be at 5.16 % Minimum of $5,000. To open First Commonwealth has 10 month @ 5.3 & and a 15 month at 5% minimum $10,000 to open S & T Bank can give us 5.16% for 12 months penalty free.
Discussion made on the choices. Sue motioned to leave at S & T, 2nd by Keith, all in favor, no nays, and motion passed.
Sewage Authority position in question
Pat handed Lou a letter of resignation from Zach Burtop effective immediately.
Lou said we need to find another person to serve on the authority board.
Pat gave Lou a letter of interest from Keith StClair
Sue said she also spoke to Jeffery Miller several days ago on the matter and he is also interested in the spot.
Sue asked Mellissa if Jeffery would still be interested in the sewage board. Mellissa went to her home to ask. Mellissa came back and said that Jeffery said he would gladly accept if council wanted him to.
Sue immediately made a motion to replace Zach Burtop position on sewage board with Jeffery Miller.
His position will run until December 31, 2026. Gladine 2nd motion, all in favor motion passed.
Sue asked if the borough worker would plow the alley behind Bob James house this winter. That is their only access to their home.
Any other business:
Everett asked if the property owners would gather their leaves and place in trash bags in front of their homes if the boro worker would be allowed to pick them up.
Lou said Paul can pick up. He has been sweeping leaves up for couple weeks now and then burning them.
Lou said he has seen several complaints on facebook about people using their dirt bikes and flying thru the Bolivar Cemetery and alleys and doing donuts. The person were spoken to as well as their parents. Apparently this is now taken care of.
Mayor report
Dutch house is sold now and the new owners are cleaning out the house. Also the medical center asked about moving a disabled sign to another location on the property. Clark and Ron moved the sign. Their insurance company asked for the sign to be moved to the ramp area. Paul is supposed to paint on the street.
Sewage Report
Meeting next week to be held at Robinson Community Center
Street Commissioner Report
22 hours put on zero turn
14.12 gallons of gas used
Put 12 miles on truck. Speedometer now has 2190 miles on it
Kubota put 1 miles on it.
Paul cleaning up street drains and removing leaves.
Paul requested trickle charger for Kubota for winter.
Keith suggested we get 3 chargers. Lou said it is in the budget so no motion is needed.
Lou asked Ron about putting the plow on the truck. Ron said it is easy to put on. Only takes about 10 minutes.
Parks & Rec
Mellissa said had gun bash on Sunday. Sponsored by Legion. Santa coming December 16th along with sleigh rides.
Starting next year schedule of events already.
We applied to Ligonier Endowment for a grant for the upper park. If we get it we are replacing the sidewalk around the park.
We would like to use the borough truck to put up the candy canes around town.
Sue said that depends on who is going to drive the truck. Lou said all council members are on the insurance. Pat said that Keith, Ron, Gladine and Lou is on the insurance.
Keith wanted to know why our Borough Worker could not do it. If Paul was willing would council authorize Paul to help? Gladine asked how long it took us to do on our own. Pat said it took us 4 days to set up. Gladine said she did not think there would be a problem. After discussion among all council members the decision was to have the boro worker use the truck and get paid to help put up the candy canes on the poles in town.
No other business, motion to close meeting made by Lou, 2nd by Sue at 7:45 pm.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer