This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Meeting was opened by Lewis McLaughlin, Council President at 7:01 PM.

Present: Lewis McLaughlin, Sue Bartow, Solicitor Jeff Miller, Keith St.Clair, Gladine McMaster, Ron Betts.

Absent: Mayor Tom Pickup

Public Attendance: Dan Short, JR

Approval Oct meeting minutes.

Sue commented that the sewage bills were not going up as she stated in October. She was just joking. Motion made by Keith to approve, 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motion passed.

Approval of Treasurer Report.

Sue asked what the Purta distribution was. Pat explained it was the "public utilities tax" fee distribution because of the gas lines under ground in town that we allow to be there. Motion to accept treasurer report made by Gladine, 2nd by Sue, all in favor motion passed.

Solicitor report. Just Animal Control Ordinance which is on the agenda.

Public Comment.
Boone wanted to say thanks for cleaning out the drain and leaves in front of his house.

Old Business:

Update on Farm Animal Ordinance
Jeffery said it was up for council decision. Gladine said she read several times and had nothing to change. Lou also said he saw no issues. Pat said the Ordinance was advertised and posted for review.
Keith motions to adopt the Farm Animal Ordinance, Lou 2nd, all in favor motion passed. Pat gave to Lou to sign and will get Mayor approval and signature.

Update on Salt Bin. - Pat
Pat stated the blocks were delivered and cost us $4300 rather than the $4700 because size was cut down. Decision is now to be made on whether to put a concrete slab in before the salt gets put in.

Lou said he went to Seward and New Florence. They do not have concrete slab in their bins.

Gladine said the salt will just eat the bottom. Sue said we could put mine belt on the sides to keep from eating away. Lou said he thought some was at his dad's house. That would work as long as the skid steer doesn't catch on the sides and pull it down. Ron said we have approx 5 ton. of salt. Pat asked if we were or were not going to put cement slab down first. Sue motions that we do not put a cement slab down, 2nd by Keith, all in favor motion passed.

Update on garage door operator.

Pat said All Star is coming this upcoming Tuesday to put new operator on the door. They are also going to include two (2) remotes.
Lou asked is any other old business to discuss. No one commented.

New Business
7:12 PM executive meeting called on personnel issues.
7:20 meeting reconvened - Sue motioned to not give raises, 2nd by Gladine.
Sue asks Jeffery if we can do separate motions for both workers. Motion does not pass. Raises was done separately. Sue motions not to give raise to Secretary. Gladine 2nds, Lou said No, Keith said no, Gladine said yes. Ron abstains. Because the motions are tied and mayor is not here to break the tie the motion does not pass. Sue wanted to know why Jeffery could not break the tie. Jeffery explained it was a vacancy position which is entirely different situation.
Sue motions to not give raise for Boro worker, Gladine 2nds,, Lou no, Keith, no Ron no. Lou not willing to give a raise for 1 and not the other. Motion fails.
Keith asked how to handle this situation. If no one will make a motion to give a raise to Pat then it goes on hold until next month when Mayor can break the tie. Lou said he heard all week that someone was going around town and it was commented that the raise of taxes was caused by employees requesting a raise. This was not true. Raises are a very small part of the budget. Gladine said her understanding was the raise in taxes is because for years nothing was done and the streets and truck have been run down to the bone and now we must raise to help cover the cost of street repairs and a new truck. We need to put money into the street maintenance fund and truck. Then next year possibly include a raise. Their raises have nothing to do with raising the taxes it is for the streets.

The election results will not be certified for 30 days. The rumor is that Keith will maintain his seat on council and that we will have Clark Baird as Mayor. Gladine said she has talked to Clark and he said he will accept the position if asked. His platform is that we need cops and we all know we cannot afford a cop in town. Discussion was done on this and Lou said the Mayor does not get a vote unless it is to break a tie. Keith commented that he will not be the next Mayor in Bolivar, He already has declined the position.

Jeffery said the question now is since Keith has declined the position he will research but thought the decision will be left up to Council to appoint a person and not go to the next person who has the most votes.

2022 Tentative Budget

Lou asked what council decision is on the budget. Raise the taxes by 2 mils or 3 mils or leave the same. Gladine motioned for a 2 mil increase, Keith 2nds all in favor, Sue opposes . Motion passed.

Jeffery stated the budget will be 18 mils, and total budget is $128,332.89 Jeffery to work on Ordinance and newspaper ad for the next meeting and will get to Pat within the week.

Dan Short said everyone in town can't afford it. Lou asked who in town. Dan said the old people. Lou commented his parents are old and they would rather have the taxes raised so they can have services.

Jeffery explained how the tax bill works. Jeffery said the Borough is less than 1/2 of the spring tax bill, the remaining goes to the County and the fall taxes goes to the school system.

Assignment for borough truck
Lou said he would like to appoint a couple people to work on this. Lou asked if we want to put a couple grand into the current truck to get it to pass inspection.

Sue commented if it doesn't pass we can just hire out the job. Discussion was made on the matter.

Lou would like to appoint Gladine on the truck find. Gladine accepted the challenge.

Jeffery said he is talking as a citizen and not as the solicitor. Do we really have a choice? The items are a safety issue and needs to be done for inspection. Sue would like to see another estimate for repairs. Sue said Nixon's, Jimmy Day, or Lear's said they would look at it also. Keith said we have a bid from Sower's. Truck is already labeled it will not pass inspection.

Sue said she wants to be on the committee with Gladine. Gladine said she would like Zack Burtop to be on committee. He was looking down at Tri-Star. Lou asked when Zack was authorized to look at trucks? Gladine said he likes to look at trucks and he saw one a Tri-Star. Gladine said Sue has continually told her she cannot find a truck. Gladine said it was an automatic 350 Ford and would work for us.

Jeffery mentioned Co-Stars and he knows for a fact that Tri-Star is a Co-Star provider. We can go directly to them. We can negotiate a better deal with them.

Jeffery suggested to draw up the specs for what we are looking for and present it to several different Co-Star dealers. Looking for a F350, 4 wheel drive, with plow and spreader.

Pat gave Gladine the name of the person with US Municipal and phone number to contact for help on the search.

Lou said Keith can also be on the truck committee. Gladine spoke up and said she does not want Sue on her committee. Sue commented, " Well ok". Gladine said once we get into 4 people will spend all our time on arguing on what we need and don't need.

Pat again asked are we or not going to do anything with the truck. Gladine said not, 2nd by Sue. All in favor , Ron not in agreement, Keith not in agreement, Lou said let's give it a month . We have a meeting in December before the inspection runs out. Table until next month's meeting.

American Rescue Plan report filing extended until April 2022. Pat commented that she was very happy for this. She went on line to file with Treasury Dept and had to now go through Real.ID me + Treasury.
Had to upload her birth certificate, passport, driver license, social security card and proof of address. and also self portrait then had to wait on line for verification of documents and have a face to face meeting with the Gov't representative from Treasury Dept before they would grant permission and give a log in to the Treasury Dept web site just to file the reports for the American Rescue Plan funds. This is a new requirement .

Lou said he has one more thing under new business.

He saw his brother and they looked at the town roads by air. He received estimates on the cost of tar and chipping and which roads are the worst to start out with.
2nd and Lincoln to Walnut is 580' x 21'
3rd and Lincoln to Walnut is 560' x 18 '
5th and Walnut to Market ST is 1180' x 18'
Washington from 2nd to 9th St is 1900' x 24'
Lincoln from 2nd to 9th St - 2400' x 25'
McKinley St from 2nd to 9th St 1900' x 24'
Total cost is $72,450.00 figuring 500 ton of stone.
This cost includes double seal coat - which is putting tar and chip down twice. This way it does not bleed off. Just to move equipment in and out runs $2,000
His brother also said we could get Rick Skevensky to come down and check out the roads. To pave the streets it is $250,000 We are excluding all management and parking. We would have to post for all residents on the streets they are doing to have them off the road. After two weeks you would need to broom off the excess so the stones do not clog the drains.

Any other new business.

The borough worker. We usually consider laying off this time of year. Lou asked Ron if he is needed.
Ron said we still need for at least another month to clean the leaves and drains before winter. We will revisit again in December.

Gladine asked if a decision was made last month for the Boro Worker to get the brush off the property at 6th & McKinley St. Lou commented it was private property and we cannot go onto the property to collect. Sue said she talked to the resident owner and they would like to have it removed. She said she already promised that she and Zack would take care of it. She said Zack is not feeling well right now. Sue said if you want Greg to do it then have him do it, if not then Sue and Zack will do it.

Sewage Report: Meeting is next week.

Mayor report nothing to report.

Street Commissioner Report
Ron said 160.6 miles on truck and used 29.27 gallons of gas
12.3 hours and 18.9 gallons on zero turn
Gas tank is 1/2 full - possible to order in December.
Have tarp to cover the salt bin. Need to order salt.
Put new hoses on spreader and plow was missing bolt but now is ready to go.

Parks & Recreation Report

Pat said we had Fun Day on 23rd of October. Had the hayrides and movie also at Legion. Upcoming Santa in December, and also putting up the Christmas Decoration on the Telephone Poles in town.

Any other business.

Next meeting is Dec 2nd at 7 PM.

Jeffery spoke up and said as a citizen he would like for the Borough to get another truck. He would like the Borough to get the streets done. We can figure it out and do for the betterment of the town. We always do even if it is a little at a time but we get the job done. Several years ago we said we cannot get the drains fixed but we did it. We can do this. This is all he has to say about the matter.

Keith motions to close meeting , 2nd by Gladine, all in favor motion passed.
Meeting closed at 8:30 PM

Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer