President Bittner Called the Meeting to Order

Regular Meeting of Council, California Borough, August 13, 2009, California Municipal Building, 225 Third Street, 6:30 P.M.

President Bittner called the meeting to order.

PRESENT: John Difilippo, President Jon Bittner, Shelly Roberts, Sheila Chambers, Mayor Casey Durdines

ABSENT: Vicki Gallo, Walter Weld (Mr. Weld entered the meeting at 6:50 P.M.), Anthony Mariscotti

A moment of silence was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

ADDITIONS OR CHANGES TO AGENDA

Mrs. Chambers – add report on parking meeting of July 16th as Mrs. Gallo is not here.

Mr. Bittner would handle the handicap parking in Mrs. Gallo’s absence.

The agenda would stand approved as printed and amended.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Chambers/Difilippo motion to approve the minutes of the Special Meeting of July 2, 2009 duly carried.

Chambers/Roberts motion to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of July, 2009 duly carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON THE AGENDA

Mrs. Mariscotti

Mrs. Mariscotti contacted the Borough last week about volunteers painting light poles. Mr. Bittner stated she would be called when Mr. Weld talks about this under his report.

Mr. Maddiex

Mr. Maddiex stated regarding stop signs on Intermediate Unit Drive and Mulberry Court he is in favor of it and he hopes this passes.

SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT – Elizabeth Pfrogner

Ms. Pfrogner read the accounts balance and accounts payable as of July 31, 2009.

Difilippo/Cambers motion to accept Secretary/Treasurer’s report duly carried.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT – MR. BITTNER

REPORT ON EXECUTIVE SESSION – COMMITTEE MEETING 8-6-09

The executive session after the Committee Meeting dealt with litigation with Tomko and

Chester Engineers.

CONTINUE MEETING – 8-24-09 – CONDITIONAL USE HEARINGS (2)

This meeting would be continued to August 24th at 6:00 P.M. for two conditional use hearings.

WASHINGTON COUNTY TAX COLLECTION COMMITTEE – ACT 32 COMPLIANCE – DELEGATE & ALTERNATE

Chambers/Roberts motion to appoint Ms. Pfrogner as the delegate and Mrs. Pagac as the alternate to the Washington County Tax Collection Committee, Act 32 Compliance duly carried. Mr. Bittner stated the Commonwealth of PA set up this committee. It deals with the county wide earned income tax collection.

RESOLUTION NO. 102 – ADOPTING THE MUNICIPAL 2010 CENSUS COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE

Chambers/Difilippo motion to adopt Resolution No. 102 adopting the Municipal 2010 Census Complete Count Committee duly carried with all members voting yes.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL – CENTRAL WESTMORELAND COG - $175.00

The membership renewal for the Central Westmoreland Council of Governments for $175.00 for 2009/2010 is due. This is where the Borough does its purchasing through the Co-Stars for trucks, cars and other essential items. Difilippo/Chambers motion to renew. On a roll call vote motion carried with all members voting yes.

HICKORY ST. – NO PARKING EAST SIDE – SEVENTH ST. TO PENNSYLVANIA

Mr. Bittner stated there is no parking on Hickory Street on the west side going down from Seventh Street to Sixth Street. It was always understood that there was no one parked on the right side from Seventh Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. It is imperative that street is kept a two way street at all times because that is a main flow in and out of the university plus snow removal and emergency vehicles. Chambers/Difilippo motion to put no parking signs on the east or right side of Hickory Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to Seventh Street duly carried.

STOP SIGNS – INTERMEDIATE UNIT DR. AND MULBERRY COURT

Mr. Vitchoff informed Mr. Bittner that in doing work on Intermediate Unit Drive he noted what might warrant stop signs there. After reviewing this Chief Encapera gave a letter stating that he is in full agreement that stop signs should be placed on Intermediate Unit Drive and Mulberry Court. Chambers/Roberts motion. Under discussion, Mayor Durdines stated this is where the cal- de-sac was. Mr. Bittner stated it is the street down from the cal-de-sac. The Mayor stated there is supposed to be signs there. Mr. Bittner stated there is one sign coming out of Mulberry onto Intermediate but there are no signs on Intermediate. Motion duly carried with all members stating aye.

CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH DAYS

President Bittner reminded everyone that California Gold Rush Days by the Optimist Club starts tomorrow afternoon and goes through Sunday. A list of activities is on the table in the back. He asked the community to support this. It is a very good cause.

Chambers/Difilippo motion to approve Mr. Bittner’s report duly carried.

PUBLIC HEALTH – Mrs. Chambers

MONTHLY SEWAGE REPORT

Mrs. Chamber read the sewage report to date. In reviewing the delinquent sewage, she worked with Mr. Large and Ms. Evans. Ms. Evans separated the delinquencies according to various criteria, abandon buildings, no water, rentals and by the list she had of rentals for student housing in the Borough and the total of delinquencies for these is $40,831.43. Rental housing is two thirds of the Borough’s delinquency of $63,000. Mrs. Chambers reminded Mr. Large that he sent a letter to all property owners who have a rental license that needed to be renewed June 1st and if their sewage account is in arrears he would be unable to issue a new rental license. In Ordinance No. 428 all sewage charges, delinquencies, late fees, everything must be paid in full before you would be issued a rental license. Also, Ms. Evans has an awful time with people giving her checks to pay their sewer bill with insufficient funds in the bank. She checked with other utilities, the water company, electric company and natural gas company, should they receive a check from anyone with insufficient funds across the bill is printed cash only. That could also be a money order and certified check. So that will be a policy. Mr. Melenyzer stated a bad check is criminal, depending on the amount there are varying penalties and severity of the criminal charge. He would notify everybody that unless they do something the Borough is going to file criminal charges. Then the Borough would get the money quickly. Mrs. Chambers stated the Borough needs to wipe out the delinquencies. The Borough ordnance says sewage bills must be up to date or a rental license would not be received and you will get a shut off notice. Mrs. Chambers commended Ms. Evans on all the work she has done to separate this out and she is still working on other things.

MOTION TO ACCEPT THE H20 PA $5,000,000 GRANT – SEWER IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Mrs. Chambers announced that through the efforts of Representative Peter J. Daley and Senator Richard Kasunic the Borough will be receiving $5,000,000 in grant money from the H20 Pennsylvania Act Fund. She was told that Council has to accept this. Chambers/ Difilippo motion to accept the H20 Pennsylvania Act Fund Grant in the amount of $5,000,000 duly carried. Mrs. Chambers thanked Art Brower President of Fayette Engineering for putting together the paper work to allow the Borough to get this. He worked with Ms. Pfrogner and they went through mountains of paper work. Mr. Bittner stated letters were sent to Mr. Kasunic and Mr. Daley thanking them and inviting them tonight. Last evening Mr. Daley told him he was due in Harrisburg today and if he doesn’t come tonight he would like to come next month. Mrs. Chambers stated the Borough is watching every penny so that the debt service does not have to be increased.

PARKING

Mrs. Chambers stated there was a meeting July 16th about parking spaces in the Borough and they wondered how many there are. The Borough owns a lot on Second Street beside Signatures. It has been determined that is large enough to put in thirty parking stalls. The Borough purchased property on Liberty and First to put in the pumping station and they have determined that they may be able to get four there. Ms. Shook had a police officer review the parking meter situation and look at those that do not have a very good turn over time. It was determined that there are about thirty of those. They are not in the down town area but scattered out. It is possible that they may be leased for $360/year. Also work is being done at the public library parking facilities. That is going to be expanded all the way down to the fence toward Cal U. The total there would be 112 to 114 spaces but 75 of those are committed to various apartments in that area. That leaves 37 to 39 spaces. So close to 100 spaces will be available in the downtown area to help ease the parking congestion. She has not yet determined how to find out in residential areas how many people want permit parking. She has to figure out the computer system and will rely on Ms. Evans and Mr. Large to do that. They may want to do some sort of a pole of the residents. It looks like close to 100 spaces could be rented out every year on a first come first serve basis. The spot may not be in front of your home but you will have a spot. That is where the parking program is at this point. Mayor Durdines stated he looked at the lot on Second Street about a year ago. He asked Joyce to keep mental notes about the interest there. There would be interest when college is in but he could not say during the summer months. Mrs. Chambers and Mr. Bittner would like to get moving on this as the students would be here in two weeks and she knows that Mrs. Shook usually has an overwhelming number of requests that she cannot fill so this would help relieve some of that. The Mayor stated the lot is not that large and he is not sure you could get thirty and still be able to maneuver a vehicle in and out of there. Mrs. Chambers had Bruce go down and the regulation is nine by twenty feet and he came back with thirty but you would have to look at what the traffic flow would be. It would be concrete with numbers and posted with signs that say permit parking only. The Mayor stated maybe if the parking is on an angle with a row on each side. Mr. Bittner stated where the new parking lot is going in next to the old beer distributor, a parking meter missing and asked if they requested the removal of that meter or did they just take it out. To the Mayor’s knowledge there has been no request for removal of meters anywhere. Mr. Bittner stated that meter was removed, their driveway was put in and there was no action taken by Council for the removal of that meter. There is also a meter missing in front of the new housing complex down there. It was taken out for them to access the street and hasn’t been replaced. He does not know if the Borough has possession of that meter or if they have it. Mayor Durdines would phone the Chief to track that down. Mr. Bittner felt Council should have given permission for the removal of the meter and nothing came across the table. He would have Mr. Large look into that.

Difilippo/Gallo motion to approve Mrs. Chambers’ report duly carried.

PUBLIC HOUSING – MISS ROBERTS

ALTERNATE -ZONING HEARING BOARD

Roberts/Chambers motion to nominate Mr. Gene Knight as the alternate for the zoning hearing board. Under discussion, Mayor Durdines asked if there were two people interested in that. Miss Roberts stated yes and the reason she chose Mr. Knight is that he did state at the last meeting that he was interested in serving. On a roll call vote motion carried with all members voting yes.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – INSPECTION OF RENTAL UNITS

Miss Roberts received five proposals for the inspection of rental units. After she reread last months minutes she would like to say she did agree completely with Mr. Melenyzer’s point that he made that the Borough cannot guarantee safety. That is not her reasoning for wanting to do this. Her reasoning is because the Borough has so many units, it is in the ordinance that they should be inspected annually and the impossibility of one person being able to do that even if he or she does have help. Her concern is if something would happen in a particular unit that had not been inspected in a couple of years she thinks the Borough would be in a little bit of trouble. She is also concerned about surrounding properties so she would think that making a move such as this to do something to attempt to get all of these units inspected yearly would be better for Council. That is why she brought this up besides the zoning office is a one man show and it is impossible in her opinion for him to do everything that there is to do. She would like to set up dates for interviews for each of these companies and individuals. She thought August 24th since Council is meeting any way for the conditional use hearings at 6:00 P.M. These interviews should not take more than fifteen minutes and could probably be done within an hour. She would like to set up interviews at 5:00 P.M. or after but she does not know how long conditional use hearings last. Mr. Melenyzer did not have all the details but thinks they are going to be relatively short. They are trying to add additional students within an area where they are allowed. Mr. Melenyzer asked if she determined what she wanted to do with regards to the inspection because that is going to drive the cost. His suggestion is that be worked out so that they are aware of what that cost is going to be so when interviewed the only difference may be a substantial amount of money. She asked Mr. Melenyzer if he received a copy of the proposals. He had not. She stated most of the proposals have a figure for various unit types that they are proposing. She deliberately did not set one because she wanted to see what they would offer. There are people that did not come in because in the advertisement it stated that there was a list of the items that must be inspected and interested parties could pick up that. Mr. Melenyzer stated the UCC’s should be separated from the rentals. On the rentals he does not know if on an annual basis the Borough wants to do more than required, that is not part of the Borough’s obligation under the ordinance. If the Borough expands it so far that the Borough is doing something not legally required, then the Borough has assumed liability if it is not done correctly. She had not intention of expanding it. She was just trying to go along with what the Borough has been doing which is the list that Ms. Pfrogner gave out. Mr. Difilippo felt these proposals were expensive. Miss Roberts thought a couple of the proposals were very reasonable actually. Mr. Bittner asked how the Borough was going to pay the person or group that is going to do these inspections if Council were to hire them. Miss Roberts stated the Borough collects a lot of money for rental fees. Mr. Bittner asked what the Borough’s inspection fee is as it is public knowledge. Miss Roberts stated for a single family dwelling the fee is $40.00 therefore she feels that the Borough could offer up to that amount because that rental fee is basically the inspection fee. Mr. Bittner felt from what he saw some of the things were exorbitant and he as a resident of this community does not want to subsidize the inspection of someone’s rental property that is making an income out of that nor should this Borough be subsidizing those inspection fees. That would insult him as a resident of this town. She agreed that some were outrageous but two were very reasonable. Mrs. Chambers felt separate out the ones that are excessive and just interview those that are reasonable. Why waste council’s time if it looks as if it is going to be a lot more money than the Borough wants to pay. Miss Roberts thought that was a great idea but did not know if it is legal to exclude applicants. Mr. Melenyzer stated these people would have to be certified to make inspections and by definition would fall under professional services because of the state certification so he does not know if it has to be opened up. Multiple units in the student housing are based on square footage. Miss Roberts would have Ms. Pfrogner fax copies of the proposals to Mr. Melenyzer and she would call him to talk about it next week. Bittner asked for a breakdown of the fees the Borough charges. She would get that to him. That is what she is considering basing the inspections on.