Regular Meeting of California Borough Council, May 10, 2012at 6:30 pm
CALL TO ORDER:President Jon Bittner called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm
ATTENDANCE: Mr. Alfano, Mr. Bittner, Mr. Difilippo, Mr. Glab, Mrs. Gutosky, Mr. Mariscotti, and Mayor Durdines
ABSENT: Mr. Encapera
MOMENT OF SILENCE- Mr. Bittner asked that everyone keep in their prayers and thoughts Mr. Encapera’s mother.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
CHANGES/ADDITIONS TO AGENDA:
Mr. Alfano added comments about recreation authority happenings and planning commission meeting dates and the planning commission business
Mr. Bittner removed the Police contract from his agenda and he added the Washington County Tax Collection District. Mr. Bittner stated the agenda will stand approved as printed and amended.
PUBLIC COMMENT
BID OPENINGS
TAR & CHIP BIDS
The bids were opened and read; Russell Standard Corporation in the amount of $49,200.00, AC Moyer in the amount of $46,080.00, Suit Kote in the amount of $46,000.00, and Morgan Excavating in the amount of $60,480.00.
SUPERPAVE BIDS
The bids were opened and read ;AC Moyer in the amount of $130,784.00, ElGrande in the amount of $137,125.00, and Morgan Excavating in the amount of $135,170.00.
Mr. Melenyzer confirmed that all bids have the proper bid bond attached. Mr. Bittner asked council how they want to proceed. Mr. Alfano asked if it should be pending the review of the engineer. Mr. Melenyzer stated you can table them and then bring it back up but you have some responsibility to the bidder by the end of the meeting tonight as to what you are going with. Mayor Durdines asked if it was necessary to have the engineers review them. Mr. Melenyzer stated no it is not. Mr. Bittner stated that Stephanie Whitlach from Penndot will go over those and approve them. Mr. Bittner stated so we can approve the low bidder tonight and then if she finds something wrong with them then we go to the next bidder.
Motion by Mariscotti/Alfano to approve the low bid from Suit-Kote for the Tar & Chip project in the amount of $46,000.00 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
Mr. Tuday asked if we have to take the lowest bid. Mr. Melenyzer stated you have to take the lowest responsible bidder. That is under the law because there is a lot of time and effort in preparing these bids. If at anytime anyone, a council member, engineer, or somebody in the audience that knows there is something wrong with a particular bidder they should let us know and we can take it under advisement and investigate it because we have rejected low bidders before.
Motion by Mariscotti/Difilippo to approve AC Moyer for $130,874.00 for the Superpave project duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
ADOPTION OF MINUTES
Motion by Difilippo/Gutosky to approve the minutes of April 12, 2012 duly carried with all members present stating aye.
TREASURERS REPORT – MS. EVANS
Ms. Evans read the accounts payable for May 10, 2012 and accounts balances forApril 30, 2012.
PRESIDENTS REPORT – MR. BITTNER
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Mr. Bittner announced that council had an executive session after the committee meeting last week and that was on personnel.
STREETSCAPE
Mr. Bittner asked for a motion to have our engineers to a review of the shop drawings for the streetscape project. The engineering firm that designed the project we don’t deal with anymore and it would be more convenient to have Fayette Engineering do it. As far as the cost they said it would be a minimal cost but we don’t know how many they will have to review so we couldn’t put a figure on it.
Motion by Gutosky/Difilippo to have Fayette Engineering to the review on the shop drawings for the streetscape project duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
TRI STATE EVENTS
Mr. Bittner announced that Tri State Events are going to hold a home show at the convocation center at the University on the 18th, 19th, and 20th and he spoke to a representative and they are going to try and involve the community as much as possible so he thinks it will be good for the community. There is a full page ad in the paper today and Rocky Blier is one of the speakers they will have.
LIBRARY FLOOD INSURANCE
Mr. Bittner stated the library flood insurance is coming due. Last year we took the increased coverage because of the new boiler being installed there, the difference is $764.00 and $820.00 so what is council’s pleasure. Basically if you would take Option B the building coverage would go from $55,000.00 to $60,500.00 and contents would go from $10,500.00 to $11,000.00 and the deductible is $2,000.00 no matter which option we choose. The difference in premium is less that $60.00.
Motion by Glab/Difilippo to go with coverage Option B for $820.00 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes, with the exception of Mr. Mariscotti who abstained.
TAX ABATEMENT – THEATRE PROPERTY
Mr. Bittner stated he was asked by the Redevelopment Authority if council would consider offering the Lerta Tax Abatement on the Hollywood Theatre property. He asked Mr. Hasbrouck if the school has been approached yet and Mr. Hasbrouck stated they had not. Mr. Bittner added that the county would have to approve it also. Mr. Glab stated that he thinks if we could put some stipulations on the project then he would fee comfortable doing that. With that being said he would hope they could share that with the other entities. He stated that several months ago they spoke to Mr. Filoni and he had some ideas for that lot and he feels we need to start incorporating those into the downtown landscape project. If the person so chooses to do that he can appreciate giving them the Lerta but if not then his vote would be to oppose the Lerta. Mr. Bittner stated he thinks we should wait until all three bodies are approached and then they can sit down and have everyone be on the same page. Mr. Bittner stated we will let that go for this evening and if we all get notified again then we can do it again.
WASHINGTONCOUNTY TAX COMMITTEE – MS. EVANS
Mr. Bittner stated Shirley has been appointed our delegate and they are holding a meeting on May 23, 2012 at 1:30 pm and he is announcing that Shirley will be going over there. It will be during her work day and there is no expenditure but he wanted it on record that she will be going over there.
WASHINGTONCOUNTYTAX COLLECTION COMMITTEE
Mr. Bittner stated that Keystone Collections is the agency delegated to collect our taxes and they just got some letters out to the community the first part of this week and he had a gentleman call him and stated that he is employed in West Virginia, which means that he is responsible for paying his own while the rest of us your employer is required to withhold it. He was charged a penalty so Mr. Bittner stated that he called Keystone and asked that since they hadn’t sent notification very early why was this gentleman charged a penalty. The woman stated that was the direction they were under from the collection committee. Mr. Bittner stated he then called the chairman of the collection committee and he stated that it was his feeling that each community would have to decide whether they wanted to collect that or not. Mr. Bittner stated that the gentleman concurred with him in that this is a drastic change and they felt that we should forego the penalties for the first quarter and possibly even the second quarter so people can get onboard and see where this is going. Then if people are late shame on them if they don’t know the system. He stated that Shirley is going to the meeting and this will be discussed. He wants to know if council wants to act tonight or wait until Shirley comes back from the meeting but it is something that we need to address and he doesn’t feel that it is real fair to our constituents to have to pay this since this has been such a drastic change. He asked council for any comments. Mr. Mariscotti stated he’d like to wait until Shirley comes back from the meeting. Mr. Bittner stated if someone calls he doesn’t know what to tell them about the penalty. Mr. Alfano stated if they don’t pay it and it doesn’t get relieved then they will blame it on us. Mr. Melenyzer stated that council certainly has the authority to take it on a case by case basis so if you told somebody to hold on for a while and they were charged penalty you could take it on a case by case basis. Mr. Bittner stated that chairman felt the same way that it would be up to each individual community. Mr. Bittner stated he just wanted to make council aware of it so if any other council members get phone calls that is what is going on.
PUBLIC HOUSING –MR. ALFANO
RIVERTRAIL PROJECT
Mr. Alfano asked that everyone take a look around the room and notice all the posters that are projects that Dr. Confer’s class provided this year as a presentation to the borough. The majority of them are for the Project 70 site which is 30 acres of recreational land that we have up on the hill. There are a lot of great ideas and some are not very costly and some are very involved. But he wants the borough to take a look at what is available recreation wise. He commended the students for doing a great job.
PLANNING COMMISSION BUSINESS
NEW MEETING DATES
Mr. Alfano stated that the planning commission realized at their last meeting that the timing of their meetings is not conducive to quick flow for recommendations that they make. Therefore, he made the following motion.
Motion by Alfano/Glab to advertise the Planning Commission meeting dates for the rest of the year; June 5, July 3, July 31, Sept. 4, Oct. 2, Oct. 30, and Dec. 4 and all will be held in council chambers at 6:30 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
ZONING OFFICE UPDATE
Mr. Alfano stated that April collections were $3,905.00 in rental permit fees and $1,006.00 in building permit fees for a total of $4,911.00. For the year we have $5,625.00 in rental permit fees, $650 in zoning hearing board fees, $3,337.50 in subdivision permit fees, and $2,015.75 in planning commission fees for a grand total of $11,628.25 in the zoning office. He stated that he has a multiple page report from the zoning officer that shows what they have been following up on and they are very busy in that office
CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATIONS
Mr. Alfano announced that prior to this meeting council held a conditional use hearing so at this time he would like to make the following motions
Motion by Alfano/Mariscotti to approve a conditional use for Mr. Anthony Fiume at 442-444 Second St. and 456 Second St. for student conversion housing and he recommends that with the following conditions; there will be conditional approval for 15 units because there is 30 spaces for parking at this time if Mr. Fiume intends to increase to his original applied, 48 spaces he will provide us proof of leases for additional spaces. Mr. Glab added long term leases, Mr. Alfano agreed. Mr. Melenyzer just to clarify that he would have to produce legal documents satisfactory to council and himself to prove that he does have long term leases or acquisitions or whatever he is going to do because he can only handle 30 at this moment in time on the premises and he needs an additional 18 and if he does not get the additional 18 then he has to reduce the size of the structure. The second condition is to provide bumper guards for each parking space and the third condition to provide a walkway to and from the parking area and the fourth condition is the exterior has to be aesthetically pleasing to the surrounding area and the fifth condition is there will be a mandatory 10’ setback requirement for parking lots adjacent to other properties to provide a buffer zone. Mr. Melenyzer stated there are two separate parcels of real estate and he has a legal binding agreement to purchase both of them and he has a proposed subdivision to merge those two lots that he had the current property owners sign those applications for the merger of the two lots under the subdivision but he has to get that approval prior to commencing the construction project or the conditional uses given will be revoked. Mr. Alfano stated so he must be the owner of both of those properties in the subdivision duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
Motion by Alfano/Mariscotti to approve the conditional use for Randel Morris for student housing at 435 Second Street and he is going to commence building of 5 units there, he does have in building parking under the units for the appropriate number of spaces with the stipulation that the exterior would be aesthetically pleasing to the surrounding area duly carried with all members present voting yes.
SUBDIVISION – 442-446 SECOND ST. AND 456 SECOND ST.
Motion to approve the subdivision contingent on Mr. Fiume becoming the sole owner of both properties duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present stating yes.
Mr. Melenyzer stated for clarification purposes this is two different property owners are involved in the project, those two have joined to get a subdivision approved but they couldn’t merge their two lots into one. The person acquiring the property can do that but he has to end up being the owner of both properties.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Mayor Durdines requested an executive session on personnel for both police and zoning
PUBLIC WORKS – MR. MARISCOTTI
STREET DEPT. UPDATE
Mr. Mariscotti stated that they have worked on rural roads, cut grass, replaced the water heater here at the borough building, done all the relamping, and vehicle maintenance.
PUBLIC SAFETY – MR. GLAB
POLICE DEPARTMENT COMPUTERS
Motion by Glab/Difilippo to purchase from Response Computers which will consist of one server, five work stations, one MS Office professional software package, four MS home office and business packages plus the professional services to install it for a total of $8,139.00 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
Mr. Glab stated we did phone quotes and the lowest quotes came from Response Computers. Mrs. Gutosky asked about WiFi. Mr. Glab stated he’s not sure about the police but the others will. Mr. Alfano asked where that would be paid out of. Mr. Glab stated that he believes we have funds set aside for computers and software. Mr. Bittner stated if we go over that we can take it from Gaming. Mr. Bittner thanked Mr. Glab for the extensive work he did researching this.
ZONING DEPARTMENT COMPUTERS
Motion by Glab/Gutosky to purchase one laptop, semi rugged and non touch, two work stations, one MS Office Professional, two MS Home Office and Business, plus the necessary software data transfer and professional services for a total of $3,976.00 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
Mr. Bittner stated he thinks we have money in the zoning department for that also. Mr. Alfano asked if that was from Response Computer also. Mr. Glab stated yes all these are from Response.
ADMINISTRATION COMPUTERS
Motion by Glab/Mariscotti to purchase one server, three work stations, one MS Office Professional, and two MS Office Home Office & Business software packages for a total of $6,783.00 and there were monies placed in the budget for that anything in excess will come from the gaming funds duly carried on a roll call vote with al members present voting yes.
Mr. Glab stated as a notation the best computer of what we are removing from the Administration and the Zoning office will be place it in council’s office and the best of the police computers being removed will be placed in the Mayor’s office.
FINANCE – MRS. GUTOSKY
PAYMENT OF BILLS
Motion by Gutosky/Difilippo to pay the monthly bills duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.
PUBLIC HEALTH – MR. DIFILIPPO
TAP INS
Mr. Difilippo announced that the letters were sent out to everyone on the list and they are starting to come into compliance. He stated there are still a few out there but he’s sure they will be coming in.
DELINQUENT SEWER ACCOUNTS
Mr. Difilippo stated he expects the letters to go out next week and whoever is on that list will be getting a registered letter concerning that information.
AMERICAN LEGION
Mr. Difilippo stated there is a problem at the American Legion and he really doesn’t know what it is but the sewer backs up when it rains really hard. We’ve been there and he is going to talk to those gentlemen and try to solve that problem.
SEWER EXTENSION PROJECTS
Mr. Difilippo stated there were three other sewer projects that the borough engineer did studies on and he wants to start looking at those and pick one which is most viable for expansion and see what we can do. He also wants to check with the water company on a couple of them and have something for the next meeting as to what we want to do.