Regular Meeting of California Borough Council, May 12, 2011 at 6:30 Pm

Regular Meeting of California Borough Council, May 12, 2011 at 6:30 pm

CALL TO ORDER: President Chambers called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm

ATTENDANCE: Mr. Alfano, Mr. Bittner, Miss Roberts, Mrs. Bridges, Mr. Mariscotti, Mrs. Chambers, Mayor Durdines,

ABSENT: Mr. Gardner

MOMENT OF SILENCE

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

CHANGES/ADDITIONS TO AGENDA

Mr. Bittner added Streetscape Update

And Aubele payment

Mr. Alfano added UCC Seminar at HMT

And Planning Commission

And Recreation Authority letter

Mrs. Bridges added Alpha Lock bill to be presented for payment - $120.00

APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Regular Meeting April 14, 2011

Motion by Bridges/Alfano to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 4, 2011 duly carried with all members present stating aye.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Mr. Maddiex stated he is not for the amusement tax

SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT – MS. EVANS

Ms. Evans read the accounts payable and account balances as of April 30, 2011

PRESIDENT’S REPORT – MRS. CHAMBERS

Mrs. Chambers stated that during a workshop held for the new sewer customers there was a comment made that sewage at North Strabane Township was only $21.00 quarterly. She stated that if you go to the North Strabane. Com website you will find that they are charged $7.00 for each 1,000 gallons of sewage treated, so if you are an average family using 5,000 gallons you are going to be paying $38.50 every month and not $7.00. They do not have a debt service or a capital reserve, which she finds interesting because our capital reserve has come in handy when we’ve had unexpected repairs. She stated that she just wanted to clarify that. She stated it was also said that we couldn’t pay for a sewer extension but we could pay for a street light and she wants to straighten that up by saying Penn dot paid for the streetlight and that it did not come out of borough funds.

LIBERTY CIRCLE BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT

She stated she had given council a copy of what they would like to do using Community Development Block Grant funds. She stated to use CDBG funds we have to use an architect, engineer, get drawings, and we have to go out for bid just to put up a new flag pole. She feels that is excessive and too much paperwork when a new flagpole with an eagle on top would cost $409.50. She asked council to look at what she has given them and consider the flag pole, add some benches and a few trees at the memorial for our men and woman who have served us in our time of need. The total comes to $2,463.00 and she is hoping that we could take it out of Local Share Funds. She’s thinking of 4 trees and she’s had two people already who have told her they will buy 2 trees and we’ll have them make out a check to the Local Share fund and put the money back in. She said it could be that half of this may be reimbursed to us from people who want to memorial so she’s throwing that out for council. Mr. Alfano asked if our road crew will do the work. Mrs. Chambers stated yes and it would be great if it could be done by Memorial Day, but if they can’t get to it they can do it when they have time. Mr. Alfano stated he knows several master gardeners who would probably participate as well.

Motion by Roberts/ Bridges take $2,463.00 from the Local Share fund to beautify the Liberty Circle duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

Under discussion

Mrs. Chambers stated this is not just the circle itself. There is a flagpole in the circle with a solar powered light shining on the flag. There would be a bench and tree by the World War wall and we could add to it each year. Mr. Bittner added that he would like to see some lighting on the part where the young Rager boy did his Eagle Scout project, but that may be down the road too.

SEMINARS- MS. EVANS

The first is on June 30th at Ringgold School for employer training on Act 32 and the cost is only her wages. The second one is training in Greensburg and it is a full day for training for Municipal Secretaries, and on May 25th at North Strabane Municipal building for Tax collectors.

Motion by Roberts/Bridges to allow Ms. Evans to participate in these seminars with a cost of $80.00 for the Secretarial training and mileage and wages duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

FINANCE – MRS. BRIDGES

Motion by Bridges /Roberts to pay the bills.

Mr. Bittner asked that under the sewage fund under USA Blue Book he is asking that we hold $95.90 he has a question on that expenditure and under Lab Safety Supply he is asking we hold the bill for $109. 57 he has a question on that bill also and he has not gotten a satisfactory answer yet.

Motion amended by Bridges/Roberts to approve the bills with the exception of $95.90 from the USA Blue Book invoice and Lab Safety Supply invoice for $109.57 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

Motion by Bridges/Mariscotti to approve payment of the bill for $120.00 from Alpha Lock and Key Company under the category of police bills duly carried with all members present voting yes.

PUBLIC HEALTH – MR. BITTNER

POLYCOM SOUND STATION

Motion was by Bittner purchase the Polycom Sound station for $560.00. Mrs. Chambers asked if that could be paid from the Local Share funds. Mr. Bittner asked for Mrs. Bridges input on that.

Motion by Bittner/Bridges to purchase the Polycom Sound Station and to be paid for from the Local Share funds duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

FLOOD INSURANCE – LIBRARY

Mr. Bittner stated that he recommends that we take the increase coverage that is $52.00 more and the reason is because we’re going to raise the building $5,000 and $500.00 on contents since we put the new furnace in there it seems the reasonable thing to do for $52.00.

Motion by Bittner /Bridges to purchase Option B for the flood insurance at the Library for a total of $764.00 duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes except Mr. Mariscotti who passed stating this is his insurance agency.

OFFICE PERSONNEL – PART TIME SECRETARY

Mr. Bittner stated when someone is out of the office we are running very short on help.

Motion by Bittner/Mariscotti to advertise for a part time secretarial position in the office to be used as needed when someone is off and in that motion he would like to have this person have past secretarial skills some computer skills in excel and word and also be subjected to a back ground check.

Under discussion Mrs. Bridges stated in other words you want someone who can do hands on work and not just answer the phone. Mr. Bittner stated that is correct and they should be cross trained so that they can be in the police department office when Mrs. Shook is off and they can be a bonded person also. Miss Roberts asked how many hours a week were you thinking. Mr. Bittner stated he stated a part time person but if we have someone off then we’re just going to have to adjust it accordingly, but still keep it part time at 32 hours a week. If Shirley takes a week off we’re going to have to bring that person in. There is no way that one individual can handle that business office it is tough with two. He hears the bell ringing two hours after he goes home when he is down here for a while.

NEGOTIATIONS

Mr. Bittner stated we have negotiations coming up and he thinks they need to get together as a body. He has gone over the contracts and he thinks everyone should go over the contracts pick out what you want to talk about and then we can have a meaningful meeting some night hopefully.

SEWAGE HARDSHIPS

Mr. Bittner stated that Shirley gave him a copy of them tonight. He stated that we need to sit down and go over some of those and they’ve been in since last year and a couple of them we put off since they were never granted a hearing with us.

BONDING- METER ATTENDANT

Motion by Bittner/Roberts to purchase bonding for the meter attendant so she can also work in Joyce’s office and access the meters and do some repair on them also duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

Mr. Alfano asked if that includes hauling that big heavy change thing around. Mr. Bittner stated usually a police officer goes with her and two people do that. Mrs. Chambers stated she can use the counting machine.

GARBAGE CONTRACT

Mr. Bittner announced that the garbage contract is coming up and we need to sit down and discuss what we want to do with that also. So we should have a sit down meeting and discuss and take care of a lot of these things.

RIGHT-OF-WAY CHECKS

Mr. Bittner announced that we have received two right of ways from Keightly and Hammit and we need to give $500.00 to each of them for their cooperation in signing the right of ways.

Motion by Bittner/ Roberts to pay Keightly’s and Hammit’s $500.00 each for their right of ways for the sewer project duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

STEEETSCAPE UPDATE

Mr. Bittner stated he had talked to Kerry Fox the other day and it looks as though the earliest we will get started is August, but it doesn’t look to be a big project once they get it going. Penn dot has been keeping on top of Carl making sure he is submitting everything he needs to do; Shirley has taken care of the RFP that we have to put out for the contract inspection service. Hopefully, we will see something come into fruition before summers is over here.

Mr. Bittner handed an unexecuted reimbursement agreement for the Department of Transportation on that project. Kerry Fox of the Redevelopment Authority & their attorney looked it over and he wanted you to check it before the borough goes ahead and signs it. If you have any questions you can give Kerry a call and he can fill you in.

SEWER CAMERA- REIMBURSEMENT

Mr. Bittner stated we had a received a letter a while ago from a gentleman who had a sewer problem and he had it camera’d and it showed that the problem was the borough’s and what we found out it to be was when the contractor came down there on the storm water/sanitary separation project this problem happened. This gentlemen incurred an expense of $500.00 to do this camera. Since it was shown that it was the borough’s problem he would like to reimburse him.

Motion by Bittner/Roberts that we pay Dave Aubele a $500.00 for reimbursement of fees for having his sewer line camera’d duly carried on a roll call vote with Mr. Bittner, Miss Roberts, Mr. Mariscotti, Mrs. Chambers, and Mrs. Bridges voting yes and Mr. Alfano voting no.

Mr. Bittner announced that he, Art, Bill Johnson, and the gentleman from the sewer department have been discussing this along with Ernie and we want to get a form together so this doesn’t happen again. We may have to reimburse but we are only going to reimburse what we feel is a fair amount that we haven’t established yet. We just have to get in put down in writing, reviewed by Ernie so this won’t happen again.

PUBLIC HOUSING – MR. ALFANO

ZONING REPORT

Mr. Alfano stated that for the month of April the Zoning office collected $12,355.00 in fees for rental permits and so on and so forth, bringing the year to date total to $34,670.08. During that month we issued to demolitions for properties at 220 Third Street and 187 Beazel St., we investigated a truck that collided into a building at 1030 Shutterly St. and believe it or not we had 49 code violations filed for that month and that has to be a record for California. 23 of those have been resolved and 26 are unresolved but ongoing and the code enforcement guy is on top of them.

ZONING HEARING BOARD MEMBER

Mr. Alfano stated he has a letter from Rosemary Urick stating that her term expires at the end of this month, May 2011 and she has decided to stay on the zoning hearing board until her home is sold. If you have other wishes please let her know in writing. He asked council if they want to appoint her or do they have other opinions on this. Mr. Bittner stated if there are three people it would run staggered and it would be a three year term. Mrs. Bridges asked if we ever accepted a resignation from her. Mr. Alfano stated no she is just asking to be reappointed.

Motion by Roberts/Bridges to reappoint Rosemary Urick to another three year term on the Zoning Hearing Board carried with all members present stating aye.

SEMINAR – LORI CLANCY-HMT & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Mr. Alfano stated he would like to make a motion at this time to grant Lori Clancy to go to a PA Uniform Construction Code Seminar that took place today unfortunately, we got the notification to go after the last meeting so we couldn’t vote on it until now. It is for half day of wages, he drove so there is not mileage.

Motion by Alfano/Bittner to allow Lori Clancy to attend a PA Uniform Construction Code seminar today duly carried on a roll call vote with all members present voting yes.

Mr. Alfano gave a brief report of what they learned at the meeting that they attended today. All improvements to properties in the borough are now subject to a plan review that is residential and commercial properties. Whether it is just an addition, building a new home, putting a swimming pool in and any changes to your house a plan review will be required. So you will have to come to the Zoning office get a permit application and submit that for review. Applications can be picked up at the borough’s office but must be submitted to HMT since they are our administrator for that part of it. The fine for violations has gone up to $1,000.00 per day. He added that there are new electrical codes for swimming pools that will significantly increase the cost of installing a pool. They may purchase the pool for $1,000.00 and it will cost them $2,000 just to do the electrical upgrades to let this pool meet codes and that is for any pool that is (2’) two feet or deeper. He continued with new regulations concerning fencing and decks. Mr. Alfano stated additionally, any contractors who have a permit for demolition must present their landfill slips to the office and that is a DEP regulation.