YOE BOROUGH PG. 1
150 NORTH MAPLE STREET
YOE, PA 17313
The regular monthly meeting of Yoe Borough Council was held on December 6, 2011 at the Yoe Borough Municipal Building, 150 N. Maple Street, Yoe,
PA. The meeting was called to order by President of Council Sam Snyder at 7:03PM beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Council members in attendance:
Sam Snyder
Seth Noll
George Howett
Wendy Coble Tyson
Others in attendance:
Dana Shearer, Maintenance Supervisor
Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
John Sanford, Mayor
Steve Malesker, Engineer
Nicole Ehrhart, Solicitor
Ben Baltzer, Representative from C. S. Davidson
Robert and Karen Morton, Christ United Methodist Church
Paul Somers, Christ United Methodist Church
Mike Conway, Engineer representing Christ United Methodist Church
Regan R. Strausbaugh, Resident
Councilman Snyder stated let the record reflect that as we are opening the meeting there is quorum of council. So if one of us, needs to leave for any purpose we need a heads up
on that so we can get some of this other stuff done.
Thoughts and Prayers for Councilman Allar’s recovery
Councilman Snyder said everybody’s thoughts and prayers are going out to Tom as he is still continuing to recover. The surgery went well, he still has some recovery time coming
with this surgery. Our thoughts are with him tonight.
Minutes
Councilman Snyder asked if everybody had an opportunity to read over the minutes from the prior meeting, any additions or corrections. A motion was made to accept the meeting minutes of November 1, 2011 by Councilman Howett. The motion was seconded by
Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Noll is abstaining. Councilman Snyder said minutes accepted.
Visitors Pg. 2
Councilman Snyder said I do not have anyone on the list, but who would like to speak first?
My name is Mike Conway, I’m a professional engineer, working for Christ United Methodist Church. I would like to request that we could discuss the creek project.
Councilman Snyder said we sure can, actually we were going to discuss this under
the engineer’s report anyways so we might as well get to that. Mr. Malesker asked do you have any specific questions ? Mr. Conway said if I understand it right, there was an offer made by council to, that you would include them in your permit process? Mr. Malesker
said they would be a co permittee, yes. Mr. Conway said from their perspective, they don’t know have any idea what they are getting permitted, for the Church Street Bridge?
Mr. Malesker said no, maintenance to the Church Street bridge, that goes from Church
Street proceeds under Church Street, that’s where the borough’s ownerships ends and enters the church property. And the church property to Main Street then, that all belongs
to the church. The maintenance that needs to be done there, since it really is one structure, the borough offered to include the church as co permittees as part of the
application. Because there is some maintenance that needs to be done. Mr. Conway asked
do you know if you are applying for a DP 11? Mr. Malesker said it would be a DP 11, yes. Mr. Conway said that could be a fairly quick an easy process. Mr. Malesker said we think so, in theory, yes. Councilman Snyder said we offer to them to come in with this
joint venture, because nothing is easy. Mr. Malesker said I got with Mary Beth Lutenberger, from DEP, she said it would actually be cleaner with her if there were
two separate applications, but then it would be more expensive for the church. The only
thing that the borough would be concerned about is that, you go through the permit process, both names would be on the permit, it would be issued to both the borough and
the church, so if any construction is done that has not been approved, there could be
a fine and both parties would be fined. That’s really the only concern. Mr. Conway said
from what the church council has told me, they are thinking that maybe they would consider proceeding on their own. Also that they are separate funded projects. Mr. Malesker said right. There will be a permit only. I have given the church an estimate to give a constructional condition assessment for their portion and then to come up with
the details for the repairs. And then when the borough bids their work, its going to be
just their portion. The church can use whatever contractor they wanted, but there could
be potential savings if they use the same contractor the borough used, because there would only be one mobilization charge. That’s totally up to the church. What the borough
would be concerned about then is, if they proceed with it, they’d like the church to proceed with it too, so we could close the permit out. Mr. Conway said right, so the issue
is whether it is a co permit or if there are two individual permits. Mr. Malesker said right.
Mr. Conway said I’m not sure if the church council, has made a formal commitment on
funding, or not. Who pays for the package for the co permit, I guess at this point I’m reserving the right to decide which way to go. Mr. Malesker said yeah, I don’t know if you have gotten that the concern was, what is the cost going to be for the church just to
do the repairs. You would have your own independent contractor look at it, I’m not sure
if they would give you an estimate, say its $60,000.00 or something, then maybe then
Visitors(cont.) Page 3
maybe you wouldn’t want to proceed. I don’t where that stands. I have given Mr.
Morton a proposal for the condition assessment and for the other portion of the permit.
And then, I don’t do anything until I get the signed proposal back from that, so I’m
just waiting on that. It would be nice to know either way, because I’m waiting to do
the borough’s portion until I know otherwise, there won’t be duplication of work
that would have to be done, so it would be nice to know, so I can keep you inform
on the project. Councilman Noll asked when do you need to know? Mr. Malesker
said it would be late summer for construction, at least. I don’t know what the church
is doing, if you have meetings once a month, what you need to decide. We should know
by the beginning of January so I can. Do you have your cost slip from your contractor,
your estimate of what it should cost? Mr. Morton said we are getting more prices. Mr. Conway said so your time schedule is, middle of next year to have the authorization
to go into the stream? Mr. Malesker said yeah, we typically allow three months to
get the permit , and then so if we get that submitted early next year, if we have it
by the summertime, then we can, the borough is either going to do an equipment bid for
the year that would cover other projects as well. Then they can use whoever that low
bid contractor is for that work. Or they will bid separately as a separate project. If that
answers all of your questions. Mr. Malesker asked is the beginning of January a reasonable time to have an answer on whether you want to proceed with your portion?
Mr. Morton said yes. Mr. Malesker said the condition assessment isn’t done yet so I guess the contractor is going to go right in and look and see what he thinks needs
repaired and from what I understand there is just the borough’s portion does not have
a concrete slab bottom, the church’s portion does and there is some areas where there
is missing concrete. And so my repair detail would be trying to get some reinforcing
in there, to tie it in so it just won’t pop out, pouring concrete in. Then we are anticipating
diverting the stream over and not by pass pumping, diverting the stream over and using some kind of confer dam. Use a similar detail for the church’s portion. Mr. Conway
said thank you. Mr. Malesker gave Mr. Conway his card. Councilman Snyder said
the only other thing that our solicitor had come up with, not there was any problems with
the way we are doing it, we can keep the separation of church and state and all that kind
of stuff. She did feel however, because we know the borough is not going anywhere,
its because of the way we are incorporated, however with church and the way the structure is with the church and being co permittee, she thought that if she would
recommend to council, some sort of a document being signed by the church saying that
if in the event you would back out of the project, you would reimburse the borough for
any costs incurred in trying to close out that permit. Because again we don’t know how
your hierarchy is set up, the Methodist Council and the state conference would want
to shut you down or something, we just want to know that somewhere out there we
can get to someone to reimburse us to close out this permit. She said it would be a simple
document, wouldn’t be anything that you would have to get a lawyer involved looking
over, its going to be self explanatory. There would be no cost involved in it. Attorney
Ehrhart said it basically will be like a hold harmless agreement. That way if for some
reason you decided not to finish out the project for whatever reason, that the borough
couldn’t close out on their permit. Mr. Morton asked are going to change the height
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and the width of the bridge on Church Street? Mr. Malesker said no, you mean for
the church’s portion or the borough’s? Mr. Morton said the borough’s part. Mr.
Malesker said the only repairs that I’m anticipating, the borough’s portion does
not have a concrete bottom slab and there is concrete scouring and undermining at
the base of the existing abutment walls, simply form and pour in some new concrete in
there that’s simply it there. Fixing the scouring and undermining. Mrs. Morton said
this is the contractor we have so far, they wanted to us to give this pamphlet to you
to see if you are interested in putting in a quote. Their work is very good. Mr. Malesker said yes, the bid on a lot of bridge maintenance. Mrs. Morton said they do work all around, including Washington D. C. Councilman Snyder said they may be able to do
your portion of the work cheaper for you than we can even get the work done because
we call under a different guideline where if its over a certain amount we have to pay
prevailing wage where is you don’t. That’s why we said, it may or may not benefit
when we go for our work. Maybe if we end up not getting this bid package with
Dallastown, you have to bid it out. They may give you a better rate just because they
have to give us a prevailing wage and then they say its over. Mrs. Morton said the
alley there, is sinking down underneath. Water is laying there eating away. Dripping
there at the concrete wall. Mr. Malesker said that’s part of the borough’s portion.
I know there is an area that is more on the church’s portion, that at one time there
was a pipe penetration coming through there and looks like there is a little bit of
sediment occurring above that. You are losing some fines and whatever that is coming
down through there, that should be sealed up at the same time. That’s beyond the
borough’s portion, where the fence is, the opening. Mrs. Morton said I’m talking about
another area. Mr. Shearer said she is talking where I have re-thrown material there before. Councilman Snyder said you may want to look at the Steve, I think they are talking about Clark Alley. Mrs. Morton said there where it goes along the creek.
Councilman Snyder said that’s Clark Alley. Mr. Malesker asked behind the gabions?
Mr. Shearer said yes. Right there where the bridge ends and the gabions start. A low
spot keeps forming there. Councilman Snyder said it may be something that we
need to address in the project. Mr. Malesker said whatever work needs to be done.
Mr. Somers asked that pipe that is coming at the back of the property, is there a spring
there? Mr. Malesker said I don’t know. Mr. Somers said is there a way to catch the
spring, or the runoff from the spring. Mr. Malesker said it could have been flood
damage. Mr. Somers said if you would go to the creek, some water is coming in.
Mr. Malesker said its not tied into the storm sewer at all. Mr. Somers said no, the top of it fell down and rocks and debris are there. Mr. Malesker said there is no longer a pipe there. It looked like there was an attempt to stop that up though. Mr. Somers said the water seeps out, high raise terrain, perhaps there is a spring back there. Mr. Malesker
said I don’t know, its not officially part of the borough’s storm water system, I’m not
sure what that is. Mr. Somers said its difficult to decide about the sink hole with it
being at the driveway of the adjoining property. Mr. Malesker said I think that’s beyond anything the borough would be responsible for, I think its between the property owner
and the church. Mr. Somers said it appears to run underground. The size would dictate
that. Councilman Noll said we had the system surveyed within the last year and its not
Visitors(cont.) Page 5
part of the borough’s system. Mr. Morton said we were looking at putting concrete
down in, so the water isn’t fall in. Mr. Malesker said you can put in a smaller
diameter pipe, put some geotextile, and wrap some rock back there. That would allow
anything that gets in there to have drainage, restore the integrity of the wall then.
Mr. Morton said patch the macadam there? Mr. Malesker said I don’t think that’s
the borough’s decision to say, that’s up to you. Mr. Morton said its kind of wishy
washy on who owns that property to pay for some of it. Mr. Malesker said the tenant was out there when I was inspecting the bridge and she told the landlord. Councilman Noll said we can wait until the church decides to be part of the project to draft up the
hold/harmless type agreement with our solicitor. Councilman Snyder said Steve is
the point of contact and then he can update us at the next council meeting. The next meeting was decided to be January 3, 2012. The secretary said the former solicitor gave
information that the re organization meeting is the first Monday after the 1st of January.
The meeting will be Tuesday January 3, 2012 because a legal holiday is January 2, 2012.
Solicitor’s Report
Attorney Ehrhart said the wetland mitigation agreement that was sent to York Township.
I talked to Steve Hovis at another unrelated meeting, he said the agreement looks good
to him with the changes I have suggested. He is going to present to York Township and
their meeting this month. We should have it for our meeting next month.
Attorney Ehrhart said the next item is a new item, I was invited to attend, a group
of solicitors got together representing boroughs and authorities that are involved
with the Mill Creek interceptor, all the users. I was there for Yoe as well as Mike
Craley, for the Yoe Sewer Authority. They are looking for, they’d like all the municipalities and authorities to get together and rework the current agreements that
are in placed because it is a large book of the original agreement and there are
so many amendments to it and its become very cumbersome. They want time to
review it, go over the maintenance issues, possible billing to make it more cost
effective for everyone involved. The interesting thing is they need 100% participation
in this, authorities and municipalities or else they can’t do it. From what I found
out this morning, pretty much everyone else is on board and they are waiting for
Yoe to make a decision. Its up to council. I know that there is one more meeting
of solicitors is planned once we have approval from the authority and the borough,
we can move ahead and get a game plan. From then on I don’t know how more
meetings or what the work is going to entail. I did found out from two other
municipalities that there managers want to be present, not just their solicitor.
That is something you may want to consider, someone from council to be present.
If you decide to go ahead. What I need from council tonight, is to be able to
go back to the group and say whether the borough itself is interested. I know
I don’t know what the authority’s position is, but Attorney Craley seemed to
think that they were onboard. Councilman Noll said two questions, what would
the cost be to us into entering this and what are the advantages to us. Attorney
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 6
Ehrhart said I can’t give you a good cost, cost from my perspective would be
legal fees. There is going to be one more meeting of solicitors. I don’t know
after that, how many more meetings or what was going to entail to revise
the agreement. So I can’t honestly give you a good gage, because I don’t know,
and they didn’t know at the meeting. The advantage for you that they are
basically saying is they are looking at a way to justify the cost and some
of the maintenance issues and make it a better contract. I am new to the Mill
Creek agreement so I haven’t begun to review to see what changes would
benefit Yoe. Apparently what happened is, one of the municipalities noticed
that they were maybe paying more for a particular part of the interchange that
they weren’t using, so this is all coming to head so to speak. And now
everyone is saying, now we should re look at this, its too confusing. Councilman
Noll said the other part of this would be, if everybody puts this work into it and
not all the municipalities and authorities agree to it, then we are right back
where we started from. Attorney Ehrhart said and that I think that was the point
of this meeting, was to say, is everyone on board or not. If everybody is not
on board, there is no point on wasting everyone’s time to go forward. I think
they are trying to hedge that off in the beginning. Councilman Noll said what
worries me, we get all these groups together, we spend six months rewriting
this agreement, because we can’t even get a simple amendment passed by
the group right now. For some reason somebody doesn’t sign it or find it agreeable
and then. Councilman Coble Tyson said spend the time and the attorney’s fees
to be there, and the time for the re writing that isn’t going to fly. Attorney
Ehrhart said it’s a legitimate concern, the agreement has to have 100% participation.
Councilman Snyder said my feeling, as when I heard this from Nicole, and I thought
about it and thought about it, and I’m still coming back to the same logic, why
rewrite and start/reinvent the wheel. If there is a problem with billing, you address
the billing issue, you do an amendment and you pass the amendment. If there is
a problem with calculation, you figured out, just like we passed this amendment two months ago, everybody agree to it, you pass it and you move on. To start and reinvent the wheel, either risk the problem of convoluting things, you forget things, and you make
it worse then what it was in the first place. You have to spend a lot of money that we
don’t have budgeted for on engineering, you don’t only have to worry about the
sewer authority, you have to have the borough’s time involved, our solicitor and its
like and for what? If there is a simple problem, draft an amendment. When I talked to
Nicole about this, I said this is ridiculous in my mind. Someone is trying to justify a
job. I said the U. S. Constitution has been around for 236 years, its by far not perfect,
they aren’t talking about redrafting a new constitution. You do an amendment.
Councilman Noll said I think, I don’t know how quickly, I know they want an answer
to this, would it be something, I would like to dig into it a little bit more to find
out if there is more benefit, I’ve got a feeling there’s not but would they allow us,
would it horrible to table it and bring it up next month. I’d like to talk to some of
the other municipal managers and find out why. It doesn’t make sense to re do,
find out why. Councilman Snyder said its almost like redoing the whole comp plan,
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 7
there is going to be a lot of work to redraft an agreement from step one, when we
are not putting in a new system. That is the whole thing, we are not putting in a
new system, we are only talking maintenance. If there is only a certain area
that we have to look at. Mr. Malesker said so there is no refinancing or anything?
Councilman Snyder said no. Councilman Noll said I think we owe it to the other
municipalities to ask the questions to let them know what our concerns are, Yoe
is always looked at as the people who don’t want to do anything. I think would
be in our best interest, to ask the questions and get the answers and talk to
some of the municipal people. Councilman Snyder said I know that is one thing,
from many years ago when try to pass this other amendment, one thing that they
wanted to put in there, in this new agreement, is that one municipality couldn’t stonewall
the entire agreement. We all know that sometimes a township and the boroughs aren’t always at the same page, because we look at things at different angles. We have
different things that we are trying to protect than they do. If you take that out of there,
that would be one stickler on my part, when drafting a new agreement, yeah one
municipality, we all should be equal and that’s one thing that they would want to put in there, right there the whole agreement is dead from day one unless I get out voted.
I would push that, not to give that up. Councilman Noll asked who all is part of
the authority, York Township, Yoe, is Dallastown? Attorney Ehrhart said Dallastown,
Windsor Borough, Windsor Township, Red Lion Borough. I don’t believe Springettsbury
Township is on the agreement. I will have to double check. Mr. Malesker said I don’t they are, just the ones on the Mill Creek Interceptor. Attorney Ehrhart said and the
respective authorities. Councilman Noll said if you are alright with that Sam, I’d like
to ask, I’m not say it’s a good thing, and ask some of these questions. Its probably
going to be several thousand dollars. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said you said
about reorganizing the book, if they can’t find the amendments that go with the
original portion, they need to color code them, is it a matter of organization or is it
a matter of interpreting everything in the book. Councilman Noll said maybe there
is something that would be of benefit that I’m not seeing. Councilman Coble Tyson
said for somebody that has the issue. Councilman Noll said if we find out what
we’re going to find out, what’s another month. Attorney Ehrhart said an email was sent out to all the users and authorities and Windsor Township and Red Lion have already
talked about it. Councilman Noll asked and their boards have approved this? Attorney
Ehrhart said Red Lion has not, their board meets next week. Councilman Noll said
okay. Attorney Ehrhart said Windsor Township did last night. I would encourage you
to find out why. This is the first time I heard about it, at that meeting. I didn’t want to
spend a lot of time researching if for you. Councilman Noll said I want to see Red Lion
Borough before their next meeting because if they are going vote against it, it kind of
leaves us out. Attorney Ehrhart said I can certainly let you know. Councilman Snyder
said I have no problem being the bad guy again, that was the whole point they wanted
this amendment passed ten years ago, there was one real issue with it, that we had
protect our I and I calculation, we got it changed and then no one else wanted to pass
that amendment. Councilman Noll said do you have any sense where Red Lion is going,
do you think they will pass it? Attorney Ehrhart said I think so. Councilman Noll said
Visitors(cont.) Page 8
I make a motion we table this discussion and do some more fact finding and talk about it next month. Attorney Ehrhart said if its okay, I’m going to report back that, that’s the
action that council took, that you will get back to it next month. Councilman Snyder
said there was a consensus to table it. Be forewarned we don’t have any of this
budgeted for it. No way we can afford it until next year. Unless the boroughs have something to make it advantageous for them via I and I. I don’t know if everyone
understood the last time when they wanted to take off that trunk, I have a problem.
Right away this will save money, because they save money for maintenance. Councilman
Noll asked if everyone understands what I and I is? Councilman Snyder said inflow and
infiltration. Councilman Noll said it is picked up along the system but it registers through
the pumping station as flow. Councilman Snyder said we get charged from Springettsbury for every gallon that they have to treat, however we purchase an EDU.
Which is calculated now, 350 gallons. What happens is, if we have 100 EDU’s purchased, that is equivalent to 35, 000 gallons but if they treat 50,000 gallons that
extra 15, 000 is the I and I. That is what gets prorated back to every municipality. The
problem I had with that original agreement addendum, was that they wanted to take
off the interceptor and take away those EDU’s, giving them up to York Township,
and the caveat was for Yoe Borough, Windsor Borough and Red Lion Borough wouldn’t have to pay for the maintenance because its pro rated back, I said that’s true, the problem
is going to take out an EDU for an EDU but what about all the I and I that is coming
in there and the extra gallons that is being charged back to us and the remaining users.
And that is what is said, I have no problem taking that away but you’ve got to take
off gallon for gallon. Councilman Noll said and the Mill Creek interceptor is basically
a counting station, there are really no other counting, its kind of convoluted on how we
get our flows, because there is nothing that really can combine our flows from what is
coming down from the township or from Red Lion Borough. Councilwoman Coble
Tyson said that’s the whole thing. Councilman Snyder said its pro rated back based on EDU’s and the percentages. So Yoe Borough gets so much percentage of all the
sewer. Councilman Noll said we have 5% percent of the EDU’s that are owned along
the interceptor, we take 5% of the I and I. Councilman Snyder said what happens in a wet year, we may have 20 available EDU’s but now because of a wet year, and all the
extra I and I, Springettsbury can come back and say this year you have nothing. You
can’t do any development, because you are so close to maxing out, because you are
charged back for all that I and I. So that was the one thing, everybody forgot about, when
they wanted to take that trunk off line before how that is going to affect a small municipality like Yoe, that’s right on the cusp of not having enough sewer capacity.
So what happened was, we decided to purchase like 37 extra units back in 1998, and
in that year, Springettsbury Township said thank you very much, you get nothing. But
we pay an extra $12,000.00 a month for sewer capacity. And at that point, is when
I decided to make myself aware of sewer issues in town and that is when I began to
familiarize myself with this, and that the best thing we have going for us, with this
Mill Creek Users Group is the fact that all users have to sign off on these amendments or else it doesn’t pass. Councilman Coble Tyson said when we were going through, when
we were doing the planning and we were talking about the zoning areas in the borough,
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 9
and we were talking about not having enough EDU’s to be a certain entity. Do you
get where I am coming from? Councilman Snyder said that’s why I am saying,
we didn’t have enough EDU’s, that area was being slated for commercial, I was saying we don’t have enough EDU’s available to make that commercial. Councilman Noll said
we ought to look at this whole thing, our friends have purchased EDU’s for certain lots.
If there are no EDU’s available, there can be no development. Councilman Snyder
said correct. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said this year is going to show
36 inches of rain more. Three to four times of what they usually have at the station.
We should check into that. Discussion continued.
Solicitor Ehrhart said I did advertise your tax ordinance for millage for 2012.
Councilman Snyder said the 2012 Yoe Borough Budget has been advertised for adoption.
Any other additions or corrections? We had gone over all the increases at the last meeting. A motion was made by Councilman Howett to accept the 2012 Yoe Borough
Proposed Budget. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor.
Ordinance 2011-04 is an ordinance to enact and ordain the millage rate for the purposes of real estate for 2012 fixed at 3. 455 mills and millage rate for annual fire tax for fire protection fixed at .103 mills effective January 1, 2012. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said
this is the same as last years, millage wise? The answer was yes. A motion to adopt
Ordinance 2011-04 was made by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by
Councilman Howett. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said all in favor.
Councilman Snyder said the council meeting dates were presented in our packets.
Change has been made to January 3, 2012. Note that the date of November 6, 2012 is the first Tuesday after the first Monday. It was decided to move the meeting to the second
Tuesday November 13, 2012. A motion was by Councilman Howett to have the
secretary to advertise these dates for 2012, first Tuesdays except for the second
Tuesday on November . The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor.
Councilman Snyder said we have the engagement letter for audit of 2011 from Stambaugh Ness, for a price of $6400.00 A motion was made by Councilman Noll to
accept that engagement letter with noted price. The motion was seconded by
Councilman Howett. All in favor.
Councilman Snyder said resolution 2011-06 which is a resolution, that is therefore resolved that the council of the Borough of Yoe does hereby appoint Stambaugh
Ness as independent auditor for the year 2011 to perform and audit the books for
the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011 as prescribe. A motion resolve was
made by Councilman Howett. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll.
All in favor. Councilman Snyder said so be it resolved.
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 10
Councilman Snyder said we have the copier contract for 2012. Councilman Noll asked how much the contract is for? Councilman Snyder said $234.78. A motion was made
by Councilman Noll to sign the contract for 2012. The motion was seconded by
Councilman Howett. All in favor.
Councilman Noll asked if there were any updates for the legal acquisition of the properties down near the rail trail. Attorney Ehrhart said we are still finishing up
on the two that we served by publication, the default notice just went to the judge.
So we are waiting for the judge to sign the order, in thirty days that will expire
before I can quiet their title. I have been diligent with Attorney Marc Roberts, I pretty
much call him once a week. Today when I called he was in a meeting, I’m trying
because after another thirty days that particular defendant will the only one we have left.
Councilman Noll said we still have, the proposal that you had with the easement?
Attorney Ehrhart said I haven’t heard back either way, I haven’t gotten a response. Councilman Noll said do they have a certain amount of time, if they choose not to
respond, basically assume that they are not going to. Attorney Ehrhart said and proceed the process? Councilman Noll said yes. Attorney Ehrhart said once their hold, I’m taking the position that they are not trying to hold us up, because I was working thru the
semantics with the other defendants, once we get past the next thirty day mark and I’ve
actually have quiet title for all the other defendants then at that point, I believe that he
is holding us up and then I feel we should talk about giving us a final plead, that if you
don’t, we are going to proceed, you didn’t file an answer so he’s now forced us to
go through the process. Councilman Noll said hopefully by the beginning of February.
Okay, I didn’t think anything had changed, but I wanted to make sure.
Councilman Snyder said the next issue is a proposed ordinance. If everyone looked on
their table, its amending parks and recreation rules and regulations. It came to my
attention through the mayor, that the issue discussed at the previous meeting, those
people that were caught up there, they weren’t able to be cited. There was an issue
with when they were caught, according to our ordinance, they were trespassing
after 10PM, but it was already dark and it was 7PM but our signage still said
dusk to dawn. And basically there was nothing they could do about it. After some
discussion with the mayor, I reminded him why it was changed, back around 2001,
it was the police came to us to change our park closer to a specific time. The reason
being across the state, they were having trouble with enforcement with dusk to dawn,
because there is no set definition and no set time, of what is dusk to dawn. They
were saying especially with us in the valley, the sun is down below the horizon,
if you went on top of the hill you could still see the sun. So had dusk really sat in,
There wasn’t any clear way to determine it, they wanted us to set a time. I’ve now
since found out, that is the norm across the state, that they went to a set time. However,
discussion with the mayor, we don’t like that, as you can see right now it gets
dark at five o’clock at night. A lot of our vandalism happens after dark, what can we do about it? As we got thinking about this, there has been other issues that has come
before this council, over the last years, that we never dealt with, that we would like
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 11
deal such as we rent the property up there when the pavilions are closed, unless they
are rented, we have people breaking into the rest rooms because they thought it was
opened to the public but they’re not, they are rented. Then we had issues where people
of questionable nature wanted to rent the park, how do we legitimately questionable
if they would be responsible in renting the facility. How do we address those types
of issue? There was an issue this summer, that Dana called, that they were shooting
arrows up there on ball field, they set up a target and shooting bow and arrow. All
of sudden, the item came, let’s redo this and do it right. I contacted John and Seth,
to try to get a comprehensive list of what we thought of that should be included in
here and then most note, I actually came up with a definition of sunset and sunrise,
interestingly enough a set time can be determined for sunset and sunrise off of
an almanac. You can get them published, online, on daily news, you can determine
a specific time. That would take care of things like now, it was clearly past sunset.
In the event they use a different almanac a later time can be used. Give them a
benefit of the doubt. That’s not going to be our big concern. Its going to be visibly
past sunset. We have to give 30 day notice prior to adoption. Take this back, Seth and the mayor has been in touch with this. This is what we’d like to present to council. We
can discuss it at next month’s meeting. Councilman Noll said to make it clear it’s the
park and the ball field. Councilman Snyder said I want everyone to look over it for
next month.
Councilman Snyder said the letter for the dam. Attorney Ehrhart said the letter did
go out for the flood containment easement to the gentleman, Mr. Reidel. I sent
him a copy of the easement and drew his attention to the maintenance provision and
its come to our attention there needs to be stabilization in that particular area.
And that DEP and County Conservation would be involved and that we would be
willing to take over the maintenance of that particular area. I ask him to let me know,
and we will prepare the document. That letter went out. I will follow up if I don’t hear from him in about thirty days.
Engineer’s Report
Councilman Snyder said we starting off with the storm water management ordinance.
Mr. Malesker said we haven’t made much progress with it. Last month, I showed
you a worksheet we came up with, with Seth not being here, we didn’t want
to make any decisions on it. I invited Ben to go over any questions with him.
I think you came up with a game plan that you want to discuss, where you see
the borough going and Ben can, with what he knows with his meetings with DEP.
Councilman Snyder said as we all know, we were told we have to adopt this.
What I did was some research, I found the law that was passed, Act 167, is what
we are under to adopt these plans and ordinances. What is interesting about this,
I will give Act 167 to the municipality for our records, I’ll point out section 6 of the
act clearly states, that the municipal and public participation in the planning
process and section 6-C prior to adoption of the plan each plan shall be reviewed
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 12
by the official planning agency and the governing body of each municipality. This
municipality was never asked to be part of the plan before the county adopted the
plan. So, I did have doubts of the legitimacy of the county’s plan, number 1. That
would cost us money to try to perpetuate challenging that in court. That becomes
an issue of that is a little feather in our cap of now this is what we are standing
behind, if its not adopted properly and with out all the approvals, we’re still
going to adopt the plan how its presented. You got to section 11 of the act, which
talks about the effective water shed on storm water plans, and section 11-B states
within six months following adoption, an approval of the water shed storm water
plan each municipality shall adopt or amend and shall implement such ordinances and regulations. So clearly, what DEP is telling C. S. Davidson, that we have to adopt
it as is, isn’t what is in the law. It can be amended. You are not reinventing the wheel.
Councilman Noll ask about clarification, have you seen the act that Sam is referring to?
Do you agree that the municipality has to adopt it, if the county does? Councilman Snyder said we have to be in the approval process, that each governing body had to
review it, prior to them adopt them, for comment. So we had opportunity to put comments in. We were never notified. What I’m saying its, the law clearly allows
us to amend it, we didn’t have the opportunity to participate in its adoption. The point is
it says each municipality shall, we didn’t. What I’m recommending to council, we take
their model ordinance, we take the recommended changes that were provided originally,
which took into account Yoe Borough’s concerns,we incorporate them into that ordinance and then we adopt that ordinance. Clearly, at that point, we have approved
the plan, we have amended, which we are allowed to do by law and we taking into
fact that we are getting our comments into it. If they had asked us in the first place
could have been incorporated into it. So, were turning a bad thing into a good thing,
we can amend it with those amendments. Everybody is good to go. The fact that DEP is saying you have to adopt it as is, I take offense to it, clearly the law says it can be
amended. Mr. Baltozer said there are some modifications, previous modifications that
we sent out. Some of them are not within the new standards for MS 4 that is coming out.
Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said I was told with this ordinance, if it is as good or exceeds what the county wants, we don’t have to change our ordinance,
and say we are in compliance and not adopt this thing. How close are we to what we have, especially since we are a MS-4 municipality. I think the cleanest thing, is we
adopt this, and some of other things we have on the books so to speak, we negate
by adopting this ordinance. Whenever you adopt something, we knock something else out. Over the years, we have adopted things with storm water, in a desire to manage
our development in our municipality. Councilman Snyder said so the question becomes
are there a few amendments we can add to our current storm water ordinance and not
adopt the whole thing? Mr. Baltzer said the big thing is volume control rate, the volume
controls are little different. The previous ordinance models different steps. My concern
is its not what the model ordinance, that was one of the sections that DEP said there
were questions. Councilman Noll asked so you are saying to get it back to the existing MS 4? If we would adopt that one section and not the rest of the ordinance would
that be okay? That is going to be part of 2013 MS 4 is that right? Mr. Baltozer
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 13
said I believe. Councilman Noll said and with that MS 4, do we have to adopt
our ordinances, or are we just required to comply, or do we have to mirror our
ordinances to MS 4? Mr. Malesker said we’re not even sure what is going to
be included with MS 4 yet. There is a workshop, I attached it to the engineer’s report. I am not 100% sure what is going to be involved with the MS 4. Councilman Snyder
said what I’m getting at is, we take all the recommendations that were originally
given to us, along with the eight, because that protects our borough residents.
If that justification is that might not make us MS 4 compliant, clearly when MS 4 rolls
around next year, we’re going to be looking this again, then since we are a MS 4 municipality we change the things we have to change for MS 4. Why couldn’t we do that? Councilman Noll said I think we could say what we have is good enough, if
we have to adopt one or two more points, that is where I would lean because I have
a feeling that we’re really looking at something that doesn’t address quite accurately
MS 4, from what I’m hearing, that MS 4 is going to be a nightmare. Keep what we
have, I think that is going to radically change what we have for storm water in this
municipality, the MS 4. Why did you have to go with MS 4 with the size of this
municipality because of the watershed, that forces us into MS4? Mr. Baltzer said
the proximity to the dense population. Councilman Noll asked so basically all municipalities have to MS 4 because of the density population? Mr. Baltzer
said what it looks like, that everyone will have to be MS 4 so all storm sewers will
be monitored eventually. Councilman Noll asked can we do that legitimately, how costly would it be for us, if you do x y z, you don’t have to adopt the ordinance, just these pieces? Mr. Baltzer said the new ordinance, revolves around a regulated activity.
Your previous ordinance did not do that. That is where it may be difficult. Discussion
continued. Councilman Snyder said in ACT 167 it says that we were suppose to
be part of the process for the county plan. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said my recommendation is to approve the ordinance as amended, with the primary recommendations and the supplement to those recommendations as presented by C.
S Davidson, we met our requirement, we approved it. If someone wants to challenge us,
to say we are non compliant. Councilman Snyder said we were notified on November 22,2011 that Yoe Borough, through DEP, has been extended for MS general permit through midnight of March 5, 2013. The fact that we are a MS 4 municipality we do
want to do this, we don’t want to shrug our responsibilities there. We are acting in
good faith. The law says we have to adopt it, we are adopting it, the law says we
can amend it, we’re amending it. The county didn’t notify us to participate, we
feel our amendments are in compliance with the county’s overall goals. We want to
exempt people for 500 square feet. Councilman Snyder said if everyone is okay, there is quorum, Steve can get those changes into the ordinance. Mr. Baltzer said he recommends
updating the application, we could develop a slope map. Councilman Snyder asked
that the application be updated and be ready for review for the next meeting. Mr. Baltzer
also asked that on the eight items, two of them were not regulatory. One of which would
be for a small project, and have it simplified.Mr. Baltzer recommends striking letter E from the original eight. Councilman Snyder said for the record, even though that Tom is not here, he did indicate that he was disapproving any movement
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 14
on the borough’s part. To wait to see what someone else does. I did not have the opportunity to talk to him to tell him what I had found, what we were going to
bring up tonight. Now that we are getting all these safeguards back into place for
our residents, I can’t speak for Tom, but he wanted the borough to push it off.
The second thing because we are talking in obscurity what recommendations were
taken out and what recommendations were to be put back in, when you put them
back in, if you could shoot the municipality an email that highlights, this is what
is being placed back in the ordinance based on this discussion, that we can
generate to all council members, that we are all clear what is put back in, and
we understand what it means. Again when we talk about what you just did, rate
control on this, to a lay person, but you explained it you said you could put in
a seepage pit. That’s what would be nice that we could go back to our residents
and say, what is the implication here, we can say this is how we understood it.
That would be great, to explain this. By us doing this, we are in compliance
we’re making an honest effort. And getting done by January. Councilman Noll
said if we advertise it and for some reason table it next time, do we have readvertise.
Attorney Ehrhart said yes. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said we need to make
sure we advertising the right one, with the changes. If it is a matter of waiting a month,
so Tom can see the version of it. Mr. Malesker said it’s the one that had been
submitted. The application, the worksheets, there are things to make it easier by
using street maps. Mr. Baltzer said we tried making the application step by step,
if there is a slope map when they are going through the application. Have an aerial
image, with shaded areas. Modify the application to make it easier. Aerial map would
be available with streets. Councilman Snyder said DEP’s facts sheet, is to provide a
framework for each municipality including a model ordinance, so you can modify it
to fit your municipality. I think if we do that, I would think a 500 square foot exemption, is adequate. Is that adequate in your opinion? Mr. Baltzer said you have to be aware
how its going to affect the next property downstream, dumping a whole lot of water.
Area threshold. Councilman Noll said I think 500 is good medium, less challengeable.
Mr. Baltzer said the maps will be GIS File in pdf form. Councilman Noll asked if
you could send us that. Councilman Snyder said he would like to point from DEP’s
fact sheet, we are to get 75% reimbursement for the cost of enacting this. If DEP
wants to challenge the validity of our ordinance, do we ask where our money is. Do
we want to add in there, that the ordinance is effective when we get our money from
DEP. I am just saying keep in your back of your mind with this matter, we didn’t get
paid for what we did. A motion was made by Councilman Noll that we take the DEP
ordinance with the recommended changes, primary changes by C.S.Davidson and
the secondary changes recommended by C. S. Davidson, beside changing Item E,
and have C. S. Davidson rewrite that and have it sent for advertisement for January
meeting for adoption. As well as having supplement forms and documentation
from C. S. Davidson for the January meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilman
Howett. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. That will be ordinance
number one for 2012.
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 15
Councilman Snyder said we do have another resolution, 2011-07, this is to designate
an agent for Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, on behalf of the borough council,
designating John Sanford, the Mayor, is hereby authorized to execute on behalf
of Yoe Borough. A motion to resolve Resolution 2011-07 was made by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. The motion was seconded by Councilman Howett. All in favor.
Councilman Snyder said so be it resolved.
Attorney Ehrhart wished everyone Happy Holidays.
Mr. Malesker said I don’t have anything on the wetland mitigation beside what
she mentioned. The secretary said Tom reported that , DEP still hasn’t approved anything
yet. He knows that Rettew has been working on their part of the project because they
have been calling and asking questions.
Mr. Malesker said I did mention that I attached that MS 4 training to the engineer’s
report. Mr. Malesker said it will probably be Derek or Ben from our office attending
the seminar. I think it would be good to send someone to it. The borough needs
to have someone on staff that understand this, it would be good for if maybe
Dana and you would go. Mr. Shearer said being in the middle of winter, I would
like to not attend for now. Mr. Malesker said more details will be coming out for
the changes of MS 4 for 2013. The secretary asked that we would be made aware
if the changes would be affecting the borough financially.
Mr. Malesker said the dam inspection was due in December and is complete.
Our copy is here. John signed off on the posted notices. They will comment that
you need a current Emergency Action Plan, so I’m working with John to get
that finalized. That is the work right now. Two copies were set. The secretary
said the report will be on the council table for a month. Mr. Malesker said
we recommended that the fence area are down, sediment that you mentioned
that you are going to be removing and then a little bit of erosion occurring
at the outlet structure in Basin 2. Its nothing that is bad or critical. Otherwise
everything is looking pretty good.
Mr. Malesker said I have the gabion assessment. I have three copies. We briefly
touched on this last month. One thing that we can directly we can attribute to
the high flows of Tropical Storm Lee was the undermining of the scour protection.
I set the number of $10,000.00 for repairs for that. There are some gabions that
are rotated, I can’t say that was caused by the flooding. They are very particular about
that. The worse area is leaning behind the fire station. The immediate recommendations
are repairing the scour protection. Done the road, 25 foot side east side of fire station repair, that is rotating, we could keep looking at those. Those may need to be rebuilt,
just keep an eye on those. We recommend with gabions, you don’t put a live load
surcharge on it, for the height of the wall away from it, which is a 45 degree angle, if you have an eight foot wall then you should drive within eight feet of it. These gabions
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 16
are mostly a single wall. We mentioned here, seven inches over four feet, we can
monitor on based on the baseline. Mr. Malesker said this cost almost one thousand.
Councilman Noll said can we show that as part of the cost from the tropical storm
damage? Mr. Malesker said the engineering is not part of it. I heard it both ways,
where engineering is reimbursed. Mayor Sanford said I asked that questioned and
they said that the engineering could be included. Councilman Noll said could
you get a revised number. Councilman Snyder said I asked if we could use the
same permit to do these repairs, as the permit for doing the work with the church
and extend the scope. While you said good idea, but it would have to be a different
type of permit. Could be include that cost, of the permitting aspect of it? Mr. Malesker
said yes. Do you want me to include engineering with that $10,000.00? Councilman Noll said I think we should include the engineering, include the permitting, pre engineering.
Do they reimburse you for actual cost incurred? Mayor Sanford said we give them an
estimate and they pay off of the estimate. Mr. Malesker said the assessment was $1000.00. Councilman Snyder said if you could add them on to it, update the copy.
Mayor Sanford said along with the $10,000.00 include that you are going to be on sight,
inspections, etc. Mr. Malesker asked did you have a contractor come down to look at this.
Councilman Snyder asked is that a FEMA thing that they want three bids? Mayor
Sanford said I can verify that. Mr. Shearer said it went from $4,000 to $10,000 for
three phone bids, $18,500.00 for written bids. Councilman Noll said since you
understand the engineering of the gabions, you should contact the contractors, then
Steve. Mr. Malesker said I have a project, gabion assessment, I could keep it open for
identification. From this point on, I could keep it separate for FEMA purposes, open
a new project. Councilman Noll asked if Jake’s company would do something like this.
Mr. Malesker said yes, he would do the submitting for free too. Councilman Noll said
let’s get Jake’s company, York Excavating and whomever you recommend then.
Councilman Snyder said if they reimburse 100%, we take this money out of the
capital reserve fun for now, we have a plan to get the money and do this work.
Mayor Sanford said you have to do the project then submit. Councilman Noll said
we would be on the hook then for the money. Mayor Sanford said with the snow
storms we got reimbursed in sixty days. Discussion continued. Mr. Malesker will
update page three of the gabion assessment presentation.
Mr. Malesker said he will wait to hear from the church about the project.
Councilman Snyder said either way we should be able to proceed by February.
Maintenance Report
Mr. Shearer said we are going to be dredging. Jake won’t be able to move in unto
Thursday, hopefully wrapped up by Monday.
Mr. Shearer said the carburetor is fixed on the salt spreader. We are ready for
the winter. Tires for the F 250, good for the winter.
Maintenance Report(cont.) Page 17
Mr. Shearer said we have the leaf pickup in the borough wrapping up.
Councilwoman Coble Tyson asked when it started, my leaves have been
sitting out there for three weeks. Mr. Shearer said I’ll contact them.
Any other leaves around town that need to be picked up let me know by
tomorrow.
Mr. Shearer said park is almost all cleaned up for the winter. A few more
piles that need to be cleaned up.
Mr. Shearer said the property maintenance fees that we had the late notices on,
we’ve gotten three of those of the four. I will have to file a citation for the last property.
It’s a landlord that has moved from the area.
Mr. Shearer said my vacation schedule. If you don’t have any objections, I will work four
nine hour days December 19 thru the 22 and four hours on December 23. For ½ day of vacation. Then I would take off December 27th for one vacation day. I would work the
28th and 29th and use the last vacation on December 30th. Christmas Holiday is December 26th and New Year’s holiday will be January 2nd. Councilman Snyder said there is
a consensus of council. Mayor Sanford will be charge of snow removal during that time.
Councilman Noll asked about the wash out at the park at the bottom of the sidewalk.
Mr. Shearer said I’m letting that settle in there, but will add some more material in there.
Zoning Officer’s Report
Councilman Noll read from the report, one building permit for 53 N. Church Street.
No zoning permits in November. Two citations issued, two for 230 S. Main Street,
and one for 187 S. Main Street. Hearing for 72 N. Main Street, property owner found guilty, paid cost and continue to make progress. Hearing attended for 158 S. Main Street,
property owner found guilty of first one. Zoning Hearing for 33 E. High Street on
December 15, 2011 at 7PM. Interpretation that a use of a three unit was abandon,
a special exception for a multi family conversion, a variance for parking is required.
Spoke with Robert Richardson, 230 S. Main Street, about his property, he is basically saying there is no money to fix anything up. That property is heading toward
condemnation from what I understand from Code Administrators. Given an order
to vacate. What is our action if we see him at his property, call the police? Mayor
Sanford said is there a difference in asking someone to vacate and an unsafe
structure. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said condemning the structure is that its
uninhabitable. Mayor Sanford said it is vacated because there is no water supply.
Mr. Shearer said if he does vacate the structure, I talked to Dan about this. I didn’t run it by Norm Strenger from Code Administrators, Norm would require Mr. Richardson
to do if he did vacate the structure. If he is not going to live there, in my opinion,
the building should be boarded up. Councilman Snyder said it says , immediately
secure the structure against human entry, vermin or pest infiltration and prevent
Zoning Officer’s Report(cont.) Page 18
rain and wind infiltration. Councilman Noll said at this point, we are moving
at condemnation of this property. A notice was issued on the 23rd, it was notice of violation and order to vacate. The notice of violation was of an unsafe structure.
In accordance with the PA UCC. Unsafe condition, danger to human life, in
particular failure to maintain adequate source of quality of work. That’s how he got them.
Violations to be abated, immediately secure the structure against human entry, remedy
all unsafe conditions by obtaining new connection of service from the Yoe Borough
Water Authority. Obtain an approved inspection, that water has been restored and obtain
an use and occupancy permit. That is the caveat to bring it up to code. Councilman Noll said it appears that he is not going to do. Councilman Snyder read the structure shall
be vacated at the above note of abatement item shall be commenced within forty
eight hours of this notice. Failure to comply with the abatement, order of the unsafe
structure, an order to vacate in result in legal sanctions to gain compliance. Including
but not limited to, fines of $1000.00 per day. The unsafe notice can not be rescinded
until unsafe issues are abated and in no case shall the structure be abandoned in
such case to create a hazard or known public health and safety. If the property owner believes that the PA UCC is being misinterpreted or does not apply, the property
owner has the right to appeal by submitting a written appeal of this notice within
ten days. Then he gives the information for the Uniform Code Appeals, which
is Yoe Borough, the appeal shall contain specific submissions or denials and the
appeal may contain a request for a variance or an extension of time. After that ten days,
then they have to go the next step, which will probably be that sanctions be imposed,
before we get to the point where it will be condemned. We have to make a choice
whether we are tearing it down or not. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said
I want to make everyone aware that this is what we’ve been talking about for
a long time that we need to enforce our ordinance, it could get costly, if this follows
through the way it will follow through, we could be faced at this council table a decision,
to pull that structure down. As far as I know we don’t have any other condemned
structures in the borough. Mr. Shearer said right now, Norm is further ahead in
the process with Church Street. The apartment building behind the fire house at
Clark Alley area. That was the one that we had the complaints from the tenant, we
did an inspection of the tenant’s apartment. I wrote up the violation, I did not
get anything back from the land owner. Norm got an inside look of another unit,
issued the his letter to vacate, the same letter that that Mr. Richardson got. Even though it says forty eight hours, it taking a lot longer. Councilman Snyder said first Mr. Richardson said he wasn’t living there, he was living with a girlfriend. Then he’s been saying, well
even if he was living there, he did have water. This started back in July. Then he did
say I do have water, but I’m still not living there. The last issue that was Codes was having, he wasn’t picking up mail. When you do get to him, he says I don’t have any
money anyways. Mr. Shearer said from what he is telling Dan, he’s still employed.
I feel we have to continue to proceed with it. We get complaints about this property.
Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said we have to play this by the book.
Councilman Noll said like Sam, said this is going to take money, take time and we
may have to take a structure down. If we don’t do it, we will never get anyone
Zoning Officer’s Report(cont.) Page 19
in this municipality to follow any of the ordinances. Understand the battle, its
going to be a long drawn out process.
Councilman Snyder said there is a letter here addressed to council, saying
that they couldn’t be in attendance tonight. I didn’t have a chance to read it all.
I did notice in the third paragraph, saying Yoe could be so much better. We
live in a small town, in which a stranger driving through probably call it
run downed. Personally, I know how you feel about taxes and everything, if
we have to raise $10,000.00 or $15,000.00 to clean up this blight, that is
an instance, people like this one, wouldn’t have a problem paying the extra
money to clean up the town. They are tired of looking at what we are looking
at. Councilman Noll said you got good response from two properties so far,
the porch and roof, and painted, at 72. And Yoe Parts fixed up their property.
Councilwoman Coble Tyson said he appreciated the kind words. Discussion
continued. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said she raises a good point here
too, if doing something as a community in this borough, a fund raiser, a block
party, a something, which generates money to help with some of these issues.
It’s a very good letter with very good point. At some point, we did have
helping hands for the elderly, I remember there was something. She may not
been here, only been here a couple years. Councilman Snyder said maybe
that is something to put in the next newsletter. Discussion continued.
Councilman Snyder said everyone received a copy of the letter from Red Lion,
informing us about Dan Shaw, them giving them notice. I did contact,
Dianne and explained to her that we were in the process of splitting up
the position with the zoning officer and code enforcement. After I explained
to her, with what the zoning officer does and handling permits, last year
we had like ten, we had no zoning hearing in the last two years, except this
one now. She was amiable to the fact of keeping Dan Shaw on as our
zoning officer so long as we made steps forward in hiring the code
enforcement officer. I told her we should be able to do that by January or
February. Dates were set to interview two candidates for the position of code enforcement officer as long as the interviewees are available. Councilman Noll will contact the candidates and set up times and dates, and ask if Patti Myers would
like to send in a resume if she’d like. Councilman Snyder said John is trying to
get approval and information from one officer, who may be interested, but who
will not know until the beginning of the year. What I suggested to John was,
go ahead and interview these two. The committee can make a recommendation.
Mayor Sanford said it may not be an ex police officer. Councilman Snyder
said John can have an update at the January meeting, and then if need be
interview that one other person in January. At the very latest we would be
able to pick someone by February. Tentative dates are December 19 at 1PM and December 21 at 10 AM. Councilman Noll will email the borough and others after he confirms these with the candidates. Mayor Sanford will sit in on the interviews also.
Emergency Management Report Page 20
Mayor Sanford said Dana and I are still researching for a generator for this building.
Mayor Sanford sand Dana and I attended the kick off money for the FEMA money,
that was on November 10th. There was discussion on reimbursement funding for
Dana’s time concerning the storm clean up and after the storm within the borough
and at the basin. The dredging at the basin. We discussed the damage to the creek
and the cost involved with that. We discussed the umbrellaing the fire company in
with that, they purchased some pumps for the flooding for residency and rented
some pumps. Discussed adding engineering. I felt very comfortable. The deadline to submit, I have some time yet. I needed to get these things signed tonight and send
it registered mail.
Councilman Snyder said while we are discussing EMA and reorganization next month,
I was hoping it would come up in the discussion the tenth. One thing we want to
be mindful of, new council members need to have NIMS training. We need to make
sure that all the council members, in the event we are asked that we are NIMS compliant and make sure we are up to date with NIMS certification. With the benefit of Regan, NIMS stands for National Incident Management System. It’s a forty five minute online course.
Mayor and Police Report
Mayor Sanford said you have my report in front of you. Highlights of activities,
the meeting on the 10th, attempted burglary on the 27th on one house in the 200 block of S. Main Street, council member pursued them. We worked with York Regional on the
ball field damage, estimate is $1250.00. Charges are pending. I think the charges with
juveniles with trespassing at the park will not be filed due to insufficient evidence.
Those were the highlights of the reports. On the16th I sat with Chief Gross and Lt.
Redifer, we discuss some of the desires and concerns of council that I passed along.
I met with some officers within the borough, we looked at some areas for traffic
enforcement. We had pretty intensive traffic and we looked at violations for
parking. To get things cleaned up again. Councilman Noll asked if the police
department is actively looking at the situation here, I saw WGAL really slamming Red Lion and York Township in the cut of hours? What is going on here, I know its
going to affect his department. Mayor Sanford said he has five officers set to retire in the next twelve months that would offset some of the decrease of coverage. But there are
still some officers in jeopardy. Some correspondence I put into the file. A donation request from York Habitat for Humanity, Flier from Ford, census info I gave to the
Council President. The election for the member at large went out thirty days ago, they were due by 5PM this evening. I did run again for that position, along with Ron Smith from Dallastown Borough and Gary McBride from Felton Borough. So we will see
how that works out.
Secretary’s Report Page 21
The secretary said I tried to get an update on the hydrant, they haven’t determined
anything yet from the insurance company.
The secretary said the Code Administrators contract is over here. That needs to be signed.
I did get a current certificate of insurance. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to
sign the 2012 contract with Code Administrators. The motion was seconded by
Councilman Howett. All in favor.
The secretary said we did get a letter from Joyce Hemler that she will continue the animal control service and have her grandson be a part of it. She’s planning on keeping the
busy going. There was a consensus of council to accept the letter to have Mrs. Hemler
continue her duties.
The office will closed December 19 to December 25, 2011.
Councilman Snyder said we do have the latest quarterly minutes from the Yoe
Borough Sewer Authority. That is on file
Councilman Snyder said we received notice from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture that we are cordially invited to join in the 9th annual
Farm Show Public Officials Day on Thursday January 12, 2012. If anyone is interested
in attending contact Sandy by January 5th.
Unfinished Business
Councilman Snyder said update to let everyone know, because of the way the elections went. Jamie’s name was on the ballot, as far as the election’s bureau is concerned her
seat was never vacant. I have been in contact with the director of Elections, they certified the results, they only certify who won the election. Once she gets this certification
that she won the election, she is suppose to send a letter in that she can no longer
hold office and is declining it. I asked Jamie to notify the borough. So at the January meeting we can declare the seat vacant and then appoint. That is why I asked Regan to show up tonight, he is here and get up to date on all the issues.
New Business
Councilman Coble Tyson said tax collection committee and tax claim bureau there is
a meeting on December 8 to actually vote on the by laws and new articles of the
York Adams Tax Bureau. Paperwork is in the circulate file.
Payment of the Bills
Councilman Snyder asked if everyone had an opportunity to look over the bill list
Additional bills: Verizon Wireless:$50.54, Verizon $75.14, Verizon $35.63,
Payment of the Bills (cont.) Page 22
Columbia Gas: $25.62, Columbia Gas: $156.50, Benchmark $4.40, and
PA Borough Council Association $25.00. A motion was made to pay the
bills as listed with the additions by Councilman Howett. The motion
was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor.
Thank You
Councilman Snyder said thank you for another wonderful year and successful year and look forward to working with you next year.
Adjournment
Councilwoman Coble Tyson made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:24PM.
The motion was seconded by Councilman Snyder. All in favor.
