YOE BOROUGH PG. 1
150 NORTH MAPLE STREET
YOE, PA 17313
The regular monthly meeting of Yoe Borough Council was held on October 5, 2010 at the Yoe Borough Municipal Building, 150 N. Maple Street, Yoe, PA. The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by Council President Sam Snyder beginning with the pledge of allegiance.
Council Members in Attendance:
Sam Snyder
Seth Noll
Barry Myers(arriving at 7:05PM)
Tom Allar
George Howett
Wendy Coble Tyson
Others in attendance:
David Cook, Solicitor
Steve Malesker, Engineer
Dana Shearer, Maintenance
Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
Jamie Tyson, Resident
Jeff Henry, Henry Realty
John Sanford, Mayor (arriving at 9:22PM)
Minutes
A motion was made by Councilman Allar to accept the meeting minutes of the September 7, 2010 meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. Those in favor: Councilman Howett and Councilwoman Coble-Tyson. Councilman Snyder abstained because he was not present at the September 7, 2010 meeting. Councilman Snyder said
minutes are passed.
Visitors
Councilman Snyder said the first one on the list is Ms. Tyson. If everyone is aware, we do have an open council seat, Ms. Tyson has showed her interest. She also had wrote an introductory resume so to speak, some of her background and why she’d like to join. If anybody has any questions for Ms. Tyson? Councilman Snyder asked did you get that taken care of with the voter registration. Ms. Tyson said yes I have my copy if you would like to see it. Councilman Snyder said all I need to ask you for the record, are you over
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the age of eighteen? Ms. Tyson said yes. Councilman Snyder asked are you a registered Republican and have you lived in the borough for at least one year, and I am assuming that since you are a registered Republican do I have to ask, are you a U. S. citizen?
Ms. Tyson said yes definitely. Councilman Snyder said are there any other interested parties/ anyone knew about as far as for the seat? I do not have a problem I think she would be a wonderful asset. It would be nice to get some young blood in there, and revitalize. I think she’d be a great asset, comments? A motion was made by Councilman Allar to appoint Ms. Tyson to the vacant council seat. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Ms. Tyson would you please come up and join us, you’ll be taking over Dave’s seat. The mayor is actually running late, he’ll probably be here about eight o’clock, so all due respect, although you’ve been appointed, you can not take official action at the council table yet until you’ve taken the Oath of Office. So as soon as he gets here,we’ll try to clean up any details at that point, we’ll get you sworn in, we’ll get you started. But in the meantime, welcome aboard. Introductions were given all around the council table to Ms. Tyson. Ms. Tyson said nice to meet everyone and thank you. Councilman Snyder said thank you.
Councilman Snyder said next on the visitors list is Henry Realty. Jeff Henry from Henry Realty came to council, said I guess the contract for garbage collection is up. We own the properties on S. Elm Street, the apartments. The rest of our places have dumpsters. This one has individual garbage. And it is, there really isn’t enough for the cans. I can send around several pictures of that. One of our problems is the amount of trash, the amount of trash that gets out of the area. We typically I’ll stop by and pick the stuff up, my one guy will stop and pick the stuff up. Its not too bad when its fall and winter, summertime when its out there, or on a long weekend. We thought that dumpsters would be better. Councilman Snyder said I’m glad to inform you that the council approved the contract last month, and the dumpsters are already included in that contract. Mr. Henry said well good. The secretary said there is more to it than that, and Seth is going to take the ball from there then. Councilman Noll said we had looked at the placement of those dumpsters through the contract, we anticipated what was it eight yards. Councilman Snyder said I don’t know if it actually specified, like a four yard dumpster, it what the other apartment dwellings are doing. Councilman Noll said the only concerned that we had, if we would allow this, grant it to put the dumpsters there, would be the location of the dumpsters. So we would like to have a conversation with you about that. And our recommendation is to keep it off the street and also with site distance, a bigger container, and get that off the public street. We were looking at going up to where you have the no parking signs now, dumpsters up in that area with some sort of corral. Are you looking at one or two, I don’t know if the contract specifies what? Mr. Henry asked who has the contract, Penn Waste? Councilman Noll said yes. Mr. Henry asked is that an alley that
is not an alley? Councilman Noll said it was at one point, it was our understanding, I’m not sure. Mr. Henry asked what slack would we get from the neighbors? Councilman Noll asked you mow and maintain that area? Mr. Henry said I think we actually mow.
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Councilman Noll said at this point, I guess that is one thing that we didn’t answer was,
we’re sure, it was never opened, at this point it was never adopted, so it was abandoned.
Does there property deed show ownership, finalized? The dumpster corral there, we are looking at it as safety stand point around the entire property. That would be our only suggestion, that we would like. Mr. Henry asked can we pave up there, put concrete up there so the dumpster sits on something. We don’t want it to. Councilman Noll said we would like it to be a dumpster enclosure. Mr. Henry said that’s fine, the one fence around it, six foot high or something. Councilman Noll said with a concrete base, yes that’s exactly what we would want. Mr. Henry said so do we need to get Penn Waste our there to see if they can get to it. The secretary said it would be a good idea. Mr. Henry said I did have them up there at one time. I’m fine with that, as long as, I would feel better legally knowing, that legally we can put it there. Because I’ve got to find that I’ll come to you if there is a problem. Councilman Snyder said historically what the borough has taken position, this is going back to 1990, from a prior solicitor, a road that has been proposed, never opened, after twenty one year the borough can not open so we have no legal right to it at that point. Whether there is private rights, that have been established in that time, that we don’t know about. Its possible that the land has already been, what’s known as no man’s land, because it was already taken off people’s deeds, so no one may have clear ownership of it but as far as the municipality concerned, the road hasn’t been opened, and we legally have no right to open it at this point. So and its not, we have no claim, its not showing up on the tax max as being part of anyone else’s parcel so.
As far as anyone having the right to access it, put something like that in there which is at the end of your drive actually. Mr. Henry said well its at the end of our drive but the other people use, they wanted it seal coated, it wasn’t a good situation so we had to seal coat it.
And I don’t legally know what might what be right but I also know what may happen if someone really doesn’t want it there, they park their car out at the end of that alley so they can’t get to the dumpster. And I’m just making, I just want you to be aware of these things, so when it comes up, that we’re in the right position and you get the feedback from the people. I’m all in favor of doing that, I just want to make sure that there is can do it. If they lived there for twenty years and they mowed and trimmed that for twenty years, it’s a or twenty five years. If you say go ahead, that’s what we’re going to do.
Solicitor Cook said you’re saying this road way that you want to use to access, is essentially no man’s land at the present time. Correct me if I’m wrong? Mr. Henry said I honestly don’t know, I asked that, I assumed its been an alley that there was never done with. Councilman Noll, said Sam, when sometimes roads are abandoned, the way that its written, the property owner, how do we check? Solicitor Cook said it doesn’t look like anybody has tried to make claim. Councilman Snyder said they have their fence row on this side and he has his fence row on that side. Its literally. Solicitor Cook said theoretically if his fence goes right up the center line, someone is making a claim to that area. If you put dumpsters there, you are making a claim for that area. Councilwoman Coble Tyson asked whose fence is there now? Councilman Noll asked the red fence?
Mr. Henry said the red fence is ours. Councilman Snyder asked who put the no parking signs? Mr. Henry said I don’t know, I did not, those fences were there when we bought
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the property. Councilman Snyder asked the red fence? Mr. Henry said the red and the other, both, we’ve painted the red fence and maintained the red fence but I do not know
who put the other fence there, its been there. I’ve got a funny feeling, that where you see that jeep sticking out the front, it would make sense to me, they may have put the fence
there. I don’t know that because if there were a car parked there it would block the way.
Solicitor Cook said from looking at that, it doesn’t seem to me to be a claim for this area. There has to be something more. Trees, shrubs, flowers something. Mr. Henry asked can we take it a step at a time and put the vinyl up first. Solicitor Cook said if you take some action to take ownership and nobody jumps and down initially. Mr. Henry said or a week later its torn down. Solicitor Cook said if you’ve been mowing it for twenty years I don’t think that is an open and notorious indication that you’re to lay claim to that particular
property. Councilman Snyder said without anybody legal advice, if say you, hypothetically have unclaimed property, that somebody is mowing but if they really wanted to take ownership, they should have then took a quiet title to claim it. Without that quiet title, technically person on the neighboring side, could do a quiet title. Solicitor Cook said you’re jumping ahead there. Councilman Snyder said no, I’m just saying hypothetically if it’s an issue and its dead man’s land, someone could. Solicitor Cook said what you’re talking about, is an adverse possession, where someone is attempting to take something that is not necessarily theirs. An example that comes to my mind, in my grandparents back yard there is a power line that goes through the back of the yard, and all the way back to the rear fence, was owned by the power company. A couple of the owners decided to put up fences the length of the property and all the way back to the back fence to claim the back portion of this yard. Even though it was fifty yards deep, the property line was only 25 yards deep. So they’re making an adverse claim that is open and notorious about their desire to claim the remaining twenty five yards by putting a fence against the property line. Obviously they are mowing it as well, its something more than just mowing, plowing. In the strict sense. Mr. Henry said if we keep it as close to this red fence as we can, it will look that we tried to go half way. You know what I mean.
If we come here, and bring ours, and still, instead of putting it right in the center as long as the truck can pull in. That will be. Councilman Noll said if nobody has that usually.
Councilman Snyder said if its not a clear ownership, I would think you would have a real good claim to half the alley anyways. Without giving legal advice. Councilman Noll said
is he going to need a permit to do that? Councilman Snyder said probably a permit from zoning because we have criteria on the fence height. Check with Dan on that. He has to satisfied that with Dan. Mr. Henry said is your fence, you don’t know what your fence height is, maybe I’ll have to call it something other than a fence. Councilman Snyder said it may look like a fence, but you may have to call it a garbage barrier. Mr. Henry said a fence is something six foot high. What size will the dumpster be? Councilman Snyder said what we have is an appropriate size. The secretary said to contact Ed Ward with Penn Waste. Councilman Noll said and you may want to ask one for trash and one for recycling. Mr. Henry said okay. The secretary said billing would stay the same procedure. Councilman Snyder said one other point, that maybe thought of, I don’t know how much flat land is back on this end, hypothetically speaking if no one has claimed
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that and it is indeed dead man’s land, what if, the person definitely didn’t want a dumpster in there because he said hey you are taking my land or whatever, but if he doesn’t have clear title to it that would be an argument to that issue, but what then if you said okay well if its suppose to be an alley, put the dumpster back in there and the run the truck back in there and put a dumpster in there, if it is indeed opened up, from what Barb has said our original solicitor, that’s not saying private rights don’t exist. Just because you can’t open it up as an alley as a municipality, does not mean that private rights don’t
exist for it to be utilized as an alley. He could stone that, but the dumpster back there on, back basically in front of where there is this is, the trucks can come in on a angle. I’m just using this as another alternative, hypothetically speaking, if private rights exist for an alley, could he avail himself to his rights. Hypothetically speaking, you may want to check with a lawyer on this we can’t give legal advice on that respect but if the issue isn’t that the neighbor doesn’t like the fact of having a dumpster right here, because he’s saying we took that over, clearly if they didn’t do a quiet title, they didn’t take it over, so its no man’s land. As of previous solicitor had indicated, just because we can’t open it, does not mean private rights exist for that to be utilized as an alley. Therefore if you avail yourself of private rights, stone this area, then put the dumpster back here where this red fence is that they would come in on a angle to pick it up, all you’re doing is availing yourself of your private rights to utilize an alley that is already in existence. Check it out with Ed Ward if there is enough room to go in on angle to do that, that’s just another
thought. Mr. Henry said okay.
Councilman Snyder said Mr. Myers isn’t here any other visitors that would like to be recognized. Mr. Pickel said at last council meeting you signed a contract for removal of pigeons within the borough. Starting as of this past Monday, we were successful in removing a pigeon. Between weather, someone in the borough having his house painted, and few other things, wind and rain, basically conditions weren’t conducive in being handle this as I would have liked to. This week is lay off week by the paperwork that Tom and I put together. And was passed out within a three block radius. Therefore next week we are going to go back to removing them. As of yesterday I talked to the owners of Yoe Auto Parts, got the permission to put a trap up on the roof to see if we could lure some birds in and out of the trap, that wouldn’t get caught, just to get them to go in and out of the trap, birds are sitting on that high roof up there. And if we are successful in that, we are going to be using that trap next week. If not successful, we will be successful by adding a live bird, they are very gregarious when it comes to feeding. With that being said, one of the major problems that I’ve found, with the abandoned house that we have previously talked about, that is two doors away from Tom’s. The front porch is missing a major board on the overhang of the porch roof. And there is quite an accumulation of pigeon defection on that porch. About a foot wide and the widths of the porch. They go in and out through that opening. Plus the back porch, also has a large opening. And in between two houses, the one next to Tom’s and the abandoned house, the drops for the gutters are at a diagonal faced the house, both houses have pigeon droppings on them as high as five to ten per gutter. Piles. The area in between the houses, is something that you
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wouldn’t want to track in. I know they are doing some, I guess the term was used, winterizing of that house right now. Caulking the windows. Is that correct Tom?
Councilman Allar said that was the woman that was here last time. Mr. Pickel said they are actually doing some winterizing there. But what I’m looking for, if we are physically no successful next week, in removing the quantity of birds. I’m looking for council’s approval to push this down the road another couple of weeks. To try to get a number. I’m not going to be able to tell you, until I get through next week, who knows what kind of weather we’re going to get and so forth and if we’re going to be successful. If you can perceive it, you can do this, it will help alleviate some of the problems if possible. If I’m not successful next week, rather than waiting for the next borough council meeting. You know, to approve the actual extension of the contract of work. That’s the one item. The other item is this abandoned house is pretty much the pits. I can’t I don’t know how to tell you, this is a house that needs to be rectified, and rectified in the very near future. Because the amount of the animals that are physically going in and out of the house.
Raccoons, skunks, possums and rodents. I do know some are coming up off the creek
and using the house as a home. Plus the building directly behind it, is covered with vines and it could be a habitat for almost anything. Let’s put it this way, in warm weather in July, I really wouldn’t want to go in there. I have no problems with dealing with things that sliver in the night but I guarantee you I know some other people that wouldn’t want to go in there if you had a problem. I am sure you have a couple of snakes in there. Not that anything is poisonous, I don’t very much if anything is poisonous, it’s the psychological factor more than anything else. My biggest concern is that we’re going to have, if something isn’t done in the near future, you’re going to have another generation of animals in that property which is going to translate into the adjacent properties. Soon or later the mom kicks the kids out. And end up someplace else. That’s about it. Remind me if I missed anything. Councilman Allar said you had talked, that at some point you are going to need access to the property. That is where we go into, how we legally do something of that nature. We had talked on the phone. Solicitor Cook said its actually quite easy. It’s a zoning issue, the property is abandoned, the owner of the property, the property is posted. Councilman Allar said just to make that we are in the same page, I know that Jerry said the property is abandoned, the owner is living on the property in a different building. I don’t know what the legal definition of abandonment is. It’s a vacant building. Solicitor Cook said you are giving the owner of the property notice that, of what needs to be corrected, giving the owner a ten day period to correct it, a notice of action of what the borough attends to do, should the property owner correct in ten days or a reasonable time period. With the notice, they have the ability to appeal and request a hearing for the zoning board. If that doesn’t take place, appropriate action will take place.
Property Maintenance requirement. Councilman Noll said along with this, I went with our zoning officer. Also on this property and the one further up Main Street, that we suspect that has a lot of cats living there. As far as getting unto the property, he did not seem willing to walk on, get out of his vehicle basically to look at these properties. His opinion is that, a lot of these things are structural engineer questions, or the one property has a tree in question and I understand I wouldn’t want doubt someone that its bad for you, I don’t know. I think that we have to decide if he’s not going to do anything, how far
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we want to push legally if we want to push for an inspection of the property and knowing that there are some problems, seek condemnation someway. I think that is the only way that we’re going to get this resolved. We have gone after the owner before, we’ve cited them, unless you are willing to put the time, money and effort into condemning this property, I don’t know if its going to change, a battle we can’t win. Solicitor Cook said your question is, with the reluctance of the zoning officer, is the means to deal with it.
Mr. Malesker said he’s scared to get close to it, because he’s scared of a collapse or something. Councilman Noll said well, its still technically private property, someone owns it. He doesn’t want to step foot on that property without having the legal ability to do anything but the public side of the street and sidewalk other things, to look at the problem. Councilman Snyder asked is this something that you need to sit down and educate the zoning officer. Solicitor Cook said its pretty much spelled out in the ordinance, he has the authority and ability to go unto the property to inspect or if there are issues. If not, stand on the curb or the sidewalk. If there is probable cause, violation.
Councilman Snyder said maybe what we need here is a meeting of the minds. This is an issue, give you an update, because we were talking prior to the meeting about codification, we have just strengthened those ordinances even further in this upcoming codification. Which will make this even more of a no brainer for the zoning officer but of course I was going give that update by the end of the Solicitor’s report. Ken Rotz doesn’t have that ready for tonight’s meeting, he is running a couple of weeks behind schedule.
He’ll have it for us for next month’s meeting with a check off sheet on how to proceed and the way to proceed as to what steps come next. I anticipate that what we have to go through with the public hearing, county planning and advertising, a minimum of four months to be able to actually adopt the new code of ordinances. With that being said, I know cause this is one of the things that I argued all along, that we didn’t need that, because Pete was always saying that we had the right even without a ordinance, just under state law to abate a public nuisance. It’s a matter of council declaring a public nuisance and we take the steps to proceed. Councilman Allar said we did that last, and that’s what we voted on. Councilman Snyder said I think at this point, I did see that was voted when I checked with Pete prior to tonight’s meeting, he said Dan had not gotten with him. I sent out my email to Seth and to Sandy and then I come to find out that Seth did meet with Dan, so clearly the issue is between Dan not probably not knowing what his legal rights are. Councilman Noll said he’s very scared because so many things are not well defined in our ordinances, your public nuisance to my public nuisance kind of a deal. But I think we need to set some kind of a, somebody needs to tell him what, exactly what the plan is. Councilman Allar said there is higher jurisdiction the state, it doesn’t matter so much as to what our ordinances say. Councilman Snyder said as example, we have our own officer, Jerry Pickel has been identified as our wildlife enforcement officer every year for the last few years, we have a contract with him. As far as I’m concerned he’s an actual officer of the board. He’s know testified here at public meeting, as to what conditions he has seen. Based on that, I guess what Pete was talking about, because we’re not sure what Pete is talking about, the borough has the right under state law to abate a public nuisance. Solicitor Cook said it’s a basic health and safety issue, the borough or
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any municipality has the ability to act to help with the safety of its community. Councilman Allar said I think its actually as far as I’m concerned its more than the ability its what is required, identified to minimize public safety. Mr. Pickel said I know that if I am the owner of a business, you are one of my employees. And you have this problem that we are talking about I know about it. I don’t do anything about it. I can be fined by OSHA. My question to ask Mr. Cook can this regulation OSHA also cover the municipality. Solicitor Cook said I don’t think so, the reason being OSHA is for workplace issues. This is private issues. Looking at the outline of the draft of the code, if I am understand correctly of the ordinance passed in 1993, 93-002 adopted August 0f 1993. Borough council may or may cause a representative of the borough to enter the premises for the purpose of inspection of any or all premises, property, building and/or
structures located within the borough for a violation. Councilman Snyder said then the notice to comply is under 113 and the authority to remedy is 114. Solicitor Cook said the mismanagement of violation of such the section of the interior of the building or structure is necessary then you have to make prior arrangements with the owner to access. If they are non compliant then there is a separate remedy for that. If entry is required there should be some contact with the owner to try to accomplish that. Councilman Allar asked and Dave, and part of that inspection, the zoning officer would take with him, any
technical expert, for example if its dealing with animals, it is Jerry. Solicitor Cook said correct. Councilman Allar said you’re dealing with structural issues maybe someone else.
If you are dealing with a tree, then an arborist. So those would be alternatives with even
inspections. Solicitor Cook said correct. Councilman Noll said and the way this is written it says the borough council may by the action we took last month is that constitutes the borough council giving him the authority to check the properties out.
Do we need to pass something more binding? Solicitor Cook said I don’t know actually what was passed at the last meeting. Councilman Snyder said since it wasn’t done, lets do it the right way now to make you satisfied, since you are going to be handling this a little bit if we need to then, we’ll authorize you to also we’ll have you make the contact to Dan. And that way he’s quite clear of what his responsibilities are, you can tell him what your legal opinion is as far as, what he can or can not do, and then he has direction from council, he needs to proceed. If he still feels he doesn’t want to, then we have another issue. Solicitor Cook said as long as you don’t make me the authorized representative.
Councilman Snyder said we don’t want to violate your. Solicitor Cook said yeah, the way its written in the authorization representative is the zoning officer. Councilman Snyder said a hypothetical question then, to the solicitor, if you say you have for whatever reason, say an officer that feels that this because it doesn’t have a property maintenance code or something already in affect, which is why we are strengthening up this ordinances via codification, do you think it would be best to proceed through a civil action, such as yourself, or you already heard testimony given a duly appointment officer of the municipality here, would you feel comfortable proceeding that way or do you want to proceed in talking to him first to try to clarify as to what that officer’s responsibilities should be. Solicitor Cook said I think clarifying would probably be the most beneficial, necessary from a legal perspective and a cost perspective. The responsibilities of the code
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enforcement officer. Councilman Myers asked can we have more than one zoning officer? The secretary said we have a contract with Red Lion Borough. Councilman Myers said I don’t think the contract say anything other than we are going to appoint him as the zoning officer. Councilman Allar said before we get to that point, let’s see what happens, let Dave have the conversation, maybe it will clear itself up and we don’t have to worry about it. But I just want for clarification here, because Jerry is making an important point here, and that is we don’t want to prevent due process, due process takes times, Jerry also mentioned we have an immediate health issue here. And we are going to be going into breeding season here. Is there a way to dual track this at some point. We can go ahead the regular government procedures here but in some way give Jerry some cover with the animals. Because if we wait too long they’re probably going to double and triple. Solicitor Cook said I don’t think your timeline is that problematic as far as
the zoning issues. Councilman Myers said he will fight us. Councilman Allar said Pete mentioned something about going through an injunctive action. Councilman Noll said knowing the history that’s why I brought up the idea of condemnation, because of understanding for the council. So we have an idea of what we are going to be getting into.
Solicitor Cook said minimally it involves an inspection, I would think. Councilman Allar said I was thinking of, if we find areas of breeding of mosquitoes, is there anything that we can draw upon, we could talk about rats and rabies. Councilman Snyder asked Jerry do you know of anything in the state like the Department of Health so we can call them in. Mr. Pickel said the Department of Agriculture has I just spoke to the number 2 man.
Councilman Snyder said why don’t we do that, we’ve already had him to deal with the pigeon issue, he’s already identified other issues on the property, he’s a representative of the borough. Councilman Snyder said I make a motion that he continue in his pursuit with what he can do under his guidelines as far as the wildlife enforcement officer for the municipality, contact the state agency that you can contact, to help you enforce your job.
The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. Councilman Noll said in that, do we have any ability to charge this to land owner for the steps he is taking to remedy the issues on this property. Solicitor Cook said yes but, we have to give them notice, of the situation itself , typically, upon that served with notice, of the problem you have ten days to remedy the situation. If you fail to remedy the situation, take the action, if its necessary for the borough to do that, the owner is on the hook and is financially responsible for whatever costs that were incurred. Councilman Noll said I was wondering if in the notice, that we would send a letter ten day notification for Jerry that everything lines up, what way the borough, its going to take a little while to get this started anyway, that then
information is charged. Councilman Snyder amended the motion to have Mr. Pickel contact Mr. Cook to work on getting that notification letter out, and then for you to proceed with enforcement after that ten days timeline lapse. Then you know, you’re sorta working with him on the wildlife, the health issue and the critters. You’ll know how to word that, I don’t know if you ever dealt with an enforcement notice before or not. Mr. Pickel said I think if he gives me a few loose ends, between the two of us. Councilman Snyder asked you have his contact information. Mr. Pickel said yes. Councilman Snyder said do I have a second for that? The secretary said you made the motion, Mr. Allar
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seconded then we went to discussion, now we are amending, so we had a first and second on the first part, now we are amending, so I don’t know what he procedure is. Councilman Noll said Sam can say we are amending and Tom can say he is seconded.
Councilman Snyder said I agree with the amendment, Councilman Allar agrees with the amendment with his second, all in favor with the motion and the amendment, say aye.
All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Councilman Allar said Sam, after Dave talks to Dan, assuming that goes well, you will be following up with Dan to give him specific directions then, as far as what council wants. Councilman Noll said we just have to make a motion tonight that we want our zoning officer to the property there.
Councilman Snyder said we already did that. The motion is already made. We’ll clarify the motion a little bit more. Because Dave needs to contact him anyways. I make the motion that our solicitor initiate the contact to the zoning officer to clarify his rights and responsibilities, so he is clear on how to proceed on last month’s motion, on enforcement with proceeding on remedies with the properties identified with last month’s motion. That is multiple other than what Jerry Pickel is working at. That is a separate issue.
Councilman Allar said that he’s clear that we did make a motion and he has instruction.
Councilman Snyder said he met with him. Councilman Allar said right I just wanted to make sure. Councilman Snyder said and that’s why this time Dave is going to make the contact. Councilman Myers said the last time we had somewhat of the same issue a little bit, not that the zoning officer didn’t want to do it, whatever, he was being cocky. We had to have the zoning officer and the solicitor, the zoning officer knew exactly what he was going to be doing. These violations and this is why, I think he had one or two trips out to the property, the lawyer knew exactly what was going on. We spent some money to do this, I can tell you what happened afterwards, we started the motion, things would get somewhat better, then the zoning officer had to go back. We dealt with this for a good nine or ten months, kept going to him. This is what is going to happen again. Councilman Allar said that’s a good point. That may solve a couple issues not to mention the confidence for the zoning officer to go forward. No more excuses. Councilman Noll said that’s why I want the notice to go properly and get some of our money back. Councilman Myers said we got some of our money back, but not all of it. Councilman Snyder said I understand, when we went after Billet, $4,000 to $5,000, when you go after to fix or remedy you don’t get any money back. Councilman Allar said he combined his properties, he put on porches. Councilman Snyder said you can wear him down, I think
make contact and report back at the next council meeting, if you’re getting an indication he doesn’t feel confident enough to handle it. Come back with recommendations on how to pursue. Maybe we have to bring in someone more qualified on something like this.
Councilman Noll asked do you want a representative of council also? Councilman Snyder said I don’t think at this point, its going to be him his legal opinion, are you clear of what you can do, this is what I’m reading. Council made this motion, we are willing to back it up, if he loses for some reason, we aren’t going to be pointing the finger at him saying you messed something up. I mean, yeah we’re pushing you along. we do what you to instigate this I mean. Councilman Myers said I have one question for you thought, I know we are talking about exterior, what about the interior? If you can’t get on the property I
Visitors(cont.) Page 11
know we’re not going to get inside. Solicitor Cook said you are going to seek permission first, if you can’t get the permission, once you provide the notice, and not doing what is necessary to correct it, then part of that process, you tend notice that you intend of entering the property, if they don’t like it. They have request a hearing, decision would be made if it is proper and you can appeal from that. They have their due process. Councilman Myers said I’m just concerned about something would catch fire down there, depending on the time of the day, we not just going to lose one house. And that’s what worried me, knowing what the exterior is, what’s the interior like? Councilman Snyder said see what we come back at. Solicitor Cook said from my perspective, my opinion is, the remedy for non compliance, the borough has the power to enter upon the premises after being non compliant with the notice. Councilman Snyder said offer him, that if he needs your help, like Jerry in writing up the notice, make sure whatever he feels he needs, you may have to offer that, if you need help with writing the notice, what do you need help with because council made the motion last month’s meeting, haven’t seen any progress so were here to help you, not to point a finger, we’re here to help you with.
Councilman Noll said I think we have to define this because we have other properties that have the same thing. Its not a one letter. Councilman Snyder said depending on the person. I mean if you have the type of person, yeah I want to fight it. Then you have other people, he’ll spend $10,000.00 to fight it in court rather than. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said rather making it habitable and cleaning up the neighborhood. Councilman Noll said some of the structure is so far gone, be prepared to fight this very hard, we have to, not give up. Councilman Allar said Jerry had brought up, have council continue what we started last month. Two week cycle for the pigeons. We also coordinated this with Lt. Redifer, he knows about it. If he is in the area, to stop by for a few minutes, we are to notify the Lt. of the approximate time. Councilman Snyder said do you want to make the motion then, how bout we leave it open ended, there are issues with weather, for the next few weeks. Mr. Pickel said who knows what we are going to get weather wise. Councilman Allar said we want to do a notice give them a date range. Councilman Snyder said between now and the end of November. Mr. Pickel said I am sure its going to be a positive end. A motion was made by Councilman Allar to have Mr. Pickel continue
pigeon relief effort on sporadic dates with notification being given through the end of November 2010. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Mr. Pickel said I do have one comment,
I want to be aware of something, that is, the same paperwork that I gave you, as far as diseases, and the notice as to when you start and when you stop our eradication of the pigeons. The notice was given to one of the members of the council of Dallastown to springboard this in Dallastown, because they have some of the problems. I want to thank you for being so pro active to rectify this problem. They refused to hear it. So I want to thank you. I appreciate that there is someone that is pro active to rectify. Councilman Snyder said thanks for coming, are you going to work with the same people as last month for the notice? Mr. Pickel said that will be Tom and I.
Solicitor’s Report
Councilman Snyder said on the garbage contract, I don’t see the signature page. The secretary said we will need two copies, one for us and one for Penn Waste. Councilman Snyder said the motion was already made at last month’s meeting to accept the contract.
So go back and find the signature page when that is at the borough, either myself or Seth can sign off.
Councilman Snyder said Hemler’s contract, we got a letter from Pete on that, you can look over that. Asked if everyone got a copy of that? The secretary said yes. Councilman Snyder said based on Pete’s recommendation, looking over the Hemler contract, with the attached addendum for the hold harmless agreement and the carrying of fire arms do I have a motion to sign the contract and the addendum? Councilman Allar made the motion. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Councilman Snyder said one of Pete’s comments when he read over the contract for the SPCA, the way the contract was worded that they will provide food for elderly residents, it doesn’t say they will provide for elderly residents pets. He got a kick out of that. One thing that I did take notice in his comments that they changed, that we may wanted to look into further, that’s up to council, one of the visitors that was suppose to be here but did not make it was to talk about the feral cat problem. And one of the issues that they did change in that contract was before the SPCA had operation SOS, spaying, its missing from the new contract. That’s something that we could look into, he didn’t say not to sign it to see if they still provide that service. Any questions on the SPCA contract? The secretary said the price remains the same. A motion to sign the 2011 SPCA contract was made by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Councilwoman Coble Tyson asked why aren’t we more pro active in putting notices out there for borough notices, like at the sign at the fire company. Councilman Myers said that is a good idea we didn’t think about that. We have it on our website. Councilman Snyder said one thing that is the fire company’s, so as a municipality we have no control over that, so I don’t know what they have planned. Councilman Coble Tyson said its on your website. Councilman Myers said its on our website. The secretary said its on the borough’s website also. Councilwoman Coble Tyson asked what about people that don’t have access to computers, I’m just trying to think about being proactive so everyone knows. But going past the fire station, but its not ours, so I understand that. Possibility of doing it, I don’t know if it was ever used in the past. Councilman Myers said when the borough has asked we have to do that. The secretary said it was a meeting of some kind.
Councilman Snyder said we can ask them next time. Councilman Noll asked how much longer is the burn ban in affect, thirty days? Councilman Snyder said actually that is why I was bringing that up now, under the Solicitor’s report, according to borough code the burn ban is only in affect for a maximum of thirty days and can not exceed a borough council meeting, without borough council approving it at the next borough council meeting. Council do you want to approve the burn ban in affect through October 15,
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 13
2010. That was placed on September 15, 2010 by Mayor Sanford and myself. You can take it off. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said because of the rain now, how much benefit will you get from it. Councilman Allar said since it’s a good idea, why don’t we just do it? Councilman Snyder asked do what? Councilman Allar said have it across the board, twelve months a year. Councilman Snyder said its going to be. Councilman Allar said why can’t we do that now? Councilman Snyder said I think because you have to have a legitimate reason to have a burn ban in affect, when our ordinances allow us to have open burning, correct me if I’m wrong? We’re changing that ordinance to not allow open burning but I think if your ordinance allows for open burning you have to have a stated reason as far as why? Councilman Allar said why couldn’t we have it for another thirty days? Councilman Snyder said we could put in for another thirty days, I think after that, you’ll be pushing it as far as a necessity. Councilman Noll said since it was voted on last time, would we have to vote on it again? Councilman Snyder said this wasn’t voted on.
Councilman Noll said we made a motion. The secretary said no, you authorized me to contact him to start a burn ban which that is what I did, he did it, it didn’t happen until September 15th, it didn’t happen right after the meeting. It happened eight days after.
Ms. Tyson asked may I asked why there was burn ban? Councilman Snyder said this was only for thirty days. Ms. Tyson said why is it a possibility that it may be permanent, for the entire year? Councilman Snyder said that’s what Tom wanted to do, I’m saying legally we can’t which I wanted his. Ms. Tyson asked but not for a year? Councilman Snyder said we are going through a codification, which means, we’re changing over all our old ordinances that we currently have on the books and we’re adding all the new ones on that we didn’t have in this book yet. When you do that, you can actually amend ordinances that have been already been passed. We currently allow open burning in the borough so when there is dry conditions or some other conditions that preclude that, the state says by a declaration of emergency ban burning for a specific period time. When that’s over, then you are back to allowing open burning. Council when we were going through the ordinances decided you know what, with the close proximity to where these homes are, we’ve had problems in the past where people didn’t adhere to the burn ordinance cause it has to be in a barrel, it has to be covered, it has to be attended, can only be from dawn to dusk. People weren’t abiding by that, so we decided not to allow burning in the municipality altogether, now that’s not going to take affect until we pass that new ordinances. Councilman Allar said what I was saying is, that could be five, six months away yet, why not just ban burning for a six month period. So we don’t have to talk about this at every meeting. Councilman Snyder said once this expires people will be able to burn for the next five months until that ordinance is passed. Ms. Tyson asked do you fine the people that don’t abide. Councilman Snyder said yes and we have. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll made a motion to accept the burn ban through October 15, 2010 as outlined by the mayor. The motion was seconded by Councilman Howett. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Councilman Noll said if the mayor decides that we need another thirty days, he can do that if he wants.
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 14
Councilman Allar said before you put that trash contract away in the back of it there are some penalties. In the readers file there is a memo from Sandy from a resident Denise Schell.,14 E. Penna. Avenue. An email about Ms. Schell’s trash and recycling not being picked up September 27th. This was the second complaint, we called the last time.
The secretary said it was followed up on. Councilman Allar asked do we take advantage on those penalties? What’s our policy? She said it’s the second time. Councilman Allar said do we just play it by ear. The secretary said they came the same day I wrote that to them and picked up the garbage/recycling. I didn’t push it any further. Councilman Allar said I guess as long as they came an picked it up. The secretary said I just documented via email this time in case it happens a third time. Councilman Snyder said I know they have a big problem on Denton Terrace, there are four homes there that are in Yoe.
They’re forgotten a lot. I get called a lot. Discussion continued.
Councilman Noll said the park contract, have you had a chance to look over it. I just wanted to make sure its not forgotten.
Councilman Noll said on the quiet title, is there any progress on that. Solicitor Cook said my understanding is that it went out but not all of it has come back. Councilman Noll asked as far as the releases for the property owners? Solicitor Cook said the only real information I have is they didn’t all come back.
Councilman Snyder said I updated Dave as to try to locate the Bowser appeal. Pete was working on that, that was going to have I think a September 15th deadline. So I told him to get with Darlene to see what happened to that.
Councilman Noll said another legal issue that was open from last month was the property just beyond that we were looking at for the quiet title. That the resident was claiming that he was not doing maintenance on his property because he did not own that when he
purchased the home. The secretary said it’s the former Tim Stough property. Councilman Noll asked you were going to do a little research Steve? Mr. Malesker said I sent that to Pete. Councilman Snyder said I think what he’s getting confused here. The issues with the easements on the spring line is what you’re talking about. And then Pete was working on actually doing a quiet title on a parcel between the two Pennsylvania Avenues, two separate issues. He was suppose to be looking into that. To compound that, there’s actually two parcels on E. Penna. Avenue. Originally when we were looking at doing a quiet title, and C. S. Davidson performed a survey, we were under the impression that, the end property owner, that was named Timothy Stough had quick claimed the former railroad property and therefore we were only claiming the western part portion of it.
Councilman Allar said that was not Tim’s understanding. As far as Tim was concerned the old owner, that was his property. He stated it very clearly at the rail trail meeting.
Tim did. Councilman Snyder said that’s what I’m saying Tim Stough said he owned it.
We come to find out, that new property owner says no I don’t own that, that’s not part of my deed. That is the deed that Steve forwarded onto Pete. I saw that email. And I looked
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 15
over that deed, it does not include the rail road property. It specifically references to the rail road property. Tim Stough, unless there is another deed floating out there, never quick claimed that second parcel. From what I read in the minutes that took place last month, when Pete was doing the quick claim on the first parcel of the old rail road property, you may want to proceed as two separate issue, where while the borough maintain the first parcel, the borough did not maintain the second parcel, and therefore we may have to handle it as two separate quiet title issues. That’s where we were at.
Steve got that Stough deed to Darlene. That is where we are at, was anything done.
Mr. Malesker said I gave him a copy at last month’s meeting to of the original, showing the property. Councilman Snyder asked do you have that in PDF form? Mr. Malesker said I can get one. Councilman Snyder said if you could email to Dave and myself.
Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said based on Mr. Malesker communicating with the solicitor, what Dave came up with, more and likely there is an angle of adverse possession for the municipality in the first portion rather than the Stough property. His thought was come and make a deed and have him sell it to us for a dollar.
That way if the property did transfer to him, and he’s saying it didn’t. I’m assuming
that would require you then to do a survey to get the description of that area as well.
Mr. Malesker said depending on what we have, we may be able to do a legal description based off of everything surrounding. A motion was made by Councilman Noll for Steve to proceed with creating that legal description the best he knows how, if it ends up being a survey it does, and then to provide that to the solicitor so the solicitor can follow through the making of that description of the property. Mr. Malesker said if we have all the deeds its going to be pretty easy. The worse part of a property line survey is sometimes you have to pull five or six deeds just to tie the one property. In this case I think we have all the deeds so we should be. The motion was seconded by Councilman Howett. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Councilman Noll said I am not sure if this is 100% appropriate for now, but I think its going to hit us, we’ve been talking at the municipal managers meeting this new law that is going through with the firefighters. I don’t know how much you know about it but.
I think its going to be interesting for all the municipalities, have to deal with. This is the one, house bill on cancer with firefighters. The way its worded, almost, assumed to be a contract with the firefighter working unless proven other wise. The liability that opens us to, that may become a legal issue at some point. Dave, have you heard anything about it.
Councilman Myers said I just at a meeting with Commissioner Mann from Harrisburg, and he said about it the other way, the firefighter has to prove where he got his cancer at. He felt even though, some of it looked good, it would be hard to prove. Solicitor Cook said the presumption would be for the firefighter to prove or be directly exposed to certain broad category of carcigens. Include that you were exposed to the carcigens, and presume that its part of their employment. Workmen’s compensation is going to result in increase in premiums for the most part the comp carrier will decide that. Councilman Noll said my only comment about it is, many municipalities have written to the state, something that they don’t support, I don’t know if that is something that we want to do or
Solicitor’s Report(cont.) Page 16
what the feelings are. It looked very good that its going to pass though the house. Councilman Allar said the PSAB is saying that if claims are made the municipality may not be insured. Maybe that is a scare letter. Councilman Noll said I don’t know what you’ve heard to clarify it. Councilman Myers said Commissioner Mann said that on the firefighters side its going to be hard to collect. You have to prove where you were at twenty five years down the road. He didn’t think it was a big deal. Discussion continued.
Councilman Noll said once it goes through maybe we should ask the borough’s association for language on it. Discussion continued.
The secretary asked for clarification for Jamie, the mayor has to appoint her. Councilman Snyder said no, if he doesn’t show up, I can appoint you as a notary public. All you need to do is take the oath of office. I can pull out the oath of office. I just want her to be up here because she is appointed. If not I’ll put out an oath form and get you taken care of.
Then Sandy will have all your books, keys and forms. Eventually John will get to you and tell you want NIMS classes you have to take. Wendy, did you take yours. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said I took a class. I don’t have Dave’s cell number because he has my CD. I want to take it but I don’t want to have to pay for it. Councilman Snyder said you have plenty of time. You can do that online, with that. Seth and John could send you a link. I think you have a year or two to do it. You have to do NIMS 100. Councilman Snyder said that was requirement that was put on us after 911. But we do need that done, only because when it comes down to get federal aid , state aid, it will only given to you if you have taken that unless you were appointed and only been elected for two years.
Engineer’s Report
Mr. Malesker said once again Orchard Hills Vista has asked to be tabled again for tonight’s meeting. Councilman Snyder said an issue has come up with a bill, for $328.16 from C. S. Davidson that wasn’t added to the other bill. That is dated August 21, 2010.
Of course if you would recall, they asked us to start tabling in the July/August meeting.
Mr. Malesker said that was the meeting with York Township. Just wanted to get it on record, what it was, that we were not pursuing, this bill as far as you are concerned. Mr. Malesker said this bill, when we were required to respond to the plan that was submitted, this was for the meeting that we had with York Township and additionally Seth from JMT had called me, we had discussed the common factors and problems. Seth works for JMT who does York Township’s storm water. Councilman Snyder said I was only doing it for her benefit, if they questioned where this is coming from now. This is from that particular meeting at the end of July, because the cut off didn’t make it to the other bill.
Give him some information, why there is a bill coming out. That’s where I wanted to get as part of record. Its not was because you were doing additional work. There was a consensus of council to forward this bill on for payment with that type of explanation.
A motion was made by Councilman Allar to accept the request to table the Orchard Hill Vista plan for this month. The motion was seconded by Councilman Howett. All in favor.
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 17
Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Mr. Malesker said for the basin project I stopped out there before the meeting and I saw Tom was out there too. Just to double check, with the significant rainfall we had last week, everything looks good. I didn’t see any indication of erosions or problems with the cross veins. The grass growing pretty well there. Flyway hasn’t given there final application for payment, we’re still holding between ten and eleven thousand dollars of the money. We were waiting for the grass to come in. I would suspect within the next month before the next meeting you’ll have that. Councilman Allar said to take a look after the water recedes. Mr. Malesker said the 1st is totally full, there was a lot of material in the 1st one, its potentially 100% full. Councilman Allar said there is dirt and rocks in the first pond. Councilman Snyder asked while we are talking about the dams, was there any issue on your part Steve, we received notice from Erie Insurance that as of October 7, 2010, the insurance is being cancelled from them. The secretary said that’s Legend that’s on the park. I didn’t understand that you have a year to get back to them if there is a problem on the park. Mr. Malesker said we have the performance bond. The secretary said that can be dropped without worrying about that then? Mr. Malesker said yeah if we have, the project is, essentially complete, we still have the performance bond. The secretary asked that doesn’t affect us then? Mr. Malesker said no. The certificate is saying completion has been issued, that is complete, we have one year performance bond that is acceptable for a year past that point. Councilman Snyder asked, say there is a problem and we have to have them come back on the performance bond, is there anything contract that would require them to pick up insurance. Mr. Malesker said they would have to mobilize again, we would have to look at the original contract, we would have to review a new certificate of insurance.
Mr. Malesker said that’s all I had on the basin, it looks like the spillway was never activated during that storm, ½ and ¾ of breast you can see the high water mark there. There is an awful lot of water in the basin.
Mr. Malesker said on the wetland mitigation, what we heard is Jake talked to Jack Hill,
he essentially approved the plan. So we’re now waiting from official word from Danko.
Councilman Allar said Mike needs to approve the last plan. Mr. Malesker said I guess Jake is keeping you in the loop. Councilman Allar said right now there is really two, one with Mike and one with York Township. Mr. Malesker asked do you know what the plan is for that? Councilman Allar said the last I heard, about a month ago, that we should know within the next sixty days. Take our piece of that contract. We’re okay with the township. Mr. Malesker asked would he include that? Councilman Allar said I’ve not heard that Miller has been back, that its not sufficient. Mr. Malesker said if he is going to say that, he’ll say that to Jake. Councilman Allar said DEP, Corps of Engineers and the contract with York Township.
Mr. Malesker said the MS-4 is there for your information.
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 18
Mr. Malesker said about the storm water condition assessment, what I want to discuss is that we did have seven tasks that we were approved for the condition assessment. Our
estimated fee is $23,100.00 we did complete the those seven tasks for $21,868.00 and came in under budget on that. However we did go back to do some major revisions to that, this invoice I got today. The secretary said I got that, I was getting confused. Mr.
Malesker said it looks like with all the additional work, based on the invoice. I didn’t see the invoice until it was put in front of me today. Looks like with the additional work we’re at $23,828.00. So we’re over, $700.00 over based on task 8, revising the plan to accommodate all the recommendations from the borough. Reanalyzing the system because we added, several more inlets and additional piping. We resubmitted that revision for the H2O grant application. What I’m looking for is approval for that task 8 to modify our fee from $23,100.00 to $23,828.70. A motion was made by Councilman Myers for the modification to add Task 8 for the amount as previously indicated. The secretary added that will be paid out of liquid fuels funding. Mr. Malesker said one invoice will be given for the total amount. The motion was made by Councilman Myers to revise the scope of work to include task 8, for a total scope $23,828.70 to be paid out of liquid fuels. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. I want to commend C.S. Davidson on the way they came in on the original task assigned, you were $1700.00, about $2000.00 below schedule.
Mr. Malesker said that’s all I have. I’ll get a PDF of the survey. I’ll look in the file if there was any other easement associated with. Councilman Snyder asked do you want to include with that, if you don’t do it, give him an assessment in that email whether you can write that description based on the information you have on hand or if a survey needs to be done. Let him know the status.
Councilman Snyder said I do have a couple other things here for engineer. I don’t know if it’ll ever come back to bite us, on the engineer’s report, the second line, when you are talking about the grant you mention the name, we were asked to keep that anonymous.
Just list as a grant. Trying to be mindful.
Councilman Snyder said we did receive notice from PENN DOT in September that the allocation for 2011 of liquid fuels, is going to be $18743.41. The secretary is already aware of reports. For your information.
Mr. Malesker said through LTAP, this is sometime in the future, there are doing a pilot program right now as far as bridges that do not meet the criteria for 20 foot span for inspections. They do realize that a lot of municipalities are spending their liquid fuels monies on roadways and the bridges are being neglected. So the hope is to identify a lot of the small span bridges and their goal is to increase the liquid fuels to the municipalities for bridges.
Engineer’s Report(cont.) Page 19
Councilman Snyder said for your information, under engineering, because you were involved in emergency street repairs under engineering. Were there any updates, because we had another incident, because I found out there was a gas main rupture now, down in that area. Was there any update, that you can give, or Dana, so he’s on the same page as to where we’re at. With this thing. Mr. Shearer said they ripped the service line going to the Richards house. They got too close. They notified the fire company and the gas company. They repaired the line, repaired the meter. Nothing major. They knew it was there, they dug around it many times, they were going back to hook up the lateral and he caught it. Councilman Snyder said I guess after you have that all dug up the one call marking is off. Mr. Shearer said the one call markings are still on the sidewalk, five feet off. They knew where it was, they put another mark so they knew where it was. They knew it was there. Mr. Malesker asked is the sewer authority getting complaints. This is stretching out. Mr. Shearer said I haven’t heard anything. Councilman Myers said I think the people on Broad Street, people like it, traffic is nothing. I love it. Mr. Shearer said nobody has gotten violent about it. We did have one thing that we had to follow up with last Thursday. There is a discrepancy between Fitz and Smith and the sewer authority, the sewer authority is saying that the property at 35 W. Broad Street, the former Breen property. Where the lateral came in above the man hole, it proved not to be the case, they had dug and put a lateral, that the sewer authority engineer, they knew there was a lateral going out into open area, the grass area. The contractor didn’t realize, they put a lateral in to feed it afterwards, so it impeded that empty lot. The lateral is in the empty space which is part of the Breen property. They did that work the week before on Thursday it took until that Friday/weekend until there was an issue of where there was some sewage backing up in the basement, they got a hold of me on 4:30 on Monday, the landowner got a hold of me. They went did an investigation on it, and dug it up, found out, they were in it. They will be going back to, they had remove sections of the storm water line, there was two cases of trench collapsing in and pulling apart of the water line that was put in.
They did have to pull up the storm water line, they will have pull out another section to do a lateral. Discussion continued.
Mr. Shearer asked did anyone from your firm see the information from the webinar for the PENN DOT drainage policy. Mr. Malesker said I did get that email. Mr. Shearer asked is that someone from your office will be doing or need to know? Mr. Malesker said yes, someone will be doing that.
Councilman Noll said a reminder that the applications for the Dirt and Gravel Road program will need to be looked into. Mr. Shearer asked that we wait until October 20th and talk about it next meeting.
Maintenance Report
Mr. Shearer reported working on patching holes, working on both alleys and doing some crack sealing before winter.
Maintenance Report(cont.) Page 20
Mr. Shearer reported the J hook dredging, Tom is working on. Councilman Allar said I’ve been staying in touch with the conservation district. Fitz and Smith is doing an E &
S plan, conservation district didn’t like it and sent it back two weeks ago. I was hoping that Tim would have something today. I can’t deal with Eric Jordan until we have an approved dump sight.
Mr. Shearer said there is a reminder on there for the leaf pick up.
Mr. Shearer said there is a reminder on there for the MA and PA Community Greenway feasibility draft, that meeting is October 20th at 7PM at the Dallastown Borough Hall.
Councilman Allar said its in your handout about the meeting he is talking about.
The Rail Trail after two years, this the last public meeting. I think Seth came to one.
Probably be a good idea to come to the meeting. There is going to be a recommendation for a pilot program, remember there are seven municipalities involved. Yoe, Red Lion, Dallastown and York Township have a connecting trail. A lot of the items that will be talked about such as down town parking, East Pennsylvania which will cost money to level the land and paving it, Clark Alley. We can pay for it or we can have the rail trail pay for it. So bring questions to the meeting in Dallastown.
Mr. Shearer reported I did get back with tree contractors. I got the documents back to them. We have their certificate of insurance. Haven’t been able to get to us yet.
Mr. Shearer reported I’ll be on vacation Friday in conjunction with the holiday on October 11th.
Mr. Shearer said I was approached by the gentleman who headed up the dugout work with the Cougars, Randy Stambaugh. He is interested in being able to talk to someone in the borough, to find out what our plans would be, to do any improvements up there. I told him we have a lot of things on the table right now, we don’t have a set project right now.
There is a lot of things, that the Cougars would like to help us with. I think we need to sit down with them to see what they may help what their plans are. There are some things like leveling. Councilman Allar asked isn’t Mike Noll in charge of that? Mr. Shearer said he is higher up in the anarchy, he got responsibility for the field. He’s the guy. Mr. Shearer said so I don’t know if anyone is interested in that. Councilman Noll said let me know when you’re going to do that.
Mr. Shearer said the printer didn’t get the newsletter to Stacy promptly and said probably not be able to get it to her until Friday. I told her that I would be out that day. If it doesn’t get out sooner than that, I’ll try to get it out Thursday, due to time sensitive information.
Councilman Snyder said let her know, if she feels she needs to look for another printer.
Councilman Snyder said the only thing I had for maintenance, about the park from Gail Koller. She sent an email listing problems that have arose, complaints and suggestions from people who had rented the park. Off the top of my head, I remember three of them.
Maintenance Report(cont.) Page 21
One is dissatisfaction with the lack of horse shoe pits. Evidently a lot of people use them.
Councilman Noll said the Kinsley School may have the material. Another issue is the sink issue, every time someone uses the sink it overflows. Something reminds me we discussed that at a council meeting. Mr. Shearer said that was the issue that we hooked it up like the building inspector said, the problem the line that drains away under ground, it dumps a lot of water into a small pipe because the upper part is bigger. Labor and Industry can audit this because it’s a commercial permit. Councilman Noll said I’ll have to talk to Code Administrators. Councilman Snyder said I’ll get back to her on that.
The other issue were the bathroom doors, because we took out so many trees, they get hot. She had complaints of kids trying to open that because of the heat from the sun. Is there something we can put on that to minimize heat on that door. Councilman Noll said I’ll talk to someone at work. Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said we are mindful of it and we’ll look into options. What about a privacy fence? Councilman Noll said the video looks right at that door. Let me think about it. Councilman Snyder said and the other thing, she got one complaint about handicapped access, there is stone ramp/access way to the bathroom, it was hard for someone to push a wheelchair to get to the ramp. I know the bathrooms are ADA complaint. Mr. Shearer said it was an elderly woman with a walker and she was making use of the handicapped portion of the walk way. The trail down to the bathroom. The material got loose, her walker got hung up.
Mr. Shearer said this was fairly recent. I know where this is coming from. A gentleman that has his reunion, he was concerned previously that his daughter has a scooter, he said there wasn’t too much problem with that, but the walker, with the smaller tires. I had a discussion with this list. Councilman Snyder said maybe there is something like cement mix to harden that thing up. Councilman Noll said you have to be careful with the ADA.
Water issues. The trail mix was what was approved by the state. Councilman Snyder said I’ll tell her that we looked at it, I’ll tell her it was approved by the state. I’ll get back to her so she has some kind of answer.
Councilman Allar said Joe Strobeck, you know the garage at Water and Mason, one of the stop signs is down. People commuting through that section, the sign right by his garage, the metal area is broke down.
The secretary asked Councilman Allar about the bill on the lawn mower, that was sent to Red Lion. Councilman Allar said they had to wait until their meeting. I think its going to be approved. Red Lion knew it was coming.
Zoning Officer’s Report
Councilman Noll said the report says no permits issued. Dropped paperwork for council meeting, checked on 230 S. Main Street, 190 Elm Street. Same day wrote property about bushes and limbs at 190, roadway was laid out but not adopted. Wrote a letter to 218 Elm. Check infiltration pit at 17 W. High. Total three hours and twelve miles. Complaints on trees and cats, traps.
Zoning Officer’s Report(cont.) Page 22
Councilman Noll said I asked Sandy to see where we were with zoning because we had so more cat issues, requests. Looks like we are over budget, includes projection of $500.00 for pigeons and the the bill for $273.00 for cats on S. Main Street. Councilman Allar said the $500.00 is based on what Mr. Pickel gets. Councilman Noll said we have had some additional complaints. The secretary said Mr. Carr and Mr. Myers. Councilman Noll said at this point I’d say to hold off for now. There is no visible signs the day we were there that there were cats on the property unless we want try to get somebody from the SPCA to check the house. Our ordinances doesn’t address that. I have been out, I leave early for work, wasn’t any cats around. At this point see if we get any more complaints, if we do then maybe get animal control involved. Discussion continued.
Emergency Management Agency Report
Mayor Sanford said York Township,because the dams lie in the township, has asked for additional information on the Emergency Action Plan, that I’m dealing with the coordinator over there.
Councilman Snyder introduce Jamie Tyson to Mayor Sanford before he presented his report.
Swearing into office of Jamie Tyson at 10:17PM
Mayor Sanford swore Ms. Tyson into office I, Jamie Tyson, do solemnly swear that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the Commonwealth. And I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. Mayor Sanford said congratulations. Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect that Ms. Tyson did partake in any of the voting leading up to this swearing in. Sandy with get you, or you can get with her, your council book, the key. I already gave her the information on getting with you on NIMS training. See that she gets contact information or do it online. If you can get your contact information for Sandy to put it as far as our borough official notice. Your mail slot is over there and important information is in there. You’ll be getting these agendas and minutes.
Mayor and Police Report
See supplement A with these minutes.
Mayor Sanford reported I attended the York County Economic Development meeting. First one was in at the Realtor Center. I’ll put this in the circulatory file for your review. What they talked about is goals some of which are workforce development, continued work on county regional strategies, and incentives for economic development.
Mayor and Police Report(cont.) Page 23
Project I wasn’t aware of, and its going to start within the next year or so. They want to to redevelop 58 acres next to Harley Davidson. Someplace. Councilman Noll said actually they are looking at a couple different sights, I think they are looking at the buildings as part of the old plant. But that’s suppose to start. Another project is the Art Center on Market Street. I didn’t get exactly, one of the stores. A number of people were there.
Mayor Sanford said the proposed fee for next year for the police. The estimated cost is 2 units for $66,577.00, 3.77% increase. Councilman Myers asked is that what our contract says, 2 units? Mayor Sanford said yes.
Secretary’s Report
York County Borough’s Association annual banquet will be Saturday November 13, 2010 at the York Expo Center. Reservations are needed by November 2, 1010, please contact me if you plan to attend.
Trick or Treat night is October 30,2010 from 6PM until 8PM. Please leave your porch is you’d like to participate.
Benchmark Energy Solutions sent notification that they would like someone from the borough besides myself be a contact. I need someone offer to be the contact. Another phone number besides the phone number. Councilman Allar said he would be contact.
The office will be open on Columbus Day October 11, 2010. I will be observing the holiday on October 18, 2010.
A budget workshop was scheduled for November 4, 2010, at 6:30PM.
The secretary asked Councilman Noll how he made out with York Township on the salt/cinder situation? Councilman Noll said she wasn’t sure, she had to check on that.
The secretary said we are double checking with York Township to make sure we have salt/cinders for the next year. That we don’t have to pay for. Councilman Noll said there are two dates in there, one is the date the agreement was signed, one was the date the building was finished. Mayor Sanford asked do you know how much tonnage you need average, can you come up with a number? The secretary said he wants to fill the bins to the brim. Mr. Shearer said you can throw a number out there, there is no guarantee.
Mayor Sanford said do you know what you need a year? Mr. Shearer said the first year, I’ll fill the bins. Whatever we need to fill the bins. If my calculations is correct, is 90 tons is all it will hold. Mr. Shearer said there is a state contract for salt. A lot of municipalities bid it themselves. The secretary said we talked about going with Dallastown. Councilman Noll said the solicitor may need to check on the wording. Mr. Shearer said the biggest we’re going to need is the first time. Councilman Snyder said we can tap into liquid
Secretary’s Report(cont.) Page 24
fuels for the first time. We need to be prepared for the budget meeting.
Councilman Snyder said we received notice from Pennsylvania DEP we did receive $682.00 for 2008 that reflects 57 tons of recyclables.
Unfinished Business
Councilwoman Tyson said on the war memorial, I understand that there is going to park grand opening October 10th. Councilman Noll said I talked to the fire department and their consensus, with the grand opening, I take full responsibility, we have not gotten there for next October 10th. I’ll run up and make sure no one is there. If you want to do something the fire company is having fire prevention on Sunday from 1 to 5pm. So if you want to do something for the war memorial. The secretary will take recycling bins down too. Councilman Noll said if you want to look at fire prevention and coordinating a free yard sale or something in the future. Councilman Snyder said officially the opening of the park is nixed, you are going to go up and make sure no one shows up. What you were going to talk about. Councilwoman Tyson said to talk about fund raising for the war memorial, I don’t have a plan to do right now. Loganville Fire Company may be able to help us. Suggestions include Cloister to raise money. The VFW and American Legion also. Councilman Allar said Bob and Joe Strobeck and other businesses are interested.
Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said pictures were taken of the war memorial at the time of the centennial. I can tell you who they were. Actually if you are going to be putting that together, because of the work for the centennial, I have the original paperwork by the Lions Club when they raised money to put that up. Councilwoman Tyson said she can contact the Lions Club.
Councilman Snyder said we received the engagement letter from Stambaugh Ness for the audit. We have to appoint the auditors by resolution so we will have a resolution prepared by November 9, 2010 meeting.
There was discussion on Workmen’s Compensation. Copies of requests for York and Windsor Township were given to Councilman Myers so he can contact them for their first call amounts for Workmen’s Compensation. Population figures have been update to current status.
New Business
Councilman Snyder said the additional bills are Rick’s Home Center for $32.94, Verizon for $50.28, C. S. Davidson for $345.02. A motion to pay the bills with the additional bills as listed was made by Councilman Howett. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman
Tyson. All in favor.
Adjournment Page 25
A motion was made by Councilwoman Tyson to adjourn at 10:52PM. The motion was seconded by Councilman Snyder. All in favor.
