Borough Council Meeting Notes

Council President Mel Keen gets ready to call Council Meeting to order.

Notes from Parkesburg’s June 20^th Borough Council meeting.

All council members and Mayor Hagan present

Agenda reviewed and approved unanimously.

Minutes reviewed and approved unanimously without change.

Treasurer’s Report read by Borough Secretary Wendy Keegan and approved.

Bills reviewed and discussed.  Payment approved unanimously.

Public comments (agenda items only) – no comments

Police Chief’s report

• 788 police incidents for the month of May
• 112 traffic citations
• 7 non traffic arrests
• 5 parking tickets
• 8,665 miles driven for the month

Fire Chief’s report – none was submitted

Emergency management - Nothing major to report.  Rail and highway emergency report in the works.  Limerick is replacing old sirens, they are free to any municipality.  Parkesburg expressed an interest and are waiting to hear from Excelon.  The units are free but we would have to pick them up and mount them ourselves.  The sirens will be available in the Fall.

Planning and Subdivision

  

Parkesburg Fire Company request for waivers.  The changes they’re requesting are low impact, no change of ownership.  Based on the planning commission and zoning recommendation I think we’ll make a motion to grant the waivers.  President Keen asks for a motion.  Asks for questions, there were none. Approved unanimously.  Gary Meyers and Scott Reynolds of the fire company explained the ball on the renovation started rolling when they started talking about remodeling the old building.  They were fixing the old building up when they decided to do everything. Blue prints for more offices, meeting rooms, more handicapped accessible, more bath rooms, better landscaping have been drawn up.  Tried to keep the look and feel of the old building.  The new design gives the fire company a little more room.  We have to get financing.  The chimney and fireplace have already been removed.      The renovation has been discussed at the regional fire company consolidation meetings.  Since Parkesburg is likely to be the hub of any consolidation effort, this remodeling will fit in.  Were currently working on the storm water requirements and hope to meet with the engineers next week.

Engineering report – nothing major, flat period of time. Some work for fences and sheds. The balance of the report is in the packet.

Borough Manager’s Report

•  The ADA report for State Street have been submitted to the state and we’re waiting for approval.
• Week of July 11^th meeting with property owners on West Bridge Street about land procurement and leases for the project.  We’ve done this before.  Hopefully this is the last time.  December 2012 is the projected ground breaking for the project.
• Were getting prices from several well drillers to decommission a well.
• Our service contract we have with PennDOT has been reviewed and due to the extensive snow removal work this past winter our reimbursement has been increased $1,300 dollars.
• The Borough’s storm water report dealing with monitoring storm water has been filed with DEP.  We are well within specified guidelines.
• Lions Club circus is back on.  New date is July 13^th.  Two shows 5 & 7 PM

• More on West Bridge Street.  We’re meeting at least biweekly with the agencies involved.  Things keep moving forward.  Dates are being set for the project.

Public Works Report – Mel Keen read the numbers.  Letter from State Rep John Lawrence commending the Borough on how much we recycled last year.  As a result the grant amount this year was $4,700, the highest amount ever received by the Borough.

Mayor’s Report – Spoke about his 20 years of service with the Borough begun on April 1^st 1991 and Harold White, the borough’s keeper of the books when the Mayor joined.

No PABA Report

The Solicitor’s report was discussed.

Unfinished Business

Motion to advertise the new Zoning Ordinance – Jim Thomas spoke saying the Borough’s zoning ordinance came back from the County this afternoon following their review.  The County wants to see minor changes, mostly tweaks, made.  Jim Thomas also heard from PennDOT’s aeronautical group telling us that we need to adopt building and tree heights ordinances since Parkesburg is close to an existing airport.

Jim Thomas asked for Council’s approval to advertise, tweak the ordinance as per the request of the county and also make the changes to PennDOT is asking to accommodate the airport.  We’re close enough to the airport that we have to incorporate these new guidelines.  The motion was made and approved.

Chester County SPCA – Currently we do not contract with the SPCA for animal control.  As a result residents call the police to do animal enforcement.  Not an efficient use of police time.  $1,200 to contract with the SPCA to respond to animal calls in the Borough.  They’ll come out and pick up the animal.  They will also enforce animal ordinances, do licenses, etc.  Council residents spoke about a recent incident where a box of cats was left off at the laundromat at the end of Main Street.  A discussion ensued about billing residents the $35-50 fee dropping off an animal and for other services provided.  Those details will be worked out down the road.  Our volume is low and our intent is to keep it that way.  Mel Keen asked if the SPCA takes groundhogs?  No, that’s the game commission.  Chuck Persch asked for better record keeping and a process to recover the fees from residents who drop their animals off at the SPCA.  The Borough will investigate the possibility of charging residents.  The matter was tabled for a month.

New Business

Rental Space Ordinance.  Because of some issues we had in the borough we decided to rework the rental ordinance.  Changes include:

• Make rental unit inspections Pass/Fail doing away with the color coded current system.
• Property owner/ manager must live within 25 miles to eliminate absentee landlords.
• Inspections will be every 2 years as opposed to every 5 years now.
• Rental property reinspected with every tenant changes.
• Increase police participation. 
• Reduced inspection fees.

Mayor Hagan makes a point during the discussion.

Jim Thomas stated the new ordinance is designed to give more assistance to Borough landlords with unruly tenants.  Right now the Borough has no way to assist when there is an unruly tenant.  Under the new ordinance whenever there is police action it will be recorded.  On the third offense the tenant can be evicted.  Also any damage done by the tenant will be recorded as a criminal act.  

Mel Keen spoke in favor of the changes.  Would like to see a little more about how the violations will be recorded and the eviction process started.  Kathy Rick suggested the three strikes rule be written into landlord/tenant agreements.

Sharon Wolf is concern the ordinance not be extended to cover someone rooming in a house where the tenant shares in the expenses and upkeep of the house.  Wants people to be able to open their homes to who they want to without the thought of getting a building inspector to look at the home. 

Borough Manager Jim Thomas listens.

Jim Thomas stated its hard to draw the line in the ordinance and to differentiate a "good" border from a "bad" one.  The line is better drawn in the careful enforcement of the ordinance.  Mayor Hagan made the point that the ordinance has to be clear on who qualifies as a border, how many can a home owner have, etc.  He’s sure somebody has worked it out somewhere across the state.  

The ordinance was moved back to the Progress Committee to allow more time for these questions to be addressed.

Delinquent debt collection agency – Wendy Keegan researched debt collection companies.  CreditTech of Bangor, PA. has a good reputation for being tenacious.  They will bill resident for the past due trash bills as well as any collection fees incurred.  Council will continue to investigate CreditTech and their fees.

Berkheimer Trash Billing Software – a more efficient system to track and generate trash bills.  Wendy currently uses a spreadsheet to track it.  One time set of fee of $825.  Much less cumbersome software and saves Wendy a ton of time.  A motion was made and approved to adopt Berkheimer as a new vendor.

Committee Reports

Parks & Recreation

Lots of vandalism in the park lately, breaking rides in tot lots, breaking lights.  We’re thinking about putting cameras in the park.  By the basketball court and other places.  Video feed back to the police station.  Looking at grants.  Mayor Hagan asked about posting police in the park as a short term solution.  He will talk to Chief Sheeler about increasing police presence in Minch Park.  

A resident asked about citizen patrol.  Mel Keen spoke about locking the Gay Street gates to reduce access to the park at night.

New Benches in the park and in front of Borough Hall as a result of an Eagle Scout project.

Progress & development

Amtrak station Borough Council took a field trip to Elizabethtown last week to see what was going on there.  Several people have asked to serve on the planning committee.  Chuck Persch suggested the Borough send a thank you letter to Elizabethtown for hosting the trip.

Jim Thomas has 15 people signed up for the planning committee.  Good mix of people including representatives from Council, residents, train riders, county planners, business people, etc..  Meetings will kick off next month.  The first meeting is the hardest to pull together.

Finance Committee

We move $42,000 from the police budget to street repair.  This will delay the acquisition of new police cars.  Mayor Hagan asked if the police had been told of the change.  Wonders if the current vehicles can be sustained through the end of the year.  The matter will be put off until we can have a conversation with the police.  Tabled until next month

We have moved on the remainder of the construction loan we have completely borrowed the whole amount for the West Bridge Street project when we need it.

Police and Fire

Fire company fair June 27th through July 2^nd

Library report

Golf outing today.  Working hard to close their deficient.  Closing early the week of the fair.

Public Comments 

Barbara Taliafero of North Culvert Street wants to see more parking and better lighting on both sides of the track.  Also better lanes for those dropping people or picking them up, bus lanes, etc.

The meeting was adjourned.