The monthly regular meeting was held last night; many things were voted on and discussed.
The meeting started with a call to order followed by the roll call, Major Court was absent.
There were two commendations, Jim Spielvogel was awarded the Operator Ingenuity Award, and Christ Presbyterian Church was recognized for 125 years of service.
The commedations were followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and then visitors were asked to present any comments or questions they may have.
Dave Gulish, a previous resident of Ellwood, was the first of several visitors to voice their concerns. He asked Bob Villella, the borough manager, what changes have been made to the current electric problems. Read more about councils response here.
Gulish also wanted to know if council had addressed the raw sewage claims made by CVS foremen, that they had witnessed raw sewage being leaked into the creek behind CVS. Bob Villella said it has been taken care of.
Proceeding Gulish was a man who again addressed the concerns of the residents of 5th Street who feel that 90 minute parking should be introduced to their street due to students taking up parking spots in front of their houses. He brought photo evidence and politely disagreed with Judy Dici’s previous photo evidence that she presented at the last council meeting, read about her claims under the “health and public safety” agenda here.
Another visitor stood up and asked council to be more mindful about those who cannot afford to pay their increased electric bills and what could be done to help said people.
Council voted on the following topics:
Approval of Minutes:
A motion would be in order to approve the Minutes of the Special Meeting held 8/1/16, 8/22/16, and 8/29/16 and the Regular Meeting held 8/15/16, as submitted.
The motion was approved, however Dici wanted to know why council would schedule public meetings at 7:30 a.m. and why they would advertise the meeting as public knowing that most people would not be able to attend a meeting at that hour. She requested no more meetings to be held at that hour.
Approval of Outstanding Vouchers:
A motion would be in order to approve the prepaid voucher list dated 9/9/16, in the amount of $592,064.72, and the list of vouchers to be paid dated 9/15/16 in the amount of $751,078.05.
Motion approved.
Departmental Reports:
A motion would be in order to approve the Departmental Reports as submitted.
Motion approved.
Ordinances
A motion would be in order to adopt an ordinance, as submitted, amending the traffic ordinance establishing 90-minute parking on 5th Street (both sides) between Wayne Avenue and Franklin Avenue, applicable Monday-Friday, 7a.m. to 3 p.m.
There was some further discussion about this topic before voting. David DeCaria wanted to know if the meters were only going to be applicable during school hours and times. The majority of council agreed to agree to the ordinance if it’s only applicable from September to June (school year) at the above given times.
Dici continued her disagreement of the ordinance due to her previous claims that it may cause a chain reaction and other people will want meters on their streets. She also said that there has to be a line drawn on the matter, “the residents bought the house, not the street.”
Council did a roll call vote, everyone voted in favor except Dici and Mancini.
Motion approved.
Resolutions
A motion would be in order to adopt a resolution, as submitted, authorizing the submission to PennDot to provide a 75$ reimbursement for costs incurred in adjusting our manholes affected by Project SR65, Section L28 (2nd Street to Woodside Avenue).
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to adopt a resolution, as submitted, confirming receipt of the 2017 Minimum Municipal Obligation by September 30, 2016.
Motion approved.
Appointments/Resignations
A motion would be in order to approve the donation in the amount of $3,000 to the Holy Redeemer/Minister Social Services Energy Fund. This amount will be paid from the General Fund.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to authorize a bond issue in the amount of $9 million for the purpose of building a new public works facility, electric facility, purchase a new fire truck, the Borough’s match for a Multi-modal Grant and the installation/maintenance of streets/infrastructure.
DeCaria mentioned that though the Borough would be spending a lot of money they would be getting more back over time.
Marilyn Mancini, a council member, said that she thinks 9 million is too high and she would only agree if the motion was for 7 million. Judy Dici agreed with Mancini and expressed her anxiety about taxes going up for the residents.
MacDonald said the taxes will go up, but not likely a very noticeable amount. He gave the example that on a $50,000 house the property taxes would go up an estimated $50 dollars a year.
There was a roll call vote, all were in favor except Mancini and Dici.
Health/Public Safety:
A motion would be in order to approve the request by the First United Methodist Church to close Crescent Avenue from 4th Street to 5th Street from 12:30p.m. to 2:30p.m. on October 2 for a blessing of the pets service.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in oder to aprove the request to hold the Life Chain event on October 2 from 2-3p.m. along 5th Street and Fountain Ave.
Motion approved.
Public Works/Utilities:
A motion would be in order to authorize the ourchase of the Yard Carts and Recycling Carts from Rehrig Pacific Company as follows:
112 Yard Carts @ $54.34 each, totaling $6,086.08
112 Recycling Carts @ $60.21 each, totaling $6,743.52
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to appoint Bob Villella, George Celli, and Randy Gatto, to a Joint Safety Committee as per the Local 964 Contract.
Motion approved.
Parks/Recreation
A motion would be in order to discontinue the shooting range at Stiefel Park, effective 12/31/16, to be in compliance with the Master Park Plan.
Motion approved.
Administration/Personnel
A motion would be in order to approve the lease, as submitted, with the Ellwood City Area Public Library for the parking lot maintenance for the parking lot located at Lawrence Avenue and 4th Street.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to utilize the services of Franus Architectural Associates to design a new Public Works facility and a new Electric Department facility.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to utilize the police standardized overtime rate of $107.29 (full time) and $37.87 (part time) and the cost of $80.00 per hour police vehicle for PennDot’s Paving Program SR65, L28 (2nd Street to Woodside Ave).
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to approve the travel request of Judy Dici to attend the PSAB Fall Conference in Gettysburg October 14-16 at a cost of $730.10, plus meals.
Motion approved.
Community Development/Buildings
A motion would be in order to approve the request by Henry Tjernlund to use the fire department training room for a movie shoot.
Motion approved.
New Business
A motion would be in order to adopt a resolution, as submitted, accepting the Master Site Development Plans for Ewing Park and Stiefel Park.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to rescind a motion made at the Regular Meeting held 11/16/15 to “purchase gates and close the swimming pool parking lot nightly from 11p.m. to 7p.m.”
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to approve the Price Quote from Insight Pipe Contracting to inspect/camera the 15″ sanitary lines along Riverside Drive at the cost of $350/hour. This amount will be paid from the Sewage Collection Fund.
A council member wanted to know if there was any idea how long this procedure would take, Villella said since the exact issue is unknown there is no estimated time of how long it will take.
Motion approved.
A motion would be in order to approve the request by DQE Communications, LLC to install wireless telecommunications equipment on existing wooden utility poles within public rights-of-way throughout the Borough.
Motion not approved due to council agreeing that it may not be profitable enough. They will talk about it more in the next meeting.
A motion would be in order to approve the request to utilize the grassy area at “5-points” in Ewing Park and the swimming pool parking lot for parking for the Lawrence Co. Band Festival on September 21.
Motion approved.
Conclusion
This concluded the written motions, however, the motion to vote on the suspension of Bob Villella’s ordinance requirement was initiated by David DeCaria.
This motion was also approved.
They should have an ordinance that non-residents can’t speak at a council meeting! That way we don’t have to listen to this Gulishe guy whimper and nit-pick about the Manager. Sounds like a personal agenda with the nit picking. It wouldn’t matter what answer he gave to the FEW people left from the group, everybody is wrong except for them!
Your comment is laughable! Are you suggesting the borough manager and council should not be questioned on their decisions and lack of answering questions? Do you live in the borough? If so, I’m left to assume you must be a former council member. I think Mr. Gulish has been doing a fantastic job. It’s awesome that he’s been so willing to ask the tough questions. I think it would have been silly on his part to not follow up with the borough manager and council whether he owns a home in the borough or not. Let’s face it, the borough manager, who you seem to have great affection for, doesn’t live in the borough!
Thanks “onlyinec” but I still own a house in the borough and have a business there as well. Further, my name is spelled GULISH.
I will fully agree with Mr. Gulish. It is absurd the ELLWOOD CITY BOROUGH MANAGER is not a resident of the Borough, the Borough he controls!! He does not pay the property taxes, which stated in the article, will be rising due to the $9 MILLION bond the Borough is seeking, he does not pay a Borough Electric bill, which he states should not be an issue to the Borough residents…he obviously does not think it should be an issue to Borough residents, because he DOES NOT HAVE TO PAY IT. This Borough Manager that Council voted to keep through 2017 is out of control. He seems to stick his nose into everything that occurs within the Borough, which pushes businesses and Borough opportunities away.
So since the Borough manager didn’t have to follow the rules that were set for his position. How is he going to enforce the rules set for other borough employees?
I think a petition should be started and looked into to see how to get the electric department monitored. Its bull there independent charge higher rates then Penn power and others around.And why do we need so many police officers in Ellwood?There isn’t much in thus town and that’s where alto of the money goes.And also there isn’t a much need for that many.And you will never help those that have problems paying there bill and its you the council who make it so expensive to pay or is it cause when you shut so.one off you get a bonus with a $100 turn on fee.And we don’t need another fire truck.There all new now.None in that council knows how to manage this town and allure.retired living g off good pensions so I guess you don’t have to worry about your bill.There is nothing in this town. Cause council wants it to be a retired town.Action needs taken and I intend to do what it takes to get them monitored if it takes time.And we dint need all these police officers.Half don’t do nothing at all or they show up and shoot there mouth off.Go get some more.free coffee and doughnuts.
Tom
Youre thinking in the wrong direction. You seem to have some sort of vendetta against the police department. Too many officers? I believe there is only 10 or 11 officers for the borough, which is a 24 hour department. Maybe instead of questioning how many officers there are, we should start questioning why David Kingston made $50000 in overtime last year. The borough should monitor how he makes so much in overtime.