April 2022 Council Minutes

APRIL 18, 2022

CALL TO ORDER

PRESENT

ABSENT VISITORS

MINUTES

BILLS

COMMUNITY COMMENTS

Council in regular session was called to order at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers. President McNally presiding.

Dennis McNally, President Alfred Noble, Vice President Jeanne Miller

Gregg Mitcho Robert “Doc” Orr Jim Simonelli Doug Wright

Robert Stubenbort, Borough Manager Joseph Yochim, Solicitor

Mark Corey, Engineer

Kevin Rafferty, Chief of Police

Dennis McDonald, Public Works Supervisor Peter Burton, Mayor

Shirley Hall Larry Russell

Ginger Cinti, Lake City Borough Courtney Fobes, WCNJ

Phil Johnston, Goodwill Industries Issy Lawrie

John Grappy, Erie County EMS Director Mike Adams, Dobler Hose

Chief Jeff Gadley, Dobler Hose

Motion by Councilmember Mitcho to approve the minutes from the March 21, 2022 council meeting. Seconded by Councilmember Noble. All in favor. Motion carried.

Councilmember Orr asked about the bill from Lake City Power Systems in the amount of $1,082.47. The bill was for borough owned generators for the Public Works garage. Motion by Councilmember Orr to approve the bills.

Seconded by Councilmember Simonelli. All in favor. Motion carried.

Heather Pier, President of the Elk Valley Garden Club spoke to council about the Blue Star Memorial Program. Elk Valley Garden Club, established in 1929, is the oldest club that is affiliated with the National Garden Club. The Elk Valley Garden Club would like to purchase a metal plaque approximately 2′ x 3′ with brackets indicating that they are part of the Blue Star Memorial Program. They are also asking if the borough could locate a large rock for the plaque to be attached. The Garden Club is open to council deciding where to put the structure. Councilmember Noble mentioned that the new park is a possibility.

Councilmember Simonelli mentioned that the plaque could also possibly be attached to a pillar in the new park. Once it has arrived which will be approximately 15 weeks from the order date the location and placement can be decided.

Mike Adams from the Dobler Hose Fire Department explained to council that they are no longer going to purchase a Burn Box with their $50,000.00 grant. Mike was hoping to form a committee with a few members from the fire department and borough council to discuss what to do with the grant money.

Phil Johnston, the CEO for Goodwill of Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania introduced himself to council. He said that Goodwill is really excited to be in Girard and he wanted to discuss his plans for the building located at 110 Main St, West. There was quite a bit of work that had to be done with the building right from the start. The roof was leaking quite badly and need to be repaired first. Mr. Johnston said he would like to use the building as an intended donation center at first. He gave the statistic that one in every two hundred people employed in the United States every year is a direct result of Goodwill training. Mr. Johnston put some fundraising information in a packet for council to look over. He also said he intends to hire at least three full time

individuals. Councilmember Miller asked what these employees would be doing. Mr. Johnston said sorting and organizing donations. The property will be kept extremely neat and clean and more improvements will be made to the building. Councilmember Mitcho asked if the Goodwill in the borough a retail space will ever be or remain a collection center. Mr. Johnston said at this time it will not be used for retail space. He did purchase an old bank building in Harborcreek Township last year which was used as a donation center and is now a book store and boutique. This is a new venture for Goodwill. Mr. Johnston said that the parking lot is open to the public, but he does not want people using it to park campers or semi-trailers. This would become a concern for him and the borough. Councilmember Noble asked what the intention was for the old bank vault. Mr. Johnson said it will be left exactly as it is. He also stated that at some point he would like to hold a Chamber of Commerce meeting in the building.

Councilmember Mitcho asked Mr. Johnston if he planned on participating in the Knox Box Program. Businesses place a key in this box for fire and police personnel to get into the building if necessary. Mr. Johnston said yes he would participate. Cameras have also been installed inside and outside of the building. President McNally thanked Mr. Johnston for coming in and speaking to council.

ADMINISTRATION FIRE POLICE AND

PERSONNEL                Councilmember Mitcho said there is a meeting scheduled on April 28^th with ECOG at Platea Borough. Meeting starts at 5:30 and dinner will be provided. Topics to be discussed are Municipal Leadership and EMS information.

Dobler Hose Fire Chief, Jeff Gadley told council that there will be a structural burn class held at the old Heartland Inn at 9101 W. Ridge Road in Girard. The class will take place on July 8^th and 9^th. Permits have to be secured first through the state so the class can proceed. All residents and businesses will be notified prior to the class. Chief Gadley said this is great on the job training for the new volunteers. These opportunities are few and far between. Councilmember Mitcho said that Girard Borough Council has been extremely generous with Dobler Hose. He has become aware that the West County Paramedic Service are in crisis and their situation will not get any better unless they receive help from various municipalities that are members of the West County Paramedics. The borough will be receiving a letter from Katrina Michael the President of Platea Borough asking various municipalities to attend a meeting on June 9^th• The time is coming when we could possibly have to support West County Paramedics. They cover service calls that Dobler Hose is not certified to handle. There has been significant grant funding for West County Paramedics that might not be available in the future. The meeting on June 9^th is important and hopefully members of borough council can attend.

John Grappy, the Director of Public Safety spoke to council and further explained the plan that will increase the efficiency for first responders.

Councilmember Mitcho said that Dobler Hose sold 300 tickets for the annual purse bingo held recently. After all expenses were paid the fire department earned $12,519.00. The attendees were very generous.

ENGINEER

MANAGERS REPORT

RESOLUTION

1-4-2022

TROYER DEED OF AFFIDAVIT

WATER FLUSHING

Mark Corey said that the bids for the Walnut Street storage tank will be opened next month and presented to council at the May 16^th meeting.

Resolution 1-4-2022 will appoint Andrew Pennock as the Girard Borough Emergency Management Coordinator for another extended period of time. Motion by Councilmember Noble to approve Resolution 1-4-2022. Seconded by Councilmember Orr. All in favor. Motion carried.

The affidavit that Troyer gave the borough outlined that they will provide a new road for us that would go around the solar array so we can still get to our well. Motion by Councilmember Simonelli to approve the deed of affidavit for the Troyer property. Seconded by Councilmember Mitcho. All in favor. Motion carried.

The spring water flushing will take place April 18^th to May 6^th. Some discolored water may be seen but should clear up after several hours.

ROAD RESURFACING

The bid opening for the 2022 Seal Coating project took place on April 13, 2022. The bids are as follows:

SUIT-KOTE

Single seal coat per square yard TOTAL

RUSSELL STANDARD

Single seal coat per square yard TOTAL

1.53

$106,395.00

1.98

$138,383.00

Mr. Stubenbort respectfully asks council to vote in favor of the lowest bidder. Motion by Councilmember Noble to accept the bid from Suit

Kote for the 2022 road resurfacing in the amount of $106,395.00. Seconded by Councilmember Orr. All in favor. Motion carried.

CIVIL WAR MONUMENT WATER LINE

GIRARD HOTEL

The cost to install the water line from the sidewalk to the Civil War Monument from Faher Excavating from Albion Pa is $4,700.00. This is a very important safety item and PennDot will allow for this project before Main Street is milled and repaved next year. Councilmember Orr wants the borough crew to dig the line instead of paying $4,700.00. Mr. Stubenbort said we will be boring under the road rather than digging. Motion by Councilmember Miller to approve of installing a water line to the Civil War Monument for $4,700.00.

Seconded by Councilmember Simonelli. Opposed by Councilmember Orr. Motion carried.

At last months council meeting George Drushel presented a “less is more” rendering of the new park. If council is generally in favor of this Mr. Stubenbort asked President McNally to appoint a committee to look at some of the fine points. One of the things he is looking at is the location of the lights along the sidewalk. The lights are where we would ideally put the electric outlets. If they were on the other side for example they would be on the side where we were thinking of having some programing such as the Farmers Market, Christmas Trees and things of that nature. Also, do we really want to have parking spaces available? Councilmember Noble feels that it is not a good idea to have parking. Councilmembers Miller, Noble and Simonelli will form a committee to discuss ideas concerning the park and bring that information back to council. President McNally said that now would be the time to take care of the water that is ponding in the driveway area. We need someone to do some topography mapping for us.

NATIONAL REGISTER

LEAF PICK UP

WATER WORKS PARK

CENTER POINT COMPUTERS

MISC

On April 28, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. the draft for The National Register of Historic Places will be presented to the public for the second time.

The leaf pick up schedule for 2022 is as follows:

May 19, 2022 October 13^th and 27^th, 2022 November 10^th and 25^th, 2022

On April 6, 2022 State Forester Stephen Laskowski walked part of the Water Works Park. Council members Mitcho and Simonelli also attended. Mickey Curran, Kirk Dobson, Issy Lawrie and others from the community were also in attendance. The State Forester explained that he would be working on a tree management plan for the park. He did say this would be a priority so hopefully in the next few months we will be looking at the plan.

Mr. Stubenbort asked council to review the computer hardware, maintenance, backup and security agreement with Center Point computers. We bought our current units and server from Center Point. We would be able to get rid of some of the things we do not need such as the Malware bites and a backup program. We would also have the advantage of calling their help desk if we had software or hardware issues. Council agreed to have the borough sign a service agreement with Center Point Computers.

The Lions Club will be dedicating a bench on the south side of Wells Park on April 19^th at 2:30 p.m. This dedication is in honor of a Lion’s member who recently passed away. Council is invited to attend as well as the West County News Journal and the public. Councilmember Mitcho asked if the bench was secured. Mr. Stubenbort said not yet because we want to make sure that’s where we want to keep it permanently.

Councilmember Mitcho said that the Erie Reader wrote a really nice article on the Mission Main Street Project. He had a few extra copies for council to read and said that they were available at Giant Eagle.

Councilmember Mitcho mentioned that he did not feel that paying the $3,500.00 invoice to EMTA was a good idea. He has been seeing empty buses going through Girard at two different times throughout the day. He would like a representative from EMTA to provide the borough with data to justify why we should invest $3,500.00. The borough paid $3,000.00 to EMTA in June of 2020. President McNally said if EMTA wants the money they need to explain to the borough why.

Councilmember Simonelli mentioned that in front of 29 and 31 Walnut there is no sidewalk all the way up to the fire department. Councilmember Noble said the property belongs to National Fuel. This was discussed several meetings ago. National Fuel will be contacted. They have a stump very close to the gas main that will need to be removed before any sidewalk could go in.

Councilmember Miller said that there will be a Erie County Planning meeting on June 9^th at 6:00 p.m. in the Girard Borough Social Hall.

Motion by Councilmember Orr to adjourn the meeting at 8:28 p.m. Seconded by Councilmember Noble. All in favor. Motion carried.

Robert A. Stubenbort Borough Manager