Pledge of Allegiance led by Maryann Weinstein, President

Public Comment

Any person from the public may speak for a 3-minute period. Total time allotted for public comment is 15 minutes. Please state your name, address and subject. Please choose a representative to speak if you have the same concern.

• Mike McCormick just listening in.

Motions:

• Minutes were presented for the April 5, 2021 and Cont Meeting April 19, 2021. Kris LaGreca made a motion to approve the minutes, Kent James seconded and passed. Doug Corwin abstained due to absence at the meeting. – Motion passed.
• A motion was made by Kent James and seconded by Doug Corwin to approve Bills GEN Acct.$ 9,824.84 (Checks 7113  to 7136)  PLGIT $ 550.32 Check 984) – Motion passed.

Official Action:

1. Discussion-Fill Demond Nixon seat. President Weinstein stated that there are three people are running for council seats.  They are Demond Nixon, Michael McCormick, and Maryann Weinstein.  Council has 45 days to fill the position. Council can appoint Michael McCormick who is on the ballot or put it on the website and see if anyone is interested in serving on Council.  Kent James thought it was a good idea to appoint Michael McCormick because he is on the ballot and there are only 3 people who will likely be elected anyway. That would allow us to have someone here that would be just continuing and not have someone on the council for just a short period of time. Dan Bird felt that the council should not show favoritism to anyone. Perhaps reach out to previous council members that have served in the past to see if they would consider serving for the remaining few months of his term. President Weinstein said if we appoint someone, and they do a write-in we have shown favoritism towards them.  Mr. James said we could post it but make it clear they cannot run in the fall as a write-in.  Mr. Makel stated that in another township, there were three people that were running for office. Council considered the three candidates and appointed one of the candidates.  Joe Fulton said we should advertise the position and if Michael McCormick is the only one that responds we vote for Michael.  Joe Fulton suggested posting the opening on the website as we did with Tim Hurney’s position in order to be consistent.The takeaway from the discussion was that Joe Fulton made a motion seconded by Dan Bird to post the Demond Nixon’s open council seat on the website until May 14, 2021. The term is through the first Monday of January 2022.  Appoint a candidate at the continuation meeting on Monday May 17, 2021.  – Motion passed by unanimous vote.

2. East Lane – W&J Agreement – Motion Kent James, second Doug Corwin to approve East Lane – W&J Agreement prepared by Solicitor Makel.  Motion passed by unanimous vote.

3. Clean-Up Day Discussion -Confirm Stream Clean-up date/time and Borough Clean-up date/time. (June 5, 2021) Clean-up is June 5, 2021 from 9:00 -12:00. Solicitor has written a waiver. Joe will post this clarifying the type of cleanup this is. Reca Panian asked Council for approval of $1,190.00 payable to the landscape company for the initial first clean-up, mulching, and trimming of the park and playground.  The company usually comes back 2-3 additional times. Joe Fulton made a motion and seconded by Dan Bird to approve the expenditure of $1,200 for the clean-up, mulching and landscaping of the park and memorial park. – Motion passed.
4. Park & Playground Grant Information. – East Washington Borough received a grant of $75,000 from the Greenways Grant for the playground improvement and $40,000 from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to be used for handicap ADA compliance. Final approval at the Washington county commissioner meeting on May 20, 2021. Sarah Boyce will put together what we can do with the grant funds. Then put it out to bid.
5. Projects in the borough. Kent James said the committee had a preliminary discussion and he created a data base with all the roads in the borough which shows dollar amounts for milling 1.5 inches of asphalt per road. Also indicating the length and width of each road. Based on the past minutes and financial records found it seems that approximately $35,000 was spent on roads per year. It appears that EWB was not paving the roads on any 10-year cycle. At this point, he believes we should just continue with the process and allocate the $100,000 annually to cover road repairs. He stated that is his opinion and was not decided as the group. He feels we should use the assessment that Aaron and Rich have proposed regarding the road repairs in the borough. Kris LaGreca agrees with Kent and feels that we do not need to explore a high budget cost for these projects. Such as the bond or loan, something he feels we do not need to investigate those options. The outcome of these discussions is that there may be some roads to repair that are more expensive due to replacing storm drains or other infrastructure whereas some may only need milling and paving. President Weinstein asked the Committee to provide Council with a specific priority list of roads at the June meeting.
6. Website update – Joe Fulton said there is still content that needs reviewed or completed. Need volunteers to help write some content. Take some lead on some of the content. Initially put only one year of minutes on the site so that they transfer property. Then transfer previous years.
7. Wilmont Parking No Parking signs – Aaron Lucero and Chief Dave Bradley agree with the placement of the posts for the signs taking into consideration the line of sight, trees, etc. and should should remain where they are.Mr. Dan Bird made a motion seconded by Doug Corwin to authorize Aaron Lucero to place the No Parking this side signs on the posts where they are now placed on Wilmont Avenue. Motion passed by unanimous vote. – Motion Passed
8. Glass Recycling – Aaron Lucero said the dumpster is 6 feet high. Recommend that he put a couple of large totes there for people to the put glass in and he will empty the totes into the large dumpster. He is usually at the salt lot at least once daily, so he has no problem with emptying the totes into the dumpster.Mr. Kent James made a motion for glass recycling be set from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Saturday beginning May 10, 2021. Mr. Kris LaGreca seconded the motion and motion passed by unanimous vote. – Motion Passed
9. Police Cars disposal – Demond Nixon said he was working on a plan to take these cars to the auction as quickly as possible. Aaron is checking them to make sure everything is functional. He is working with his job to get the cars listed for auction. Just need to sit with Aaron and Dave and come up with the floor as to what the cars are worth. Things move quickly and could probably get these cars to auction by May 19, 2021. Someone will pick up the cars and he do not want this to go on forever.Discussion continued and Mr. Kent James asked if the cars should be placed on Municibids. Mr. Nixon said to do it tomorrow if that is what you want to do.  Mr. Lucero said someone must answer all the questions, emails, etc. when someone responds about the cars on Municibids.After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Kent James made a motion to go through the process of putting the 2 police cars on Municibids with Kent James fielding the calls and emails about the police cars. Mr. Joe Fulton seconded the motion All ayes, Doug Corwin – NO.  – Motion passed.

   A motion was made by Kent James, seconded by Kris LaGreca to amend previous motion as follows: advertise the 2 police cars on Municibids for 3 weeks (until May 24, 2021) with the floor at $1,500.00 for each vehicle. All Ayes.  Doug Corwin NO. – Motion passed.

10. Tax Collector – Mr. Makel stated that he called and sent a letter to the attorney and has not heard back from him.
11. Animal Control Officer – President Weinstein called our animal control officer, Kym Secreet. This information should be on our website. She responds to domestic animal complaints. If you call her, she will explain what your options are.

Reports

• Mayor Nixon – No report
• Solicitor – Dennis Makel
• Council Members – Reports / Discussion
  • Maryann Weinstein, President – No report
  • Daniel Bird – No report
  • Douglas Corwin– No report
  • Kent James, Vice President– No report
  • Joe Fulton– No report
  • Kristopher LaGreca – No report

Motion

• Joe Fulton, second Doug Corwin to continue this meeting on Monday May 17, 2021 at 7:00 pm. –  Motion passed.