Pledge of Allegiance lead 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.

• Scott Horne 192 Lemoyne 724-228-2871.  Told Council he sent a complaint through the borough website to Mayor and Code Enforcement officer and has not heard back. There is a shed is in the front yard on Beau Street and that is against our ordinance correct? Mr. Lucero responded that work is being done in the back yard and they are going to move it when the work is done. It is there only temporarily. Code Officer will look into Mr. Horne’s complaint and get back to Mr. Horne to resolve the issue.

Motions

• Motion Joe Fulton, second Dan Bird to approve Minutes of May 4, 2020 Motion passed.

Executive Session

• Mrs. Weinstein announced entering an Executive Session at 7:16 pm for litigation or personnel issues. Regular meeting resumed at 7:59 pm

Official Action:

1. Use of borough property including playground/park reopening, Memorial Park, summer picnic. -President Weinstein, Dan Bird, Aaron Lucero, Reca Panian, Gerry Coleman, Mike Gomber, and David Bradley met yesterday by phone to review information on opening the playground and decide on a recommendation for Council.Our county is in the green phase which means we are permitted to open the park and playground if we post appropriate signage. The group was concerned about a number of issues. These include potential liability (insurance agent told Mrs. Weinstein any Covid related cases would be reviewed on a case by case basis and they are recommending following state and CDC guidelines), the fact that some people will not follow the guidelines leading to our getting complaints, our inability to enforce the guidelines because they are voluntary, and concern that we really don’t know whether Covid could be spread in a playground setting.

   Because of the uncertainties involved, the group recommends keeping the Thayer playground/park as well as the Memorial Park closed for the time being and revisiting the issue in July.

   Mr. Lucero explained that the park would need regular cleaning, follow CDC guidelines, and to avoid liability, he would recommend keeping it closed. Code Officer Coleman said that it may be too early and the return of the virus could be a result of not social distancing, sanitizing, etc.

   Council agreed after further discussion that the Park remain closed. However, Council can revisit the park on a monthly basis. Council Member Fulton suggested Council needed to identify what guidance we are going to follow, identify some specific plan to have in place when the park does open. Whether we follow CDC guidelines or PA Dept of Health guidelines. President Weinstein said she would write a plan for council to review at the July meeting.

   Maryann Weinstein	Yes
   Kent James	Yes
   Tim Hurney	Yes
   Douglas Corwin	Yes
   Daniel Bird	Yes
   Demond Nixon	Yes
   A. Joseph Fulton	Abstain
   Motion passed.

   Motion was made by Kent James, second Tim Hurney to keep the Memorial park closed until further notice. Could be revisited in July. – Motion passed

   A motion was made by Kent James, second Dan Bird to cancel the Annual East Washington Borough picnic. – Motion passed.

2. Code enforcement officer – Council Member Demond Nixon made a motion and seconded by Tim Hurney to approve to hire Mr. Mark Gordon as a part-time Code Officer at a salary of $20.00 per hour for 8 hours per week with any necessary additional time to be approved by Council.  – Motion passed.
3. PASWS Grant – President Weinstein explained Council has 3 options.  The SWS grant currently has two components.  One is stream improvement from the soccer field to Thayer and the other is a swale from Lemoyne down through part of the hilly green space.  The swale component does not fit under the SWS guidelines.

   The first option is to tell the state to separate the two components so that the stream component stays with the SWS grant and the swale request is re-routed to a different grant program for Watershed Restoration.  Second option is to move both components to Watershed Restoration.  Third option is to do both, apply for the stream component through both grant programs and for the swale component through the Watershed Restoration program.  It will involve some paperwork to do any of these and a $100 fee to do the third option.  Deadline for the Watershed Restoration grant is July 21.

   Council Member Demond Nixon made a motion, seconded by Tim Hurney to accept Option 3, to apply for the stream component through both grant programs and for the swale component through the Watershed Restoration program to include a $100.00 fee after President Weinstein verifies with Sarah Boyce that it does not jeopardize us to apply for both or our chances of getting a grant one way or another. – Motion passed.

4. Proposed ordinances – President Weinstein asked if any other council member has concerns regarding the proposed ordinances. She has received comments from 3 members so far. If so, to get back to her by Monday, June 15, 2020 and she will consolidate the concerns and talk to the Solicitor.
5. Routine landscaping – Reca Panian, Chair, Park & Shade Commission, requested the routine maintenance be done at the Memorial Park and the Playground.  The borough has used the same Landscape company for several years.  The service includes weeding, trim shrubs, and mulching the flower beds.  The estimated cost is $1,000.00.

   Council Member Arthur J. Fulton made a motion, seconded by Doug Corwin to authorize GG&G Landscaping to do the routine, weeding, trimming of shrubs and mulch the flower beds at the Memorial Park and the Thayer Park for an amount not to exceed $1,000.00. – Motion passed.

6. Resumption of delinquent collections – Our delinquent tax collector, Portnoff, is asking if we approve of resumption of pursuing delinquent taxes.  These were in process before Covid and were put on hold until now.  Council agreed to continue collections and Secretary will notify Portnoff.
7. Info on digging into Wilmont grassy area to evaluate draining pipe. – A proposal was received from Slusarczyk Excavating, LLC regarding the drainage issue at 16 Wilmont Ave. The proposal includes two options, one would be digging up to 20 inches deep for $1,700.  The price would be $2,950 to dig up to 4 feet deep including equipment, labor, and materials.

   Motion Demond Nixon, second Tim Hurney to authorize Slusarczyk Excavating to evaluate what is going on at Wilmont. The question was raised whether we should get another estimate.  Mr. Lucero informed council that Slusarczyk did all the underdrain work on the water project when the Wilmont project was done. He knows what is under ground and strongly recommends using Slusarczyk for this water issue.

   In order to provide more clarity a motion was made by Kent James, second by Demond Nixon to withdraw the original motion regarding Slusarczyk. – Motion passed.

   Demond Nixon then made a motion, second by Doug Corwin, to accept the cost estimate from Slusarczyk Excavating LLC, for the excavation and exploration of the water issue at 16 Wilmont up to an amount of $2,950.00. – Motion passed.

Reports / Discussion

• Mayor – No report
• Solicitor – Dennis Makel No report
• Maryann Weinstein, President – No report
• Kent James, Vice President – No report
• Daniel Bird – No report
• Douglas Corwin – No report
• Arthur Joseph Fulton – No report
• Tim Hurney – No report
• Demond Nixon – No report
• Executive Session – None

Motion

• Motion Kent James, second Doug Corwin, to adjourn the meeting at 9:10 pm. –  Motion passed.