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.

• Merry Berty, 67 North Watson – asked Council when will North Watson be on the schedule for paving. President Weinstein said they would be addressing road projects for next year in the 2021 Budget workshop.
• Scott Horne, 192 Lemoyne Ave. – asked that Code Officer take a closer look at the run-down housing in the borough. A lot of junk at a property on Lemoyne Ave that needs addressed. Council member Doug Corwin responded that the borough hired Jerad D’Amico, Harshman & Harshman to start responding to these issues and Council is aware of the issues.

Official Action:

1. Ordinance 543 of 2020 – Motion Joe Fulton, second Tim Hurney to approve Ordinance 543 of 2020- new plan document update for Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System Non Uniform Plan (duly advertised by Solicitor). Motion passed.
2. Website Presentation – Motion Dan Bird, second Demond Nixon to approve the visual design of the website created by Joe Fulton and authorize him to continue to develop the website. Passed. Joe Fulton – Abstain because he is the designer. Prior to the motion Joe Fulton gave a 40 minutes presentation of the new website design. He and Kris LaGreca who is partnering with him to build the website both answered questions.
3. Photo Release Form – Motion Dan Bird, second Demond Nixon to approve the Photo Release Form – Solicitor created for the website. Motion passed.
4. Code enforcement –  Council discussed at length code enforcement issues such as complaints about garbage piled on the front porches or other code violations, particularly related to sidewalks. Mrs Weinstein said that Jerad D’Amico from Harshman & Harshman is ready to send out letters for code violations, but due to the pandemic and folks out of work, she told Jerry Coleman to put the letters on hold until council could discuss the issue. Council members felt that issues such as junk should be addressed now but expensive items such as sidewalks should be not cited at this time. Other Council members expressed different views on the process and questioned the number of complaints one individual should be permitted to send to Code Enforcement. Joe Fulton stated he was being targeted about peeling paint on his home. He believes that council members should not be able to file a complaint against each other. The process of filing complaints is broken and needs addressed. Megan Patrick, Esq. stated that anyone can file as complaint as many complaints as they wish and the code officer then does an investigation. Some of the information related to complaints is not required to be public knowledge. – Motion Kent James, second Joe Fulton, to put a moratorium on sidewalk enforcement indefinitely due to COVID 19.
   

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

5. Road project – Council discussed the road contract with Independent Enterprises and Rich Rush told Mrs. Weinstein he was unable to get in touch with the contractor. Due to the fact that it is getting late in the year and there is no set date for the project to begin, Aaron Lucero suggested that Council wait until the end of October and see if Independent can do the project, if not to postpone the project until next year and add it to whatever road project Council may want to do in 2021. President Weinstein suggested revisiting the road project at the end of October. Council members agreed.
6. Resident complaint about lack of social distancing and parking problems related to use of Washington School District field.  After a brief discussion, President Weinstein said she would contact the Washington School District regarding this complaint.

Reports

• Mayor Gomber – Absent
• Solicitor – Dennis Makel Megan Patrick was in attendance for Dennis Makel.
• Council Members – Reports / Discussion
  • Maryann Weinstein, President – Maryann Weinstein, President – Items for discussion at the next meeting:
    Trick or Treat – CDC Recommended Guidelines, W&J Curb Cut – North Ave & Beau. Meeting on October 6 at 1 pm at the intersection of North Ave and Beau St.

    The mayor has bought a house in S Strabane. His house in the Borough is for sale. He has not notified us whether he has moved at this time.

  • Daniel Bird – No report
  • Douglas Corwin– No report
  • Kent James, Vice President– No report
  • Demond Nixon – No report
  • Joe Fulton– No report
  • Tim Hurney– No report

Motion

• Motion Kent James, second Dan Bird to adjourn meeting at 8:50 pm.  Motion passed