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April 17, 2020
Regular
​​​​​​​Meeting

This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy

Meeting was opened by Clark Baird, Council President 7 PM.


Note: Meeting was held at the Bolivar American Legion due to Covid- 19 virus restriction of 6 ft apart.


Present: Sue Bartow, Ron Betts, Lou McLaughlin, Gladine McMaster, Solicitor Jeff Miller, Clark Baird


Absent: Mayor Tom Pickup absent


Public Attendance: No public attended, however was advertised as a public meeting.


Approval of March 5 meeting minutes – Sue would like to have the sentence "After continued discussion on the subject the matter was dropped" removed from the minutes. After a brief discussion on this, the motion was made to approve the minutes by Ron and 2nd by Gladine with the correction to have the sentence removed. All in favor motion passed.


Approval of Treasurer Report – Question was asked by Sue concerning the newspaper ad for the Trib Democrat. She wanted to know if the cost of the ad was included in the contract with the engineers for the CDBG. Pat informed her it was not. All ads are responsibility of the Boro to pay. Motion to approve treasurer report made by Lou, 2nd by Sue. All in favor motion passed.


First on agenda is Bid opening for the CDBG grant. Sue asked how much money we got from the Grant. Pat said she does not have the contract with her, it is at the office. Clark said to see what the bids are first then decide from there. Pat informed Jeffery that McCormick Taylor did the spread sheet form for the necessary documents needed for bid package.


1. Ligonier Construction - Bid total $71,071.00 All documents were in bid package
2. Turjan Enterprises - bid total $94,639.28 All documents were in bid package
3. Curry & Kepple Inc - bid total $150,858.14 Missing Workers Comp in bid package
4. Ray Winters & Sons - bid total $67,072.60 All documents were in bid package


After discussion council recommended to accept Ray Winters & Sons contingent on approval from our engineer (McCormick Taylor) with also their recommendation to the County CDBG. Sue made motion to accept Ray Winters & Son's bid at $67,072.60, 2nd by Ron, all in favor motion passed.


Solicitor Report: Jeffery said there are a couple items on the agenda that I will go over. Jeffery stated he does not have street opening ordinance amendment. Not totally prepared yet but will have for next meeting


Update on selling of police car: Jeffery explained the "Municibid.com " website for posting the sale of the police car. Also we need to post in the newspaper. The municibid is like ebay. There is also a fee but the purchaser will pay the cost. It seems to me we would get more looks than the newspaper. 
We would open an account and post the information. Sue thinks we should go with municibid first. Clark said we should not sell the car. We need to set a reserve amount. Total should be $5000 as a minimum. Sue asked about items to be removed if sold to private party. Sue also asked if the gun is in the safe at the Borough office. Pat not sure, would have to look. Sue motions to advertise in Municibid, Gladine 2nd, Lou approves, Ron, approves, Clark oppose.

Storm Water Ordinance update.
Jeffery also said the storm water ordinance is almost completed and will have for next meeting.


The delinquent per capita tax update.
Notices went out to everyone on the list who is still residing in Bolivar.
Sue said she read in PSAB about municipalities extending the due date for real-estate taxes until May 30. Could we table this until next month and make the extension retroactive. 


She also said in last month's meeting (Jeffery) you said you were leaving your law firm and you did not know how long you would be staying on as our solicitor. Are you going to stay on or not? Jeffery said if we still want him yes, then he will stay.

Public Comment: No general public came to the meeting.


Old Business:
Update on Stump Farm harvesting. Letter came in from Forest Land Services asking if the Borough would be willing to extend for 3 months the due date for the last payment from HMI Logging who is harvesting the timber at Stump Farm. The original due date is June 1 and it was suggested to give them until Sept 1, 2020 for last payment because of the current economic conditions. If they start to log before then, we would received final payment as scheduled. Sue motions to give Timbering firm until Sept unless they start earlier. Jeffery said to give in writing the permission and ask them to respond in writing.


Update on lower park security and lighting system. Pat said the cameras are in and operational. Superior Security would like to know if we wanted to do the monthly Hosting of the system. What that means is they will check our cameras twice a day for the integrity of the system, ensure all cameras and DVR, are working and fix any issues that may arise. Total cost per month is $15.95 We currently do have a 1 year warranty on all the parts but after that we pay full price to fix anything. The dvr has 2 teribits of memory so it will hold up to 30 days of recordings since we have 3 cameras. We have a 30% discount on any costs after the first year as long as we keep the hosting. Without the hosting anything that goes wrong total cost is on us. Gladine motions to spend the $15.95 per month for hosting the system, Clark 2nds, all in favor motion passed.


Fairfield Twp drain cleaning at bridge. Pat said project is postponed until the virus issue is completed and everyone is back to work.


Update on situation with child entering other people's homes. Lou contacted the county and they are aware of the issue. The child was again out and was at Randy Baird's, Ginger Clawson's, and came into the store. Lou said someone just called again the other day. CYS doesn't seem to want to do anything about it. The parents say she climbs out the window and just takes off. People in town have been calling CYS so they are aware.


Update on landscaping at ATM. Pat said she talked to Chad Grimes with Somerset Trust. They willing to pay $75.00 toward the cost of shrubbery and gravel . Total cost should not exceed $150. Will Borough be willing to allow $75.00 also so shrubbery and gravel can be put into ATM surroundings . For river rock size 2b special cost is $35.00 ton. Would only need around 1 ton. Suggested getting several small shrubs that stay small to also place in area. Lou motion to allow the purchase up to $150 for project, 2nd by Clark, all in favor motion passed.


Update on grinder drill from Lowes. Was originally approved for $100 to spend on this. When purchased the cost was $66. for grinder, but the charger and battery was $199. 2 cutting wheels $9.46 and steel post driver was $31.81 Need retro approval for the difference of $206.32 Clark motions for approve Sue 2nds, all in favor motions passes.


Sue wanted to purchase another CD for $5,000 for reserve to go toward engineer fees for storm water project. Gladine stated we already earmarked the rest of the money for our portion of the storm water project. The money coming in is just the amount we need for the engineer fees for this. It is already earmarked for the engineer fees, what more do you want. Sue seems to think the money would be spent for other things. Pat said the council only approved to pay for engineer fees from the logging fund.


New Business

Bolivar Fire Dept street closing for carnival. They are requesting permission to close the following streets.  Third Street from Market to Shaffer Sunday July 5 thru July 12.  Close alley located between Market & Shaffer St from 2nd to 3rd Street, and from 3rd Street to property line at the Eckel's property and the old Simpson Service Station property from Thursday July 2nd to Sunday July 12. Also allow fireworks to close out carnival on Saturday July 11 at 11 PM...
Sue motions to grant permission, Clark 2nds, all in favor motion passed.


Destruction of old records Resolution
The following records to be destroyed. 2012 and 2013 , bank statements, check registers, qtr tax returns, payroll records, regular bills, cancelled checks,  No lien letters, for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 1nd 2015, pa one call, 2018, letters of correspondence 2017, and 2018, ethic documents 2014, and 2015 and right to know requests for 2017.

Sue motions to approve 2nd by Lou all in favor motions passed. All council members signed the resolution.

2019 completion of audit.


Audit completed by Singer Accounting. Results have been submitted on time and nothing was found wrong. Sue wanted to know how she made out with Rennie and Associates with helping on the prior year report figures. Pat said she had to work the entire weekend to break down all the figures the accounting firm was unable to verify. Singer accounting would never had been able to do this without my assistance the way Rennie had come up with the figures.

Declaration of Emergency for town. Jeffery prepared the document for the Mayor which most of the municipalities have been adopting. This ensures any funds that were used during Covid -19 the municipality could get back if funds become available. Jeffery did not bring this evening but will get to Pat for signing.


Discussion was made concerning the Mayor's residency and whether he could continue as Mayor or not. Several people said he no longer resides in town, and it was stated he could dispute this. The court is the only entity that could decide this and or not remove the Mayor. Does council want to spend the money toward this or not. It was also discussed how much longer his term is. 

Sue motions to accept declaration of emergency for town, Ron 2nds, all in favor motion passed.


Plan for 5th & Washington St blow out.

The plan was to just use gravel in the street until we find out if we get approval for the storm water project. Jeffery wanted to know if Keith Vasas was contacted on the issue. Pat had stated yes, and he also recommended to just put gravel into the area, so if we get a hard rain again the water would have a place to go instead of compacting it and have it blow out again.

The situation at 2nd & McKinley Street.

Bill was concerned that this could not be done because of the stay at home order. He was instructed to go ahead and do it since he is our emergency contractor for the street and this is an emergency to fix the storm drain. He to start again on Monday.

Nothing else under new business.


Sewage Report. No meeting until May.


Mayor Report - Nothing


Street commissioner report.

94 miles on truck and 34.3 gallon gas in truck.

5th & McKinley, Ron is requesting approval for the line to run a camera through to find where line is broke again. Blairsville Clog $185. per hour. and the equipment to fix it. Decision was made to wait until we find out if we get the grant in July. Lou said the only thing that may temporary fix is to raise the curb a little more to keep it from running over and washing out Dodson's parking area. This also was based on if we fix that area it will also put more water strain on the 5th & Washington St area.

Parks & Rec report. Pat said a total of 51 banners have been ordered. Would like help installing them when the banners arrive. We also are doing a 2nd run that will go in June 1. Only thing upcoming is clean up of park May 16, and a concert May 31.


Clark asked if everyone is in agreement to have the May meeting down at the Legion again due to the Virus outbreak. Everyone agreed to have it here.


Motion to adjourn made by Sue 2nd by Ron to close meeting at 8:30 PM.


Respectfully,

Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer