Bolivar Borough
This Meeting was recorded for Accuracy
Meeting opened by Jeffery Miller, Vice -President
Present: Jeffery Miller, Clark Baird-Mayor, Gladine McMaster and Sue Bartow & Keith StClair
Absent: Lou McLaughlin, President, and Brian Litzinger, Solicitor
General Public Heidi Speidel
Approval July minutes
After review motion made by Gladine 2nd by Keith to approve minutes. No objections. Motion passed.
Approval of Treasurer Report
Sue asked if taxes were added to the dumpster bill for $477.80. Pat said that was for cleanup days. Pat said that Pro Disposal weighed the dumpster and charged us. McInchok used to charge us a flat fee, Pro disposal charges per weight.
Sue also asked what the Surety Bond for 3 years for the highway was for. Pat said this was for the drilling under SR259 and this would be the last year we have to pay. We can cancel end of this year.
Jeffery asked if any other questions were for the Treasurer report. None at this time.
After review motion made by Keith 2nd by Sue to approve treasurer report. No objections motion passed.
Solicitor Report:
Pat said she received a copy of his filing for the municipal lien against 409 4th St property. Brian sent a notice of intention to file lien and assess Attorney’s fees. He legally could not file with the county until Aug 25. Pat said he sent a copy of the letter to the county and hopefully they will accept for a lien to be added to the Aug 15th deadline before the Municipal lien sale takes place. Hel said he could not guarantee they would accept the letter, however the letter should be enough to include our lien against the property in the amount of $ 725.94 which includes interest, penalties, and costs as of the date of notice of July 25th.
Public Comment:
Heidi Speidel, no comments this evening
Old Business:
- News on the Per Capita Filings
Pat said Brian did not say anything about the per capita collections that old Solicitor turned over to him.
- Update on grants.
Pat gave everyone a copy of letter from Westmoreland County CDBG for funds we applied for. We are getting the remaining 2 projects on 5th Street, however the funds have not been released yet from the State. The county is requesting a release of funds to Harrisburg for us in the amount of $633,800 which is broken down into 2 phases. 1st is $233,800 and the other is $355,000.
As far as the Market Street project the grant for LSA has not come up as of date. This will happen sometime in Sept or October.
Jeffery asked if Keith mentioned whether he made the filing deadline on the other grant. Pat said yes he did.
Jeffery asked if any other old business. None was brought up.
New Business:
- Road Closure for Brickfest
Pat said we were supposed to ask last month, however did not get around to do so. Pat is asking tonight to approve closure for Brickfest of the following streets. Closure is from 2nd & Lincoln to 5th & Lincoln, and 3rd McKinley to 5th McKinley also 3rd Street between McKinley & Lincoln Streets and 5th Street between McKinley and Lincoln. Homeowners will be also notified of closure time starting at 9 PM on Friday thru 6 PM on Saturday.
Jeffery asked how parks arranges for traffic control. Pat said we have a person at each corner to direct traffic and also blocking the streets with barrels and road horses with caution tape.
Motion make to approve closure may by Sue, 2nd by Gladine all in favor motion
passed.
- Approval to use truck and gas for trash collections.
Friday night we have asked Keith to drive the truck both Friday and Saturday and if he cannot then we have already asked Myers since he is also on the insurance.
As far as the gas usage we need approval to replace the gas in Jim Harris lawn tractor who does the collection of trash throughout the day of the event.
Gladine motions to approve and Sue 2nds motion to approve both the truck usage and gas for replacement of Jim’s gas for trash collection.
- Transfer to payroll $25,000 to cover funds for rest of year.
Pat said in January we transferred over to payroll $20,000 to cover part of payroll for the year. Approved from the budget was $45,606 for payroll. We currently have $1,149.76 left in payroll.
The payroll is balanced for 35 hours for each employee for the year even though they do not use all the funds.
Jeffery asked a question which also relates to the next question on the agenda and that is the Boro worker resignation. It looks like we are going to lose Paul Hall.
Pat said we are going to lose Paul, however Lou has said that he would like to keep Paul on the insurance in case he is needed to plow. That is the only time he would be used.
Jeffery said he was wondering then if the $25,000 is needed and we are getting into the season where the workers will eventually be cutting their time back. I don’t think we would necessary need to transfer the whole $25,000.
Pat said then at least $20,000 because we also still have quarterly taxes to pay. If anything is left over at end of year it is carried over for next year.
Jeffery asked again what the first installment was. Pat said $20,000. Sue said we should at least approve $20,000.
Discussion was further made on the amount to transfer.
Gladine made motion to transfer $25,000, 2nd by Keith. All in favor motion passed.
- Municipal liened properties.
Pat said there is several properties coming up for auction. We only discussed the one property we are placing a lien against.
- Boro Worker Resignation.
Do we need to take action on this? Pat said he is not totally resigning. Lou would like to keep in on as a needed basis to help train someone to plow. No action to take on this item at this time.
- Approval for posting for new worker.
Does council want to advertise for a new worker or not. Keith asked if we have to put into paper for this.
Pat said she can put on bulletin board at Post Office, and in the office to see what we can get.
Keith said if we don’t get any applicants then post in paper.
Jeffery asked about the terms of the worker. Pat said she would put the qualifications in the ad. Wages will be based on experience.
Keith asked what the current wage is. Keith motions to advertise for worker, 2nd by Sue, all in favor motion passed.
Sue wanted to know for how long to accept applications. Discussion was made on the time limit for applicants. We can have 2 people do the interviews and bring up decision at next meeting.
Jeffery also suggested to post on social media.
Jeffery has if any other new business:
Jeffery asked some of the properties he is concerned about. We actually cut the property next to my wife’s business. It was cut by my family. It was very bad. There seems to be a couple properties that needs to be looked at and he doesn’t want to seem like coming into meetings and complaining.
5th & Washington St property is another location. Clark said he has given several notices already on this. Jeffery suggested we get a list and give to Brian for him to send notice to homeowners.
Pat went over the process of notifying the property owners to Jeffery. He said maybe council should go over the Ordinance again and make some changes. Other properties were discussed to also include.
Correspondence
- Elemental Shelter Solutions
No action taken
- Bolivar Fire Company donation
No action taken since we already pay for their workers comp insurance
- Pro Disposal
Discussion made on their proposal to exchange the small hopper for 2 96-gallon carts.
Gladine asked who would be responsible for someone taking the cans if we switched.
Mayor Report
6th & Washington. Complaints concerning the hedges blinding the roadway when coming up hill. Homeowner notified to cut hedges back.
5th & Washington – we already discussed the high grass issue.
Clark also wanted to know if the borough had any History on the Cemetery on Market Street.
Gladine said the Legion has all the paperwork on it. She gave to them when she gave up the Cemetery to them.
Lear’s property, Clark asked if he should write a letter again. Jeffery said he is inclined to have Brian enforce the Ordinance. Pat to send letter to Brian to handle along with photos.
The parking issue during the Blue Grass event. The cars were parked on the yellow lines and Mr. Burtop parked his truck sideways on the street. The next time he said he would call PSP.
Clark said parks should purchase cones to put on the yellow portion of the streets.
Sewage Report
Sue said meeting is next week.
Street Commissioner Report
Gladine said we used 33 gallons fuel this month. Put 14.1 hours on zero turn. Used 28.4 gallons gas
Truck put 3992 miles this month - Kubota has 109 hours on it.
We put 300 gallons of fuel this past month on July 10th
The zero turn tires blew. Lou told Don to go to Andrews to get new tires.
Also the garage door has issues again. Lou called Allstar.
Comcast had to replace the Modern, the Camera Company had to replace the surge protector and another part for the cameras to work. Everything was blown. Apparently we had a surge at the Quonset hut.
Keith said we need to get a surge protector for both the garage door and cameras. Jeffery motion to spend up to $150 for a surge protector and Sue 2nd motion. All in favor motion approved.
Parks & Rec
Pat said Brickfest this weekend.
Also will council approve to add Myers to the Lowes LAR Account? He does the purchases for parks but uses his Lowes account and we end up paying sales tax and also the higher cost. He does not get the contractor price for items like the Borough does.
Jeffery asked why Myers and can’t we have someone on council do the purchases? Pat said the only people on the LAR account is Don, Paul, Lou and myself. If we put Myers on it then we could get items at a reduced rate and no taxes.
Pat said you cannot order items on line and must go the store show your ID to ensure you are authorized to make purchases for the parks or borough. Also the purchase has to be approved during a meeting beforehand.
Gladine asked why Parks does not have their own account. Pat said we are an entity under Borough.
Keith said he does not have a problem with parks make purchases and pays for the items.
Parks pays for the items that is needed.
Jeffery and Keith suggested to have parks make Myers the Purchase Agent for Parks and then council would have no problem with him being put on the LAR account.
Sue motions to put Myers as a purchase agent for the parks and to add to LAR account, 2nd by Keith. Jeffery abstains. Motion passed.
Sue has several items to discuss before the meeting is ended.
She wanted to know if we are going to do anything with QuickBooks before our next budget meeting.
She wants to talk to Carrie about this. Pat said she was on the phone with QuickBooks for approx. 1 ½ hours concerning a notice she had gotten saying our payroll subscription was cancelled. It ended up being bogus. I called them rather than opening the email.
They informed me they are not getting rid of QuickBooks desktop. They have had too many issues with Enterprise, in the cloud, and other programs. People are really complaining about getting hacked. QuickBooks desktop is staying for another several years.
Sue said since that is such a big chunk, don’t we need to have the funds put on the agenda. Make note to put on the agenda for Sept to discuss QuickBooks.
Gladine wants to know why we have to have a discussion. It has never been an issue in the past and there has not been an issue with using QuickBooks then why are we going to discuss the issue.
Jeffery said the question was there a lesser account to use. Jeffery said Fairfield was paying about ½ the cost. Jeffery said he does not have any better answer than last year. He said by default he is ok to let it ride.
Pat said she has talked to our representative and went over all the different programs offered, and we have the best one that suits our needs. Fairfield uses direct deposit and has 401 K, leave and someone else does their payroll and taxes files for them and then Fairfield just pays the bills for the taxes.
Jeffery said so that is the case then he understands this. That would explain it.
Sue also brought up at last meeting that she requested we send a letter to Kathleen thanking her for the drinks and stuff for the workers. She asked Kathleen and said she did not.
Pat said that is totally my fault that she had forgotten because of family issues Pat has been dealing with. A letter will go out to Kathleen.
Jeffery also has a letter from the Fire Company thanking us for working with them during the carnival and is requesting to close 3rd St from Market to Shaffer on Sunday August 31 from 11to 5 PM for Open House for their 100th Anniversary.
Jeffery motions to approve the closure, Sue 2nd motion, all in favor motion passed.
No other business, Keith motion to adjourn 2nd by Sue at 8:05 PM.
Respectfully,
Patricia Betts
Secretary/Treasurer