Council Meeting Minutes Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Transcription

1 B o r o u g h o f B r i d g e p o r t Council Meeting Minutes Tuesday, July 23, 2002 ROLL CALL PRESENT President A. DiSanto Jr. Vice President P. Kohut Council Members: J. Pizza J. Foley H. Sepulveda P. DiSanto S. Keirsey J. Capaldo ABSENT Council Members: J. Lattanze Police Chief Z. Martyniuk ALSO PRESENT Mayor J. Nicola Borough Manager E. McCandless Solicitor S. Bello Admin. Assist. Mary Jo Dickinson BI-MONTHLY MEETING OF THE BRIDGEPORT BOROUGH COUNCIL CONVENED AT 7:50 PM ON TUESDAY, JULY 23, COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANTHONY J. DI SANTO, JR. LED THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG. THIS MEETING WAS PRECEDED BY AN EXECUTIVE MEETING AT 7:00 PM TO DISCUSS PERSONNEL COLLECTIVE BAR- GAINING FOR NON UNIFORM PERSONNEL. MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING On motion of Council Member P. Kohut and seconded by Council Member Joseph Foley to approve the Minutes as presented from the previous meeting. Questions: None COMMITTEE REPORTS ALL BOROUGH COMMITTEE REPORTS WERE SUBMITTED TO THE BOROUGH COUNCIL AND ARE POSTED IN THE BOR- OUGH HALL. REPORTS ARE MADE PART OF THESE MIN- UTES, WHICH ARE AS FOLLOWS: MAYOR S REPORT, POLICE CHIEF S REPORT, WHICH INCLUDES THE FIRE POLICE, HEALTH REPORT, PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT AND TRASH REPORT. MAYOR S REPORT GAVE REPORT LAST WEEK. $4, total revenue generated by Police for Borough Treasury. SOLICITOR S REPORT No report CHIEF OF POLICE REPORT - Absent COMMITTEE REPORTS HEALTH BOARD No Report WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT No report TRASH No report PLANNING AND ZONING - Absent POLICE FIRE AND SAFETY Chairman P. Kohut read Police Chief s report. $ was collected in total revenue for the Borough Treasury. Mr. Kohut reported the two new police cars are in service. Added patrols have been planned along Ford Street for speeders and loud motorcycles in the area of the Southside Café. PROPERTY AND FINANCE No report PARK AND RECREATION BOARD Reported activity for the

2 month. STREETS AND LIGHTS Chairman J. Capaldo read the Streets Report BILLS AND SALARIES Questions: None COMMUNICATION: None AGENDA #1. Consider request for curb cut in rear of 127 W Ninth Street (Bradley property). On motion of Council Member P. DiSanto to approve a curb cut at 127 W 9 th Street. Seconded by Council Member Mr. Pizza. Question: Council President A. Di Santo said Mr. Barbine has looked at everything and everything complies with our requirements. Council President Mr. Anthony Di Santo: the motion will include the fact that they have to go by the standards of the Borough. If anyone looked at that when we got it in our packets, work is almost finished by now. The building inspector observed the work being done and the property owners were told they had to come down to cut the curb. Mr. Di Santo said this would get more cars off the street near Bacchi Funeral Home. Council approved: 8-0. #2. Borough Manager Edward McCandless addressed Council. In meeting with John Wood from Montgomery County Planning Commission,Mr. Wood did a presentation concerning widening the sidewalks proposed by PADOT when replacing the DeKalb Street Bridge.Mr. McCandless reported John Wood stopped in to see him on Friday. Mr. McCandless told Mr. Wood Council is in support of this project and we are going to meet with PADOT at their office at 1:30 PM on Thursday in case any Council Members are interested to see what reaction we get on that. Council President Di Santo commented at that meeting, I think Council in general liked the idea of having the trail goes through town. Two important things to think about are:: there is a bottleneck down at Front Street which can t be remedied, and secondly, the fact that the width of the lanes I feel (and if you don t agree with me let me know). Bike lanes should be wider. Making a turn from Fourth Street onto DeKalb Street is a problem. I know our Public Works people put pipe there and it got knocked over at least twice so it is just a bad turn. Mr. McCandless will be going to this meeting with PADOT on Thursday. Councilman P. Kohut: as stated two weeks ago on presentation, I think there is a lot of room for play with the size of sidewalks. They did indicate the fact that they have dealt with narrowing sidewalks in the area where you have stated there is a bottleneck. Again that being a major entranceway to the Borough with possible tree planting and having a nice look would enhance the efforts of redevelopment that we are trying to work on. #3.Update on Emergency Operations Plan Mr. McCandless: Reported to Council that he distributed to all of Council and to the Fire Chiefs, the Emergency Operations Directory and the Solicitor now has a copy of it. This is the last phase to complete our Emergency Operations Plan and this is the first one Bridgeport has had, so it is important that we submit one. I would like everyone s help on supplying names of vendors, contact people, verifying suppliers for the various categories you see in the plan. My hope is to accumulate that information and have it typed up.i will meet with Jim Kelly from the Montgomery County Emergency Management Staff, and have it to Council hopefully for approval on August 13 th to be submitted to the County and then to the State. #4. Request Approval of 3 rd Quarter Distribution to Bridgeport Community Fund ($4,850). On motion of Council Member Kohut and seconded by Council Member Capaldo. to approve request from the Bridgeport Community Fund for the payment of the 3 rd quarter distribution to the Bridgeport Community Fund. Questions: Mr. Kohut, Mr. President just for public clarification, this is a budgeted item. We have made two previous disbursements. We make four disbursements on a quarterly basis to assist the Community Fund with the parks..

3 #5. Consider Request by Officer Miles Restricting Parking on Bush Street. Mr. McCandless stated Council has a report from Officer Miles dated July 19 th, 2002 and this is to consider a request from him restricting parking on Bush Street. Council President A. DiSanto stated this would be 25 feet from here to corner on both sides of Bush Street to School Lane. This will stay that way because buses go up there sometimes at night also. On motion to advertise by Council Member Pizza, seconded by Council Member Ms. Sepulveda. the restricted parking on Bush Street 25 feet from the corners on both sides of Bush Street to School Lane. Questions: Council Vice-President Mr. Kohut: Mr. President, given that the Chief is not present, I wonder if the Mayor would be able to assist us in clarifying that this would impact the first two homes on that corner of Bush Street. Am I correct? Mayor Nicola: Yes. It would, off School Lane and the reason for that is the length of the bus. When you have two vehicles parked on both sides to swing in there, it is difficult and the primary thing is the safety of the children, because at times there are people walking up there. Officer Miles has done this upon my request and has checked that intersection and has measured the bus. Mr. Kohut: As we move further down Bush Street near 9 th, will the buses typically go straight or are these vehicles making a left to go down 9 th? Because will we have the same situation there? Mr. A. DiSanto: They make a left. Mr. McCandless: Mr. President I do have one other item. At our previous meeting Council received a request for fifteen minute parking sign in front of Just To Travel. The Mayor had Officer Miles talk to the owner and also looked at the area. Tonight I put at Council seats his recommendation which basically is a 15 minute parking area to be posted on the eastern side of DeKalb Street just South of 7 th Street and also the street should be marked off. On motion of Council Member Kohut and seconded by Council Member Capaldo to advertise ordinance for a fifteen minute parking Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 5:30 PM in front of Just To Travel on East side of DeKalb Street. Question: By Mr. Kohut, Mr President, I am wondering if we are going to see a trend of more of these types of request? This is the second one in some time now. Are we going to start putting signs around businesses for 15 minute parking during business hours? We have done this twice now and I could probably see other businesses wanting to start to come in with this type of request. Council should keep in mind as we go forward with any of these requests we receive throughout the Borough. President A. DiSanto: Businesses feel they need it and we are supposed to be business friendly. It is really not going to hurt since the residents who live there can park there on weekends and after work.. Mr. McCandless: Mr. President, that completes my agenda. Mr. A. DiSanto: This was brought up last meeting. On Line Alley opposite the driveway of 641 Grove Street, they would like to have No Parking Between Signs erected because they can t get out of their driveway. They did not have a problem before because there were handicapped signs there and they weren t used much at all. So, if I could have a motion to advertise No Parking Between Signs on Line Alley opposite the driveway of 641 Grove Street. Motion by Council Member Capaldo and seconded by Council Member Pizza.to advertise for an Ordinance to place a No Parking sign on Line Alley opposite the driveway at 541 Grove Street. Questions: None Mr. A. DiSanto said he received a request for the forgiveness of cost on dwelling license. Who is going to make that? Who is Property and Finance? On motion of Council Member Pizza and seconded by Council Member Foley to forgive the dwelling license fee for 69 E. 4 th Street for the years 1998, 99, 2001, The purpose for that was that at that time the building was condemned and determined as uninhabitable by the health Officer.

4 Questions: Council President Mr. DiSanto said you really can t have somebody living in the rooms or having the establishment if they are not allowed in there by our officials posting it as uninhabitable.. Mr. Kohut: I would like to make a motion to auction one former police cruiser ( 94 white Crown Victoria) that has been retired unmarked police cruiser 54-1, seconded by Mr. Foley. Questions: Mr. Ken Frymoyer. Mr. Kohut: What we have done is to essentially keep the better of the two unmarked cars and we have to retro fit it so it will be the new unmarked vehicle. The Mayor requested that we keep the second car. Mr. Kohut: We are going to have two unmarked vehicles. Council 8-0 Mr. A. DiSanto: Is there any other business? No. Mr. Kohut: Mr. President, I would like to have a discussion on the ladder truck. As I reported at last month s meeting, the 1981 ladder truck is out of service. It has at this point been deemed unsafe for operation and is having problems with ladder extension and retraction. It had failed an extension test previously in August The Borough does follow the NFPA Standard which calls for a truck to be replaced basically every 20 years. What we have discussed and what we have done thus far is the Fire Chiefs have started to put together some specs on the new truck. It would combine a ladder and a pumper. The pumper that would be looked to replace would be a 1975 pumper. So, we are looking at basically a 21 year old ladder truck that at this point is out of service and a 27 year old pumper. I have provided Council at last month s meeting (two weeks ago) with some information and some numbers that were generated that I requested from Mr. McCandless with regard to a bond issue, a lease/purchase or a 10 year loan from Progress Bank for financing options for a new vehicle. I present these options as some food for thought to repair a vehicle, if we can find a ladder to put on it, based on the information that we have obtained from the Fire Chiefs would seem at this time impractical. We would spend in the neighborhood of $60,000 if we were fortunate enough to find the ladder and have it placed on the truck and hopefully have it work and pass inspection. We could send this truck out to have the ladder inspected again which would cost us approximately $500. What I have prepared that all Council Members received was the fact that one tenth of a mil generates $16,600 for the Borough. One tenth of a mil equals $8.00 in additional tax on a home assessed at $80,000. The Borough had previously dedicated a fire tax of 3 mils under the old assessment standards and when reassessment was completed it was abolished because it was deemed too miniscule an amount to tax based on how the new rates were. I am posing my thoughts as a basis to start discussions on where we are going to go. My proposal would call for the re-implementation of the fire tax. The most feasible means to finance a new vehicle should Council choose to do so, in my estimation would be through (1) a 10 year loan through the banks. We did it with the assumption of a $500,000 loan and we felt that that was a fair ball park number plus or minus what the truck costs could be. If we reinstituted the fire tax within the Borough it would take at least twelve to eighteen months for the new fire truck to be spec out, bid and build and it would be suggested the fire tax be implemented for fiscal year 2003 at a rate of.25 mils. This would generate $41,500 in revenue in fiscal For the average home as stated above, it would amount to $20.00 in new taxes in the fiscal year Should the truck be delivered by the end of 2003 then this revenue would begin to pay the loan. In fiscal 2004, the top fire tax would be increased by.2 mils to bring the total fire tax to.45 mils. This increase would add an additional $16.00 in new taxes for the average home owner. This would generate $74, to be sufficient to pay for the loan over a ten year period. I would suggest that this be a separate line item on the tax bill to be adjusted so the milage amount generate more revenue than under current estimates. If after ten years when the truck is paid, Council could determine whether to remove, lower or continue the fire tax. The above assumptions do not take into account any of the savings that will be had by reducing the fire truck fleet by one vehicle savings such as repairs, insurance and outfitting the vehicle with hoses, etc. Mr. Kohut asked for a public meeting to be held on August 19,2002 at 7:00 PM to be held in the Borough Hall Council Chambers. Mr. Pizza said he has looked on the Web sites for used equipment, that can be bought for a lot less, with low hours of use on equipment and that would not have to put a tax burden on the people.

5 Mr. Pizza said he cannot see the Borough going into debt and add on to the debt load of this town and unless someone can show me something different, not at this time spend the money. Mrs. Keirsey asked then at what point in time, if we keep spending money to make repairs, when will there be a better time? Mr. Pizza said when we are way far out of debt. We are 4 million dollars in debt now and we need to pay down this debt. Mrs. Keirsey said she did not know if the surrounding communities who supply the ladder trucks to us are going to take this as an explanation. Mr. Pizza asked her not to go there with this subject. There are communities that have no fire companies and surrounding communities come in and take care of things for them. If worse comes to worse we can make an agreement in the interim to pay per call basis. Used,good equipment can be bought and not be a burden on the taxpayer. Mrs. Keirsey said that this is what she is asking, you said you have seen things on the internet, do you have anything for us? Mr. Pizza said yes, there are copies of things that can be had a lot cheaper. Mr. Pizza said he left material at Mr. Kohut s house and Mr. Kohut said he was not home and did not get the information. Mr. Kohut said we are going to pay for everything we do. We just purchased two new police vehicle and there was never a question. Mr. Kohut said he would not argue that the cruisers needed to be replaced. He is the first proponent of the purchase for police equipment. Spred the cost out over twenty years for a fire vehicle is in prospective. Mr. Kohut said Council needs to see what would work best for our town, what we can live with. Mr. Kohut said he does not want to ever have to tell someone their house burned down and we did not have a truck to respond, or the company we hired could not come out. Mr. Pizza said this is a scare tactic. Mr. Kohut said in a lot of cases and not in all cases, we tried to do things patch work. Mr. Kohut said this is an open for discussion issue and a start to see what direction we are going to take. Mr. Tim Doti at Bridgeport #1, a firefighter, questioned if anyone ever came over to look at the equipment in question, would you want your son,grandson or daughter to use the equipment? The ladder truck was bought used. Mr. Pizza said it was bought five years ago. Mr. Kohut said the Chiefs are here as well, if anyone had any questions. Mayor Nicola asked Mr. Kohut his opinion of this situation, and Mr. Kohut said he would purchase a new truck. Mr. Kohut said he would have reservations about purchasing a used vehicle, because you do not know what you are getting, we have done this before and you see what has happened. We will have a warranty, a vehicle that would provide service for the next twenty years. Interest rate is lower and we will be downsizing the fleet. Cost for insurance and repair costs will be saved. It would be to the advantage to have a public meeting, and if the public is not willing to spend the money they should have their feelings know. We have been charged with making decisions for the taxpayers in the Borough. Mr. Kohut said when the ladder is extended, it starts to bend down, per Mr. Frymoyer. We need to also decide to get rid of this piece of equipment if we cannot fix it or replace it. Mr. Foley said we must have a public hearing if we are going to increase their taxes.

6 Mr. Capaldo said no one disputes the need to replace equipment, but can we look at possibilities of used equipment, to save money, or to get the cost to repair the truck, all this in wait of the Revitalization comes to the Borough and we have more money to spend. Mr. Capaldo said he agrees it is a good time to finance. Mr. Dale Hemmerle said Revitalizationis all he reads about and isn t the Borough aware that when they look at your plans and you have equipment that is not operational. Mr. Hemmerle suggests that Mr. Bushar want to put 190 apartments down on his property, let him pay for half the cost of this equipment. He wants to put an apartment building in a flood plain. Mr. A. DiSanto said this has not even been decided. Mr. Hemmerle said the 1% and the school district is not a dead issue and has stated to come up again. Mr. P. DiSanto said we should wait until the end of year and look into the Budget, have a public meeting and see where we are. Mr. A. DiSanto asked Mr. P. DiSanto are you saying to wait until the end of the year? Yes, P. DiSanto said because he has a feeling we would have a deficit budget this year. Mr. Kohut said he would like to have a call for a public hearing set for August 6,2002. This is to get public input or public comment on the proposal for a fire tax and fire equipment. Mr. A. DiSanto said if you are going to have a public hearing don t bring up about how it is going to be listed in the tax issue. Mr. Kohut said he is looking for public comment for a new truck and to fund it through a fire tax. Mr. DiSanto said this is two issues for this Council. Mr. Kohut said then a purchase or no purchase of a fire truck. Mr. Pizza said it is not fair for the taxpayers to be asked if they want a new fire truck and hide the fact from them that it is going to take a tax to pay for it. If you want the truck, then you are going to have a tax increase. Mr. Kohut said he just wants the people to know what it is going to cost. Mr. Pizza said yes, but they still need to know how it is going to funded. Mr. Kohut said he would have no problem with this. He wants people to tell us whether they are willing to pay for the vehicle. If they are not, the public can tell us how we should go. Mr. Kohut asked if it is necessary as a standing committee for Council, are we required a certain amount of notice for advertising? Mr. Bello said it is not incumbent of you to give any notice, but it is certainly advisable to do an advertisement formally notifying the community both of the desire to purchase a new truck and the decision will also include how to finance the purchase of the new truck. It is the fair and appropriate way to get public input. Mr. Kohut said this is strictly a sub-committee, not Council who will run this meeting. Mr. Kohut said as Chairman of the Police Fire and Safety, he will run that meeting and take down the comments of this meeting, take down names and addresses. Mr. A. DiSanto said this will be just a committee meeting, and would like the best turn out as possible. August 6 th is still vacation time. Mr. Kohut said he wants to have the meeting as soon as possible. Mr. Kohut wants to have information to take back to Council at the August 13 th meeting. Mr. Kohut said in the mean time he will have the fire chiefs look into the fire trucks that are available and get back to Council, see what the costs are and the requirements that we want. Mr. P. DiSanto would be on vacation, Ms. Keirsey and Mr. Kohut as on the committee.

7 Date is now changed to August 19 th at 7:00 PM in the Borough Hall. Mr. Kohut asked Mr. McCandless to get the public notice out and advertised.. Mr. Kohut thanked Council Members for their time. ADJOURNMENT On motion of Council Member Foley and seconded by Council Member Kohut to adjourn this meeting at 8:54 PM. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, MARY JO DICKINSON RECORDING SECRETARY