MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
MARCH 3, 2008
The regular meeting of the Martinsburg Borough Council was held on Monday, March 3, 2008, in the municipal building. The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. with prayer by Randy Stoltz and the Pledge of Allegiance.
ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT: Mayor Donald C. Greenleaf, President Nathan P. Ormsby, Pro-Tem Christopher E. Brooks, Councilman Rex L. Hartman, Councilwoman Connie S. Lamborn, and Councilman Suzanne B. McNally
ALSO PRESENT were Manager Randy Stoltz, Borough Secretary Jane Staily, Attorney Frederick B. Gieg, Jr., Chief Kerry Hoover, Richard Brantner, Jr., Sgr. Justin Davis, Marty Malone of Lehman Engineering, Daniel Border and Matt Isenberg of the Hollidaysburg Ambulance Associaiton, and Sharon Snyder of the Morrisons Cove Herald.
Marty Malone of Lehman Engineering was present proposing an agreement be signed between Lehman Engineering and the borough so they can act at the committee’s engineer/consultant for the town center revitalization project. He reported that a $98,000 federal grant was already obtained through Congressman Bill Shuster to be received in about 6-8 months from the application approval date, which could be as soon as July 2008. None of the $98,000 grant will be spent to obtain additional grants. He will not charge for grantsmanship as long as the borough uses his firm for the engineering. The $98,000 grant is not going to be enough to complete the project. There is not going to be any money available through the transportation enhancement project until all of the old projects are completed. No new applicants will be taken for the year 2008. A proposal was prepared by Lehman Engineering for the borough’s consideration to complete the required topographical survey which is quite detailed. He presented a brief description of the project management stages. He proposed to do the final schematic drawing project management for a total fee of $33,750 to be paid from the grant money. No borough money will be needed for this portion of the project. He will not begin work under this agreement until sufficient funds are received. No further monies will be requested through the appropriations act again. Plans for this phase of the project are to get the money needed; prepare the topographical drawings to scale; brainstorm with the Revitalization Committee; then come up with a theme and strategic plan so they have something for the public to look at at a public meeting. Council on a motion by Chris Brooks, seconded by Suzanne McNally, accepted the proposal as written. The motion passed unanimously. President Nathan Ormsby executed the agreement.
The MINUTES of the regular meeting of February 4, 2008, were approved on a motion by Suzanne McNally, seconded by Rex Hartman. The motion passed unanimously.
The FINANCIAL AND TREASURER’S REPORTS were presented for February 2008 as written.
The LIST OF BILLS for February 2008, check nos. 4102-4142 in the amount of $13,283.04 was approved on a motion by Chris Brooks, seconded by Suzanne McNally. The motion passed unanimously.
Mayor Don Greenleaf reported that he attended a night vision presentation at the airport and also at the Morrisons Cove Memorial Park. The department is grateful for the night vision equipment donated to them by the manufacturer. Reported there were several ongoing police investigations going on. He was in the process of working on a key map of all the borough street lights. This will be a very important tool to be used when contacting Penelec as maintenance to the street lights is needed.
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MARCH 3, 2008 – PAGE 2
Suzanne McNally reported that she was receiving complaints of how dark it is at the corner of Spring and S. Market Streets when the street light is out. Sgt. Davis volunteer to obtain a pole number for that street light to be called in to Penelec when Manager Stoltz reported that Penelec was already working on putting a new light there. Mayor Greenleaf expressed a need for a cross-walk in that area especially in the summer time for the swimming pool traffic.
Chief Hoover presented his police report as written. He also reported that he attended a meeting on February 6 with Don Grass from Highway Safety on how to apply for grant money to be used towards the officers wages through the seat belt campaign. The Seat belt safety enforcement allows up to $4,000 to be used towards the officers wages, which will enable the department to have two officers on duty at one time to slow traffic down. Patrolmen Robison and Gunnett attended Narcotics identification kit training at the Altoona Railroaders Museum, which is a 4-hour course to certify them to conduct drug field testing. Chief Hoover was contacted by PennDOT to see if the borough was interested in pedestrian crossing signs for the center of the highway – he will be discussing this with Manager Stoltz. The signs may be helpful in the area of Fox’s Pizza and Ed’s Riverside; the Morrisons Cove Home; and the Park on Walnut Street. There was some discussion of painting lines on Walnut Street for pedestrian traffic. They also discussed the possibility of have the sidewalks replaced on E. Allegheny Street from town center to Walnut Street as part of the town center street scape project which could also tie in Locust Street. The police lockers have been built by Rich and Brian. There will be a Town Hall meeting on April 4 at the Casino to discuss under age drinking in Blair County. Held a press conference at the Morrisons Cove Memorial Park on February 26 to announce that night vision equipment was donated to the police department by Night Vision Systems through the Leah Hoover Memorial Fund. Cost of the equipment if purchased new would have been $4,000. Chief Hoover had the equipment available for council to look at. He will contact Hershberger & Myers Insurance to add it to the borough’s equipment list. Currently only Chief Hoover and Sgt. Davis are using the equipment until the other officers are trained on it. Roaring Spring Borough has the same night vision equipment.
Manager Stoltz reported that he attended pesticide training in Somerset; attended the annual construction code meeting to discuss appeals to the construction code – there is one appeal board for all municipalities and currently no hearings have been held; received 6” of snow on February 12 – used a lot of salt on the many nuisance snows; attended the Revitalization Committee Meeting on February 15 with Theo Robinson, PSAB’s Outreach Specialist – he was given a quick tour of our town; Brian and Gary attended a water and sewer training class in Bedford on Feburary 19. The next Revitalization Committee Meeting in March to be announced.
Manager Stoltz spoke with Penelec regarding power outages as discussed last month. The only way Penelec knows if Martinsburg has an outage is for someone to call them and tell them there is an outage. They can usually get the problem fixed quicker than the time it would take to notify someone that they are repairing it. They have radio switching to reroute power without actually having to come out. They do contact us if they know it is going to be out for a period of time. Manager Stoltz as the emergency management coordinator has the Grace Brethren Church and the ambulance building as scheduled housing during prolonged outages since both buildings have emergency generators.
Secretary/Treasurer Jane Staily reported that the 2007 borough audit will be scheduled for sometime in March.
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Attorney Gieg recommended that the key to the process regarding the agreement with Lehman Engineering is to make certain the money is there before taking the next step on the town center revitalization. Regarding the new cable franchise agreement, the committees are making a lot of progress but it is not complete yet. Some of the unresolved issues they are discussing are that the cable company wants a 12 year contact even though most cable contracts are usually for 10 years or less. The company is self insured, which is not a major issue and the fact that they are doing criminal checks on their employees is a good issue.
A draft agreement was received from Theo Robbins of the PSAB Grants Program. He is willing to reduce his fee from $100/hr. to $35/hr. to provide technical assistance and grant writing. This is not the same work as Marty Malone is proposing nor is it a duplication of services. This fee cannot be paid from grant money obtained, rather it must be paid from the borough general fund. Manager Stoltz felt the agreement would be worth the money because Mr. Robbins has such a wealth of knowledge in these matters. Attorney Gieg agreed that it was a fabulous idea at this rate and will review the agreement once it is prepared to be considered at the next council meeting.
In response to the auditor general’s audit report for January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2006 on the finding in the non-uniformed pension plan regarding the Principal dividends received, a letter was written to the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System in request for their recommendation on how to proceed to get us back into compliance.
Suzanne McNally suggested that the Garden Club should be notified if council wishes to continue with the Yard of the Month contest. It was the consensus of council to continue the program. She also wanted to thank council for allowing her, Rex and Connie to attend the new council seminar in State College. It was very informative, well organized and well presented.
Correspondence was received from Senator John Eichelberger, Jr. inviting council to attend the Town Hall Meeting on March 4th in Tyrone.
Council also received an invitation to attend an informal PSAB breakfast meeting in State College.
Chief Hoover reported that he sent an e-mail to Arlin Roth regarding putting a NIMS training together.
Mayor Greenleaf expressed his concern regarding leaf clean-up in the fall and would like council to consider incorporating something in the form of an ordinance setting up a time limit to have them cleaned up by. It was discussed that disposal of the leaves are sometimes a problem for residents as most trash haulers do not accept yard waste.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:40 p.m. on a motion by Chris Brooks, seconded by Suzanne McNally. The motion passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
M. Jane Staily
Secretary