MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
MARCH 6, 2006
The regular meeting of the Martinsburg Borough Council was held on Monday, March 6, 2006, in the municipal building. The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. with prayer by Randy Stoltz and the Pledge of Allegiance.
COUNCIL PRESENT: Brian K. Gahagan, Sheldon O. Smith, Chris E. Brooks,
Doreen K. Easly, and Nathan P. Ormsby
In addition to the council, present were Manager Randy Stoltz, Secretary Jane Staily, Attorney Frederick Gieg, Attorney Cathy Miller, Chief Kerry Hoover, Mayor Don Greenleaf, Rebekka Coakley of the Altoona Mirror, and Dan Horton of the Morrisons Cove Herald.
The MINUTES of the regular meeting of January 3, 2006, were approved as corrected on a motion by Nathan Ormsby, seconded by Chris Brooks. The motion passed unanimously. The correction was to page 3 as follows:
“On a motion by Sheldon Smith, seconded by Chris Brooks, council agreed to take over the lot and improve it. Manager Stoltz and the borough engineers will work on the layout. The motion passed unanimously.” change to “On a motion by Sheldon Smith, seconded by Chris Brooks, council authorized Manager Stoltz to pursue an agreement with Mr. Over regarding the parking lot. The motion passed unanimously.”
Doreen Easly presented a review of the FINANCIAL AND TREASURER’S REPORTS for February 2006.
Chris Brooks questioned the Spring Street Ditch balance. Manager Stoltz reported that some of the grant money may have to be returned.
The LIST OF BILLS for February 2006, check nos. 3011-3078 in the amount of $21,234.05 was approved on a motion by Doreen Easly, seconded by Nathan Ormsby. The motion passed unanimously.
Mayor Donald Greenleaf reported that he met with Chief Hoover several times throughout the month and will continue to confer with him. Mayor Greenleaf attended two neighborhood crime watch meetings.
Chief Hoover presented his report as written. February was an unusually busy month. About twenty-five people attended the Neighborhood Crime Watch Meeting. The speaker was a representative from the 911 Center. The next meeting will be held on March 14th at 7:00 p.m. The speaker will be a victim witness coordinator from the District Attorney’s office. The meetings are getting a good turn out and a lot of input. The department’s newest officer is almost ready to work on his own. Chief Hoover is preparing a firearms policy. Chief Hoover is in the process of putting the entire police manual on CD so that each officer will have a copy. The department did not get their leather gear for their firearms yet.
Manager Stoltz reported that he attended pesticide training; met with Pennsylvania Clean-Ways – the annual clean up is set for Saturday, April 22, from 9-2 p.m.- borough residents will be sent a mailer and must bring it along with their items to the drop-off site; the Cove Area Regional Digester committee held a farmers meeting and a regular public meeting on February 27th – reactions were positive – the committee went to Harrisburg to meet with D.E.P. – the Ritchey’s Dairy site for the location of the proposed digester project has been surveyed and the committee is working on a subdivision plan.
MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
MARCH 6, 2006 – PAGE 2
Attorney Gieg reported that the real estate tax appeal with Cove Shoe is scheduled at the end of March. Attorney Gieg commenced the title search on the Richard Over property to make sure the title on the parking lot is clear. As a municipal authority matter, the authority will be taking over the water and sewer lines in the Village at Morrisons Cove development. He started working on the exotic pet ordinance and will have it finished for council to review next month.
Attorney Cathy Miller reported that she has been looking at various codes for the Construction Code Regional Board of Appeals. She was preparing an ordinance and will mail it to Jane Staily for advertisement. Council on a motion by Nathan Ormsby, seconded by Chris Brooks, authorized to advertise ordinance no. 2006-560 as membership into the Construction Code Board of Appeals to consider for adoption next month. The motion passed unanimously.
Attorney Miller has information on a computer consultant from an area municipality that Manager Stoltz might be interested in using for setting up the borough’s web page.
Mayor Greenleaf mentioned a topic of interest about using windmills, but realized that there was no place in the town of Martinsburg for such a venture.
The Martinsburg Volunteer Fire Company is selling chicken barbeque tickets for Saturday, March 25th.
Doreen Easly and Suzanne McNally will be setting up a meeting with Dan Horton of the Morrisons Cove Herald to discuss how the town celebrated past town anniversaries.
Sheldon Smith reported on the Booster’s downtown revitalization plan. Their next meeting to discuss the topic was Thursday, March 9th at 6:30 p.m. Planner Richard Sutter has been designated to help with the project. Sheldon recommended that the mayor and council attend this meeting.
The word for a 175th Anniversary was “Terquasquicentennial” that of which no one could pronounce. Manager Stoltz contacted the borough’s association to see what most people call this celebration. It is most oftentimes called the “175th Anniversary”. Randy suggested a contest to see if they could come up with a new name. The contest will be advertised in the Morrisons Cove Herald and the results will be tallied for next month. Martinsburg will be the first borough in Blair County to hit its 175th Anniversary (next year 2007).
The Yard of the Month Contest will be easier to administer this year. It will start one month earlier. The Garden Club is scheduled to meet in March to discuss the contest.
Manager Stoltz was in contact with Richard Over and he was receptive to the idea of the borough taking over the parking lot. He will be saving a big up front cost by the borough taking it over, but he wants a guarantee that it will be improved quickly before he would be willing to give it up. Mr. Over implied that he would e-mail his stipulation to Randy, but he hasn’t received it yet. Gerald Pastva contacted Randy and expressed his willingness for work with the borough on the lot. He had already surveyed it for the previous owner and was offering it to the borough free of charge. Richard Over was planning to install an air conditioning unit on the lot for his building, but it could be put in the back of the lot. The parking lot will be an enormous improvement to town center.
Chris Brooks was offering the borough his computer services Partnered PC Solutions LLC Consulting on a retainer basis. Chief Hoover, Manager Stoltz and Jane
MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
MARCH 6, 2006 – PAGE 3
Staily have already been using his services, mostly free of charge. His proposal was a $300 monthly retainage fee which would cover 8 hours per month. Any time over and above the first eight hours would be charged at $45 per hour, a discounted rate to his regular hourly rate. The police department has the J-net Program coming up. Jane Staily on the authority end will be requesting his help to finalize the set up of the water and sewer billing program and he was willing to help with setting up the borough’s web page. The council was not prepared to act on such a proposal so it was tabled until next month.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:11 p.m. on a motion by Nathan Ormsby, seconded by Doreen Easly. The motion passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
M. Jane Staily
Borough Secretary