City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-January 23, 2023 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff, President; Justin Gehman, Vice-President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr.,Randall Justice, Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young 5 Others Present: Mayor Jon McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean Molchany, 6 Assistant Borough Manager; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 7 Visitors: Sgt. Jorden Byrnes West Earl PD; 8 John Taylor, 216 S. 8th St. Akron 9 Larry Alexander, Ephrata Review 10 Richard Rupp, Akron 11 Sue Glick, 119 S. 10th St Akron 12 Sam & Jaclyn Hurst, 699 Broad St. Akron 13 14 Roll Call 15 Kleon Zimmerman-present 16 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 17 Randall Justice-absent 18 Ryan Cochran-present 19 Bonnie Young-present/Zoom 20 Nathan Imhoff-present 21 Justin Gehman-present 22 Mayor John McBeth-present 23 24 Meeting opened at 6:30pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 25 26 Approval of Minutes 27 Motion to approve minutes for December 12, 2022 by Paul Swangren, Jr second by Ryan 28 Cochran. Kleon Zimmerman mentioned that on page 6 line 1 his concern was not with taking 29 rental money but the Hub building itself is a liability. 30 Motion approved with amended changes. 31 32 Motion to approve minutes for January 9, 2023 by Ryan Cochran second by Kleon Zimmerman. 33 Motion approved. 34 35 Visitors/Comments from Public 36 John Taylor-compliment to West Earl Police Department. Taylor mentioned he was walking 37 today and someone reported him to the police and said he was carrying a rifle but it was 38 actually an umbrella. An officer approached him with the complaint and John complimented 39 the officer for addressing the complaint. 40 41 Zoom-no visitors on zoom 42 43 Bills 44 Ryan said that there are a number of bills that came in so he needs approval to pay the bills. 1  1 Motion by Ryan Cochran second by Paul Swangren, Jr. to pay bills. 2 Susan Davidson said that the PPL bills were late and that is reason another motion was 3 necessary. 4 Motion carried. 5 6 Reports/Announcements 7 8 Police Report 9 Jordan Byrnes represented West Earl Police Department. 10 West Earl Outreach Events- list of events shared with Council members 11 12 Mayor Report- 13 Handed out brochure for the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley 14 15 Borough Managers Report-none 16 17 Administration and Finance 18 None 19 20 Parks & Property-None; waiting to hear about Colonial Park Pavilion Estimates 21 22 Community Relations 23 None 24 25 Personnel Report- 26 Paul Swangren, Jr. mentioned a personnel meeting was held prior to Council meeting and goals 27 were set 28 Reviewed new position job description and copies of the job description will be emailed to 29 Council. 30 31 Streets Report 32 Street sweeping scheduled for April 20 and 21. There will only be one street sweeping this year 33 due to budget constraints. Sean Molchany said there would be signage to make residents 34 aware of sweeping to remove parked cars. Discussion ensued on phone calls for reminders as 35 most people now have cell phones and the phone calls go to land lines that are no longer 36 available. 37 Swiftreach was bought by a new company and it will be more expensive. Discussion related to 38 researching other options. Discussion of using e-mail or Facebook or website. Sean 39 recommended WGAL or door hangers. 40 Susan Davidson will reach out to different municipalities to see what type of notification they 41 use and will try to have more information at the February meeting. 42 43 Public Utilities Report-none 44 Paul Swangren, Jr. mentioned that sewer flows are up. 2  1 2 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 3 4 Old Business 5 West View Drive Dedication Process Petition-to be discussed later in the meeting 6 7 Roland Park 5K race request-Susan Davidson spoke with a representative regarding this and 8 got additional information. 9 Time frame would be 7:30-8:00 to 10:00am; small staging; parking; only 30-40 people; actual 10 run is on the Roland Park bike trail. 11 Concerns by Council: too small parking, too many people, other organizations have submitted 12 requests. No local groups are charged fees for usage. Discussion on limiting to three months 13 and then seeing how it works. Residents participating in run are local residents. Group is just to 14 encourage people to get out and run. Kleon Zimmerman shared that his wife looked into this 15 group and thought it was a good thing. Another recommendation was to “just see how it goes 16 this year”. Local chapter could come to a Council meeting and share information. Susan 17 Davidson will reach out to the local contact to come to a meeting to speak to Council with 18 details. 19 20 Borough Newsletter-discussion regarding the mailing of the newsletter to save postage, time 21 and money as many residents don’t read it and or most rental throw away instead of sharing 22 with renters. Suggested changes included putting on Akron Borough Website and Facebook 23 pages rather than sending with the water bills. Discussion on only cutting rentals. 24 Communication of the change would come in first mailing of the water/sewer bill. 25 Comment from Akron resident to use resident e-mails. Option could be for residents to sign up 26 for e-mail option. Sean Molchany mentioned that the newsletter is always put on the Webpage. 27 28 Ordinance 2023-001-Overnight Parking 29 Ryan Cochran made a motion to approve Ordinance 2023-01 amending the Overnight Parking 30 Ordinance. Justin Gehman seconded the motion. 31 Motion approved. 32 33 New Business 34 Motions and Decisions 35 Acknowledgments 36 Street Dedication- 37 Motion was made by Ryan Cochran to acknowledge receipt of the Street Dedication for 38 West View Drive and to authorize staff to coordinate advertisement with the Borough 39 Solicitor. Kleon Zimmerman seconded the motion. Motion approved. 40 41 Other Business/Deliberations 42 None 43 Correspondence and Petitions 44 Ephrata Public Library 2022 4th Quarter Report 3  1 Discussion on library financial report made available for Council for review. 2 Nathan Imhoff and Bonnie Young will plan a meeting with the Ephrata Library Director 3 and Library board to try and create a relationship between Council and library. 4 5 Adjournment -motion to adjourn by Paul Swangren, Jr at 7:30 p.m. with second by Justin 6 Gehman 7 Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. 8 9 Respectfully submitted, 10 11 Susan Davidson 12 Borough Manager/Secretary 13 14 SD 15 4