City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-February 27, 2023 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff, President; Justin Gehman, Vice-President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran , Randall Justice, Bonnie Young 5 6 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean Molchany, 7 Assistant Borough Manager (Zoom), Thomas J. Murray, Jr. Akron Borough Public Works 8 Supervisor, West Earl Police Chief Eric Higgins, Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 9 Visitors: John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 10 Dawn Stauffer-209 S. 10th St 11 Sue Glick-119 S. 10th St 12 Larry Alexander-Ephrata Review 13 Chris Beiler-40 S. 10th St 14 Monica Padgett, US Road Running (Zoom) 15 16 Roll Call 17 Kleon Zimmerman-present 18 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 19 Randall Justice-present 20 Ryan Cochran-present 21 Bonnie Young-present 22 Nathan Imhoff-present 23 Justin Gehman-present 24 Mayor John McBeth-present 25 26 Meeting opened at 6:30pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 27 28 Approval of Minutes 29 Motion to approve minutes for February 13, 2023 30 Motion by Paul Swangren Jr. second by Ryan Cochran 31 Mayor McBeth requested additional information about sidewalks be added to the minutes. 32 Motion carried 33 34 Visitors/Comments from Public 35 No comments from public 36 37 Zoom-Monica Padgett, US Road Running 38 Roland Park 5K race request 39 Monica Padgett Vice-president of Road Running attended via Zoom. Monica mentioned this 40 group has approximately 300 members across the nation. She grew up in Akron and thought 41 that running at Akron Park would be good monthly opportunity for local people to run. 30-50 42 runners approximately participate in a race. This provides “big race” feel for local communities 43 and is a good opportunity for volunteering of local community especially students. Ryan 44 Cochran was mentioned the runners need to use the sidewalk not the street when running up 1  1 Main Street and to allow for any walkers to using the sidewalk to not have to move. Paul 2 Swangren, Jr. asked if the organization is renting the lodge and Monica mentioned they will not 3 be there long enough or have enough people to rent the lodge or pavilion and will only need a 4 small area for a staging area. Susan Davidson asked what if it’s bad weather and Monica said 5 we will have the run unless the runners decide differently. The start date is Saturday, April 3, 6 2023 from approximately 7:30 am to 10:30 am. (the races are once a month) Nathan Imhoff 7 mentioned that this is part of the Akron Borough Comprehensive Plan under the health section. 8 Randall Justice mentioned that a certificate of insurance is needed and including the Borough of 9 Akron as an additional insured. 10 11 Randall Justice made motion to allow the 5K Run organization to use the Roland park. Justin 12 Gehman seconded the motion. Kleon Zimmerman mentioned any logistical issues need to be 13 worked out with the Borough. Motion carried. 14 15 Davidson will send the Park 5K dates to Chief Higgins. 16 17 Bills-none 18 19 Reports/Announcements 20 Police Report- 21 West Earl Police Chief Eric Higgins -updated date/time for Coffee with a Cop was moved 22 from March 4 to March 10 so not to interfere with the Akron Volunteer Fire Company 23 breakfast. It will be held at the Akron Borough Municipal building from 10am to noon. 24 Bonnie Young asked the Ephrata Review to take a picture at this event and will check 25 with Editors at paper. Chief Higgins mentioned that there are a number of events for 26 officers are scheduled with residents. 27 Bonnie Young asked if there was any article about Officer training etc. and if not, she 28 would be glad to facilitate that and write an article. 29 Mayor McBeth asked where the speed board has been. Chief shared that he has not 30 been the board up due to winter weather. 31 32 Mayor Report-none 33 34 Administration and Finance 35 Information on the Notice of payment turnback maintenance and Liquid Fuels Payment 36 for March 2023 provided to Council and Mayor. 37 38 Community Relations 39 Bill Stein and his band the Rizzetta’s Tones will be given first opportunity to provide 40 music for Akron Park Concerts for this summer. Bonnie Young thanked Randall Justice 41 and his law firm for sponsoring the music in the Roland Park again this year. 42 43 Bonnie interviewed Greg Leisey Emergency Management Coordinator but will hold off 44 on the article at this time because of a few glitches. 2  1 2 Parks & Property 3 Randall Justice had three items. Follow up e-mail from Ed Nyce who lodged a concern 4 that the lights in Roland Park at the well house off of Main Street are too bright and is 5 asking for a follow up on that concern. Was anything done to turn them down? Sean 6 Molchany mentioned they are LED lights and if there is a measurement to property line 7 that there is no overlap on property line. Resident may notice more when leaves are 8 down. Borough Managers will place something around the light so it is not shining on 9 the residents property. 10 Randall Justice saw that a tree was removed in the Roland Park and that the stump left 11 had a large hole and could be unsafe. Public Works will check it out tomorrow. 12 Discussion on the lack of progress for the pavilion and the donated monies from 13 Rosenberger. Nathan Imhoff has scheduled a meeting with Mr. Spenser regarding the 14 lack of progress due to lack of communication from builders. Discussion of the project 15 included offering a deadline for progress or lack thereof with agreement from 16 Rosenberger for return of donated monies. This item will be on the March 13, 2023 17 meeting agenda. 18 19 20 Personnel Report- 21 Committee met tonight and only Agenda item was finance administrator with discussion 22 on job description and transition to management team for the future. Paul Swangren, Jr. 23 would like to get this on the agenda for the next council meeting for discussion. 24 Question by Dawn Stauffer-wondered how long the transition period would be? Would 25 this be longer than one year? Paul Swangren, Jr. said no. 26 27 Streets Report 28 Street sweeping starts in April. Thursday, April 20 and Friday April 21. 29 30 The Borough does not have a date for the pre-construction meeting for the street work on 31 Manor Ridge and Edgehill Drives. 32 33 Public Utilities Report- 34 The sewer project will begin tomorrow and will begin with street cutting. Still waiting for 35 some dates for manholes. 6 months is length of project. 36 During the day the street will be closed but open during evening and night. 37 4-6 weeks for section. 38 39 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 40 41 Old Business 42 43 44 . 3  1 2 Swiftreach 3 Susan Davidson mentioned currently SwiftReach is used by Borough for $720.00/year will go to 4 $1250/year with Rave and would be unlimited 5 Davidson mentioned that there are other companies she is looking into and will may be more 6 than $1250/year. Davidson hopes to have more information by the next meeting. 7 8 Pavilion 9 Ryan Cochran mentioned that the Colonial Park pavilion issue has been going on for so long and 10 not much progress that we should set a date when we get something finalized. Randall Justice 11 said that the company has asked for the money back, however, Nathan Imhoff could ask 12 permission for the council to work on project until April 24, 2023 if agreeable to the company. 13 Nathan says that 2 months should be appropriate time to contact contractors and make April 14 24, 2023 the date for finalization. 15 16 Food Vendor Trucks 17 Ryan Cochran and Sean Molchany met to review ordinances and license requirement for 18 Vendor truck and found that Business License and permits could cover this for 90 days. 19 Ryan met with vendor to explain process for licensing for a vendor truck. The vendor will need 20 to submit an application for review and approval. 21 22 23 New Business 24 Emergency Management Coordinator discussion regarding communication between 25 coordinator and council and Council having reports and an updated policy. Paul Swangren, Jr. 26 was asked to present this to the Personnel committee for further review as to structure of 27 position and better coordination with council. Bonnie Young agreed and this item will be on the 28 March 13, 2023 meeting agenda under Old Business. 29 30 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn meeting was made by Paul Swangren, Jr; second by Ryan 31 Cochran 32 Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 07:45 p.m. 33 34 35 Respectfully submitted, 36 37 Susan Davidson 38 Borough Manager/Secretary 39 SD 40 4