City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-March 27, 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 6 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean Molchany, 7 Assistant Borough Manager; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker; Larry Alexander, Ephrata Review. 8 9 Visitors: John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 10 Chris Beiler-40 S. 10th St. Akron 11 12 Roll Call 13 Kleon Zimmerman-present 14 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 15 Randall Justice-present 16 Ryan Cochran-present 17 Bonnie Young-present 18 Nathan Imhoff, President-present 19 Justin Gehman, Vice-President-present 20 Mayor John McBeth-present 21 22 Meeting opened at 6:30pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 23 24 Approval of Minutes 25 Motion to approve the Borough of Akron Council meeting minutes for March 13, 2023 26 Motion by Justin Gehman; second by Randall Justice. 27 Motion carried. 28 29 Visitors/Comments from Public-none 30 31 Zoom- none 32 33 Reports/Announcements 34 Police Report-Police Chief Higgins was not present at the meeting. The Police Report 35 was distributed to Council members and Mayor. 36 37 Mayor Report-none 38 39 Manager’s Report 40 Administration & Finance-Susan Davidson met with Herbein Auditors last week to 41 discuss the 2022 audit and DCED report. Herbein Auditors will be at the April 10, 2023 Council 42 meeting to review the 2022 Audit report. 43 44 Parks and Property-none 1  1 2 3 Administration and Finance-none 4 5 Parks & Property 6 7 Community Relations- Bonnie Young interviewed West Earl Police Chief Higgins and wrote an 8 article on the West Earl Police Chief Eric Higgins and the accreditation for the police 9 departments. Bonnie mentioned that less than 12% of Pennsylvania police departments are 10 accredited. 11 Bonnie Young is planning the summer concerts in the Akron Roland Park and mentioned that 12 the cost would be more than last year. Randall Justice’s Law Firm agreed to the increases for 13 funding the summer concerts. 14 15 Parks and Property-Roland Park Disc Golf Course tees will be updated by the Lancaster County 16 Disc Golf Club and along with the tee signs they would like to have sponsorship signs to help 17 raise money for this project. 18 19 Personnel Report- Paul Swangren, Jr. mentioned that this is an offer pending for administrative 20 assistant. Discussion on Emergency Management Coordinator and role for Akron Borough 21 22 Streets Report-A preconstruction meeting took place March 15, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. for the 23 Manor Ridge/Edgehill Street project. The tentative start date for the street project is April 26, 24 2023. Sean Molchany will send a construction schedule when available. 25 26 Public Utilities Report-nothing new 27 28 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 29 30 Old Business 31 SwiftReach—Discussion on best way to mass communicate to residents of Akron 32 Borough when the need arises. Several companies reviewed by staff including the current 33 company SwiftReach. Discussion by Council on the most efficient and cost-effective way to 34 communicate to Akron residents. Suggestions for use of other social media and door to door 35 hangers. Social media meets DEP regulations. Managers suggestion is that Borough would not 36 need to continue with SwiftReach since the social media and web page would send the 37 information. Nathan Imhoff recommended telling residents how they could be contacted in 38 case of a mass announcement. 39 Colonial Park Pavilion-Assistant Borough Manager, Sean Molchany has another 40 estimate of a costar provider than is $10,000 less than last estimate. Project can move forward 41 with donated monies. Two locations are being reviewed at park for pavilion; one near 42 Rosenberger and one between playground and gazebo. 12 X 16 size. Sidewalk not included in 43 cost for accessibility. Sidewalk for accessibility will be a time and material per quote. Put on 44 agenda for next meeting with estimates. 2  1 2 Food Vendor Trucks-permit picked up by vendor; Sean Molchany says he has no 3 instruction on updating Akron Ordinances. Ryan Cochran and Sean Molchany will meet to 4 discuss the ordinance update. 5 6 7 New Business 8 PPL LED Street Light Resolution- 9 Motion by Paul Swangren, Jr. to approve Resolution 23-001 and agreement between Akron 10 Borough and PPL providing for the furnishing of the conversion of 19 streets lights located on 11 Route 272 to LED. Motion was seconded by Kleon Zimmerman. 12 Motion carried 13 Jr. Council Member Program-Discussion on council opinions to invite college or high 14 school students to attend meetings to see how government is run in the Borough. 15 Justin Gehman felt it would be a good idea to reinstitute this program and wanted opinion of 16 council. Student would have to be an Akron resident and term would be 1-2 years. School 17 counselors would be involved. Nathan Imhoff recommended looking into the program prior to 18 decision making. 19 Council would need to prepare a resolution. 20 21 Correspondence and Petitions 22 Comcast Franchise Agreement-letter from Comcast came to municipality on the 23 franchise renewal process. 24 25 Volunteer Fire Fighter Tax Credit Information-Discussion on how the credit works. Lots 26 of bookkeeping related to this program. 27 28 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:30 by Paul Swangren, Jr; second by Kleon Zimmerman 29 Motion carried 30 31 Meeting Adjourned, 32 33 Respectfully submitted, 34 35 Susan Davidson 36 Borough Manager/Secretary 37 38 SD 39 40 3