City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-April 10, 2023 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff, President; Kleon Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., 4 Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young (Justin Gehman & Randall Justice not present) 5 6 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean Molchany, Asst 7 Borough Manager; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 8 9 Visitors: 10 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 11 Police Chief Higgins; West Earl Police Department 12 Megan Thompson; Herbein & Co. 13 Thomas Burnett 724 Fulton. St Akron 14 15 Roll Call 16 Kleon Zimmerman-present 17 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 18 Randall Justice-absent 19 Ryan Cochran-present 20 Bonnie Young-present 21 Nathan Imhoff President-present 22 Justin Gehman Vice President-absent 23 Mayor John McBeth-present 24 25 Meeting opened at 6:30pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 26 27 Approval of Minutes 28 Motion to approve Borough of Akron Council meeting minutes for March 27, 2023 29 Motion by Paul Swangren, Jr; second by Kleon Zimmerman 30 Bonnie Young mentioned that on page two of the minutes under Community Relations it should 31 state that less than 12% of Pennsylvania police departments are accredited. 32 Motion carried with change 33 34 35 Visitors/Comments from Public 36 Megan Thompson form Herbein & Company reviewed the 2022 Borough of Akron Audit with 37 Council and Mayor. Thompson distributed copies of the 2022 audit to Council and Mayor. It 38 was a clean audit and there were no findings. The 2022 DCED report was submitted before the 39 April 1, 2023 deadline. 40 41 Zoom-none 42 43 44 1  1 Bills- 2 Ryan Cochran moved to pay the bills as reviewed by the Finance Committee. Second by Kleon 3 Zimmerman 4 Motion carried 5 6 Reports/Announcements 7 Police Report- 8 Chief Higgins mentioned that he will have Police report for March 2023 at the next 9 meeting. Chief Higgins thanked Bonnie Young for her article on the police department. First 10 liaison meeting for 2023 will take place at Akron Borough Municipal Office on Wednesday, April 11 12, 2023 at 6pm 12 Chief Higgins shared that the Speed board will be placed in Akron in near future. 13 14 Mayor Report-none 15 16 Manager’s Report 17 Administration and Finance 18 Month End financials for March 2023 have been reconciled and April 2023 payables will be 19 reviewed by the Finance Committee 20 Parks and Property 21 5K run at Roland Park sponsored by US Road Running (Monica Padgett) will begin on April 22, 22 2023 23 Lancaster County Disc Golf Club has begun replacing the concrete pads in the Roland Park 24 during the week of April 3, 2023. Wesley Moyer from the Disc Golf Club reported vandalism to 25 some of the concrete pads along with a complaint that people are wading into the Roland Pond 26 to retrieve golf discs and trying to sell them. West Earl Police Department was notified and they 27 agreed to extra patrols through the Roland Park. 28 Streets 29 The Manor Ridge/Edgehill Drive Street project will tentatively begin April 26, 2023. Residents 30 will be notified the week of April 10, 2023 with scheduling and road work information. 31 Street sweeping will take place on Thursday, April 20 (East side) and Friday, April 21, 2023 32 (West side). 33 Public Utilities 34 The Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project is currently underway. Streets have been sawcut and 35 manhole at New and Tenth Streets has been installed. 36 Community Relations 37 Bonnie Young has scheduled concerts in the Roland Park for June 11, July 2, July 9 and July 30, 38 2023. 39 Planning and Zoning 40 A Borough Planning Commission meeting was held on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Members 41 reviewed zoning updates. The Planning commission made a recommendation to the Council for 42 approval of the subdivision land development plan for Weaver on Main Street based on a clean 43 review letter. 2  1 A Zoning Hearing is scheduled for April 20, 2023 and there are two applications. One for 21 N. 2 Seventh Street owned by Reid Myers who is requesting a use and dimension variances. The 3 other applicant, Bollinger, is requesting several variances for side yard setbacks, minimum lot 4 depth and clear sight triangle. Council has copies of the Notice. 5 Personnel 6 Staff has a potential hire for the Administrative Assistant position and is awaiting clearances for 7 a start date of April 17, 2023. 8 The Finance position is being pushed back at this time due to the hiring and training of a new 9 administrative assistant. 10 The Emergency Management Coordinator position is being reviewed by the Personnel 11 committee. 12 Other Business 13 Susan Davidson has gathered information on other companies for the mass messaging for 14 emergency and non-emergency items. Staff e-mailed council members and the mayor the link 15 for the Swiftreach information. This is on agenda for April 10, 2023 Council meeting. 16 PSAB’s annual conference is scheduled for June 4-7, 2023 at the Hershey Lodge. Contact staff 17 for more information or on-line under PSAB’s webpage. Contact staff if you will be attending. 18 There is a Lancaster County Solid Waste Management meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 19 27, 2023 from 7:30am-9:30am 20 21 The Easter Egg hunt sponsored by the Akron Lions Club on Saturday, April 8, 2023 at the 22 Roland Park was successful 23 Sewer project is over halfway. No issues 24 25 New garage doors are completed at the borough building. 26 27 Finance Report 28 March 31, 2023 General Fund $37,823.28 Water Fund $31,189.01 Sewer Fund $294,303.65 Highway Aid $262,811.45 General Fund Reserves General Fund Reserves Restricted $158,000.00 Restricted (Goal) $144,363.00 Operating $38,651.92 Capital $427,104.33 Total $623,756.25 Total $144,363.00 Water Fund Reserves 3  Restricted $72,992.00 Operating $235,007.29 Capital $0.00 Total $307,999.29 Sewer Fund Reserves Restricted $121,822.00 Operating $314,167.51 Capital $0.00 Total $435,989.51 Capital Projects $416.01 Community Fund $2,087.95 Non-Uniform Pension $2,440.44 Total $1,998,816.84 Escrow $6,160.65 1 2 3 Parks & Property 4 Sean Molchany talked with Randall Justice about Colonial Park concerning an existing planting 5 area that has not been maintained. Staff would like to remove it and plant grass. Tom Burnett 6 (visitor) asked that some of the plants be removed prior to replanting as they were an 7 expensive item. Paul Swangren, Jr. asked that the church that was responsible be notified prior 8 to removing the planting area. Tom Burnett mentioned that he will email staff on who to notify 9 in regards to the plantings at Colonial Park. 10 5K run at Roland Park sponsored by US Road Running (Monica Padgett) will begin on April 22, 11 2023 12 13 Community Relations- 14 Bonnie planned four concerts for Lloyd Roland Akron Park starting at 6:30 pm. 15 “Fire in the Glen” on June 11, 2023 16 “Rizzettas Tones” on July 2, 2023 17 “Harrisburg Mandolin Ensemble” on July 9, 2023 4  1 “Mitch and the Mood Swings” on July 30, 2023 2 3 4 5 Personnel Report 6 Staff has a potential hire for the Administrative Assistant position and is awaiting clearances for 7 a start date of April 17, 2023 8 9 Streets Report 10 Discussion on Manor Ridge/Edgehill Dr project work and request by contractor for design 11 changes. No design changes will be accepted; bid stands as it is currently. Residents who 12 needed sidewalk updates and did not get estimates will be required to pay the fees for the 13 contractor who is completing the project. Residents had a year to get estimates and provide 14 council with signed contracts. 15 16 Public Utilities Report-nothing new 17 18 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 19 20 Old Business 21 SwiftReach-Paul Swangren, Jr. recommended allowing the staff to make the decision on 22 how to proceed for mass communication. 23 24 Colonial Park Pavilion-Sean Molchany had one estimate from a contractor in the 25 Council packets for the proposed Colonial Park Pavilion and i t does not include the ADA 26 accessibility path or electric. Paul Swangren, Jr. shared concerns about location and would like 27 to see that it be near the Rosenberger building. Nathan Imhoff asked Sean Molchany to stake 28 the location out and take a picture for council members. 29 Motion by Ryan Cochran to move on the construction of the pavilion at Colonial Park using the 30 Prime Home Contracting LLC and not to exceed $25,000.00 Second by Bonnie Young. 31 Motion carried 32 33 Food Vendor Trucks-Sean Molchany and Ryan Cochran reviewed surrounding 34 municipalities’ ordinances regarding food trucks. Sean Molchany will work on a draft ordinance 35 for Council’s consideration. 36 37 New Business 38 Sewer Project Application for payment-contractor submitted for payment #1; reviewed 39 by engineer 40 Paul Swangren, Jr. motion to approve Payment#1 and Change Order#1 for the 2022 Sanitary 41 Sewer Replacement in accordance with the Borough’s Engineer recommendation to Ankewicz 42 Enterprises, Inc. in the amount of $110,751.75. Motion second by Kleon Zimmerman 43 Motion carried 44 Approval of change order 5  1 Paul Swangren, Jr. made a motion to approve change order #1 in amount of $6300.00 second 2 by Kleon Zimmerman 3 Motion carried 4 Emergency Management Coordinator-ongoing 5 Junior Council member-Bonnie Young and Justin Gehman along with staff will work on 6 contacting the school and researching. The Mayor shared that in the past the only benefit for 7 the student is to put it on their resumes. Also, that meeting nights interfere with student 8 activities and recommends that this is clear to the students prior to recommending them. 9 Correspondence and Petitions 10 Lancaster County Solid Waste Management meeting invitations sent to Council members and 11 Mayor. 12 13 14 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:40 by Paul Swangren, Jr. second by Kleon Zimmerman 15 Motion carried 16 17 18 19 Respectfully Submitted, 20 21 Susan Davidson, Borough Manager/Secretary 22 6