City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-July 10, 2023 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff, President; Paul Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran, Bonnie 4 Young, (Justin Gehman, Kleon Zimmerman, 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 Sgt. Jordan Byrnes, West Earl Police Department 12 Tom Burnett 724 Fulton St Akron 13 Glen Beiler 117 Broad St. Akron 14 Tanya Haynes 103 Broad St. Akron 15 16 Roll Call 17 Kleon Zimmerman-absent 18 Randall Justice-absent (resignation accepted later in the meeting) 19 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 20 Ryan Cochran-present 21 Bonnie Young-present 22 Nathan Imhoff President-present 23 Justin Gehman Vice President-absent 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 June 26, 2023 30 Motion by Paul Swangren; second by Ryan Cochran 31 Discussion: line 23 on page 3 by Bonnie Young, she stated that she was at the meeting for the 32 pavilion location and she also said that she remembered that the Mayor said that the grade 33 could be steeper than 2%. Change “closed” to closer to the playground. 34 Motion carried 35 36 Visitors/Comments from Public 37 Tonya Haines 103 Broad St 38 Zoom-none 39 Bills- 40 Ryan motions to approve July 2023 disbursements to pay bills. Second by Paul Swangren, Jr 41 Motion carried 42 Reports/Announcements 43 Police Report 1  1 West Earl Police Sgt. Byrnes mentioned to Council that Chief Higgins could not be at this 2 meeting. 3 Sgt. Byrnes also mentioned that the accreditation process/audit is taking place this week at 4 their station. 5 6 Mayor Report 7 Street Closure Request for Akron Volunteer Fire Company Open House for Tuesday July 18, 8 2023 A request letter was forwarded to Mayor McBeth for his approval for closing a section of 9 Main Street from Dawn to Diamond Street. The mayor requested to have the Fire Company 10 parking lot open on east side. Mayor stated it will be approved. Discussion on how to direct the 11 cars during the open house. 12 13 Manager’s Report 14 Administration & Finance 15 June 2023 month-end financials have been reconciled 16 July 2023 payables will be reviewed by the finance committee 17 18 Parks & Property 19 Estimated construction time for the Colonial Park pavilion is August/September 2023 20 Stream Project Update-Design meeting is scheduled for late July 2023 21 A request for a luminaire walk and caroling in December 2023 at Colonial Park has been 22 submitted to the Warwick to Ephrata Rail Trail committee. 23 24 Streets 25 A request for street closing was requested by the Akron Volunteer Fire Company for their open 26 house scheduled on July 18, 2023. Sue requested a formal letter so she can forward it to the 27 mayor for approval. This item will be on the July 10, 2023 agenda. 28 29 Public Utilities 30 Update on the Sanitary Sewer Project- the engineer is generating a punch list and will forward 31 to council and mayor. 32 The Pollution Reduction Plan Draft has been posted on the Borough Webpage and will be on 33 the July 24, 2023 agenda. 34 Sewer flows continue to look good 35 36 Community Relations 37 Bonnie Young has scheduled concerts in the Roland Park-July 9, July 30 2023. The July 2 concert 38 was cancelled due to threat of rain and was rescheduled for Sunday, September, 3, 2023. 39 40 Planning & Zoning 41 There are no Planning Commission or Zoning hearings scheduled at this time. 42 43 Personnel 2  1 The Emergency Management Coordinator position is being reviewed by the Personnel 2 Committee 3 Andrew Smith, Public Works resigned and his last day was June 23, 2023. Staff advertised and 4 is in the process of interviewing potential candidates for this position 5 6 Other Business 7 A resolution updating the fee schedule is on the July 10, 2023 agenda. 8 National Night Out is scheduled for Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at the Broad Street Park from 6pm 9 to 9pm. Akron Borough staff met again with West Earl Police Department to discuss the event 10 and to work together to make it an even bigger event than last year. 11 Violation/Weed letters continue to be sent out addressing grass and weeds at the curb line. 12 13 Board Vacancies 14 Building Code Appeals Board 15 16 Finance Report 17 Fund balances June 30, 2023 General Fund $308,982.68 Water Fund $30,033.18 Sewer Fund $168,624.62 Highway Aid $52,112.68 General Fund Reserves General Fund Reserves Restricted $158,000.00 Restricted (Goal) $144,363.00 Operating $113,699.10 Capital $114,669.18 Total $386,368.28 Total $144,363.00 Water Fund Reserves Restricted $72,992.00 Operating $200,563.42 Capital $0.00 Total $273,555.42 Sewer Fund Reserves Restricted $121,822.00 Operating $334,646.16 Capital $0.00 3  Total $456,468.16 Capital Projects $965.55 Community Fund $2,087.95 Non-Uniform Pension $2,440.44 Total $1,681,638.96 Escrow $6,236.04 1 2 3 Parks & Property 4 Nothing to report 5 Community Relations 6 Bonnie Young shared article from The Shopping News of her interview of Wesley Moyer from 7 Lancaster Disc Golf and the replacement of the tee pads at Roland Park. Bonnie also 8 mentioned, due to inclement weather two concerts in the Roland park have been cancelled but 9 will be moved to dates in the future. Bonnie Young is planning on writing an article on National 10 Night Out which takes place on August 1, 202 at the Broad Street Park. 11 Personnel Report 12 Paul Swangren, Jr. mentioned that a Public Works person resigned, and advertisement has been 13 placed and several applicants have applied and interviews are taking place. 14 15 Streets Report 16 Nothing to report 17 Public Utilities Report 18 Susan Davidson stated there are a few more water/sewer meters to install and the Borough will 19 have completed the installation on the new Kampstrup meters. 20 21 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 22 23 Old Business 24 Emergency Management Coordinator-in progress 25 New Business 26 Request for Rail Trail Luminaire Walk & Caroling at Akron’s Colonial Park-Tom Burnett attended 27 and updated the request and handed out document with information. Options in Roland Park 28 and or/ Rail Trail. Paul Swangren, Jr. suggested the fire ring the Roland Park would be the best 29 site as it has a fire ring. Discussion on the best site for this event. Susan Davidson asked for a 30 definite date and formal letter of request. Nathan Imhoff suggested a mobile steel fire ring 31 closer to the walking path. Ryan Cochran asked if they would provide sanitary facility. Roland 4  1 Park has a porta potty available. Nathan suggested looking into other sanitary options. Mayor 2 suggested Broad St Park and do it same night as Christmas Tree lighting as an option. 3 A. Resolutions 4 a. Proposed Resolution for Fee Schedule Update-Paul Swangren, Jr. made 5 motion to approve Resolution #23-06 establishing the Borough’s 6 comprehensive schedule of fees and charges for services; Ryan Cochran 7 second 8 Discussion on fee changes by Sean Molchany to Council 9 Mayor McBeth mentioned changing “Park rental” to ” Park reservation” 10 Motion carried 11 B. Ordinances 12 C. Motions and Decisions 13 a. Ryan Cochran moved to accept the resignation of Randall Justice from Akron 14 Borough Council; second by Bonnie Young. 15 Nathan Imhoff said that Council has 30 days to fill this vacancy and asked 16 that staff announce vacancy and do interviews for the position. Paul 17 Swangren, Jr. asked if council members could just approve someone without 18 interviews. Nathan Imhoff shared that a committee could be formed to 19 review applicants. This position will only complete the term for Randall 20 Justice which would be for two years. Nathan requested staff call the 21 elections office before requesting input from the Borough Solicitor. Sean 22 Molchany said there could be a special meeting to discuss applicants. This 23 could be discussed at a personnel meeting with public input. Nathan Imhoff 24 mentioned resumes for the Council vacancy are due Friday, by July 21, 2023 25 by noon. Council can review applicants resumes. 26 Question by Tonya Haines asked what the criteria is for reviewing applicants. 27 Sean Molchany shared that the applicant must be at least 18 and live in 28 Borough for at least one year and be a registered voter. Personnel meeting 29 will be at 6pm on July 24, 2023 followed by Council meeting with swearing in 30 at 6:30 council meeting. 31 32 D. Acknowledgments 33 34 E. Other Business/Deliberations 35 36 F. Correspondence and Petitions 37 a. Thank You Card from the Lancaster County Deaf Pickleball Players 38 39 G. Executive Session 40 Additional Comment: 41 42 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Paul Swangren, Jr. second by Ryan 43 Cochran 44 Motion carried. 5  1 2 Meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m. 3 4 Respectfully submitted, 5 6 Susan Davidson 7 Borough Manager/Secretary 8 9 SD 10 6