City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-September 11, 2023 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff, President,; Justin Gehman, Vice-President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Tonya Haynes, 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 Thomas Murray, Jr-219 S. 11th St Akron 12 Tom Burnett 724 Fulton St. Akron 13 Sue Glick 119 S. 10th St. Akron 14 Chris Beiler, Akron 15 Chief Eric Higgins, West Earl Police Department 16 17 Roll Call 18 Kleon Zimmerman-present 19 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 20 Ryan Cochran-Zoom 21 Bonnie Young-present 22 Nathan Imhoff President-present 23 Justin Gehman Vice President-present 24 Tonya Haynes-present 25 Mayor John McBeth-present 26 27 Meeting opened at 6:42 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 28 29 Approval of Minutes 30 Motion to approve minutes for August 28, 2023 31 Motion to approve by Bonnie Young second by Kleon Zimmerman 32 Discussion: none 33 Motion approved 34 Visitors/Comments from Public 35 None 36 Zoom-Ryan Cochran 37 Bills 38 Kleon Zimmerman moved to approve the September 2023, Akron disbursements and fund the 39 appropriate account for the disbursements as reviewed by the Finance committee. Second by 40 Justin Gehman 41 Motion carried 42 43 Reports/Announcements 44 Police- West Earl Police Department Report distributed to Council and Mayor 1  1 Chief Higgins is attending a 14-week Command & Leadership course 2 West Earl Police Department Report reflected calls for service, traffic citations, traffic 3 warnings and criminal arrests for August 2023 4 Kleon Zimmerman reminded Chief Higgins that during the fair week that traffic will bypass 272 5 and speed down S. Ninth St. 6 Police Liaison meeting will be held Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 6pm, which is a public 7 meeting and the meeting will be at West Earl Municipal Building. 8 9 Mayor Report 10 1. Street closure request from Akron Volunteer Fire Company on October 25, 2023 for the 11 Annual Halloween Parade was signed by Mayor McBeth. The parade will be throughout 12 the original route in years past starting and Broad Street and ending at the Akron Fire 13 Hall. 14 2. Council discussed putting the Mayor’s phone number on the newsletter as requested by 15 the Mayor. Nathan Imhoff reviewed a number of municipalities to review how they 16 present the Mayors’ phone numbers. Mayor McBeth also randomly checked for Mayor 17 phone numbers at a few municipalities and did find phone numbers for a few Mayors. 18 Nathan Imhoff views it as a safety issue not to have the Mayor’s and council members 19 phone numbers available. Mayor McBeth feels that for the convenience of the public 20 that his number should be available. Staff will put the Mayor’s phone number on the 21 newsletter. 22 23 Manager’s Report 24 Administration & Finance 25 Month end financials for August 2023 have been reconciled 26 The Finance Committee will review the September 2023 payables 27 Staff has begun preparing for the 2024 budget process and is asking Council chairpersons to 28 meet with staff for input on the budget 29 Staff is available to meet anytime including evenings. The first budget meeting is scheduled for 30 Monday, September 28, 2023 at 6 p.m. 31 32 Parks & Property 33 Staff met with Tonya Haynes on September 6, 2023 and outlined the park committee items and 34 gave a background on the history of the Akron Parks. Staff also answered questions from Tonya 35 about serving on Council and the Parks Committee. 36 Graffiti was found at the Broad St Park on some picnic tables. Public Works has cleaned them 37 up. Cameras will be installed at the Broad St. Park restrooms the week of September 11, 2023. 38 Pete Rush was waiting for a parts delivery. 39 Staff met with Chad from C.S. Davidson and reviewed the plan for the stream restoration and 40 rain garden. Invoices that were forwarded to SRBC for reimbursement were processed and the 41 Borough has been reimbursed $48,392.04. 42 43 Streets 44 2  1 Public Utilities 2 A request for payment #5 from Ankeiwicz for the 2022 Sanitary Sewer Project 3 was forwarded to Council and will be on the September 11, 2023 agenda. 4 Sewer flows continue to look good and continue to monitor the water table during this drought 5 and is looking good 6 Staff is still waiting for an estimate on the inlet repair at 451 S. Ninth St 7 The annual MS4 report is due to DEP on September 30, 2023. C.S. Davidson and staff are 8 reviewing the final draft and should be on the agenda for the September 18, 2023 meeting. 9 10 Community Relations 11 The final concert for 2023 featuring “Rizzetta’s Tones” at Roland Park was held on Sunday, 12 September 3, 2023 13 14 Planning & Zoning 15 No Planning Commission or Zoning Hearings currently scheduled. 16 17 Personnel 18 The Emergency Management Coordinator proposal was approved at the August 28, 2023 19 Council meeting and the signed copy was sent back to Randy Gockley. Staff will meet with 20 Randy Gockley to review next steps for updating the EMC plan. 21 Staff advertised for the Director of Finance and is scheduling interviews for the week of 22 September 11, 2023. 23 24 Other Business 25 Violation/Weed letters continue to be sent addressing grass and weeds at the curb line. 26 The Ephrata Fair is the week of September 25th and the Akron Lions Club will be using the lodge 27 that week for preparing the toasted cheeseburgers. 28 29 Board Vacancies 30 Building Code Appeals Board 31 32 Finance-reviewed by Ryan Cochran 33 Fund balances August 31, 2023 34 General Fund-$285,688.85 General Fund Reserves 35 Water Fund-$984.40 Restricted (Goal) $144,363.00 36 Sewer Fund-$125,429.18 Total-$144,363.00 37 Highway Aid-$52,559.27 38 General Fund Reserves 39 Restricted-$158,000.00 40 Operating-$116,515.52 41 Capital-$115,142.18 42 Total-$389,657.70 43 Water Fund Reserves 44 Restricted-$72,992.00 3  1 Operating-$203,006.83 2 Capital-$0.00 3 Total-$275,998.83 4 Sewer Fund Reserves 5 Restricted-$121,822.00 6 Operating-$272,913.02 7 Capital-$0.00 8 Total-$394,735.02 9 Capital Projects-$1,070.45 10 Community Fund-2,087.95 11 Non-Uniform Pension-$3,764.64 12 Total-$1,531,976.29 13 Escrow-$6,290.38 14 15 Parks & Property 16 Tonya Haynes met with staff to discuss her role on Council and to review Parks and Property 17 information. Roland Park restrooms will close November through March. Lodge and Pavilions 18 are booked a year out. One of busiest parks in Lancaster County. $800,000.00 grant was 19 awarded Akron Borough for erosion prevention. Broad St Park pavilion can be reserved. 20 Colonial Park has received a donation from Rosenberg for a pavilion to be built and will be 21 completed this year. 22 Community Relations 23 The article written by Bonnie Young on Akron Borough improvements made it into the papers. 24 Bonnie apologized to Tom Murray, Jr. for not including his grant writing and acceptance as it 25 was noted after her deadline. Bonnie would like to know if there is anything she should include 26 in her next media report. 27 Mayor suggested that Bonnie begin to think about the New Years Eve Shoe-In event in Akron to 28 begin advertising for volunteers. Bonnie will write an article in mid-November for the luminary 29 walk. 30 31 Personnel Report 32 Advertised for finance position but did not get a huge response; will start interviewing soon. 33 34 Streets Report 35 Justin Gehman is meeting with Staff this week this week to discuss 2024 streets budget. Tom 36 Murray, Jr mentioned a section of street lights along 272in Akron Borough have been converted 37 to LED lights by PPL. 38 39 Public Utilities Report 40 Nothing 41 42 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 43 Paul Swangren, Jr is the chairperson of the Personnel committee and Bonnie Young requested 44 to be a part of the Personnel committee. 4  1 Tonya Haynes will be chairperson of Parks and Property Committee and Ryan Cochran would be 2 committee member on Parks and Property. 3 Old Business 4 1. Pilgrims Mennonite church Luminary Walk and Caroling in December 2023 at Roland 5 Park 6 Name change suggested to reflect Akron Borough: Akron Community Luminary Walk is 7 scheduled for Saturday, December 9, 2023 from 6pm-8pm with back up Saturday, 8 December 16, 2023 9 Looking to include all churches in Akron and volunteers as well. 10 Bonnie Young volunteered to help with the Luminary Walk 11 12 New Business 13 1. Ankiewicz Enterprises, Inc. Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project Change Order #5 14 a. Kleon Zimmerman moved to approve application for Change Order #5 for the 15 2022 Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project to Ankiewicz Enterprises Inc. in 16 accordance with the Borough’s Engineer recommendations in an amount not to 17 exceed $29,690.50 and approve payment #5 in an amount not to exceed 18 $131,857.68. Second by Paul Swangren, Jr. 19 Motion carried 20 2. Ten Thousand Villages Warehouse Sale 21 a. Informational only 22 A. Resolutions 23 B. Ordinances 24 C. Motions and Decisions 25 D. Acknowledgments 26 E. Other Business/Deliberations 27 a. Nathan Imhoff recommended to cancel the September 25, 2023 Council 28 meeting due to the previous budget meeting that will be held on September 29 18, 2023 and Ephrata Fair. 30 i. Motion by Justin Gehman second by Paul Swangren, Jr 31 ii. Motion carried 32 b. Nathan Imhoff and Bonnie Young will be meeting with new Ephrata Library 33 Interim Director and the Library council president this week and hoping to 34 build bridge between Akron Borough and the Ephrata Library 35 F. Correspondence and Petitions 36 G. Executive Session 37 Additional Comment: 38 39 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:35 by Paul Swangren, Jr. second by Kleon Zimmerman 40 Motion carried 41 42 Respectfully submitted, 43 44 Susan Davidson-Borough Manager/Secretary 5