City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-February 26, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President, Justin Gehman, Vice-President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Max Herman-Junior Council Member 5 (Paul Swangren Jr, Tonya Haynes, Rebecca Abraham and Earianne Evangelista not present) 6 7 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner, 8 Director of Finance; Tom Murray, Public Works Supervisor; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 9 10 Visitors: 11 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 12 Tom Murray Jr. 219 S. 11th St Akron 13 Larry Alexander, Ephrata Review 14 Chief Eric Higgins- West Earl Police Department 15 Abby Balmer, Ephrata Public Library 16 Aaron Murray-Akron Fire Company 17 Laura Brandt-Ephrata Public Library 18 Sue Glick-119 S. Tenth St. Akron 19 Tom Burnett-724 Fulton St. Akron 20 Glen Bollinger 69 Maple Farm Rd Akron 21 David Bitner-Bitner Engineering 22 23 Roll Call 24 Kleon Zimmerman-present 25 Paul Swangren, Jr-absent 26 Ryan Cochran-present 27 Bonnie Young-present 28 Nathan Imhoff President-present 29 Justin Gehman Vice President-present 30 Tonya Haynes-absent 31 Mayor John McBeth-present 32 Earianne Evangelista-Junior Council Member-absent 33 Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member-absent 34 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 35 36 Meeting opened at 6:32 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. 37 38 Approval of Minutes 39 Motion to approve February 12, 2024 minutes by Ryan Cochran; second by Justin Gehman 40 Discussion: Bonnie Young mentioned page 1 lines 41&42 and how important safety is for Akron 41 Borough 42 Motion approved 43 44 1  1 Visitors/Comments from Public 2 Ephrata Public Library-Abigail Balmer thanked Council for the monies being donated to the 3 library for 2024. She gave each council member a document regarding state requirements. She 4 explained that 2024 is expected to have a lot of change and planning for the future for the 5 Ephrata Public Library. 6 Zoom: none 7 Bills 8 Reports/Announcements 9 Police- 10 Chief Higgins will send end of year report by tomorrow morning. Officer Samantha Heise has 11 tendered her resignation. She took a job closer to her home. “Coffee with a Cop” being planned 12 with Borough staff. 13 Mayor Report- Mayor John McBeth attended a field trip with dinner at City Gate in Ephrata. 14 Every Saturday is a meeting regarding drug abuse. Drug deaths in Lancaster County are lowest 15 in nine years and may be due to Narcan being available. 16 Manager’s Report-none 17 Finance-none 18 Community Relations-none; Bonnie is open for any news releases for Akron 19 Parks & Property 20 E-mail from Rebekah Hamner regarding 2024 Get Outdoors Lancaster requesting approval from 21 council to allow the group to include Lloyd Roland Park in this summer program. The group would erect 22 and maintain a wooden post in the park where participants would find a rubbing plate to prove their 23 participation. This is a program that the Borough has agreed to participate in before. 24 Bonnie Young made a motion to approve the 2024 Get Outdoors; Kleon Zimmerman second 25 Motion carried 26 The Borough Manager reached out to Rosenberger for the ribbon cutting event for the Colonial Park 27 Pavilion for the end of April; Nathan Imhoff asked Bonnie Young to write articles advertising the ribbon 28 cutting. 29 Personnel Report-none-Will need executive session at the end of the meeting 30 Streets Report- 31 CS Datum update-presentation by Thomas Murray, Jr. Public Works Supervisor; budget for 32 future road repairs in Akron Borough. Review of CS Datum program and reports available. 33 Public Utilities Report- sewer flows are better, work on water tower ongoing with planning for 34 the future. Water tower is 115 years old and may need replaced 35 Junior Council Members Report 36 Nothing 37 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 38 1015 &1019 Main Street Preliminary/Final Subdivision Plan 39 Glen Bitner and David Bollinger presented the plan for the subdivision. Two properties would 40 be subdivided into a third property behind the two properties. Asking for conditional approval 41 from council. Requests for three waivers include a waiver for preliminary plan, waiver for plan 42 scale and waiver from the 300 feet requirement for a proposed subdivision. 2  1 Ryan Cochran moved to approve the Preliminary/Final Subdivision Plan grant with the following 2 modifications in accordance with Section 22-106 of the Subdivision Land Development 3 Ordinance of 2017; 4  Section 22-305: Preliminary Plan application procedures 5  Section 22-402.1. B. (1) & Section 22-403.1. B. (1) Plan Scale 6  Section 22-402.1. C. (2). k: Significant features within 300 feet of property 7  Section 22-403. C. (11) Layout Plan Scale 8  The approval is contingent upon the owner’s/applicant’s written acceptance of the 9 conditions outlined in the Borough/Engineers review letter dated February 20, 2024 and 10 subject to the submission of information meeting those conditions. 11 Kleon Zimmerman second 12 Motion carried 13 Old Business; 14 State Senator Ryan Aument breakfast meeting on February 29, 2024 15 Contact staff if you are interested in attending. 16 New Business 17 Resolutions 18 A. Ordinances 19 B. Motions and Decisions 20 C. Acknowledgments 21 a. Conditional Use Application for 22 N. 7th Street 22 i. Motion by Ryan Cochran which acknowledges the receipt of the 23 Conditional Use Application for 22 N. 7th St per section 27-9094.2 24 Mixed Commercial provisions of the Akron Borough Zoning 25 Ordinance. I authorize Borough Staff to forward the application to 26 the Borough Solicitor, and Planning Commission and advertise a 27 Public Hearing for April 22, 2024; second by Justin Gehman; motion 28 carried 29 D. Other Business/Deliberations 30 a. Lancaster Barnstormer Relay Race September 14 & 15, 2024 31 i. Only part affecting Akron Borough is September 14; no police or 32 road closures necessary. Certificate of Insurance will be needed. 33 ii. Motion to approve by Bonnie Young second by Kleon Zimmerman 34 iii. Motion carried 35 E. Correspondence and Petitions 36 a. Lancaster County Conservation District Annual Awards Banquet-contact 37 staff if you would like to go. 38 F. Executive Session-called for at 7:20pm Motion by Bonnie Young to go into Executive 39 Session to discuss a personnel issue. Motion second by Justin Gehman. Motion 40 carried. Mayor McBeth said more information regarding the personnel issue needed 41 to be shared. It was stated that it was to discuss an offer of promotion to an existing 42 employee. 3  1 G. Executive session ended at 7:34; Motion by Justin Gehman to reconvene the 2 meeting. Motion was second by Bonnie Young 3 Motion carried 4 a. Discussion of an offer of a promotion to a current employee 5 b. Motion to present offer to current employee by Bonnie Young; second by 6 Kleon Zimmerman 7 c. Motion carried 8 Additional Comment: 9 10 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn by Kleon Zimmerman; second by Ryan Cochran 11 motion carried. 12 13 Meeting adjourned at 7:38 p.m. 14 15 Respectfully submitted, 16 17 Susan Davidson 18 Borough Manager/Secretary 19 20 SD 4