City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-April 8, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President, Justin Gehman-Vice President, Paul 4 Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young (Zoom), Tonya Haynes, Max Herman-Junior Council 5 Member, Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member 6 7 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Sean Molchany, Borough Manager; Susan Davidson, 8 Assistant Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner, Director of Finance; Suzanne Lausch, Minute 9 Taker 10 11 Visitors: 12 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 13 Sue Glick 119 S. 10th St Akron 14 Tom Burnett 724 Fulton St. Akron 15 Chief Eric Higgins, West Earl Police Department 16 Megan Thompson, Herbein + Co 17 18 Roll Call 19 Kleon Zimmerman-absent 20 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 21 Ryan Cochran-present 22 Bonnie Young-Zoom 23 Tonya Haynes-present 24 Justin Gehman- Vice- President 25 Nathan Imhoff- President 26 Mayor John McBeth-present 27 Earianne Evangelista-Junior Council Member-absent 28 Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member-present 29 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 30 Meeting opened at 6:30 with the Pledge of Allegiance. 31 32 Approval of Minutes 33 Motion to approve minutes for March 25, 2024 by Tonya Haynes; second by Paul Swangren, Jr. 34 Discussion: Bonnie Young asked that the minutes be updated to clarify that she wrote two 35 articles as well as the interviews. 36 Motion approved 37 38 Visitors/Comments from Public 39 Herbein & Company Presentation and review of the 2023 Annual Audit 40 Documents were supplied to Council members, Mayor and audience for the Herbein & 41 Company audit Megan Thompson reviewed the results of the Financial Audit 42 Water and Sewer Fund revenue was adequate with both having surpluses. 43 Total expenses $4,558,520 for Akron Borough 44 Strictly financial audit from Herbein 1  1 Any proposed adjustments were made available to Council members 2 3 Bills 4 Ryan Cochran moved to approve the April 2024 Borough of Akron disbursements and fund the 5 appropriate account for the disbursements as reviewed by the Finance committee. Second by 6 Paul Swangren, Jr. 7 Motion carried 8 Reports/Announcements 9 Police 10 Chief Higgins reported he will be very busy this month. “Coffee with a Cop” went well with a 11 good turn out. 12 Police Liaison meeting this month is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 6:00pm at the 13 Akron Borough Office. 14 Planning meeting for National Night Out in progress. Officer Ryan Blessing is the new 15 Community Events Coordinator and will be planning National Night Out. He will need additional 16 volunteers. 17 Nathan Imhoff asked Chief Higgins if a committee was being formed with residents from both 18 municipalities to assist Officer Blessing with the National Night Out. Chief Higgins confirmed 19 that is the plan. Nathan Imhoff asked Bonnie Young to write an article for this event to ask for 20 volunteers. Fundraising is the biggest issue for this event. 21 Tonya Haynes asked if the West Earl Police Department has flyers for sharing with local 22 businesses for donations. Chief Higgins offered that they are in the works and will get them to 23 Tonya when ready. 24 25 Mayor’s Report 26 Recognized the Akron Lions Club for the Easter Egg hunt. Mayor McBeth attended the awards 27 banquet for the Akron Volunteer Fire Company-Diana and Larry Ross got an award for 50 years. 28 Recognition award went to fire company member who responded the most: Ken Lausch; 54 29 years with Akron Volunteer Fire Company 30 Mayor McBeth’s Wedding report available to Council 31 32 Manager’s Report 33 Administration & Finance 34 March 2024 month -end financials have been reconciled. 35 April 2024 payables were reviewed by Finance Committee. 36 Parks & Property 37 Park Pavilions and restrooms are now open at the Roland and Broad Street parks. 38 Colonial Park Pavilion ribbon cutting with Rosenberger will take place on Saturday, April 27, 39 2024 at 10:00am 40 Stream Embankment/Rain Garden update at Roland Park-Plans have been submitted to the 41 state for permitting. Staff will meet with the Borough engineer to review the next steps as we 42 move forward with the project. 43 Ephrata Mennonite School asked permission to do the annual roadside/park cleanup. A 44 supervised group of students from the school will pick up trash at Roland Park on April 18 from 2  1 9am to 1pm (Rain Date is April 19th). All trash picked up will be removed from the park by this 2 group. The school has been doing this for the past few years without incident. 3 Streets 4 Street sweeping was completed on Thursday, April 4 th and Friday April 5, 2024. 5 Public Utilities 6 Sewer flow numbers are high due to the amount of rain the past few weeks. Staff continues to 7 pull manholes after the heavy rains to identify I & I problems. 8 Staff received a summary report of the inspections of the standpipe and reservoir and was 9 forwarded to the Public Utilities Committee. A virtual meeting was held on Wednesday, April 3, 10 2024 at 9:30am. Staff requested a written proposal from Emtech identifying cost to replace. 11 Staff will meet engineers onsite on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. 12 There was a water main break on Monday, April 1, 2024 on Oak Street. Public Works fixed the 13 break in a few hours 14 Meters were read on Friday, April 5, 2024. 15 There was a Sanitary Sewer Line break on Sunday, April 7, 2024 and staff spent two full days 16 fixing the break. Sean Molchany shared that after identifying the extent of the break they 17 brought in B.R. Kreider to assist. 18 Community Relations 19 Planning & Zoning 20 A Planning Commission meeting was held on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 6:30pm to review the 21 Conditional Use Application for 22 N. 7 th Street. The Planning Commission members made a 22 motion to recommend to Akron Brough Council approval of the Conditional Use Application. 23 Sean Molchany mentioned that the Conditional Use Hearing will be on the April 22, 2024 24 Council meeting agenda. 25 No Zoning Hearings scheduled at this time. 26 Personnel 27 Staff reached out to Randy Gockley regarding the Emergency Management Plan. Gockley 28 forwarded a draft of the plan. Staff would like to go through the draft and clean it up before 29 forwarding to Council. 30 Other Business 31 A Liaison Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. at the Akron 32 Borough Office. This meeting is to discuss and communicate Police matters between Akron 33 Borough and West Earl. These meetings occur twice a year with alternating meeting sites 34 between Akron and West Earl. 35 The Ambulance report was sent via e-mail per Council’s request. 36 Council members now have a “Keep” tab at the rear of the Council books and staff would like 37 any items a Council member would like to keep be placed under this tab or in the slot at the 38 front of the binder. Anything not placed in either of these two areas will be recycled after each 39 meeting. This avoids any confusion regarding which items a Council member would like to keep 40 in their binder. A reminder was also given to return the Council books to the Borough office no 41 later than the Wednesday preceding the first Council Meeting of the month for staff to update 42 them in a timely manner. 43 Board Vacancies 44 Building Code Appeals Board 3  1 Vacancy Board 2 Finance-reviewed by Ryan Cochran 3 Fund balances March 31,2024 4 General Fund-$41,313.54 General Fund Reserves 5 Water Fund-$10,531.44 Restricted (Goal) $144,363.00 6 Sewer Fund-$166,045.39 Total-$144,363.00 7 Highway Aid-$177,630.98 8 General Fund Reserves 9 Restricted-$58,000.00 10 Operating-$74,964.20 11 Capital-$110,156.52 12 Total-$243,120.72 13 Water Fund Reserves 14 Restricted-$72,992.00 15 Operating-$176,634.08 16 Capital-$0.00 17 Total-$249,626.08 18 Sewer Fund Reserves 19 Restricted-$121,822.00 20 Operating-$113,593.39 21 Capital-$0.00 22 Total-$235,415.39 23 Capital Projects-$1,963.75 24 Community Fund-$1703.59 25 Non-Uniform Pension-$3,764.64 26 Total-$1,131,115.52 27 Escrow-$6,484.89 28 29 Community Relations 30 Attended Coffee with a Cop-well attended 31 Parks & Property 32 Tonya Young shared that she and Junior Council member Earianne Evangelista are planning a 33 cultural event. In the planning process. Family oriented event with different cultural meals. 34 Date to be announced by the next Council meeting. 35 Junior Council Members Report 36 Nothing 37 Tonya Haynes asked how the Jr Council members are enjoying being on the Council 38 Max Herman and Rebecca Abraham replied it has been a positive experience which has helped 39 them understand what happens in the Akron Borough. 40 Personnel Report-none 41 Streets Report-none 42 Public Utilities Report-none 43 44 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 4  1 Old Business 2 New Business 3 A. Resolutions 4 B. Ordinances 5 C. Motions and Decisions 6 D. Acknowledgments 7 E. Other Business/Deliberations 8 F. Correspondence and Petitions 9 G. Executive Session 10 Executive Session 11 Additional Comment: 12 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn the meeting by Paul Swangren, Jr.; second by Tonya Haynes 13 Motion carried. 14 15 Meeting adjourned at 7:06 p.m. 16 17 Respectfully submitted, 18 19 Susan Davidson 20 Asst. Borough Manager/Secretary 21 22 SD 23 5