City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-April 22, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President; Justin Gehman-Vice President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Tonya Haynes, Max Herman- 5 Junior Council Member, Rebecca Abraham-Junior Council Member; Earianne Evangelista-Junior 6 Council Member 7 8 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Sean Molchany, Borough Manager; Susan Davidson, Asst. 9 Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner; Director of Finance; Thomas Murray, Jr. Akron Borough 10 Public Works Director; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 11 12 Visitors: 13 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 14 Sue Glick 119 S. 10th St Akron 15 Chief Eric Higgins, West Earl Police Department 16 Larry Alexander-Ephrata Review 17 Aaron Murray-Akron Volunteer Fire Company 18 Cordell Martin -22 N 7th St Akron 19 20 Roll Call 21 Kleon Zimmerman-present 22 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 23 Ryan Cochran-present 24 Bonnie Young-present 25 Tonya Haynes-present 26 Justin Gehman Vice President-present 27 Nathan Imhoff President-present 28 Mayor John McBeth-present 29 Max Herman- Junior Council Member-present 30 Rebecca Abraham- Junior Council Member-present 31 Earianne Evangelista-Junior Council Member-present 32 33 Meeting opened at 6:30 with the Pledge of Allegiance. 34 35 Approval of Minutes 36 Motion to approve minutes for April 8, 2024 by Ryan Cochran second by Paul Swangren, Jr. 37 Discussion: Mayor requested an edit to line 40-page 2 change from Lancaster to Ephrata 38 Mennonite 39 Motion approved 40 41 Visitors/Comments from Public 42 Zoom-none 43 44 1  1 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 2 Conditional Use Application for 22 N. 7 th St. 3 Bernadette Hohenadel; legal counsel for Borough-explained process for Conditional Use 4 Application 5 Mr. Cordell Martin gave council members and mayor handouts regarding the Conditional Use 6 Application 7 Mr. Martin reviewed the information within the application regarding the request for two 8 apartments to be located above the current business. Apartment size would be 850 and 1250 9 square foot apartments. 10 Tonya Haynes asked who will manage the apartments. Mr. Martin and his family manage the 11 property. This is the only property they would manage in Akron 12 Handicapped parking spaces could be available if necessary 13 Building permits would reflect any handicap accessibility 14 Conditions could be added by council if necessary 15 Ryan Cochran made motion to close the record at 6:52pm and second by Kleon Zimmerman. 16 Motion carried. 17 Motion to approve Conditional Use Application by Ryan Cochran and second by Paul Swangren, 18 Jr. and to that required parking conditions and building permits are included in the written 19 decision. 20 Motion approved 21 22 Bills 23 Reports/Announcements 24 Police 25 No report 26 Mayor Report. 27 Mayor thanked the students from Ephrata Mennonite students for cleaning up the 28 Roland Park 29 Manager’s Report-no report 30 Mayor asked for more information regarding the Stream Embankment/Rain Garden planning. 31 Sean Molchany said that permits have been submitted to the state and are waiting to hear 32 back. Grants from National Fish and Wildlife Federation have been approved for over 33 $120,00.00 and Susquehanna River Basin Commission grant is over $600,000.00. Staff will come 34 before Council after state review and permitting. Purpose is MS4 requirements and to improve 35 drainage in the Roland Park. Fix pond drainage and drain swells and three rain gardens and 36 plantings. Volunteers will be asked to plant some of the required plantings. Mayor McBeth 37 asked what kind of maintenance is required for rain garden? Sean Molchany replied there is 18 38 months of maintenance and education provided by Land Studies to staff. The Mayor also asked 39 how will the stream be changed? Sean mentioned it will move towards the ball fields 40 approximately 20 feet and will be a bit wider than currently. Sean will formally present the 41 plans when all information is received from the State. 42 Administration & Finance 43 Finance-none 44 Community Relations 2  1 Bonnie Young requested photographers to take pictures of Ephrata Mennonite students picking 2 up trash in Roland Park for her article regarding the cleanup. 3 Bonnie reserved “Mitch and Mood Swings” for June concert in the park series. 4 Bonnie asked Tonya Haynes to line up other park concerts for the summer. Staff mentioned 5 that to make sure that Pavilion 2 at Roland Park is available when scheduling concerts. 6 Parks & Property 7 Dick Wanner and Don Reese, photographers, will be at the Ribbon cutting for the new pavilion 8 at the Colonial Park on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. Details being completed for the 9 ribbon cutting. 10 Tonya Haynes asked if anyone invited Randall Justice to the ribbon cutting and that was 11 affirmative but no response from Randall at this point. 12 Tonya Haynes and Earianne Evangelista are planning a cultural dinner for the community on 13 June 15, 2024 with planning in progress. Tom Burnett offered to assist along with some 14 members of his church at this event. The event will be held at the Roland Park Lodge. 15 Ryan Cochran asked about food safety. Sean Molchany said that if food is prepared off-site 16 there is no issue and look at it as a potluck or picnic. 17 Junior Council Members Report 18 Nothing 19 Personnel Report- meeting held this evening. Non-uniform handbook revisions by staff and will 20 send to labor attorney for review; will bring to council when completed. Emergency 21 Management Plan revisions made by staff and waiting to hear back from Randy Gockley in 22 regard to the changes. Council asked that the Emergency Management appointment be on the 23 agenda for the May 13, 2024 Council meeting. 24 Streets Report 25 Street sweeping completed. Nathan Imhoff asked about signs in community regarding the 26 street sweeping. Sean Molchany said that door hangers were placed on doors on Main Street, 27 part of Ninth and Eleventh streets but did not make a huge difference with parked cars. 28 Public Utilities Report 29 2023 Final Sewer report was distributed to Council and Mayor. Susan Davidson mentioned that 30 if Council has any questions, she can review the report with them after the meeting. 31 Paul Swangren, Jr. asked (page 5) it should only say Plant one and not both Plant one and Plant 32 two because Plant One is the only one Akron is using. Paul shared that Ephrata manages plant 33 one and two, but Akron is only in plant one. 34 Staff have been in contact with the Borough engineer about the standpipe and this item will be 35 placed on agenda for May 13, 2024 Council meeting. 36 Junior Council Members Report 37 Nothing to report 38 Old Business 39 Nothing to report 40 New Business 41 Dallas Data Systems, Inc.-Caselle Government Accounting Software 42 Tobacco Road Sewer Pump Rebuild 43 A. Resolutions 44 B. Ordinances 3  1 C. Motions and Decisions 2 a. Dallas Data Systems; Caselle Government Accounting Software was reviewed 3 by staff as a new software system for Akron Borough. 4 b. Valerie Wagner shared that the current company, Freedom Systems has been 5 bought out by gWorks who presented a welcome webinar and the new 6 company did not present well 7 c. Borough currently has 3 licenses. 8 d. Dallas Data Systems has presented to staff their system for Borough and staff 9 asked specific questions related to support 10 e. Valerie stated that she also reviewed other systems 11 f. Staff recommended changing soon because it would be a better time than 12 end of year when it gets busier 13 g. Justin Gehman asked how the budget would cover this change. Staff 14 recommended taking 20% General Reserve Fund-40% Water Reserve Fund 15 and 40% Sewer Reserve Fund. 16 h. Motion by Tonya Haynes to approve Caselle Software through Dallas Data 17 Systems, Inc. in amount $47, 680. Second by Ryan Cochran 18 i. Motion approved 19 j. Tobacco Road Sewer Pump Rebuild 20 i. One of two sewer pumps at the Tobacco Road sewer lift station has 21 failed and needs repaired. Staff recommends Tobacco Road Sewer 22 Pump Rebuild for $8,037.25 take from operating fund. Kleon 23 Zimmerman asked why we did not get more prices from other 24 companies such as Witmer Motor Service. Tom Murray, Jr. stated that 25 they did not go well the last time a pump was repaired by Witmer and 26 Keener Electric Motor Service is a Myers Dealer. 27 D. Acknowledgments 28 E. Other Business/Deliberations 29 F. Correspondence and Petitions 30 G. Executive Session 31 32 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:53 by Paul Swangren, Jr. second by Justin Gehman 33 Motion carried 34 35 36 Respectfully submitted, 37 38 Susan Davidson 39 Asst. Borough Manager/Secretary 40 41 SD 4