City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-August 12, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President, Justin Gehman-Vice President; Paul 4 Swangren, Jr.; Kleon Zimmerman, Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Tonya Haynes, Max Herman- 5 Junior Council Member 6 7 Others Present: John McBeth, Mayor; Sean Molchany, Borough Manager; Susan Davidson, Asst 8 Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner, Director of Finance; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 9 10 Visitors: 11 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 12 Chief Higgins, West Earl Police Department 13 Sue Glick, 119 S Tenth St, Akron 14 Aaron Murray, Akron Volunteer Fire Company 15 Glen Beiler, 117 Broad St, Akron 16 Anthony Sheaffer, 110 Main St Akron 17 18 Roll Call 19 Kleon Zimmerman-present 20 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 21 Ryan Cochran-present 22 Bonnie Young-present 23 Nathan Imhoff President-present 24 Justin Gehman Vice President-present 25 Tonya Haynes-present 26 Mayor John McBeth-present 27 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 28 Meeting opened at 6:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. 29 30 Approval of Minutes 31 Motion to approve minutes from July 22, 2024 meeting by Bonnie Young second by Kleon 32 Zimmerman 33 Discussion: page 2, line 14: add, “ADA was in place when the steps were constructed around 34 2005”. Mayor brought this to the attention of council members. 35 Bonnie Young amended her motion to approve with the additional comment and Kleon 36 Zimmerman amended his second to the motion. Motion approved. 37 38 Visitors/Comments from Public 39 None 40 Bills 41 Ryan Cochran moved to approve the August 2024 Borough of Akron disbursements and fund 42 the appropriate account for the disbursements as reviewed by the Finance committee. Second 43 by Kleon Zimmerman 44 Motion carried 1  1 Reports/Announcements 2 Police 3 Police report in books for council members. National Night Out rescheduled for Tuesday, 4 August 20, 2024. All vendors are available. New officer, Wilberto Torres has been hired and is 5 attending the Reading Academy with a graduation of December 20, 2024. West Earl requires a 6 3-year commitment for officers attending the Academy through the township. 7 Mayor Report 8 School Resource Quarterly Report-in the council notebooks 9 Manager’s Report 10 Administration & Finance 11 July 2024 month -end financials have been reconciled. 12 August 2024 payables will be reviewed by Finance Committee. 13 Staff has begun work on the 2025 proposed Borough budget. Committee chairpersons please 14 reach out to staff to schedule a meeting time to review next year’s budget items. 15 Streets committee has already reached out for a meeting. 16 Parks & Property 17 Stream Embankment/Rain Garden update at Roland Park-staff met for a pre-construction 18 meeting at Roland Park with Aquatic Resource, C.S. Davidson and Land Studies on Thursday, 19 August 1, 2024. Notice to Proceed is August 6, 2024, but actual construction probably won’t 20 commence until August 19, 2024. Staff will keep Council and the public updated on the 21 construction and what areas of the park will be affected. 22 The SRBC grant amount for the Roland Park project was increased by $50,000.00 for a total of 23 $798,770.71. 24 Bid/Construction Schedule: 25 Project awarded: July 8, 2024 26 Pre-construction Meeting: August 1, 2024 27 Notice to Proceed: August 6, 2024 28 End Construction (90-day contract): November 4, 2024. 29 The garage at Pavilion 1 in Roland Park has been cleaned out. 30 Streets 31 The date for paving Highland Alley was August 9, 2024, but due to inclement weather the work 32 will be done at a later date. Businesses will be sent an updated letter with the new paving date. 33 August 30, 2024 is the next date for the paving and the company will have a rain date for staff. 34 Update on traffic signal through TRG-permit has been submitted to PennDOT. 35 Staff requested that C.S. Davidson prepare and submit an emergency highway occupancy 36 permit to PennDOT for the sanitary sewer repairs on N. Farmersville Road. This permit has been 37 received. 38 Public Utilities 39 Public Works will need to pull manholes after the heavy rains to identify I&I problems. 40 Copies of the Entech report for the standpipe will be with the August Council packets. 41 DEP has reached out to schedule a full routine water inspection. The last inspection was done in 42 2020. September 5, 2024 is the date for the inspection 43 Community Relations 44 Mitch & the Mood Swings Concert was held at pavilion #2 on Sunday, July 28, 2024. 2  1 Movie Nights at the Broad St Park are hosted by Cultivate Church in Akron. Movies are 2 scheduled for Fridays: August 16 and September 20, 2024 are the remaining dates. Borough 3 received a certificate of insurance as this was not a Borough sponsored event. 4 Planning & Zoning 5 No meetings scheduled at this time 6 The building permit for 1015 and 1019 Main Street for new construction has been submitted 7 and construction has commenced. 8 Personnel 9 Randy Gockley did submit a cleaned-up draft of the Emergency Management Policy. Staff will 10 review with the newly appointed Emergency Management Coordinator. 11 Other Business 12 Akron Borough and West Earl met to discuss the future police agreement. Meeting went well. 13 The committee will meet again the first quarter of 2025. 14 Board Vacancies 15 Building Code Appeals Board 16 Vacancy Board 17 Finance-reviewed by Ryan Cochran 18 Fund balances July 31,2024 19 General Fund-$242,432.60 General Fund Reserves 20 Water Fund-$6796.80 Restricted (Goal) $100,000.00 21 Sewer Fund-$130,353.53 Total-$100,00.00 22 Highway Aid-$180,675.85 23 General Fund Reserves 24 Restricted-$102,363.00 25 Operating-$122,718.94 26 Capital-$111,993.07 27 Total-$377,075.01 28 Water Fund Reserves 29 Restricted-$72,992.00 30 Operating-$169,719.48 31 Capital-$0.00 32 Total-$242,711.48 33 Sewer Fund Reserves 34 Restricted-$121,822.00 35 Operating-$215,971.03 36 Capital-$0.00 37 Total-$337,793.03 38 Capital Projects-$2076.33 39 Community Fund-$1703.59 40 Non-Uniform Pension-$3,764.64 41 Total-$1,485,382.86 42 Escrow-$15,193.41 43 44 3  1 Community Relations 2 Four items: Mayor McBeth and Bonnie Young attended the Mitch & the Mood Swings concert 3 and reported about 250 residents attended this event. Bonnie interviewed Sean regarding the 4 $50,000 grant increase for the Roland Park Project and wrote an article for the newspapers. She 5 also informed newspapers of new date for National Night Out. Zoom meeting to plan the 6 luminary walk for 2024. 7 Parks & Property 8 U.S. Road Running Request for 2025-every third Saturday of the month. Only the construction 9 will interfere with the remaining dates. No issues reported at this time. 10 Tonya Haynes made a motion to approve the U.S Road running request for 2025; second by 11 Justin Gehman. 12 Amended the motion to include any difference in the course from 2024 in 2025 should be 13 shared with council. 14 Motion carried 15 Junior Council Members Report 16 2024-2025 school year schedules have been released 17 Personnel Report 18 Nothing 19 Streets Report 20 Street Light Request -Broad Street-property owner did forward a visual movie to Tonya Haynes 21 who sent it to Sean Molchany. There are street lights on either end of the street but nothing in 22 between. Only place to put light would be mid-block. Suggested reaching out to people along 23 the street prior to action. 24 Street committee meeting with Staff on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. 25 26 Anthony Sheaffer of Main Street mentioned when there is an emergency on the Rail Trail how 27 do you direct emergency services to the correct place? Nathan Imhoff mentioned that each 28 light pole has a specific number that determines location. 29 Public Utilities Report 30 Council got an updated report on new water tank from Entech. Council should forward 31 questions to Kleon Zimmerman and Sean Molchany to be able to get answers prior to the next 32 meeting. Deed restriction on Broad St. Park could be an issue. What is the life of the stand pipe 33 now if nothing is done. 34 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 35 Old Business 36 New Business 37 A. Resolutions 38 a. Ryan Cochran moved to approve Resolution 24-002 Traffic Signal 39 Maintenance Agreement with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 40 and to submit future applications for Traffic Signal Approvals; second by Paul 41 Swangren, Jr.; motion carried 42 B. Ordinances 43 C. Motions and Decisions 4  1 i. Paul Swangren, Jr. made a motion to appoint William Howard as the 2 Emergency Management Coordinator; second by Bonnie Young; 3 motion carried 4 ii. Justin Gehman moved to appoint Jr. Council members, Max Herman, 5 Martin Sweigart and Alyssa Vasyanovich as Jr. Council Members for 6 the 2024-2025 school year; second by Tonya Haynes. 7 iii. Motion carried 8 D. Acknowledgments 9 E. Other Business/Deliberations 10 F. Correspondence and Petitions 11 a. Ephrata Public Library Quarterly Report 12 b. Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley Thank You Letter 13 c. Ephrata Community Ambulance Thank You Letter 14 G. Executive Session 15 Executive Session 16 Additional Comment: 17 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:25 by Paul Swangren, Jr.; second by Kleon Zimmerman 18 Motion carried 19 20 Respectfully submitted, 21 22 Susan Davidson 23 Assistant Borough Manager/Secretary 24 25 SD 5