City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-August 26, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President; Justin Gehman, Vice-President; Kleon 4 Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young, Max Herman-Junior Council 5 Member; Alyssa Vasyanovich- Junior Council Member; Martin Sweigart-Junior Council Member 6 (Tonya Haynes not present) 7 8 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Sean Molchany Borough Manager; Susan Davidson, Asst. 9 Borough Manager; Tom Murray, Jr. Public Works Supervisor; Valerie Wagner; Director of 10 Finance Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 11 12 Visitors: 13 Larry Alexander-Ephrata Review 14 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 15 Sue Glick 119 S. 10th St Akron 16 Tom Burnett-724 Fulton St. Akron 17 Bill Howard-66 Batters Circle Leola 18 West Earl Police Officer Justin Cruce 19 Anthony Sheaffer- 110 Main St Akron 20 Karen Pollock-Entech Engineering 21 Christina Sweigart 319 Fulton St Akron 22 Warren Sweigart 319 Fulton St Akron 23 Zoom 24 Jessica O’Hara 25 Dave Lausch 14 Meadow View St. Akron 26 Roll Call 27 Kleon Zimmerman-present 28 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 29 Ryan Cochran-present 30 Bonnie Young-present 31 Tonya Haynes- not present 32 Justin Gehman, Vice-President- present 33 Nathan Imhoff President-present 34 Mayor John McBeth-present 35 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 36 37 Meeting opened at 6:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. 38 39 Approval of Minutes 40 Motion to approve by Paul Swangren, Jr minutes for August 12, 2024 second by Justin Gehman 41 Discussion: page 1 line 28 change time to 6:30 p.m. from 6:00 p.m. 42 Motion approved 43 44 1  1 Resolution 24-003-Jr. Council Members 2 Justin Gehman made a motion to approve Resolution 24-003 Authorizing Participation in the 3 Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs Junior Council Person Program; second by Paul 4 Swangren, Jr. 5 Motion carried. 6 Swearing In of Jr. Council Members by Mayor McBeth for the 2024 -2025 School Year 7 Alyssa Vasyanovich-Senior at Ephrata High School 8 Martin Sweigart-Senior at Ephrata High School 9 Max Herman-Senior at Ephrata High School 10 Visitors/Comments from Public 11 Tom Burnett mentioned the first Luminary meeting was held for this year’s event. 12 13 Entech-Standpipe Evaluation 14 Representative from Entech, Karen Pollock, was available to answer council questions regarding 15 the Standpipe Evaluation. Pollock offered information regarding grants and assistance for the 16 project. Discussion with council members regarding options for repairing or replacing the 17 standpipe. 18 Sean Molchany suggested that Council begins to start the project with budgets and decisions 19 regarding the Standpipe as time is of the essence. Paul Swangren, Jr. recommends beginning 20 with permitting and regulations for the project. Next step is to discuss with DEP, Borough 21 engineers and inspectors regarding the Standpipe project. 22 23 Bill Howard the newly appointed Emergency Manager for Akron Borough introduced himself to 24 Council. 25 Bills 26 Reports/Announcements 27 Police 28 No report 29 Mayor Report 30 No report 31 Manager’s Report 32 No report 33 Administration & Finance 34 Finance- 35 No report 36 Community Relations 37 Susan Davidson, mentioned the next Shoe-In meeting is September 4, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. 38 The Shoe-In committee will discuss how much money they will need to raise from donations 39 and ask Council for permission to solicit the funds. This item will be on the Council agenda for 40 the next meeting. 41 Bonnie Young wrote two articles in local papers; one regarding the grant for the Roland Park 42 Project; second article was on the date change for National Night Out. 43 Paul Swangren, Jr. shared that Keith Greiner mentioned Akron Borough in his most recent 44 newsletter. 2  1 Parks & Property 2 No report 3 Personnel Report 4 No report 5 Streets Report 6 Street Light Request for the 600 block of Broad Street-Letters will be sent out this week 7 Public Utilities Report 8 No report 9 Junior Council Members Report 10 School started today 11 New cell phone policy this year- cellphones will only be allowed to be used at lunch and 12 hallways 13 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 14 Old Business 15 New Business 16 Resolutions 17 A. Ordinances 18 B. Motions and Decisions 19 C. Acknowledgments 20 D. Other Business/Deliberations 21 E. Correspondence and Petitions 22 a. Akron Volunteer Fire Company Thank You Letter 23 F. Executive Session 24 Executive Session 25 Additional Comment: 26 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:32 p.m. by Paul Swangren, Jr. second by Bonnie Young 27 Motion carried. 28 29 Meeting adjourned. 30 31 Respectfully submitted, 32 33 Susan Davidson 34 Assistant Borough Manager/Secretary 35 36 SD 37 3