City Council

1 Borough of Akron Council Meeting-September 9, 2024 2 3 Council Members Present: Nathan Imhoff-President; Kleon Zimmerman, Paul Swangren, Jr., 4 Bonnie Young, Tonya Haynes, Max Herman-Junior Council Member, Alyssa Vasyanovich-Junior 5 Council Member; Martin Sweigart-Junior Council Member. (Justin Gehman & Ryan Cochran not 6 present) 7 8 Others Present: Mayor John McBeth, Sean Molchany, Borough Manager; Susan Davidson, Asst 9 Borough Manager; Valerie Wagner, Director of Finance; Suzanne Lausch, Minute Taker 10 11 Visitors: 12 John Taylor, 216 S 8th St Akron 13 Chief Higgins, West Earl Police Department 14 Sue Glick, 119 S. Tenth St. Akron 15 Anthony Schaeffer, Main St. Akron 16 17 Roll Call 18 Kleon Zimmerman-present 19 Paul Swangren, Jr-present 20 Ryan Cochran-absent 21 Bonnie Young-present 22 Tonya Haynes-present 23 Justin Gehman, Vice President-absent 24 Nathan Imhoff, President-present 25 Mayor John McBeth-present 26 Max Herman-Junior Council Member-present 27 Alyssa Vasyanovich-Junior Council Member-present 28 Martin Sweigart-Junior Council Member-present 29 Meeting opened at 6:30 with the Pledge of Allegiance. 30 31 Approval of Minutes 32 Paul Swangren, Jr made a motion to approve minutes for August 26, 2024; second by Kleon 33 Zimmerman 34 Discussion: none 35 Motion approved 36 37 Visitors/Comments from Public 38 Sue Glick asked Council if there is a view of the Roland Park project that is a color version of 39 what is being improved rather than the engineering version located in the lobby. Sean 40 Molchany stated that they do not have an illustrative plan of the project. The grant did not 41 cover a pretty picture and there is a cost to create one. Molchany did mention we are waiting 42 to get a download of the plan on the Borough webpage. 43 44 1  1 2 Bills 3 Kleon Zimmerman moved to approve the September 2024 Borough of Akron disbursements 4 and fund the appropriate account for the disbursements as reviewed by the Finance 5 committee. Second by Paul Swangren, Jr. 6 Motion carried 7 Reports/Announcements 8 Police 9 Report submitted for Council Review 10 West Earl Police Department received Akron Fire Company Halloween Parade and street closing 11 letter. The parade is scheduled for Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. 12 Nathan Imhoff inquired about crossing the guard situation. Sean Molchany contacted the Akron 13 school; however, the school still does not provide crossing guards. Crossing guards are currently 14 being managed by Akron Borough. This issue was discussed at the last quarterly meeting in May 15 with Ephrata School Superintendent. School “hump” will be removed in the future. Police have 16 been at the school crossing talking with parents regarding the new Akron Elementary Drop Off 17 Policy. 18 Mayor Report 19 Halloween Parade sponsored by the Akron Volunteer Fire company scheduled for Wednesday, 20 October 23, 2024 was approved for street closings. 21 Request from Ephrata Marching band to do a fund raiser door to door this Saturday, September 22 13, 2024. Mayor stated they do not need a permit and request was a courtesy to Mayor and 23 Council. 24 Mayor McBeth noticed a lot of activity at Broad St Park and talked with a gentleman regarding a 25 Pickle Ball Court for this park and maybe Council would consider budgeting for a Pickle Ball 26 Court next to the Hockey Rink. The mayor also mentioned putting up a ½ basketball court at 27 Broad Street Park. Sean Molchany commented on the noise from the Pickle Balls because of the 28 close buildings. Tonya Haynes offered to research. 29 Senator Aument is considering a total cell phone ban in schools. 30 Manager’s Report-Budget meeting October 7, 2024 at 6:00pm 31 Administration & Finance 32 August 2024 month-end financials have been reconciled. 33 September 2024 payables will be reviewed by Finance Committee. 34 Parks & Property 35 Stream Embankment/Rain Garden update at Roland Park: contractor is clearing trees and brush 36 last week and this week. Earth moving will start at the parking lot and move toward Main 37 Street. Construction should be ending by November 4, 2024. This is a 90-day contract. 38 Streets 39 Highland Avenue paving has been completed 40 Update on traffic signal through TRG-permit has been submitted to PennDOT. 41 Staff sent letters/surveys to residents on the 600 block of Broad Street asking for input on 42 another street light. Surveys are due back by September 16, 2024. 43 Three surveys received back from seven sent 44 2  1 Public Utilities 2 Sewer flow numbers are looking good. Staff plan on doing more I&I televising this year at 3 Tobacco Road and Oak Street 4 Entech Report-Council has asked staff to talk to the Borough engineer about the closed loop 5 system. 6 DEP has reached out to schedule a full routine water inspection. The date of the inspection was 7 September 5, 2024 and there were a few minor comments. Sean Molchany mentioned that he 8 did speak to the DEP representative that was doing the inspection and asked about the 9 standpipe and permits. 10 Community Relations 11 The Akron New Year’s Shoe-In Committee met on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. Cindy 12 Hoffert is again serving as the committee chairperson. 13 Movie Nights at the Broad Street Park are hosted by Cultivate Church in Akron. The last movie 14 night is scheduled for Friday, September 20, 2024. The Borough did receive a certificate of 15 insurance because this is not a Borough sponsored event. 16 Planning & Zoning 17 No meetings scheduled at this time 18 Personnel 19 Staff met with William Howard the newly appointed Emergency Management Coordinator and 20 reviewed a few items on the proposed Emergency Management Coordinator policy. Changes 21 will be made and forwarded to the Mayor and Council. Staff will add this to the September 23, 22 2024 agenda for approval. 23 Other Business 24 Akron Borough and West Earl next liaison meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11, 25 2024 at 6pm at the West Earl Township Building 26 Ambulance report was sent via e-mail per council’s request. 27 Board Vacancies 28 Building Code Appeals Board 29 Vacancy Board 30 Finance-reviewed by Susan Davidson 31 Fund balances August 31,2024 32 General Fund-$293,698.20 General Fund Reserves 33 Water Fund-$4,631.27 Restricted (Goal) $100,000.00 34 Sewer Fund-$105,604.60 Total-$100,00.00 35 Highway Aid-$181,454.69 36 General Fund Reserves 37 Restricted-$102,363.00 38 Operating-$117,083.77 39 Capital-$112,471.73 40 Total-$331,918.50 41 Water Fund Reserves 42 Restricted-$72,992.00 43 Operating-$170,796.47 44 Capital-$0.00 3  1 Total-$243,788.47 2 Sewer Fund Reserves 3 Restricted-$121,822.00 4 Operating-$217,446.91 5 Capital-$0.00 6 Total-$339,268.91 7 Capital Projects-$2092.53 8 Community Fund-$1703.59 9 Non-Uniform Pension-$3,764.64 10 Total-$1,507,925.40 11 Escrow-$15,325.75 12 Community Relations 13 New Year’s Eve Shoe-In Meeting Update-met last week and decided to ask permission from 14 council to solicit funds for $1000.00 from local businesses. 15 Paul Swangren, Jr made a motion to allow the New Year’s Eve committee to solicit funds for 16 2024-2025 Shoe-In Event; second by Bonnie Young 17 Motion carried 18 Bonnie wrote an article about Junior Council Members for the Shopping News 19 Larry Alexander incorporated info in his article for the Ephrata Review 20 Parks & Property 21 Tonya Haynes mentioned that Justin Gehman contacted Play by Design to get a quote for 22 Roland Park Akron Pines Playground. Company staff would be flown in to discuss with design 23 etc Elementary children. This group also did Lititz Tree House Park and others. Would like to 24 present to budget for 2025. The group from Play by Design will assist finding funding. 25 Personnel Report 26 Nothing to report 27 Streets Report 28 Street Light Request-Broad Street-see manager report 29 Miscellaneous patch work with street hump removal in front of the Akron Elementary School 30 Public Utilities Report 31 Nothing to report 32 Junior Council Members Report 33 Allysa Vasyanovich mentioned that she would like to have the Ephrata AM announcement 34 include the Junior Council members so students from Akron with questions on the Borough 35 could ask them to take the questions back to council. 36 Public Hearings/Presentations/Appointments 37 Old Business 38 New Business 39 Council agreed to have a meeting to discuss the 2025 budget on October 7, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. 40 This meeting will have to be specially advertised. 41 A. Resolutions 42 B. Ordinances 43 C. Motions and Decisions 4  1 a. Motion to approve 2024 donation (remaining 2024 budgeted amount) for 2 the Ephrata Public Library 3 i. Motion by Bonnie Young to approve the $10,000.00 budgeted for the 4 Ephrata Library; no second by any council member. Motion did not 5 carry 6 ii. Discussion about how it would be spent-put on Agenda for next 7 meeting on September 23, 2024. 8 b. Motion to approve 2024 donation (remaining 2024 budgeted amount) for 9 Akron Volunteer Fire Company 10 i. Motion by Kleon Zimmerman, $17,500.00 second by Bonnie Young 11 1. Motion approved 12 D. Acknowledgments 13 E. Other Business/Deliberations 14 F. Correspondence and Petitions 15 G. Executive Session 16 Executive Session 17 Additional Comment: 18 Adjournment -Motion to adjourn at 7:22 p.m. Paul Swangren, Jr.; second by Kleon Zimmerman 19 Motion carried 20 21 Meeting adjourned. 22 23 Respectfully submitted, 24 25 Susan Davidson 26 Asst. Borough Manager/Borough Secretary 27 28 SD 5