City Council

The regular monthly meeting of Dupont Borough Council was called to order at 6:00pm on Tuesday evening, April 9, 2024 by President of Council Stanley Knick. Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call: Stanley Knick, Present Mark Kowalczyk, Present Joseph Karkut, Present Bob Price, Present Joey Jones, Present Mayor Lello, Present Executive Session – Personnel, Legal Matters MOTION TO ADOPT THE MINUTES OF THE MARCH 12, 2024 REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING AND PLACE ON FILE: Motion: Mr. Karkut Second: Mr. Jones Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. MOTION TO ACCEPT THE CORRESPONDENCE PRESENTED. Motion: Mr. Price Second: Mr. Jones Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. MOTION TO APPROVE BILLS FOR PAYMENT Motion: Mr. Jones Second: Mr. Karkut Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. MOTION TO APPOINT PART TIME POLICE OFFICERS FROM APRIL 9, 2024 TO THE NEXT REGULAR MEETING OF COUNCIL WITH NO GUARANTEE OF WORK: Bryan Besecker, Duane Saunders, Jennifer Polemitis, Christopher Fargione, Michael Sniscak. Motion: Mr. Jones Second: Mr. Price Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. MOTION TO HIRE MICHAEL MEHOLIC, DPW DEPARTMENT, DRIVER LABORER, PER EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion: Mr. Karkut Second: Mr. Jones Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. REPORTS: Treasurer’s Report: General Fund - $ 47,525.60 Payroll Fund - $ $9,841.88 ARPA Fund - $20,008.80 Admin Debit Card - $ 87.92 Police Debit Card - $243.93 Refuse Fund - $ 180,084.94 Sewer Maintenance Fund - $ 328,417.91 Liquid Fuels Fund - $273,615.20 Police Pension Fund - $1,129,787.77 Special Fund - $83,632.93 Tax Collector’s Report: Balance Collectable Beginning of Month - $208,787.15 Less Face Collections for the Month - $ 60,273.30 Balance Collectable End of Month - $ 148,513.85 Less Discounts - $1,205.76 Check received and deposited into General Fund - $59,067.76 Mayor Report: None Police Report: Chief Doran read the following report for March: criminal arrests-6; traffic citations issued-68; non traffic citations issued-14; appearances in county court-13; appearances in magisterial court-18; motor vehicle accidents-12; assist to ems/fire-10; assist to other police dept.-16; alarms-3; thefts-5; vandalism-1; disorderly conduct-6; pfa violations-6; domestic reports-2; suspicious activity-8; assault/harassment-6; drug offense-1; miscellaneous calls-38; building checks-44; code enforcement-20; Mileage: F150- 55,052; Explorer Car #1 – 24,570; and Explorer # 2 – 22,531. Magistrate Fines –$ 3,096.22. Fire Dept. Report: Don Hudzinski, Fire Chief read the following report for March: Total Incidents-14; Paid Staff Responses-1; Volunteer Respnses-13. Incident Type: Fire Alarm-1, Motor Vehicle Accidents-6, Vehicle Fire-1. CO Alarm-1, Residential Structure Fire-1, Commercial Structure Fire-1, Investigation-2, Special Detail-street washdown-1. Jurisdiction: Dupont Borough-6, Hughestown Borough-1, Avoca Borough-4, Duryea-1, Laflin-1, PA Turnpike-1. Code Enforcement Report: Joey Jones reported the following: Notice of Violations Issued-3, Rental Inspections-6, Citations-8 issued through magistrate, 4 work permits issued. Solicitor Report – None Engineer Report: Bob Naegele updated the following: (1) Chapter 94 report was issued. (2) Attended PA One Call complex meeting for Astound. Today the pave cut application came in with 3 cuts on Skytop and 1 cut on Gedding. (3) Assisted with sewer lateral locations on Second Street 111-121. That is in progress (4) The paving project is substantially complete. We left the drawings here. We added the storm water improvements after meeting with the residents on Gill. (5) Hose Company roof and air conditioning project has been released and as soon as they have it put together it will go out for bid. (6) Growing Greener grant – we are still waiting on the final inspections from DEP and Patty also noted she has not received the final payment yet. That project cannot be closed out without the inspection. Also Stell will be back to pave Everhart and Almond in that project work area. Stan questioned Quail Hill and Bob noted (6) audit of the quail hill project provided to council: the balance after the shoulder work is done is about $97,000. Some of that work is in Pittston Township and that should be discussed with them. Patty mentioned the comments to seal the center line of pave. Bob noted that is part of the punch list items. Bob noted Pittston Township received a copy of this audit also. MOTION TO MOVE FORWARD WITH CHANGE ORDER FOR QUAIL HILL SHOULDER PAVING Motion: Mr. Jones Second: Mr. Karkut Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. Bob also noted that a conversation that came up with Township was adding street lights. Bob is not sure the grant would cover that. Patty noted the electric is underground in Quail Hill. Bob will touch base with April Hannon on the street lighting now knowing there is $97,000 left. Stan added you just paved those streets, not a good idea to dig up the new work for lighting. Bob will look into it and start the conversation. Stan noted it is PP&L power. Bob noted the beginning is in Dupont and the other part is Township. Bob mentioned getting mapping from PP&L. Crime Watch Report - Discussion at March meeting on what’s happening in town. With nicer weather and more people out and about it would be good to get more people involved. The next meeting is April 30th at 7 pm in the Chambers. The more eyes we have out there the better. Council President’s Report: Stan noted the following: Trash 59.38 tons; Comingle- 4.29 tons and Paper was 7.37 tons. Mileage: Packer- 4,474; Recycler- 42,865, Mack- 4,865, 3500 -10,308, 6500 - 545, and 550 is 50,553. Thanked Mark for starting the project out front and getting it done for Memorial Day. Also thanked all of council and the Mayor and her grandkids working together to get the park cleaned and the mulch spread. MOTION TO ACCEPT THE REPORTS PRESENTED. Motion: Mr. Jones Second: Mr. Karkut Roll Call Vote: Mr. Knick, yes; Mr. Kowalczyk, yes; Mr. Karkut, yes; Mr. Price, yes; Mr. Jones, yes. Motion Carried 5/0. Matters from Residents: Joe Cigan, Gill Street - (1) 200 Main Street Condition – Joey noted it is in the hands of the court. He was working on it and then winter hit. (2) Addressed Erik on the compliance report for 124 Main Street. Erik noted the letter received from the State. Mr. Cigan requested a copy of their response. Lou Posly, Lidy Road – Status of the home to be demolished on Lidy Road. Patty and Bob Naegele responded. Patty noted she received notice the environmental study was complete. Just waiting on the funding approval to move forward. Lou questioned the funding process. Sharon Ziobro, Lackawanna Ave. – With code enforcement, do complaints from the postal service get followed up. Joey responded that the mailman does come forward with some issues he observes while out in the town delivering mail. Stan added then code enforcement follows up. Ron Ziobro, Lackawanna Ave. – What is the application of the landlord to research the type of people we are renting to. Stan and Joey noted it is up to the landlord. The borough has an ordinance that landlords are required to notify the borough of the tenants information. Chief Doran and Solicitor Dingle also responded. Ron’s concern is if the landlord is not doing due diligence, they care about the money, then the element we have moving in is undesirable and the question is whether they should be part of the community at that point. Stan responded with the rental inspection process that takes place every two years. That gives off signs of what goes on. Ron stated two years is a long time. Ron noted the number of landlords in the community, and how this changes the quality of the area. Stan noted he used to know everyone in town. Now he sees so many waiting for the bus and doesn’t know many of them. Lou Posly, Lidy Road – County grant for housing – what happens if you don’t get the grant for the demolition. Patty said if there is a problem with the funding, the project doesn’t happen. At that point, Joey commented about the code enforcement process and the property owner will get citations. Bob Naegele talked about the County Grant Program. The money is federal to start, then to the state then the county. Matters from Council and Mayor: Joey Jones – Great month in Dupont, we had a lot of great things going on. Mark and Council did a great job at the park. Easter egg hunt was beautiful. It was a beautiful day out there. If you see our officers or workers out and about say thank you. Joey noted an incident on Easter Sunday where our officer dealt with people with opinions. Mark Kowalczyk – Talked about the project out front that will be done by Memorial Day. It will be really nice. It will be a patio of bricks. Anyone wanting to order a brick, they are for Veterans only, three lines $150. It can be the name, branch of service and years served. There will be all new lighting, rock, mulch. It is a different design. It will be a large oval shape with a sidewalk coming up to it centered with the flag poles. The rest of the landscape will be done after the bricks. Now is the time to order. Lou asked how tall the monument is. Mark stated that is 66: wide and four or five feet tall. That is for the names that were on the white crosses. This monument will be lit up and that monument will stand out as you drive down the highway. The clock brick and Veteran brick will be separate. It will be like its own garden area. Once the patio is in, it will be hard to add bricks before Memorial Day. Thank you to everyone who helped out. Sharon asked what information is needed for the bricks. Mark explained. Mayor Lello - Reminder the food distribution is the 4th Thursday of each month Also thanked Mark and others for the work at the park and the great job Mark did MC at the Easter Egg event. Noted everyone here and Billy Clark, her grandkids, all of council spread the mulch at the park. Mark joked about getting on top of the dugout. Joe Karkut – Easter Egg Hunt, excellent, one of the best in the area. Top notch. Everyone did an excellent job as usual. Bob Price - Thanked everyone. Easter egg hunt served about 500 kids. Thanked Mark for the work at the park including the access road he put in. It is great for the kids to enjoy for the summer. Stan Knick – Thanked everyone for working together to get things done in town. Appreciate the residents bringing issues forward. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:40 pm. Respectfully submitted, Adopted and Approved Patricia McDonald Stanley Knick Jr. Secretary Council President