City Council

FORTY FORT BOROUGH COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, MAY 4, 2020 The May meeting of the Forty Fort Borough Council was held on Monday, May 4, 2020 at the Forty Fort Borough Bldg., 1271 Wyoming Ave., Forty Fort, with President, Jeff McLaughlin, presiding. President McLaughlin called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM with the following members present: Phil Mertz, Kristy Dadurka, Frank Mazza, Tom Murray & Cara Devine in person. Via ZOOM was council member Dave Sieminski and Atty. Bill Finnegan. Also, physically present at the meeting were Mayor Andy Tuzinski, DPW supervisor, Rick Kamus and Manager, Bonnie Arnone. NOTE* All who were physically present were wearing protective masks and were 6 ft. physically separated due to the COVID 19 pandemic. ** Mayor Tuzinski led with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. CONSENT AGENDA: Motion to adopt the consent agenda was made by Ms. Devine and seconded by Ms. Dadurka. These items have been presented to council at a prior work session for their review and include: 4/6/2020 Council meeting minutes March 2020 Code Office Report March 2020 Police Department report March 2020 FF Fire Chief Report March 2020 Kingston Fire Report March 2020 Treasurer’s Report March 2020 Tax Collector Report March 2020 Manager’s Time Sheets All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. CORRESPONDENCE: Council was provided with the first quarter 2020 report from the SPCA for review. COUNCIL ACTION ITEMS: Motion by Ms. Devine to pay all bills as presented. Second by Mr. Sieminski. President McLaughlin abstained from voting on only the GBM invoices and Kingston Municipal invoices due to his professional relationship with both entities. On the question: One the office of Open Records opens, his need to abstain will be clarified. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion by Mr. Mertz to pass Resolution 6 of 2020 which extends the deadline for the face value of the 2020 Municipal taxes by 60 days. Second by Ms. Devine. On the question: Council was advised that this has also been done by Luzerne County. A spreadsheet was provided to council by tax collector, Tom Alexander, which gave a comparison of municipal taxes taken collected in 2019 compared to the same time period of 2020. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion by Ms. Devine to accept the resignation of part-time police officer, Brett Smith. Second by Ms. Dadurka. On the question, it was noted that Mr. Smith has taken the position of chief of police in Sugar Notch. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed.  Motion by Mr. Mertz to enter a contract with Samantha Holbert who will act as our Peer Grant consultant for work on the Sports Complex as well as our entire recreation program. Second by Mr. Mazza. On the question, it was noted that the AD-HOC Committee and Recreation committee had participated in a phone conference with Ms. Holbrook last week and on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, Ms. Holbrook will meet with the committees to visit our pool, park and Sports Complex. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion by Ms. Devine to hire Cory Yaskinski for Part-time employment with the Borough’s DPW at a rate of $!4.00 per hr. Second by Mr. Mazza. On the question: Mr. Yashinski has passed his physical and will begin work on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion by Ms. Devine to hire Joe Arnone as a part-time employee of the Borough’s DPW at a rate of $12.00 per hr. and only for grass cutting, primarily at the Sports Complex. Second by Mr. Mertz. On the question: It was noted that council had hired Robert Carey for this position earlier this year. However, Mr. Carey was unable to continue with the position and had resigned. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion by Ms. Dadurka to hire Nicholas Basov as a part-time police officer at a rate of $18.00 per hour. Second by Mr. Mertz. On the question: Officer Basov has been officially sworn in by Mayor Tuzinski and has been working out well with the department. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. OLD BUSINESS: Council was advised that the program that was originally scheduled for May 28, 2020 which would offer NIMS Certification to all attendees has been postponed due to the virus. Mayor Tuzinski stated that he is attempting to become certified as an instructor to be able to accomplish this for council. Mayor Tuzinski reported that the bids were received this date at 2:00 PM from PENN BIDS for the RFP to secure an engineering firm for the proposed Bike Trail. There were twelve (12) bids submitted and will be given to a committee composed of civil engineers to review and report to council their recommendations. He stated that this would be Chris Bellman of the LCFPA and Representative, Aaron Kaufer. Mr. McLaughlin suggested that Janet Sweeney would also be a good person for this review committee. He also confirmed that the ultimate decision on engineering firm would remain with Borough council. Manager Arnone updated council on the status of the Community Development CDBG grant which will provide funding for restoration of Murray St. between Shoemaker & Dana Sts. The plan has been submitted by Community Development to HUD and we will be notified when the contracts are awarded. The amount is hoped to be about $140,000.00 and the work will be done by our DPW. An update was also provided on the STAMP Grant that was submitted to DCED last year for funding hire a consultant to review the Borough’s fiscal position. Due to COVID 19, all STAMP Grant applications are on hold; however, since our application was already approved, the funding should come through when their new fiscal year begins in July of 2020.  Ted Ritsick, employed by DCED, was present through ZOOM and clarified that all programs and grants through DCED have been placed on hold when asked about the situation with the four (4) LSA Grants that Forty Fort Borough submitted in December of 2019. Mr. Kamus and Mr. Murray updated council on the progress of the camera & security system being installed at the Borough Bldg. All cameras are up and running and the process should be complete by weeks end. NEW BUSINESS: Council was provided with a copy of the minutes for the teleconference meeting held last week with the AD-HOC Committee for the Sports Complex, the Recreation Committee and Samantha Holbert. Mr. Kamus reported that he is in need of Diamatex material for the two softball fields at the Sports Complex. He estimates the cost of this material to be approx. $2,500.00. Motion by Mr. Mertz to allow the purchase of this material for the fields. Second by Mr. Murray. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Mr. Kamus reported that he will be repairing and replacing several storm inlets this year and stated that the public may inquire of council why the Borough employees are performing this duty when it was expected that the Stormwater Authority would be doing the work. A lengthy discussion ensued regarding the expectations of assistance the borough would receive from the Stormwater Authority in exchange for the fees paid by our property owners. A decision was made that due to the fact that since the agreement was signed in 2017, several new council members have come on board & are now aware of many things surrounding the agreement, a request will be made of WVSA to have their stormwater representatives attend a meeting to outline the entire program. EXECUTIVE SESSION: At this time, 8:35 PM, council adjourned to Executive Session to discuss DPW Personnel Issues, Fire Department legal issues and Police Department Contract issues. MOTIONS AS A RESULT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION: Motion by terminate the employment of part time DPW employee, Randy Keener was made by Ms. Devine and seconded by Ms. Dadurka. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. Motion to hire Derek Kamus as a part-time employee with the DPW at a rate of $16.50 per hour was made by Ms. Devine and seconded by Mr. Murray. All council was in favor of this motion. Motion passed. ADJOURNMENT: With there being no further business to discuss, a motion to adjourn was made by Ms. Devine at 9:05 PM and a second by Mr. Mertz. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Arnone, Manager