City Council

FORTY FORT BOROUGH COUNCIL WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024 The May work session of the Forty Fort Borough council was held on Monday, May 20, 2024 at the Borough bldg., 1271 Wyoming Ave., with council president, Thomas J. Murray, III, presiding. President Murray called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM with the following council members present: Phil Mertz, Frank Mazza, Cara Devine, David Sieminski & Sarah Michaels. Kristy Dadurka was absent. Also present were Mayor Brian Thomas, Atty. Greg Skibitsky, Chief Dan Hunsinger, DPW foreman, Rick Kamus, Code Officer Tom Craig & Borough Manager Bonnie Arnone. Mayor Thomas led with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. President Murray began by explaining to the audience present that due to misleading social media posts, residents were led to believe that the borough was preparing to mandate their garbage service be with the borough and not allowing private haulers into the borough for collection. Council was simply looking at options to gain more customers by offering more services for residents and possibly having outside haulers limit their pick-up days to Mondays & Tuesdays to alleviate having trash out every day of the week. Rick Kamus then briefly outlined a program that would offer residents an option of a 95 gallon can as well as a bag sticker program to be added to the current options that residents now have. He stated that the borough could do it better and more cost effective than any outside vendor and that the residents would be keeping their money in their town. RESIDENTS AND TAXPAYERS: Corky Krupp, 76 Virginia Terrace asked if the sweeper schedule could be published so that cars could be moved. Tom Gorman, 29 Myers St., stated that he lives near the current borough garage and is concerned that if the borough’s garbage pickup service grows and they get more trucks, his quality of life will be affected with the additional noise, etc. Pam Smith, 64 E. Pettebone St. stated she is concerned that having trash picked up by all vendors on only 2 days will cause congestion on borough streets. Maureen Salley, 106 Center St. stated she is happy that trash is staying as it is and also stated that she hopes the pool will re-open next year. Tori Carey of the Parks & Recreation Board spoke on their upcoming events that will take place at the park. Karen Martinelli, 1609 Wyoming Ave., asked if the current garbage collection program is profitable and asked what the cost of the current trucks was. Bobbie Dragon Churnecki, 45 Yeager Ave. stated that the street sweeper schedule should be placed on the recycle calendar that is distributed every year. Penelope Hankey, 1910 Wyoming Ave. stated that she would like to see the minutes posted on the borough’s website. She was told that the minutes are posted once they are approved by council. Wendy Saxon, 1912 Wyoming Ave. stated that she supports small business and the freedom of choice. Kevin Carozza, 57 Yeager Ave., stated he was glad that the borough still will allow residents to have options with garbage service. Amy Craig, 1828 Wyoming Ave. questioned council about grant money for riot gear purchased for a COG grant in 2022. MINUTES AND REPORTS: Council was presented with minutes and reports from the prior month. These items will be voted upon at the June 3, 2024 meeting of council. Cara Devine gave a brief report on the recent Pool Committee meeting stating that the group continues to work on ways in which to make the pool more accessible and profitable in the future. Bonnie Arnone reported that all documents have been received that are required for submission on the Greenways, Trails & Recreation Grant that will be submitted before May 30, 2024. Mayor Thomas reported that in response to his letter to PENDOT to conduct a road safety audit on Wyoming Ave. from Dennison & Welles St., a response has been received with the statistics recorded from the study conducted. Chief Hunsinger then reported that his department had conducted an Aggressive Driver patrol along Wyoming Ave. which resulted in 81 citations. Because of this, the department has been awarded more funding to conduct another patrol next month. Atty. Skibitsky reported that a second letter had been sent to Alan Rosen requesting the return of the $1,000.00 deposit paid to him in May of 2023 for an appraisal of the Penn State Seed property on Wyoming Avenue that had never been done. His deadline to remit this payment is May 23, 2023 to avoid filing paperwork at the magistrate’s office against him. Bonnie Arnone reported that e-mails have been sent to the County Manager and two county council members asking to have a discussion on the possibility of creating a dog park at the Sports Complex. We are still awaiting word back from them. Bonnie Arnone spoke with council about the fact that the DCNR grant awarded to the Borough for Segment C of the Bike Trail will expire on 12/31/2024 and will have no more extensions possible. All funds available for engineering have been expended from this grant with the remaining funds available only for construction. Another grant can provide $75,000.00 for engineering but there is still a deficit of $184,000.00 for engineering, design, permitting, etc. Council will need to decide in the coming months on whether or not to proceed with this project or return the remaining DCNR grant funds along with a payment from the borough of $24,988.00 which represents 50% of what has already been spent from their grant for engineering work on the project.  Mayor Thomas reported that a letter had been received from FEMA thanking the borough for the revisions made to the Floodplain Ordinance which brought the Ordinance into compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program NFIP as required for the Borough of Forty Fort’s updated Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) release on June 20, 2024. Mayor Thomas commended code officer Tom Craig for his work on this project. Sarah Michaels stated that she had concerns regarding recent communications with Civil Service Commission members and a discussion ensued regarding the commission, their meetings, agendas, minutes, etc. Cara Devine reminded residents present that the Parks & Recreation Board was not only looking for volunteers but also another member of the board and encouraged interested individuals to reach out to those members in attendance this evening. She also spoke about some possible future projects for the group. Atty. Skibitsky reminded residents that they were free to reach out to him to ask questions and he would address them promptly. Phil Mertz stated that he would like to see the situation with the Civil Service Commission be looked into as the deadline for the applications is approaching and it will begin to affect the safety of our citizens should this process not follow through punctually. Mayor Brian Thomas thanked everyone for coming out and reminded everyone of the upcoming Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27, 2024. Tom Murray also thanked everyone for coming out this evening. Code Officer, Tom Craig, stated that after some investigation, he discovered that council must hold a public hearing on the changed amendments to the zoning ordinance that were voted on at the May 6, 2024 council meeting. He suggested that this public hearing could take place just before the June 3, 2024 council meeting at 5:30 PM with council voting on the amendments once again at the meeting. With there being no further business to discuss, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Dave Sieminski at 7:34 PM and seconded by Cara Devine. The next meeting will be held on Monday, June 3, 2024 at 6:00 PM. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Arnone Borough Manager