City Council

CITY OF MCKEESPORT REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY 7:00 P.M. NOVEMBER 2, 2016 This Meeting of Council was called to order on the above-stated date at the above-stated time after the Pledge of Allegiance and a Moment of Silence by President of Council Richard Dellapenna, with the following Members of Council present: RC-1 PRESENT: RICHARD DELLAPENNA, KEITH SOLES, LUETHEL NESBIT, TIMOTHY BROWN, JAMIE BREWSTER-FILOTEI,FAWN WALKER-MONTGOMERY, JIM BARRY. Prayer was led by Pastor Deb Kociban from First United Methodist Church. Also present were Mayor Michael Cherepko, City Administrator Matthew Gergley, City Solicitor J. Jason Elash and members of the Administration. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of October 5, 2016.” RC-2 YEAS: DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) COMMUNICATIONS: Received both the Fire and Police Department Reports for the month of October 2016. MAYOR’S REPORT: Mayor Cherepko said thank you Mr. President. A few items. I think many of us have watched the news recently. Referring to some of the activities going on at Craig Street. We have had an on-going problem up there, probably, about off and on for about 6-8 months now. We have had different details up there; different times; other police strategies as well, with suppression details. Our officers were very fortunate and did an unbelievable job in making a gun arrest about a month [1] ago up there. We do believe and it is speculation I guess, the media is here, that our officers did prevent a shooting from taking place up there. It was quiet for a little while and then started up again. We are at this time and will continue our patrols up there and we also will continue with other details up there which basically consist of putting our officers right in harm’s way and that’s why I ask that we don’t forget what our men and women do each and every day. We will continue that until we get this resolved. This administration is working to get the individuals out of the house. I think that’s ok to state because it was stated on the news that we believe the house, there’s a problem house up there, and the Chief has worked diligently with the owner of the house, she is not living in the house, but has a daughter living in the house. We are working to get them out of there. She has as of late been cooperating and we believe we are making some progress. I don’t want to go into too much with it but I am feeling pretty positive that we are going to make this happen one way or another. We have about 4 or 5 different strategies to make that happen. I know the people up there have been scared, as well they should be, and as Mayor, I can tell you, it crushes me to know that we have residents living in fear up there but I don’t want them to think for one second that we are not working all hours of the night. Let me tell you the last 5 days especially, the Chief and I have been talking all hours of the night and I want them to know we are working to keep you safe and we are working to eliminate the problem because at this point we have identified a house as a problem. On the news today, if you haven’t seen it, or you may see it, just an absolute horrific tragedy where a mother is being charged with murdering her 1 year old child. There’s just not much to say, it is just absolutelyunbelievable and we are working on that as well. To see this, it’s just, I don’t know what people are thinking and we ask you to please pray for those family members of the victims through this time that they make it through. On a positive note, just to talk about a few things, and I can’t get into details on them because of confidentiality agreements and things like that but we have, for those who don’t know, obviously Ollie’s we announced not long ago coming into the old Ame’s Department Store up in Olympia, not Aldi’s but Ollie’s and we are very excited to have them in there. It’s almost like, I could say it’s almost like a Big Lots of some sorts, mostly they buy things on liquidation and what not but we [2] took a road trip one day and went up to the one in Belle Vernon and I could tell you I was excited beforehand but once I went there, it really just took the excitement to a whole new level.In addition to that, we are looking to add some things next to that building as well. In addition to that we are going to have activity probably in the next couple of months in the building that has being built for 15 years, at the end of Route 48 and Walnut, we are getting the light, we got the Grant for the light to get a traffic light in there, regardless of what anyone might say to you, cause it just baffles me how someone could be negative about this but it’s out of pure ignorance I guess. That is a bad intersection. If you want my opinion, I think we need a light now, whether that complex opens up or not. You can sit at that light for a very long time if you are coming off 48 to make a left to go up Walnut but we are going to get that light in there. In the mean time I do believe that something is going to open up in that building across the street even before the light is done. You might not fill it all but I think there’s a pretty large place that might open up there. Right down the road where Chic’s Grill was, where we know not so long ago we took another up-hill battle, like we seem to do so often in this City. When they wanted to put a strip club in there we were victorious keeping them out and now that it’s gone we are going to have an O’Reilly Auto Parts Store open up there. I know some people, you’ll get your nay-sayers will say another Auto Parts Store, another Auto Store. Well the reality of it is there’s a lot of money being spent, whether it’s through used car lots, new cars, auto parts stores, it’s just that industry is a big industry. You couldn’t believe what the auto parts stores right now in our town, the business they are doing. I am talking millions of sales. We will welcome O’Reilly’s. At our RIDC site, which is really where the confidentiality comes in, we really feel there is going to be something very positive announced in the very near future down there and there’s probably 6-8 other things that are other possibilities of being down there. Of those 6-8, 2 or 3 look like they are going to happen and anytime we can bring a business in to revive the City, jobs, things like that, that’s what we need to do if we are going to flourish once again. [3] East 5th Avenue, you will see things down on that end that will be moving in as well. The complex next to the Car Wash, on that end of town, and some other things. I am excited and looking forward to those things but they’ve been very very encouraged, and I think the one thing I have learned in this job is to not get overly optimistic but there are some things I am very excited about because I think they are going to happen. The last thing I have tonight is I talked about it a little earlier in the Work Session for those that were here, with the passing of Mary Ann Popovich last month she has chaired our Civil Service Commission for decades, I want to say almost 40 years, give or take. I could tell you one thing, when she was my teacher and I was in 9th Grade she was telling me about how she was in charge of hiring the policemen and firemen so I know it goes back to at least there when I was just a Freshman in High School. She held the job with the utmost respect, with dignity and it is not an easy job. The Civil Service Commission is strictly there to make sure we get qualified police and fire people that apply for jobs and also to keep it separate and out of the politics in the City. Basically, once a list comes in, all I get, I don’t see the test, I don’t see anything, I get the names and I get a score and from that list I get to choose out of the top 3 and make a recommendation to our Personnel Committee for hire. We are in the middle of a process right now. Fortunately, we were completed with the written part and Mary Ann already had scores submitted over to us on the written part. The unfortunate part was the process was not completed so we are looking to complete that process by doing oral interviews and I am asking tonight that we put Bill Miller in charge of the Civil Service Commission. Bill is the Chief of the Ambulance Authority and is not an employee of the City. He’s familiar with the process and for anyone that knows Bill he takes a lot of pride in being extremely objective. He’s one of those sticklers, he goes directly by the book with things to the point where that’s why we kind of cleaned up on amending the Agenda tonight, on the Civil Service Commission as well, just some of the things that were in there we just made a few changes. They are minor but Bill is effective and there were a couple things in there he didn’t like and that’s just how he is. He is very detailed oriented. So what they will do is hold interviews. We are looking to hire part-time firemen because we had part-timers leave and we have also had full-timers retire and we have a minimum man clause. In the police right now we are looking to hire some [4] part-time police down the road and we are looking to probably promote 1 or 2 full-time officers. Because of finances the City has been saving through attrition. We had probably a half dozen or so officers retire this year so what we did was fill those slots with part-time to save on cost. Obviously part-timers don’t get into benefits, don’t get into pension obligations and things like that. So it doesn’t mean that we have any less manpower on the streets it just means we have less full-timers on the streets but we do need to cut some overtime and what not and make sure that our patrols are always fully staffed and we will probably hire 1 or 2 full-timers off of our part-timers list. So at this time all I am asking is for Council’s approval for Bill Miller to take over the Civil Service Commission and then next month I will have a couple people that I have in mind but I have to talk to them first to see if they are interested because this is a big one. This isn’t something we just have someone off the streets come in and fill these seats. We have a couple people that have backgrounds in public safety that I would like to see if they are interested. If we can have a Motion for Bill Miller MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mrs. Nesbit “to Appoint Mr. Miller as Chair of the Civil Service Commission.” Ms. Walker-Montgomery said I have a question. What is, this is a really big appointment, this is a really big job because you are talking about someone who is in charge of picking police and fire, so what goes behind the decision to decide who gets on that Commission? Who’s on there now? Is there a certain amount of members? Mayor Cherepko said the Commission itself will be made up of 3 citizens. The Board does the scores. The Police Chief, Fire Chief, a Deputy Chief or Assistant Chief from each Department. The Police Chief and Fire Chief score on both, even if they are hiring for the Fire Department Chief Wassel, Chief Tomasic, can be part of the testing. If they are hiring for the Police Department, for the Civil Service Test, Chief Washowich will be part of the testing. If there is a Fire Department Test there will also be an Assistant or Deputy Chief who will come in as well. Who else, Jason? Solicitor Elash answered Mayor Cherepko who then said, oh you will have a Psychologist, you will have a doctor, citizens from the community, but that’s not, they are not part of the Board. Ms. Walker-Montgomery asked, what’s the job for? Mayor Cherepko said the Chair will facilitate the process. He is [5] single-handedly not making the decisions. What they’ll do is there might be 5 people scoring all the interviews. For the written test, the scores come through. He goes through the tests and he gets the numbers. The interviews will then be a compilation of all their scores together. So, with 5 people scoring question #1 they rate him. Question #2 they rate him and then they just score him at the end. Ms. Walker-Montgomery said I don’t have a problem with Mr. Miller but my initial reaction when I initially heard this was that we get more community involvement on this particular Board because it’s really important because you are talking about people picking police and fire, or whoever’s say so and that’s really important. With the things going on in this Country now that’s a really important job so that’s why I wanted to know what his role is and what is going to go into picking the citizens that will be on this Board. Mayor Cherepko said that the citizens, in his mind, to take an average person off the streets that has no knowledge of police and fire is, this is not the place for them in my opinion. I am looking for a citizen that at least has background, whether, maybe they are a retired police officer, fireman, someone that maybe just works for an entity. I don’t even have them picked out at this point. If I did I would be asking for that as well. I have a couple people in mind but this is a Board that you need to take it very seriously. Although they might not do it often, when they do it, the duties of the job that they have, and that’s why I couldn’t take, I have to be honest, if Bill Miller said no, we have a problem because that’s how, just in my experience of 5 years being part of this, I don’t know where you go to find someone who can actually do the job. I talked to Chief Washowich and talked to Chief Tomasic and I wanted their input as well. What they thought and they thought he was the perfect choice for it. I think it is kind of unchartered ground because I think for many years Mary Ann has done it for so many decades. I think she worked her way up. I think at one time she was probably on the Board and became the Chairman for the last however many years. Ms. Walker-Montgomery said when we go to looking at the citizens I think that should be something that we kind of make public and we get, I don’t know you can kind of I guess funnel it from what you get. Solicitor Elash said the Civil Service Commission itself appoints. Mayor Cherepko said that’s for the test but I mean for the Board, itself. This by no means in my [6] opinion, and you know I have been very willing to work. Ms. Walker-Montgomery said, yea, you have. Mayor Cherepko said we have Recreation Committee, I put it out. I let the Rec Board pick. No other Mayor is going to do it but I think with this one here when you put it out there I don’t want to give the false hope that people can forward and be on this Committee when in my mind they don’t fit. In my mind all you do is tick people off. Ms. Walker-Montgomery said that would be up to you to say yes or no but I do think that we need to kind of make it public. If we get 1 or 2, we can say we made it public and asked for the community’s input but you and Matt will be the ones before it even gets to us anyway. So that’s just my recommendation. RC-3 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BROWN (7) NAYS: NONE (0) Mayor Cherepko said that concludes my report Mr. President. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. CITIZENS IN THE AUDIENCE: President Dellapenna called for citizens in the audience to keep in mind they have 3 minutes to speak and asked for them to step forward and state their name and address and what it is regarding. Mr. Walt Yager, LaRosa Boys & Girls Club of McKeesport. Thanked the Mayor and Council for this opportunity and stated he passed out information on Veterans’ Affairs. I don’t have copies for everyone here but basically 2 issues. The Boys & Girls Club traditionally has its Veterans’ Program on the 11th at 12 o’clock on Veterans’ Day and it usually follows the ceremonies that the City has at the War Memorial. It’s been resolved now but I didn’t know how to schedule the LaRosa Program based on the fact that up until today it wasn’t defined whether there would be a City Program so I think based on the word that got passed onto me that the ceremony at the War Memorial in McKeesport will be at 11 o’clock and then around 12:15 pm we will have the ceremony out at the Boys & Girls Club. In addition to that I have a program going on out at the Heritage Center on Saturday, November 12th at 2:00 p.m. and it’s basically titled “How McKeesport Got to Vietnam.” It centers around the 11 boys from the Boys & Girls Club that [7] were killed in Vietnam and a total of 23 that were killed from the City of McKeesport. Councilwoman Filotei as well as Bobbie Billsborrow from the Burt Foster Post 361 did a fabulous job in getting Banners put up along Fifth Avenue from the Palisades through Locust Street to cover the Veterans that were killed in the Vietnam War and what I attempted to do and I worked with Bobbie Billsborrow on this is she’s created some miniature banners and my intention with this Program of the Boys & Girls Club is to have these banners displayed on a permanent basis out at the Heritage Center but also to give another set of these to the families. The Boys Club already has a set of these that were given out on Memorial Day and Jim Barry has arranged for another set to be given to the family members. So basically, the cost of these banners without any mark-up is about $10 so we have a fundraiser going on and it’s been very successful. We reached about 60%. The two key lead $10 contributions were made by City Controller Miglocco and Councilman Barry so I guess what I am asking is that if anybody cares to participate on an individual basis, I would be glad to take your money tonight or if you want to make a check out I guess I am imposing on you since you’re kind of center there but on behalf of myself and Bobbie Billsborrow. So that’s my pitch. The last thing I wanted to say is on this last sheet here basically there is a little outline of that Program. It is the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam Era. It’s a Proclamation that President Obama made and also it’s the 50th Anniversary of the LaRosa Memorial on this Veterans’ Day and mid-way down on that last page there’s a quote that was a paraphrasing a quote that was used in the Pittsburgh Press on the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. It says, as America looks back, I mean he specifically cited McKeesport in this write up. “As America looks back on the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam Era, surely no community in our nation will have deeper emotions or sadder memories because of the ultimate sacrifices made by McKeesport’s youthful heroes.” Those names are listed there. I have a further objective in trying to promote things and they are to commemorate the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial at LaRosa as uniquely one of our nation’s firsts and that’s verified by the Vietnam Veterans Administration in Washington DC. I also hope to work with McKeesport School District to do further research and prepare biographical sketches of each of these McKeesport Heroes. The third thing is that I met on a casual basis with Ken Burns who did both the documentaries on PBS and he is going to do one on Vietnam and I am trying to get him to recognize McKeesport in that and the last things is I am [8] attempting to bring the Vietnam Wall, movable wall, to McKeesport sometime in the late Summer or early Fall of 2017 so any help I can get along those lines I sincerely appreciate. Thank you for your time. President Dellapenna said thank you Mr. Yager and we commend you for all the work you put in. Christine Preston, 1409 Craig Street. I really appreciate the work that the police are doing out there because I can visually see the City in the alley. My only concern is that there’s no lights on Craig Street in those two blocks. There’s no street lights. There’s one at Stewart and another but none in those two blocks. Those boys are standing in front of my house shooting down, running down, cutting down through the alley. I am very concerned. I have a 3 year old granddaughter now. My 10 year old godson is scared to death and he stays with me. I am very concerned. I put lights in the back but now they are shooting in the daytime. Mayor Cherepko said I cannot make any promises other than I am going to try to see if I can get a hold of Duquesne Light and see if we can get a light up there. Unfortunately, we have areas where there are no lights or so forth but I will definitely see. I will tell you something else too, get the neighbors to put porch lights on. Mayor Cherepko said it’s not just there, I tell people in a neighborhood where I go into and it’s so dark on the road and all it takes is putting your porch light on. Especially if you are looking down from the other end of the block, it’s amazing what 2 or 3 porch lights can do. Ms. Peterson said there’s concern and I called the police the other night and they advertised her address over the scanner that somebody getting shot at my house. Now I am afraid to call because they might put my address on there and what if the people have scanners and come shoot my house and when I talked to the lady at 911 she said oh no we didn’t but 3 different people called me and my daughter saying what happened at your house. They just broadcast your address on the scanner. President Dellapenna asked when you called in did you ask to remain anonymous. Ms. Peterson said I usually do but I don’t know if I did this time because I was so worked up because the shots are so close. Mayor Cherepko asked Mr. Dellapenna what is the protocol there if someone just calls in about a shooting, do they automatically give the address of the caller? Mr. Dellapenna [9] said if a shooting is happening in front of her house then yes they would give that address where the shooting takes place, pin-pointing that house. Ms. Peterson said usually what I say is I’ll give you my phone number and I’ll give you my address. Don’t have them come to my door and have them call me. Mr. Dellapenna said that is your best bet to request that when you do call. Ms. Peterson said they are shooting in broad daylight now. It sounded like they were in my backyard on Sunday afternoon. It’s getting to be too much. Mayor Cherepko said hopefully we will have it resolved very soon and President Dellapenna said thank you Mrs. Peterson. Mr. Victor Cotto, 1306 Craig Street. Regarding the violence on the 1300 block of Craig Street. The police are doing everything they can. I was helping them the other night. I was on my roof. They are there at night sitting in the Alley trying to catch these guys. But how can you let one person, a young woman, hold the entire block refuge? How is that possible? It’s unfair. There are legal moves to resolve this. I heard you speak about this. I hope and I pray that you guys are working on that very fast. Mayor Cherepko said just so you know we started that process prior to the one on Monday night. I mean as soon as it happened, the one in the daylight, the Chief got on it right away. Mr. Cotto said it’s like 5 days straight and I got to go. It’s tough. That’s what scares us. Where do we go? Mayor Cherepko said we don’t want to lose you up there. Give us some time. One thing I can tell you is you have my word that you are going to have a police presence there until we get them out of there, no matter how long it takes. You are going to have. It’s just become too much at this point. Apparently, it’s the girl’s boyfriend that someone’s after. If she has that, she got to get out but at this point as a resident the entire block is tired of it. I don’t know what the guy’s intentions were but he fired and fired and fired and now it isn’t just one house but God forbid someone get killed. Mayor Cherepko said if I may comment on a couple things, you talked about her not really having, being in touch with reality, you are right. We are communicating with everybody, including the girls in the house. I mean, and they [10] don’t. I don’t know how real you can be with somebody when you say that it is just a matter of time before the Coroner is coming for you. Let’s just call it what it is. I mean we are being as real as we can. You live in a world where how can one person hold this. But you see on the news, it’s all about we got rights, rights, rights, rights, that’s all you hear on the news anymore and you know when we move forward believe me when I tell you we have to make sure we don’t violate or do anything any illegal but we are putting what I would call full court pressure on and we are going to get them out of there. I know we are going to be successful. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. The other thing is, just so everyone knows, I don’t want anyone to think that we are taking patrols away from other areas of the City because the truth of the matter is we have special detail just getting paid overtime up there so I don’t want anyone to think that there is any part of the City suffering now. It’s a cost that, you know, you can’t put money before public safety. Mayor Cherepko said I am actually commending you for the way you are handling this, I know it’s frustrating, I cannot imagine, but you are right on a lot of the things you said and I wanted to point that out. Because it is ridiculous how basically one house can basically hold everyone hostage from living a comfortable life up there and that’s what is going to be resolved. Mr. Cotto said, the activity, the other night I came out and people from that house were parked in front of my house and my approach had to be very, very productive, mind you, people, if they are out there, chances are ….not saying that you guys are not doing a good job. I am just saying that I hope that you are close to a resolve because we, we will sell our house, we’ll sell it and we will go. Mayor Cherepko said we don’t want that. I will tell you this without going into too many details because we do have media here and I think it is not fair for me to ask them to refrain from this, you know, I can tell you at this point the homeowner has been very cooperative with the Chief so I really believe we are going to get them out of here. The homeowner, I mean, she’s being very, very cooperative in getting the ones out of there. The homeowner has much more capabilities than me as Mayor. Listen, I am at the point where believe me when I tell you that it is going to happen. I know they are here on record but I don’t want to get into anything but I don’t care if the Redevelopment Authority has to buy the house. Ok? That’s like how I am saying, ok, we are going to get them out of there. [11] I’m supposed to be coming for a meeting too in the neighborhood. I’m going to come up there so we can sit and talk. Even if we get them out of there, let’s talk about keeping, you guys making sure you keep things safe up there and keeping things lit up. I mean I’ll come whenever. I’m 24/7. I don’t shut off. But I am going to come up there and talk to the neighbors. Mr. Cotto said I just hope that you as the Mayor and the City, not for the City’s lack of efforts, just that the right approach is not. Mayor Cherepko said the good news is our police are going to be up there the bad news is the shooters probably know they are up there. So, the good news is they are up there and the shooters know but the bad news is we can’t get them put behind bars if they don’t come shooting. (Mr. Cotto did not speak into the microphone and some of his comments were inaudible.) NEW BUSINESS: ORDINANCE NO. 16-013 – BILL #40 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, VACATING A PORTION OF AN UNNAMED ALLEY FROM ANDERSON STREET, EXTENDING 86’ EAST TO MOSS ALLEY. MOTION: Ms. Walker-Montgomery moved, seconded by Ms. Brewster-Filotei “to approve Bill #40.” RC-4 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2016-028 – BILL #41 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA CORPORATION AND THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING, FINAL DESIGN, AND CONSTRUCTION OF IMPROVEMENTS TO TRAFFIC SIGNALS ALONG THE STATE ROUTE 148 CORRIDOR. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Brown “to approve Bill #41.” [12] Mayor Cherepko said this is the study to get a final design and complete all the traffic signals running on Walnut Street, which is 148 basically from The Daily News building all the way up through Lysle Boulevard, from East 5th all the way through West 5th, all new light signals, everything is completed and the funding we get for that comes out of a Grant, and things like that. All this is for is getting a final design and getting the improvements done. RC-5 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) Solicitor Elash said we need a Motion to Amend the Agenda to add Bills #42, #43 and #44. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to amend the Agenda to Add Bills #42, #43, and #44.” RC-6 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 16-014 – BILL #42 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, ESTABLISHING NEW RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT AND REPEALING ANY PART OF ANY AND ALL ORDINANCES THAT ARE IN CONFLICT HEREWITH. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mrs. Nesbit “to approve Bill #42.” RC-7 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 16-015 – BILL #43 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICERS TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL DOCUMENS NECESSARY TO TRANSFER LAND KNOWN AS LOT & BLOCK 464-R-120 FROM THE CITY OF [13] MCKEESPORT TO THE REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, TO AID THEIR REDEVELOPMENT OF SAID AREA. MOTION: Mrs. Nesbit moved, seconded by Mrs. Brewster-Filotei “to approve Bill #43.” Mayor Cherepko said Mr. President as I said earlier for those that may have not been here, this is just a small piece of vacant property that the City just so happens to own. Contrary to what many people believe all the vacant lots and things, the City doesn’t own those. We only own a few and you can probably count them on one hand as I said earlier but this was one that we own. It’s directly next to a gentleman on the corner of 36th Street. He’s been maintaining this property, treating it like his own. This purpose is to get it into the hands of the Redevelopment Authority so that they can sell the property to the homeowner that lives adjacent to it. As always we always give adjacent property owners first shot at a property. RC-8 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY (6) ABSTAIN: BARRY (1) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION NO. 2016-029 – BILL #44 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, DESIGNATING THE PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE AS THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mrs. Nesbit “to approve Bill #44.” Mayor Cherepko said, if I may Mr. President, all this is The Daily News has always been our official publication. When they went under we went over to the Trib whose rates were a little bit better than the Post-Gazette and for those that have not heard the Trib will not be printing a paper as of I believe November 30th.So, in case we have to do something that first week of December we wanted to make sure we got this on the books so that is one of the reasons why we amended the Agenda for it. To make them our official newspaper. [14] RC-9 YEAS:DELLAPENNA, SOLES, NESBIT, BROWN, BREWSTER-FILOTEI, WALKER-MONTGOMERY, BARRY (7) NAYS: NONE (0) ADJOURNMENT: President of Council Dellapenna said I would like to thank everybody who came out tonight. This concludes the meeting. Please don’t forget to turn your clocks back this weekend and have a good Thanksgiving! Good night. The meeting then adjourned at 7:46 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Annette James City Clerk and Clerk of Council APPROVED: Richard Dellapenna President of Council das [15]