City Council

CITY OF MCKEESPORT REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY 7:03 P.M. MARCH 7, 2018 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. Prayer was led by Deacon Brandan Monzingo from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The following Members of Council were present: RC-1 PRESENT: BRIAN EVANS, TIMOTHY BROWN, RICHARD DELLAPENNA, JIM BARRY, KEITH SOLES ABSENT: LUETHEL NESBIT, JAMIE BREWSTER-FILOTEI APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: Mr. Soles, seconded by Mr. Brown, “to approve the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of February 7, 2018.” RC-2 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) COMMUNICATIONS: Received both the Police and Fire Department Reports for the month of February 2018. MAYOR’S REPORT: Mayor Cherepko said thank you Mr. President. Just a few things for those that may have heard of some, I apologize, but I do want to remind everyone that there’s a lot of good things going on. We are getting through obviously we’re into March now, I do commend the Public Works Department, the Street crews. It was a brutal winter. It was tough. We call it the nuisance snow. People don’t realize those days when we just get an inch or so you are still out there salting and you’re still treating the streets. We probably used more salt than the last 2 [1] years combined and that includes the overtime and everything else was up. So, it was an expense obviously we have to deal with. We didn’t cut at all. Just so everyone is very aware. Our protocol is, we’ve given, I’ve personally given full authority to the Police Chief and to our Public Works Director that the minute our Police Officers are out on the roads and they see roads getting slippy at all they call 911 and they get in touch with Steve and we call out our crews. So, we don’t ever hold back when it comes to trying to get the streets and treat them and keep them as clean as possible. Sometimes we forget that we have well over 100 miles of roadways here in the City of McKeesport and when that snow keeps coming and coming a lot of times we don’t get the secondary roads as well as we’d like but I can tell you first-hand I’ve been out on the routes doing Lysle Boulevard, all the bridges, and by the time we got through one trip and salted everything and cleaned everything they were covered again. That’s what happens sometimes, but I do want to commend Steve on his efforts. Coming up we have, we talked about the demolition, well I’ll get into that in a second, I don’t want to get into that now. Let’s, Renzie Park, there are going to be pavilions. All of our pavilions are getting renovated. I’ll be coming to Council, we’ll be in front of Council with winners of a bid at next month’s meeting the goal is for them to try to renovate the pavilions before Memorial Day. If we run over they will be able to work around by working during the week being that most of our pavilions are not rented during the week anyway and they will have them at least in the condition that they need to be in to rent on the weekend. We are excited about those improvements through RAD money. McKeesport Rising Project, part of that comes the demolition, street paving, Steve has heard me say more than he’d like to hear that from the time that asphalt plant opens up to the time it closes our men are going to be out there paving. We are going to do as much paving as we possibly can. We are going to contract out a few paving jobs for the larger ones as well. We’ll use some money through, not just the McKeesport Rising Fund that was part of our budget but Liquid Fuels, and some others as well. Demolition, we will be looking to put 90 houses on and probably another 90. So, we’ll be somewhere around 200 homes between the ones that we contract out and the ones we continue to do in house to help eliminate this blight and to chase [2] away the crime. We know with blight, not only does crime attract to it, rodents, problems, and when you eliminate that it helps build moral in the community. It’s a battle we’ve been taking on. We will continue but this is going to be the most aggressive year for us because we have some money set aside to really make it possible. I really believe that at the end of this year into next year you are going to see a difference in every neighborhood. Are we going to eliminate the blight? The answer is no, obviously that is impossible to do in one year. We probably have 700 homes out there. We are still trying to get them in the hands of people, of good landlords, that want to remodel the homes and keep them on the tax rolls. We will continue to do that as well. The Dog Park out in Renzie Park as well. We will be looking to complete that and extend the trail by one mile and have a Dog Park over by where the new ballfields are. That was part of the CITF Grant that we got last year. We are excited with what is going on with the Daily News Building and what’s that going to bring to the community. Same as the YWCA Building, with the different entities that we are partnering with. When you talk about a multi-media center at the Daily News Building, it’s going to be spear-headed by our anchor tenant of Point Park and we really believe it’s going to be contagious and it’s going to really spread quickly, and we want that to serve on one end as well as like an incubator to spur business development. We will also be able to utilize the YWCA Building in that means as well. I know I am going a little fast, but I don’t want to take too much time and I want to get through some things. We will continue to work with Chief Washowich and this Police Department, second to none! I don’t care what anyone says, our Police Department is second to none! We will continue to fight to curb this addiction to crime and violence. We’ve partnered with several agencies. We will continue those partnerships. This year there’s going to be something special with the District Attorney Steve Zappala. For example, last year, you’re careful to say these types of things because they can take it both ways, but truth be told I have to commend our men and women in blue. Last year we took off 98 guns Chief? 98 guns off the street in 2017. 2016 we were up about 115 give or take a few. Chief Washowich said 121. Let’s not forget, this isn’t easy and these men and women are out there risking [3] their lives while they are doing the job to protect each and every one of us to get these guns off the streets and I could tell you for one, I for one, don’t want to be out there and I don’t want to have their jobs. But, I think to even commend them even further, and I understand we are far from perfect, I don’t want anyone to think that’s what I am saying but we do so in a manner that our complaints are very, very minimal and I think that says a lot about how our men and women conduct ourselves and the mutual respect that is shown, whether it is to victims, whether it’s to suspects, but we literally, the complaints are minimal. I think when you look at the fact of how pro-active on the policing aspect and how little the complaints are. When the complaints come in we address them, we take care of them. I don’t think you are going to find anyone in the community that says they called the Mayor’s Office, they called the Chief’s Office, and didn’t get calls back because that’s, you find someone who tells you that and you’ve found someone that’s telling a fib. We take a lot of pride in that and will continue to work to make the City safer. The most exciting thing, and I use the word exciting, with this partnership with the District Attorney, right now in our City we have 5, you have 5 cameras up in the City of McKeesport right now. These cameras are taking a snap picture of every vehicle that goes through that intersection. The technology that comes with this, and keep in mind before I go any further, we will be adding another 8- 10 on top of these. The technology that comes with these cameras, it’s not just cameras taking a shot, it’s literally if someone has a description of a car maybe that was a black sedan was seen driving away after a shot fired call, we literally can search every black sedan and it will show us the picture if the car has come through there. A car with a Pittsburgh Steelers bumper sticker, it will show you every vehicle that has a Pittsburgh Steelers bumper sticker. A vehicle that has, someone just saw the first letter of the license plate, we can search every vehicle. They’ve only been up a very short time and what I will tell you is that we have already made some arrests using this technology. Now, we are going to do a big Press Release on this and we are going to really push, and I realize we have the media here and I’ve talked about it before, but I want it to start getting into the communities now. I want the people to understand and I want them to know the type of technology we are using to curb this addiction on crime and violence. When these are up and running, and this is also tied into cameras all throughout [4] Allegheny County, so we will have access to it. So, not only is it someone ok, and what it also does, not to get into all that and not your concern as much but even it helps with pursuits. We could back off a pursuit and we can catch people on cameras and they could say you know, Mike Cherepko was seen as part of something and they catch me now I’m in Penn Hills. Then they identify which house I may be at and they come in and they get a Warrant and at that point they might make an arrest. Just one example. If something happens somewhere else, they get caught going through out town and they end up here we may make an arrest. The technology is unbelievable. We are going to put it out there. We want everyone to know, not just the people that are tired of this violence. We want these individuals that are making poor decisions to know what’s out there. We want the message to get out there. We want it to get to a point where if you say listen, if I am selling drugs or I’m going to go shoot up a house, I am not going to do it in McKeesport. And that’s why we are making the investment. These cameras are not cheap. We are making investments as part of our McKeesport Rising Project thanks to the approval of Council and everyone that believes this is the way. I know Chief Washowich is excited. But, when this gets out and when people start seeing, we’ll have the social media videos, so people know we are not just talking, they will be able to see the stuff you can pull up. The technology is unbelievable. Our goal is to have people think twice before they come to this town. We believe it’s going to be a serious decline in some of the issues that we are having. We may not ever eliminate it totally, but you are going to see a decline and I don’t want to go into too much more. I probably said more than I should have at this time and I see Chief Washowich over there smiling at me. But, I just want our, I want the people to know that there’s not a day that goes by, there’s not a second of a day that goes by that our issues our not on the forefront and the top of our priority list amongst the others. Chief Washowich and I talk often. You know, 2 o’clock in the morning, 3 o’clock in the morning, whatever it might be. Usually I at least give him the courtesy of sending him a text first to see if he is up. But, this is how hard we are working and our men and women in blue are working and I commend them for their efforts because it’s not easy in today’s world. I think you look around and see a lot of things going on in the world with policing and other things and we are fortunate that we don’t have many of those issues in our town. We will continue to build upon the relationships we have. We know there’s always room for improvement. We will continue but I think you [5] know one thing that does come natural for many of ours is with us having residency when you get into community policing I think that’s an advantage for us. Because many of these kids growing up they are seeing our officers down at the Boys & Girls Club, maybe coaching. Little Tigers coaching, whatever it may be. They’re involved with so many different activities. We have several of our officers who have kids in the community as well who are interacting with these kids out of uniform and I really attribute part of that to that as well. But, we will continue to work to improve because I don’t want anyone to sit here and think that for one second the Chief or I are at all satisfied because there’s always room for improvement and we got a long way to go but this technology with these cameras I think is going to be a major, major impact for our City. It’s going to help us when we continue to recruit businesses, recruit people to live here and you know, I think you see right now, a lot of businesses are starting to come. We have to make sure that they know they are safe. We have new buildings going up on Walnut Street, two lots that have been vacant for years, people are purchasing them. One is under Sales Agreement now and is going to build a new building, open up a new business. Council President Rich Dellapenna helped facilitate that one. We have another gentleman buying a whole block and is going to build a building. Vegely just did. Today, across from Natale’s one of our individuals that are interested in buying that lot that has been probably marketed for 30 years or more wants to build a new building and they were doing drilling samples today to make sure that there wasn’t going to be any issues because it was torn down so long ago we are not sure what’s underneath there. There are things happening! From the Christy Park section, Olli’s coming in, Aldi’s coming, O’Reilly’s will be building a new building down there as well. Family Dollar built a new building down there. Dollar General, and I know when people here Dollar General and they hear Family Dollar, that they right away everyone says another Dollar Store. Well, I know many of you have heard me say this and I don’t like to wear it out but it’s the truth. Anyone that goes in there I want to see you come out spending a dollar on items you purchase. I stop by quite regularly and I could tell you I don’t ever walk out of there without spending $40-$50 or more. These are small box retailers. Dollar General is one of the largest growing, fastest growing in the world right now. But we are still recruiting others as well. I don’t’ want anyone to think that we are satisfied. Once again with that what I am saying is that there’s a lot of good things happening and will continue to work. To Council, I thank you [6] for your support. Bowman Avenue is a mess, it will be part, that’s going to a major, major project that we have to pave up there. Eden Park Boulevard in front of the High School is really bad. That’s not ours, that’s the County so we have reached out to them and let them know. There’s a lot and I could go on forever, but I do appreciate Council, your support, and we have a good hard-working people right now and I don’t want anyone to ever forget and I can’t help but remind people. You know, because we come in here and we conduct ourselves with respect and dignity, all too often your naysayers out there think that’s a sign of weakness or something or a sign of this person just votes with everything. It couldn’t be further from the truth. I am in constant communications with Council, with phone calls and concerns. Many times, they don’t understand where it was coming from because they are not involved with the daily operations of the City. That’s not their job. You know, here in the City of McKeesport is different. You have a full-time Mayor, you have an Administration Department. That’s who runs the operations. Most often times when they are not sure about something they see what we are doing and most often times they see it and say you know what it makes sense. Other times they may think well I still disagree and that’s why you’ll get a no vote up here. When you get no votes, the difference is there’s no dog and pony show. There’s no one grand-standing, they voted, they voted no, voiced their opinion and we moved on. That’s what we need to do because let me tell you something don’t think for one second that people don’t, especially developers, don’t know what’s going on in your town they want to come and develop and bring a business in. They know and when they see controversary it scares them. I’m not going to say another town, but I know someone right now that got a building in another town and he already wants to sell it and move to McKeesport because of the political controversies going on there. So, people educate themselves, especially people that are going to spend money. No different than each and every one of us in here. You’re going to spend your money, you’re are going to educate yourself before you spend it. That’s what your developers are doing. There’s a strong interest in McKeesport and part of that is because of everyone working together. Other than that. Mr. Soles said what about recycling bins? Do you still have a lot of them down there? [7] Mayor Cherepko said yes, recycling bins, we still have them available. Call the office, Steve will make sure they get delivered and we want to increase our recycling. Not only to preserve our environment but also, we get credit for the recycling and also that is less that goes in your landfills which saves money on your garbage expenses as well. Other than that Mr. President, if anyone doesn’t have anything else, that concludes my Report. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. CITIZENS IN THE AUDIENCE: President Dellapenna stated next is Citizens in the Audience. When I call your name step forward, state your name and address and proceed with your comments. Keep in mind you have 3 minutes and we have numerous people signed up to talk tonight. First, Mr. Allen Wakefield. Allen Wakefield, 2013 Ohio Avenue, White Oak. Thank you and by the way, Mayor, I appreciate all your remarks. It’s exciting to hear that growth is going to take place in the town. I wonder if it’s counter-productive adding, I don’t know the answer to that, I just wonder, increasing the fees would discourage. It doesn’t sound like it would, but I don’t know if it would or not. I don’t have a whole lot to say because I have it all written down, so I am going to hand some things to each of you if you don’t mind. When we were here a year ago, my son and I were here a year ago, and spoke to Council we asked if Council, if anybody on Council had read the Ordinance and it turns out no one had. You had read the amendment, but it turns out that that’s all there was an amendment. There was nothing but an amendment to that, to the old Ordinance and so, you know. So, it is exactly the same Ordinance we fought years ago. For 2-1/2 years 12 years ago we fought that Ordinance and we had a Consent Decree from the Mayor, from Judge Gallo, at that time and so I would ask that, has anybody bothered to read the Ordinance in the past year, the Regulated Rental Ordinance, has anybody actually read it? Solicitor Elash said I think everybody here has read it. Mr. Wakefield asked they read it? Why would they have read it in the past year? What made them read it all of a sudden when they hadn’t read it a year ago? [8] Solicitor Elash said when they amended the Ordinance and amended the fees. Mr. Wakefield said the fees, the main thing I found that was amended was the fees, which we had predicted 12 years ago that the fees would go up. But, at any rate, what I have here, you’ll see from the cover letter you have our response when we filed our first complaint Jason asked us for more specificity, so we gave him more specific answers to his answers for his request for specificity. Solicitor Elash asked are you talking about the suit 12 years ago? Mr. Wakefield said yes, I am. That’s exactly what I am talking about and so I, we couldn’t find a copy of it until we went to the City office and the secretary gave us a copy and it was the same Ordinance we fought 12 years ago, so nothing had changed. As we had predicted the fees went up. We predicted that originally. So, I would ask that you would do me the honor of re-reading our responses because you will never see them. I don’t think the City Solicitor ever asked you to get involved in the legal side of it and he doesn’t ask you to read responses. I would ask, I would like to come back here in a month to the next meeting and ask if you read our responses. I would like to know what your reaction to those responses are because we have covered it in great detail, item-by-item, clause-by- clause of that Ordinance. You will learn more about the Ordinance than you did in the Ordinance itself. I hope you’ll read it. I hope you’ll read what I’ve written. Mayor Cherepko said Mr. Wakefield if I may, with all due respect, we understand you have a stance. You are worried about a Constitutional right. Mr. Wakefield said, aren’t you? You should be. Mayor Cherepko said sir, I totally disagree. Mr. Wakefield said you, you raised your hand and gave an oath. Mayor Cherepko said sir, let me tell you something, I will tell you, can I talk? Can I talk? Mr. Wakefield continually tried to interrupt Mayor Cherepko and finally said sure, go ahead. Mayor Cherepko said ok, I took an oath. To fight. Mr. Wakefield said to defend the Constitution. [9] Mayor Cherepko said I took an oath to fight. Mr. Wakefield continued with to protect, defend and obey the Constitution. Mayor Cherepko said are you going to let me talk? Mr. Wakefield said go ahead. Mayor Cherepko said ok. I took an oath to fight for the residents of McKeesport. Ok? Mr. Wakefield said no you didn’t you took an Oath to obey the Constitution. You didn’t. (Mr. Wakefield continued to try to talk over Mayor Cherepko and become combative and could not be heard clearly because he kept interrupting Mayor Cherepko). Mayor Cherepko said Mr. Wakefield this isn’t a violation of the Constitution, we can agree to disagree. What I am going to tell you is right now, our issue in our community for the most part is rental properties. Ok? All we are doing is trying to get a grasp of the rental properties. Ok? It is not fair for people to be living in the conditions they are living. For landlords not being responsible and held accountable for what they are doing yet they are paying their rent, they are getting the revenue and they are walking away. All we are doing is regulating this to make the environment safer for our people to live in and to make sure they are not living in deplorable conditions. That is a real issue right now. Ok, that’s an issue in our town. I get the complaints constantly. Mr. Wakefield said well we want to see those complaints. Mayor Cherepko said, sir. Mr. Wakefield said we’d ask to see them. Mayor Cherepko said sir you don’t have enough time. Mr. Wakefield said 12 years ago I asked to see them and I am asking for them again. Mayor Cherepko said sir you don’t’ have enough, they are conversations I have. You understand? Ok, you don’t have enough time in your life. Mr. Wakefield said you make a record of those, you make a record. [10] Mayor Cherepko said you don’t have enough time in your life to read the complaints I deal with. Mr. Wakefield said do you know how much time it took to write this thing? Mayor Cherepko said listen you are doing what you have to with the lawsuit, you have your right. Solicitor Elash said you realize there is no case pending in Allegheny County Court. Mr. Wakefield said I do know that. Solicitor Elash said the case has been terminated. Mr. Wakefield said there may be depending on if the Council continues… Solicitor Elash said I just want to make that clear. Mayor Cherepko said I can assure you that we are going to pursue this so if you want to just file your suit, save us time. File your suit and move on. Ok, I’ve had enough. The people of McKeesport deserve better. Mr. Wakefield said will you please read our response to the Ordinance. Mr. Dellapenna said we will go through it Mr. Wakefield. Mr. Wakefield said that’s all I am asking. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I would ask that you. Mayor Cherepko said I’ve read it over and over and over and over again. Mr. Wakefield said you didn’t read our responses Mayor. You didn’t read it. Mayor Cherepko said your response is we don’t have a right to regulate, ok. Mr. Wakefield said no it isn’t that at all. Mayor Cherepko said that is what you told me. You looked at me and said you don’t have a right to regulate and to tell me who I rent, how I rent, no that’s exactly what was said at the Main pavilion and I looked at you if you remember and said wait a minute that’s what laws are. We passed an Ordinance, we are holding people accountable. Some people might not think they should have to wait to 16 to drive but they do, or to wait to 21 to have an alcoholic beverage, but they do. That’s life. We passed a law to hold people accountable. [11] Mr. Wakefield said the Ordinance, Mayor, is allowing. Mayor Cherepko said I am not debating it. Mr. Wakefield said the Ordinance is allowing warrantless searches. That was answered in Federal Court in Cincinnati, Ohio and they threw it out. There was an Ordinance like this and Mayor Cherepko said you know who you want to take this up with, take this up with the District Attorney because I could assure you he is a thousand percent behind us with doing this. Mr. Wakefield said I’m trying to avoid this. President Dellapenna said Mr. Wakefield your time is up. Mayor Cherepko said and I am trying to avoid people dying in my City. Mr. Wakefield said thank you all for the time. Thank you, Mayor. President Dellapenna said next up is Keenan Mikell. Keenan Mikell. How you guys doing? Basically, I am here for in lieu of the shootings that happened in Florida and of course our gun violence here. I am proposing that a group that I am creating, along with First Step Recovery, as well as Ministry Outreach and a few other non-profit organizations, what we are trying to do is hand out grievance cards. We are trying to get the City to sign empathy cards. Along with that, we were asking if possibly, from Mayor to Mayor if you would be willing to actually after we get a certain amount send it to their Mayor on behalf of McKeesport. But, of course, I wouldn’t move out on behalf of McKeesport without support of McKeesport Council. Also, I am asking our people to sign a Petition, basically an oath that they would support or report gun violence or activity. One of the things we are looking at doing is going into some of the schools, after school programs, and what not. Possibly the Police Force would be willing to come in? I know when I was little before I went off the path and came back Officers would come in and say, hey you know you could be an honorary police officer, do this. The had these little cards and I just knew I was a police officer, right. So, my son loves the military, he loves police, and I think that would be a good idea if we could get them to touch children basically. Let’s say as an honorary person we would report if we see any gun violence, if we know of [12] anybody. My whole cause is possibly dealing with the cause as opposed to treating the symptoms. I mean the symptoms are the issue we are dealing with now but if we can try to use up the situation before it becomes, we can possibly commit to change. Again, I already bought the first 50, I went to Dollar Tree, Dollar Store. I can’t control myself, but I bought the first 50 cards and I wanted to go and ask people to sign on and possibly sign a Petition and then move on a larger scale. I even spoke to people in other communities but for obvious reasons I want McKeesport to be the spear-head of the situation. President Dellapenna said I’m sure you would have the support of Council and the Mayor. Mayor Cherepko said yes, I am more than willing to sit down and talk to you. It’s funny, some of the things you mentioned we still do. We still have our junior badges that our Police give out and we have teddy bears that we give out with McKeesport Police on them. So, these are things we are doing and like I said we could always improve and get better and we are more than willing to work with groups and organizations. So, if you want to get in touch with my office I am more than willing, the Chief and I will get together with you and get some ideas. We’ll tell you what we can do and tell you what we can’t, but you know we will definitely work with you in any way that we think we can. Mr. Mikell said thank you. President Dellapenna said thank you and last, Mr. Regis Mellinger, please. Regis Mellinger, 1612 Packer Street. Thanks for having me yet again my friends. So, I have two topics to talk about. Number one a trail of excellence. Over the past weekend some friends and I we gathered 32 bags off the trail as well as 21 tires. And I know that you guys already do know that, but it was an amazing thing. I have lots of thanks to give. Thanks to Steve for picking up after us at the end of the day. CSL Plasma, they really made it possible by bringing two teams. It was an incredible display of the speed and strength of social media, organization and today’s world because it only took 10 days to organize. It really blew my mind too. I changed the New McKeesport name that I had last year to Volunteer Improvement Projects (VIP) McKeesport because volunteers are important, and I invite anybody who wants to volunteer to use it. I think it would be a great streamlined effort for anybody who wants to volunteer and who needs some [13] more. You guys are more than welcome to join in that. This clean up it advanced trail possibilities a month earlier than expected. So, let’s create a trail of excellence from start to finish because in McKeesport we do have to give 110% to win the respect of people around us. Let’s create a trail of excellence from the Riverton Bridge all the way to Wheel Street so every rider beyond enjoys the McKeesport Trail but is amazed at their McKeesport experience. We’ll have to mow down the Wheel Street trail head and other growth. My friend, Kyle, of MLK Murals is still looking for a place to put their murals. You might know the Riverton Bridge area was declined but we are still looking for a place to put our mural. So, Wheel Street might be a great opportunity as it is City-owned. He just called me today actually. We’ll have to paint over the poetry that some people left on the pavilions. They are quite inspired, and I am looking forward to this week speaking with RTC about landscaping the Riverton Bridge area, adding some mulch. It shouldn’t cost anything because I have people who work in the tree business and they already wood chip things everyday, so we should have a lot of mulch coming. I just wanted to update you on those current ambitions and hopefully we can maybe fast track things in time for summer and see how that works out. But, let’s just create a trail of excellence. It’s a beautiful place and really can be really beautiful. Moving on, about City biking. Say, President Dellapenna, if McKeesport never built railroads, how successful do you think the steel mills would have been? President Dellapenna said not too successful. Mr. Mellinger said not too successful and would you believe that during the rise of the automobile, some people wanted to keep their horses? In retrospect, it may sound silly, but infrastructure and transportation preferences are changing all the time and in today’s world cities all over are shifting from cars to bicycles. Not 100% but it’s still a very important thing. So, we must adapt, or we do risk being passed up by tech companies. Like Google for example who looks for bike plans in a city, in any city they enter. Tech companies today are the equivalent of steel mills of yester-year. They hire brilliant minds and pay well, and we sure need more brilliant minds around here. This map has the ability to change the perception of McKeesport possibly forever. It lists all the scenic photo ops, at least the ones I could think of, because people share photos every day. Every [14] single hour people share photos. By guiding riders to the most scenic spots we can better our reputation on line through your Instagram, through your Facebooks and snapchats, you name it. This map here highlights all of the best features I could think of because we have so many parks per square mile this map shows them. You look at the theatre, the Rose Garden, the Roller Rink. You name it, but best of all, this map keeps riders off of main roads as much as possible. You go to Pittsburgh and the bike roads are on the busiest places. Like Butler Street or East Carson. It’s very dangerous. McKeesport can avoid that and become one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. My plan is a lot different from what anybody else would do. They have bike lanes and share the worlds. They could be kind of confusing and we do have rather thin streets. I would say let’s put simple dots. Very nice colors based on the routes that are here listed. Let’s just put dots every 25 feet or so. I believe it would save a lot more money and be visually appealing and people would know where to go. This map here I am still going to add a few things to make it better and keep it safer for people, such as enlarging the streets that matter so that people don’t get lost as well as maybe adding some green circles and red squares as you may see in sky maps just, so people know what’s safe and what’s not. What’s flat and what might be hilly, and I understand some people may disagree with City biking just as some people disagreed with cars in favor of horses. I talked to Zach. Zach loves this idea. This Bike McKeesport Map of Zach’s Bike Shop. He is the one who recommended that I enlarge the important street names so that people don’t get lost and I am going to work on that but today the world is moving. The way the world is moving this is what big companies want and this is what brilliant minds expect in the City. We need more big companies and we need more brilliant minds. So, let’s make an excellent and healthy biking City and I hope you may enjoy this Bike Map. It also has a place where the Band Shell is, all the Schools we have, including a Penn State Campus, and a lot of very nice colors. I think this Map can really, really change the way people think about us, on-line everywhere, that’s my pitch today. President Dellapenna said than you Mr. Mellinger. You did a good job with the Map. Mr. Mellinger said you know it is a really beautiful Map and it’s going to get better. Thank you very much for the compliment as well and if we could one day [15] talk about the Wheel Street area because they still want to put the mural up, the Welcome to McKeesport mural. It’s going to be great. Thank you very much! NEW BUSINESS: President Dellapenna asked Secretary James for New Business. RESOLUTION No. 2018-009 – BILL #15 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO FILE AN APPLICATION FOR A GRANT FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SMALL WATER AND SEWER PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND ($255,000) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Evans, “to approve Bill #15.” Mayor Cherepko said I am going to brief when I say these as quickly as possible. We talked more in depth earlier during the Work Session. This is to fix the flooding issue we have at the Mansfield Bridge. We have a broken line coming down the hillside and over the last year we have dealt, we’ve had to block the bridge off quite a few times. So, this Grant will pay for that. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-3 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION No. 2018-010 – BILL #16 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, APPROVING A REVERSE SUBDIVISION REQUEST FROM VEGELY PROPERTIES, LLC TO COMBINE FOUR LOTS INTO ONE. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mr. Soles, “to approve Bill #16.” RC-4 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION No. 2018-011 – BILL #17 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXONERATE AND STRIKE TAX & MUNICIPAL LIENS ON LOT & BLOCK 555-C-203. [16] MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Evans, “to approve Bill #17.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said these were delinquent taxes from years ago that shouldn’t have even existed. It was back when they built the facility, the old sewage, our sewage authority, we now sold it to American Water, and just as a reminder to everyone that all of American Water, now that they own everything will be taxable. Whereas, the Municipal Authority was tax exempt. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-5 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION No. 2018-012 – BILL #18 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AWARDING THE BID FOR THE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE FAWCETT AND DUNCAN BASEBALL FIELDS TO KUCICH CONSTRUCTION, INC. AND AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXECUTE ALL DOCUMENTS NECESSARY TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH KUCICH CONSTRUCTION, INC. FOR AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND ($175,000) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Evans moved, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve Bill #18.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said these are two of the fields that are outside Renzie Park which get neglected for the most part. I mean we do some work on them each year, but it’s been a long time since they have had some significant upgrades. So, this is through CD money. I commend Mr. Tedesco. I told him let’s find some money to get this done and we are happy to improve those facilities for the kids. The Fawcett Complex has been the home of the Boys & Girls Club for probably 10 years or so now. Their second home I should say, and we have people outside the City that come to that facility for ballgames and things as well. So, we are excited, and it was nice to see that a local contractor was the winning bidder as well. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-6 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) [17]  NAYS: NONE (0) RESOLUTION No. 2018-013 – BILL #19 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXECUTE AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH THE REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT TO PROVIDE FOR THE OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE MULTI-MEDIA BUILDING AT THE FORMER SITE OF THE MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Evans, “to approve Bill #19.” RC-7 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, SOLES (4) NAYS: NONE (0) ABSTAIN: BARRY (1) Solicitor Elash said that Mr. Barry is abstaining as a member of the Redevelopment Authority Board. RESOLUTION No. 2018-014 – BILL #20 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXECUTE AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH THE REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT TO PROVIDE FOR THE OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMON GROUND BUILDING AT THE FORMER SITE OF THE MCKEESPORT YWCA. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Brown, “to approve Bill #20.” RC-8 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, SOLES (4) NAYS: NONE (0) ABSTAIN: BARRY (1) RESOLUTION No. 2018-015 – BILL #21 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AUTHORIZING THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO TAKE ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY TO SUBMIT A COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOURISM FUND (CITF) GRANT APPLICATION IN THE AMOUNT OF TWO [18] HUNDRED THOUSAND ($200,000) DOLLARS FOR RENOVATIONS TO THE MCKEESPORT MULTI-MEDIA BUILDING AND PARKING BUILDING. MOTION: Mr. Evans moved, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve Bill #21.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or discussions and Mayor Cherepko said as I said, we are applying for this Grant to help retrofit the building and to help some improvements in order to satisfy the tenants that will be coming into the Daily News Building. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-9 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 18-007 – BILL #22 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 76-1, ALSO KNOWN AS THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT TO ESTABLISH NEW ALTERNATIVE, COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCEDURES FOR CONTRACTS FOR SERVICES OR SUPPLIES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIAL ADVANCEMENTS WHICH CAN MAXIMIZE SAVINGS FOR THE CITY. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mr. Soles, “to approve Bill #22.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said obviously this is just an alternative, a new way of utilizing the bidding process to maximize our savings. You know in this day and age things are changing. Eventually there won’t be any newspaper of print and that’s pretty much everyone puts bids out in that manner, so we are just, we really believe by putting them head to head and going back and forth we should save a lot of money with our contracts. This won’t be for everything. This will just give us an avenue to utilize for certain things like demolition and maybe a few others. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-10 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) [19] ORDINANCE NO. 18-008 – BILL #23 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 87-2 OF 1987, AS AMENDED, TO INCREASE THE FEE ASSESSED FOR MERCANTILE LICENSE TO ONE HUNDRED ($100) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Evans moved, seconded by Mr. Soles, “to approve Bill #23.” RC-11 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 18-009 – BILL #24 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 2496, SERIES 1971, AS AMENDED, TO INCREASE THE FEE ASSESSED FOR A BUSINESS PRIVILEGE LIENSE TO ONE HUNDRED ($100) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve Bill #24.” RC-12 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 18-010 – BILL #25 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 1918, SERIES 1952, AS AMENDED, TO INCREASE THE THRESHOLD AMOUNT FOR PROPERTY THAT MAY BE SOLE WITHOUT PUBLIC ADVERTISEMENT IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION TO FIVE THOUSAND ($5,000) DOLLARS. MOTION: Mr. Barry moved, seconded by Mr. Evans, “to approve Bill #25.” RC-13 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) President Dellapenna said I need a Motion to Amend the Agenda to add Bills 26 and 27. MOTION: Mr. Soles moved, seconded by Mr. Brown, “to amend the Agenda to Add Bills #26 and #27.” RC-14 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) [20] RESOLUTION NO. 2018-016 – BILL #26 – A RESOLUTON OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AWARDNG THE BID FOR THE PURCHASE OF A RECONDITIONED STREET SWEEPER AND AUTHORIZNG THE PROPER CITY OFFICIALS TO EXECUTE ALL DOCUMENTS NECESSARY TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH A&H EQUIPMENT COMPANY FOR AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED NINETY-FIVE THOUSAND ($95,000) DOLLARS FOR THE PURCHASE OF SAID EQUIPMENT MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Soles, “to approve Bill #26.” President Dellapenna asked for questions or discussion and Mayor Cherepko said this is a refurbished sweeper/vac to clean out the catch basins. Those will be the catch basins that do not tie into our sewage system which we are responsible for. Our old sweeper was I don’t know how old Steve. Steve said 25 years old. Mayor Cherepko said 25 years old. We went this route because it’s a totally refurbished piece of equipment. Brand new it’s about $250,000 and obviously you see we are getting this a lot cheaper. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-15 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) NAYS: NONE (0) NAYS: NONE (0) ORDINANCE NO. 18-011 – BILL #27 – AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MCKEESPORT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AMENDING THE AGREEMENT WITH THE GARDEN CLUB DATED APRIL 19, 1979. MOTION: Mr. Evans moved, seconded by Mr. Barry, “to approve Bill #27.” President Dellapenna asked for discussion or questions and Mayor Cherepko said this is just the Lease with our Rose Garden and the Garden Club. The last couple of Leases have been 20 years. This year, this time we are just going to do a 10- year Lease. President Dellapenna said thank you Mayor. RC-16 YEAS: EVANS, BROWN, DELLAPENNA, BARRY, SOLES (5) [21]  NAYS: NONE (0) ADJOURNMENT: President of Council Dellapenna said thank you Annette and that concludes our Council meeting for Wednesday, March 7th. Thank you all for attending and have a safe drive home. Thank you. The meeting then adjourned at 7:54 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Annette James City Clerk and Clerk of Council APPROVED: Richard Dellapenna President of Council das [22]