[0:19] Okay, Joey, we're live.

[0:23] » Thank you, Jen.

[0:26] Good meeting time, guys. >> How's it going?

[0:29] » Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the

[0:34] Grove Park Summit Council meeting, September 2nd.

[0:38] In attendance we have Mrs. Grady, here. Mrs. Miller is absent.

[0:44] Mr. Goza. >> Present.

[0:48] » Uh Mr. Mitchell.

[0:50] » Here. >> Mr. Halonen.

[0:53] » Here. >> Mr. Shields.

[0:55] » Present. >> Mayor Kelly.

[0:56] » Here. >> Solicitor Krolak.

[0:58] » Here. >> Borough Manager, Jen Basilega.

[1:01] » Here. >> And Chief Kevin O'Connell.

[1:04] » Here. >> We're going to stand for a moment of

[1:07] meditation. I'd like to lead you all.

[1:10] Salute our flag and we will have our two leaders and our secretary.

[1:20] » I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

[1:24] of America. With liberty and justice for all.

[1:34] » Thank you.

[1:39] The only one on the agenda is our own container public meeting that we

[1:45] And Jen, would you like to direct us on this?

[1:49] All council members are ready to hold on this week.

[1:53] » If there was any public comment? >> Do we have any public comment on this?

[1:59] » And just for the record, notice was provided in the newspaper

[2:03] twice. We we don't have this on our agenda to

[2:06] vote on tonight though. Do we need to add it to our agenda before we approve

[2:08] the agenda? >> I have it up on the top here agenda

[2:11] should we vote on here or >> It's just here at the public meeting but

[2:14] do we need to have it under old business in order to vote on it?

[2:17] » Yes. >> And I apologize. Obviously that was my

[2:21] fault. I thought we could just vote on the top here. Yes.

[2:27] And so we'll add this to old business. >> Yes.

[2:31] » Okay. Okay.

[2:36] The next item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do we have a

[2:41] motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll make the motion to approve with the

[2:44] addition of ordinance 1-2026 to old business.

[2:48] » I'll second that. >> Thank you. On the question.

[2:53] All in favor. >> Aye.

[2:54] » Aye. >> Who's abstaining?

[2:59] Next the approval of the minutes of our August 15th

[3:05] and 2026 Borough Council meeting and our August 26th, 2026

[3:11] work session. Do we have a motion to approve?

[3:14] » I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Jean. Do we have a second?

[3:19] On the question. All in favor.

[3:23] » I vote aye. >> Aye.

[3:25] » Who Who seconded that? >> I don't know.

[3:28] » Jerry? >> I didn't

[3:30] » I only got Jean as the first who seconded that.

[3:34] » I'll second it. >> Okay.

[3:36] Thank you. All right. I apologize. Go ahead.

[3:39] » Okay. Thank you. The next is our public comment. Go

[3:43] ahead. >> Good evening.

[3:54] Good. >> Next is our police report

[3:58] from our chief. >> Um in August um obviously one of the

[4:04] biggest things in town was the blessing of the bikes thing.

[4:06] Um they staffed it with three additional officers um along with our uh full

[4:11] officers that were working that day. And then we had assistance from South Avenue

[4:15] and Waverly during the race itself. Um we had really no no issues. It went

[4:19] over really well. I know it was very well received. Um

[4:23] as far as crowd control there was no the alcohol there was no public drunkenness

[4:27] anything like that. Um We definitely have to iron out some of

[4:32] the rules with who's serving it next time um because there was issues with

[4:37] verifying age of people that were of age 21 years old or older.

[4:42] The the proper uh vessels that the alcohol is supposed to be in. So

[4:48] it wasn't uh it was just a a hurdle we had to jump the day of and and navigate

[4:53] kind of that. So it it went well. Um there were some minor hiccups but

[4:59] I think it'll work better in the future. Um

[5:03] » I think for the turnout we had that day it was a overkill for the whole event.

[5:08] » Yeah. It was >> And it was run so well.

[5:10] » It was all behind the scenes stuff that that still needed to be tweaked for

[5:14] future but definitely something that I need to keep an eye on for for future

[5:18] events. >> yeah.

[5:20] » No major issues. No there was no like I said there was no uh

[5:23] it was a breast cancer uh fundraiser so people weren't there

[5:27] highly lit. They were having a good time having a beer watching the band. So it

[5:30] was it was a good time. It was a good time. It was well received.

[5:33] Um no there was no major issues. Um we're having a department meeting

[5:38] in town in house with the mayor uh September 10th that's next Thursday for

[5:42] our department. Um Let's see. I was at the back to school

[5:47] carnival last Thursday. I'm at the high school talking about

[5:51] e-bike safety with the Abington business and the school

[5:55] district in there.

[5:58] We had our PSP audit which audits our clean

[6:03] or you basically our criminal histories of who who are running license plates,

[6:07] all those sorts of things, anything why we're running them. We passed it.

[6:10] I'd like to give a shout out to Officer Kaiser. He does a great job with that.

[6:13] He's our TAC officer. So he too really does a a good job with that.

[6:17] Another shout out to our DPW, Brian or yeah, Ryan Kehoe and Jay Miller. We had

[6:23] our office staff kind of knows an incident in front of the borough

[6:26] building last week. There required some use of the DPW.

[6:31] See me after for details, I guess. It was

[6:36] not safe for work stuff. But yeah, it was it was very well for those two

[6:39] stepping up and helping us out there with that. Griffin Pond, I believe is on

[6:45] the agenda tonight. I'm not sure to talk about that. I guess I'll I'm

[6:48] going to stick around. So I'll just kind of save that for the end of the

[6:52] That's another thing. My last thing I'll come to is once again

[6:56] staffing continues to be the biggest hurdle I have.

[7:00] You know, you'll look our overtime was down greatly in August and that was

[7:04] because we have our new hire Justin Wilkie working in the slot that I was

[7:08] in. So when I came up and did obviously made openings. So Justin's in there.

[7:12] He's he's firing on all cylinders. He's been a great addition to our department

[7:16] helping out with our rifle qualifications and all sorts of things.

[7:19] It still leaves that opening on the other side filled by part-timers that

[7:23] just are not getting filled throughout.

[7:29] So that's one thing with part-timers which

[7:31] troubled. The also troublesome thing is the SRO staffing for a while.

[7:38] The person we hired that was supposed to be working that has kind of taken other

[7:43] uh is working more heavily in their other

[7:47] department and hasn't been available for the

[7:50] shifts. So, that's the trouble with the part-time staffing for that.

[7:54] So, we're have on we're on plan B. Um we're working on getting somebody else

[7:59] in there, but it's been a struggle, for sure.

[8:03] Yeah, we we we have been up there since school has been in. Yeah, no,

[8:07] everything's as is. You know, we're we're we're leaving the car up there.

[8:09] We're walking through several times a day.

[8:11] Um it was a little bit of a fiasco since St. Gregory's was closed for Seal

[8:15] Coating last week. So, we're up there directing traffic, but it it's been

[8:19] steady as she goes. We're we're still up there. We just

[8:22] still have that uh dedicated officer before that school.

[8:26] school right now.

[8:29] » Uh Chief, um on the agenda on old business is Clark Street road contract.

[8:34] Do you have an opinion on that or is it something

[8:37] » I got to I got to hang around for the whole meeting here, so I'll have a

[8:39] little comment on on that. Um Clark Street, I've been here the whole 10

[8:43] years we've had that contract. Um it's been uh

[8:47] no extra hassle for us to have the coverage up there.

[8:51] Um I'd love to see the continued coverage

[8:54] up there. They've been great to work with. Uh they've been a nice addition to

[8:58] our department. Um it it really hasn't

[9:01] seen too much of a decline for for us in functionality, so.

[9:05] » And we think we're going to have an executive session in a minute.

[9:10] » I I I think that's as fast as we can give a bit of an update

[9:13] on the agenda, but then to get into some of the negotiation stuff, we should

[9:17] probably go into executive session. And you're going to stay for

[9:20] » Yeah, I'll stay tonight. You can talk. >> Oh, thank you.

[9:23] Appreciate that.

[9:27] Thanks. Anybody else have any questions for our

[9:30] Chief?

[9:33] And this is when we usually excuse you, but we appreciate you staying.

[9:37] » Hang on. No problem. >> Thank you very much, too.

[9:41] Okay. Uh the next

[9:45] is in polls. We don't have any. I do have treasury reports. The motion

[9:51] to >> They're not available. The um treasury

[9:55] report and vendor report will be for next one.

[9:58] Um Kevin was just here yesterday, which was the 1st, and it wasn't available.

[10:02] So, we'll have both next time. >> Thank you, Jen.

[10:05] » Mhm.

[10:07] » Okay. Next is our vendor payments to be ratified. Say it.

[10:17] We have a motion to pay the bills. >> No, uh they're the same. We won't have

[10:21] that till next time, too. Treasury's and vendor.

[10:23] » Oh, that's perfect. Thank you, Jen. >> Sure.

[10:32] » Old business, we have our first green police contract.

[10:38] » So, in in the packet is the proposal that

[10:42] was sent to them. It's based on what I discussed at our at our work session. Um

[10:48] I did converse a little bit today with Bill Egan there,

[10:52] and I can share a little bit more about what we

[10:55] discussed in executive session. >> Okay.

[10:58] Very good. Thank you, Judge.

[11:02] Next we got animal police and I need a uniform at 205 funding allocation for

[11:08] 2027. >> Sure.

[11:17] » Council needs to vote for Jerry to sign that.

[11:20] » Okay.

[11:27] » I'll make a motion to approve the 2027 MLO.

[11:30] » I'll second. >> I'll motion,

[11:32] » Any questions? All in favor?

[11:35] » Aye. >> Aye.

[11:37] » Favor is carried. Thank you.

[11:41] The next item on our agenda is our pet fees.

[11:46] This is >> So, I had a chance to review what's

[11:50] currently in the place. It's important since 2016.

[11:54] I had a chance to speak with John prior to discuss this prior to the meeting.

[11:58] This is called This is our Um

[12:01] My recommendations are the ordinance that's currently in place

[12:05] does not cover all of the issues that these are dealing with currently with

[12:09] pet fees. So, Chief advised talking about what you're dealing with.

[12:14] » Yeah, I mean well >> Specifically what pertains to like the

[12:17] » So, we live in an area where like we have a lot of responsible pet owners. If

[12:20] people generally their dog gets out, they're out looking for it. If not, we

[12:25] take a dog or a dog and drive and put it on our Facebook page or community page.

[12:29] Somebody says, "Hey, that's my neighbor's dog." And we get it home.

[12:32] Maybe 10 times a year that we don't find the owner, it's nighttime, whatever,

[12:37] that we have to take the dog to the impound.

[12:41] And we have to pay the the fee, whether it's a stray or whether the owner

[12:44] doesn't claim it or whatever. So, part of the issue that we're having now

[12:48] is that the bureau allotted so much money there

[12:51] and you know, we had one hoarding house that

[12:54] kind of was uh humane officer came and took nine cats,

[12:58] I believe, out of there. Well, that ate up our budget right there. We know who

[13:02] the person is. These weren't stray animals. These were people that were

[13:05] caring for. Then another incident last week where

[13:08] uh somebody tried to take the cats up to the impound. The impound refused them

[13:11] because they were they fall. Uh

[13:14] so, then he just drove to a random street up on Claremont and dropped them

[13:17] out on the front porch because he said Herbert Claxon has money.

[13:21] You know, our department investigated it. We figured out who he is. So, we

[13:24] know know this guy is. I feel like we should be able to they shouldn't be able

[13:28] to tax people who come into eat that cost that we should be able to tax them

[13:31] to eat to kind of go after these people to pass these these these costs along to

[13:36] that because the people are certain now getting the system, right? It's not

[13:38] going to take long to do that. I know we were dealing with issues with

[13:43] um people were saying they were going to be

[13:45] summoned to actually lay in road or something. So that that kind of got

[13:48] ironed out, but there's still really no way for us to verify. If somebody takes

[13:52] a dog up in a different pond, I believe we're still if a citizen takes a dog up

[13:56] there and they say, "Oh yeah, I found it on Summit Avenue." They're just marking

[13:59] it down as Clark Summit and we're getting billed for it. There's no way to

[14:02] verify. The dogs they don't ever check in the dogs to make sure for me to vet

[14:07] it and say, "Oh yeah, that dog actually is from Summit Avenue or wherever."

[14:11] So just think there needs to be a better

[14:13] way for us to be accountable with our money going up there and then um

[14:18] legally going after people who are are neglecting their animals who are not

[14:22] taking them up there and then we're having to pay the cost of it.

[14:27] » Do we do we have any ordinances on the books that allows us to pass that cost

[14:30] on? >> There is an ordinance on the books, but

[14:32] it's very vague as to specific circumstances. It doesn't cover the

[14:36] gamut. So for example, if someone was 302 and the animals were removed from

[14:41] their home, um I'm not sure if this ordinance would cover that. It'd be a

[14:45] stretch to say so. Um the one definition section here that

[14:51] talks about police officers seizing an animal is for animals who are at running

[14:55] at large in the borough. Um so if they're just a stray dog, something

[14:58] along those lines. Um but it doesn't cover kind of what I believe the police

[15:03] department is currently seeing going on. >> There is nothing in writing that

[15:07] covers that, right? >> No, correct. There is none.

[15:10] » We just We just make donations to them. It's kind of an informal

[15:13] » We need We We discussed it and we have an informal agreement that we would take

[15:18] care of five We would cover the cost of five surrenders.

[15:23] » How much is a year generally? >> In the surrenders, like 50 bucks or

[15:25] something? >> Oh, no, $120.

[15:28] » But But they really They really do it as an obligation.

[15:31] » Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Cuz well, I think we used to we used to give a $500

[15:35] donation >> Right.

[15:36] » uh years ago, and then it became, "Well, no, there's no more donation. You're

[15:40] actually going to get charged for the animals."

[15:42] We agreed to a limit of five. And that that that's where we are now.

[15:47] And then this year, especially, we really got it. Like I said, with that

[15:50] having said with the hoarding hoarding situation,

[15:54] that took us over right away. >> Of course.

[15:58] They They don't understand.

[16:01] Everybody says they're from Clark Summit, but where do they pay their

[16:04] taxes? >> Right. And they do try. They're

[16:07] conscious of that. I do know that. I found an old email that Virginia did

[16:11] explain to them that there are seven boroughs and townships that make up

[16:15] Clark Summit. So, that is an attempt that they do make. They're aware of

[16:20] that, but it doesn't always mean that that's the way it's going to work. So.

[16:24] » Yeah. Yeah. >> And it's the So, the only time we would

[16:28] be on the hook is if our police took it up there. So, it's not like any resident

[16:32] or if they if they found it I don't know if they have to They have like

[16:36] dog catchers or something like that to find stray dogs? Or

[16:39] » The only No, Scranton is the only area that has animal control around us here.

[16:43] So, they are like We are animal control for Clark for

[16:47] So, yeah, no, the way I understand it is if if if Bob Shields finds a dog on

[16:52] uh with the way and takes it up to different parts, Clark Summit Borough

[16:55] pays that week. >> Oh, really?

[16:57] » Just like anybody. That's the way I understand it, yeah. It gets billed

[17:00] against the borough. >> I believe they're not taking surrenders,

[17:04] so it would be You can't surrender >> take my dog up there.

[17:07] » Yeah, surrender, right. But if >> But

[17:08] » But that's Say you find it on >> Right.

[17:10] » wherever other town, because South Abington does not pay.

[17:14] So, if you find it on their and say, "Oh, I found this on uh

[17:17] uh >> whatever street."

[17:19] » Whatever street in the borough. >> How is it that

[17:22] we are treated like it's an obligation, but South Abington is not paying? How is

[17:25] that >> Good question.

[17:27] » They don't respond to this. I think our citizens, I don't know. They They don't

[17:30] respond to those calls. Our department does.

[17:35] » Is there any way we can turn it around? >> Yeah.

[17:39] » If that works for South Abington, and I don't want the the poor dogs to get put

[17:42] in a bad or cats to be put in >> Right. So, should it That would be sad

[17:45] if it's just stray animals. >> I mean, they they tried to turn us away

[17:48] when I tried to take those cats that day.

[17:50] They said, "You guys don't You guys are only allowed so much money." It was

[17:54] pulling teeth to get them to take those cats.

[17:57] » Well, then >> And what would happen? We're in a

[17:59] pickle, and then I mean, what does the residents do then?

[18:01] » What happens to South Abington Township if the police won't respond to the call

[18:05] about animals?

[18:08] » So, these poor residents and dogs run around a lot.

[18:13] » They wait until they run in Clark's Summit.

[18:19] » That's what Griffin Pond told me. He said that was the initial concern was

[18:22] that they said, "Oh, well, you're South Abington. You guys don't pay."

[18:25] I literally had to go there in my collection uniform.

[18:28] Talk to them.

[18:31] Beg them. Beg them to take it.

[18:35] » Maybe we're going to have to change that ordinance and say things. I don't know.

[18:40] » The ordinance currently allows us to collect those fees from the owner. It's

[18:44] just putting a matter of identifying that owner of those animals. So, in the

[18:47] instance of you know, nine cats being dropped off at

[18:50] the front door, we don't have any recourse to recover

[18:53] those fees. >> I see.

[18:55] Yeah, I think I think I like like Do you normally make a donation for what? Five?

[18:59] I think five is like an average here. This is just uh

[19:04] Like I said, one one person with nine sent us over.

[19:08] » And I mean, again, I I just I mean, the concern I mean, the

[19:11] cost of of doing an ordinance and noticing it, I mean, it's if we're if

[19:14] it's usually $500, do we really need to It's just reduce worse than squeegee.

[19:19] » I get it. >> We're better off just doubling our

[19:21] budget and maybe we don't pay it all in the

[19:24] following year most years. I do.

[19:28] These are huge sums. We just just have to budget on the service.

[19:32] » Is this year out of the ordinary because of that hoarding situation at all?

[19:36] » I think yeah, we're >> Okay, I I think so. That's why I got the

[19:39] phone call. >> Yeah, yeah.

[19:40] » Just because they said, "Hey, >> We knew the two people. It's not If we

[19:43] take a dog up there a lot of times or cats are rare, but if we take a dog up

[19:48] there a lot of times it's We never hear a resolution whether it somebody came

[19:52] and got it or or what. So,

[19:55] I don't know what happens there, but

[20:00] definitely happens. Um with our holding service.

[20:05] » Maybe this year this year is just a a unique year. If it happens again next

[20:08] year, then maybe we can look at visiting it.

[20:11] » But we we certainly should look to try to recover what we can in these

[20:15] instances under whatever ordinance we have.

[20:17] » Yes, so there's a there's a fine that's associated plus the cost of

[20:22] the donation to the different counties or whatever it may be. So, there's a

[20:25] fine on top of whatever the cost may be as well.

[20:28] » Okay, good point. >> Are you getting

[20:30] » We do So, we cited them with a summary citation. That's why

[20:34] Can we get recovery that way?

[20:37] You know, I don't know if there's a summary citation. What's that?

[20:40] » I guess we can talk about that after, but potentially, yeah.

[20:42] » what I mean? >> Yeah. I think you

[20:43] » It'd be part of the judgment. >> Yeah.

[20:45] » They actually know the two people. >> So, I'll I'll talk to you after.

[20:50] I would agree I would agree with Bob on that. I don't I don't think a new

[20:52] ordinance for the more trouble of drafting and publishing and whatnot is

[20:55] worth it. Just try to operate with what we have.

[20:59] » Because what was our total this year January?

[21:03] I think that was it was it was over $1,800 this year. But like I said, it's

[21:06] definitely an anomaly this year. Definitely.

[21:09] » Oh, yeah. >> But, just like I just wanted to bring it

[21:13] to everybody's attention, just in case we wanted to move forward with anything

[21:16] or change anything. >> Surely.

[21:21] Oh, yeah. We kind of just watching.

[21:25] » Sounds good. >> People are following the place here.

[21:27] » Sure. >> Thank you.

[21:30] Next Saturday, our 9/11 memorial will be Uh Jenny and I talked about this today.

[21:39] And uh

[21:43] Abington has a football game on 9/11, and Josh just said it isn't holiday

[21:49] time. >> It is, right.

[21:50] » So. >> Yeah.

[21:51] » Uh So, we kind of decided that we would do this memorial at 9:00 on the 11th.

[21:59] At our pocket park. And

[22:03] we're going to have somebody from our Lady of Sorrows Church

[22:08] will do that. Uh an addiction for it. And

[22:13] we just want to speak with first responders

[22:17] having some students from the high school that

[22:21] from the band, someone that could sing God Bless America. We'd like to have

[22:27] some of our firemen that would be able to come through. And also our police

[22:32] department can do a really beautiful dedication. We're also going to have uh

[22:39] a wreath made for the memorial. And uh

[22:44] we will place that on the memorial that day, too.

[22:47] » And so, those >> And we'll also deposit on your You'll

[22:51] let the family >> brothers will be there.

[22:53] » The brothers will be there. They confirmed they would be there. They did

[22:56] also confirm that they would like to uh to pay for the

[23:00] um for the uh the the memorial that's going

[23:05] up. They did send an email saying that also.

[23:07] Okay. We'll coordinate how we'd like to do that.

[23:09] » Is that work scheduled?

[23:11] » Oh, it's been it already started. I last night uh

[23:15] I went by and took a few shots. They broke ground. They're right in front of

[23:19] the tree. If you're on the sidewalk looking at the

[23:24] looking at the pocket park of trees right there, it's beautiful. And they're

[23:27] they have it right there. I talked to the master gardeners. They cuz they they

[23:32] have uh the high sunflowers up right now. So, what they're going to do is

[23:35] they're just going to have something the the fence goes 3 and 1/2 ft to 4 and 1/2

[23:41] ft. And uh they're going to do plantings that are

[23:45] uh not going to cover it. >> In in in in future

[23:48] » In the future. Next year. Right. And then they said they would even put more

[23:51] plantings around it, too. Uh yeah, they were terrific. They were terrific. So,

[23:56] they they're very happy to work with the borough to make sure that that

[23:59] is highlighted. >> I think I think everybody is really

[24:03] working together as a team and secure make this a beautiful beautiful event.

[24:09] It is 25 years and it certainly well deserved.

[24:14] We definitely want to make it over the top.

[24:19] » And so, we will be planning on 9:00 on September 11th on that Friday if any

[24:23] council members are you want to let me know who will will be

[24:26] attending. Of course, I could always send the email out a clip.

[24:29] » Yeah, we'd like to have a follow-up committee meeting

[24:32] also, you know, to be there

[24:35] » and see what the fire and it's probably when the

[24:37] Hazleton see if any volunteer firefighters would be able to attend.

[24:42] That would maybe close the office for an hour maybe to be there. That that kind

[24:46] of thing just to show support and respect.

[24:51] » Okay. We're going to continue working on it

[24:55] and make sure that everything has been goes perfectly.

[24:58] » Thank you for your very hard work. Jane for all your good hard work on this,

[25:02] too.

[25:04] Okay, does anybody have any questions on the 911

[25:08] or suggestions or anything like that? >> Is there going to be a listing

[25:13] or >> Oh, yeah.

[25:14] » I will let um Christine Lee with the Times now.

[25:19] Um and um

[25:21] I'm not sure really who our our contact is now. Besides him, for the Abington

[25:27] Journal. >> gone, but he was still working.

[25:30] » For the journal, is he gone? >> I think he was laid off.

[25:32] » Oh, he was. I didn't know that. Well, I could always reach out to him or whoever

[25:35] at the journal. >> Abington Journal.

[25:37] » And I was thinking maybe I'd put it on our billboard.

[25:39] » Oh, yeah. >> And on our Facebook page and then I put

[25:42] it like personally on the community page cuz the community page won't post post

[25:46] anything from the Clarks Summit Borough. So, I just put it on my page.

[25:49] » It's because the Well, the Abington Journal uh is out at the beginning of

[25:54] the month. >> Oh, yeah, so that will make a

[25:55] difference, I think. >> because we do have the email for Liz.

[26:00] She said anything that we get pictures, articles, she's willing to put them in,

[26:05] too. >> Definitely.

[26:07] » So, we will certainly whatever pictures and information we have will get to her

[26:13] so she can put it in in the next week.

[26:16] » So, I'll use whatever I have at

[26:20] my disposal to get the word out. >> Right.

[26:23] Okay. Next item on our agenda is our West Grove Street Bridge sidewalk.

[26:30] » So, um the school district is not going to

[26:34] be in the West Grove proposal to be maintaining the maintenance of that the

[26:37] bridge on West Grove Street. Um so, they would have to have DPW maintain clean

[26:42] that for the winter time for the liability purposes.

[26:47] Um so, I'm not sure what the

[26:51] » The is there, but we we don't have any equipment in place with the school

[26:54] district now to assist us in that maintenance of that bridge.

[26:59] » And I I did follow up with Dr. Shafer on that topic, and

[27:03] ba- basically what I gather is uh the maintenance that the school district now

[27:07] employs is a contracted service. They're not district employees. And

[27:13] the contractor just doesn't want to do it. It's not in their contract, and they

[27:16] don't want to do it. >> Oh.

[27:17] » So, that's really what it comes down to. Um

[27:21] but you know, it is what it is. Quite frankly,

[27:25] we haven't maintained the north side of the bridge for years, um and we probably

[27:28] should have. Uh so, we just have to go and do it.

[27:32] » It's been slowly deteriorating, so this is where we are right now. So,

[27:38] » But we need to the DPW believes we need to purchase equipment in order to

[27:42] » because we don't have anything that small to uh

[27:47] for a snow thrower. We need something that's going to be able to powerful

[27:51] enough to go over the fence. >> Right. So, we definitely say it's there

[27:55] or exactly those two. >> So, they're going to they're going to

[27:58] request that budget, and >> Okay.

[28:01] » Jay is aware of that.

[28:05] » Just keep moving in that direction with that, Andrew.

[28:08] » As long as we have the proper machinery, we can take care of it.

[28:11] It will be no problem.

[28:17] » And new business and >> We have to we have to cover the

[28:19] ordinance that's >> Yes, the open container ordinance.

[28:22] » Oh, okay. >> Take a vote for that.

[28:24] » Yes. >> I'll make a motion that we approve

[28:28] ordinance number 1-2026. >> I'll second it.

[28:34] » Question. All in favor.

[28:37] » Aye. >> Aye.

[28:38] » All opposed. >> Nay.

[28:39] » No. >> Okay.

[28:45] Okay. >> 4-2.

[28:47] » Then that then >> Uh can I ask one or can I make one

[28:50] suggestion? Is there any reason in our event

[28:54] um our our special event application process policy that we could not charge

[28:59] a fee for anyone requesting the exemption that now exists inside of

[29:03] this ordinance to allow us to recover the money we spent to publish it over

[29:08] time? Is there any reason we couldn't do that?

[29:10] It's just a policy we set, right? >> You can you could you can certainly do

[29:13] as well as it takes time out of

[29:17] » Yeah. I mean we we we passed this because the majority of us believe it's

[29:21] in our best interest to do it and it's going to make it a lot easier next time

[29:23] round. But we could also charge a nominal fee to

[29:27] you know, make sure that it's uh it'll pay for the ordinance itself over time

[29:31] and um make sure that anybody applying for

[29:34] it is serious about what they're doing. >> option. I like it.

[29:38] » I I we don't have to discuss that. And it's not on our agenda to set that

[29:42] policy. I just want to raise that cuz it occurred to me that

[29:45] we could do that. That's all. >> And I'm sorry, we're charging a fee for

[29:49] » If somebody submitted an event uh application where they requested

[29:55] an exemption to the container

[29:58] » I understand. Okay. >> manner of application would require a

[30:01] fee. >> Yep.

[30:09] Thank you. Next item is our solicitor's report.

[30:13] » Can I just cover our old business? >> Yes.

[30:16] » Thank you. That's a good report.

[30:22] We have no correspondence. And

[30:26] we're going to uh

[30:30] We're going to go into executive session now. Do you want to do that now, Joshua?

[30:35] » Yeah, I think we should. Do we um we adjourn first and then go into

[30:39] executive session? >> Yeah.

[30:40] » Okay. Uh we had known

[30:44] We had one prior personnel and contract negotiation. We had one

[30:50] prior and no substitute. >> One substitute. Yeah, one substitute.

[30:53] » Okay, just one prior meeting. So, uh

[30:57] we will adjourn and then go into our executive session.

[31:02] » And the purpose of the record we're going into executive session for

[31:04] personnel matters, lawful purposes, and for contract negotiations.

[31:09] » I'll make a motion. >> Second.

[31:19] » Continue, John. >> See you all.

[31:23] » See you, John. >> Take care.

[31:59] » Okay.

[32:03] I am just making sure we are off line.

[32:07] » It looks like we're still on the YouTube up at the top, John.

[32:10] » Like I said, see how it's got the green?

[32:16] » Okay, let's see.

[32:20] » We are

[32:23] » What happens now that we can go?

Clarks Summit's Personal Meeting Room

Transcript