borough of yoe

Council members in attendance:

Sam Snyder
Seth Noll
Tom Allar
George Howett
Wendy Coble Tyson (leaving at 9:30PM)
Regan Strausbaugh

Others in attendance:

Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
Dana Shearer, Maintenance Supervisor
Steve Malesker, Engineer
Seth Springer, sitting in for Borough Solicitor Charles Rausch Connie Crull, Tax Collector
Patrick Wolfe, Dallastown Cougars
Sue Beard, Resident
Patti Myers, Code Enforcement Officer

Minutes

Councilman Snyder asked if everyone had an opportunity to look over the minutes from the prior meeting, any additions or corrections. A motion to accept the minutes from January 8, 2013 was made by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said minutes accepted.

Visitors

Mrs. Crull said I did turn everything in on the 2nd or 3rd of January for delinquent taxes. My summary is we have 307 parcels. I collected 100,999.13 of real estate, $3010.93 for fire protection for a total of $104,010.06.  I liened 21 properties, that includes the borough, county and school district. Sixteen of those are for the borough for a total of $4,165.87. And of the one hundred and four thousand, $1389.40 were for 2011 taxes. And everything else was turned in. Councilman Noll asked do you know if the number properties of this year versus last year, is it about the same. Mrs. Crull said it’s a little more. I did get a letter from tax claim, I do not understand. It says it was repository sale, I don’t know what that means. They deleted almost $80.00 off of what I turned in. No idea what a repository sale is. Councilman Snyder asked Attorney Springer. He never heard of it either. Mr. Malesker said that act that was passed in 2011 that if you have unpaid taxes that the borough doesn’t have to issue a building permit. The secretary said we had a situation last year, where someone wanted a permit for a shed. He also hadn’t paid his property maintenance fee, it was rental. He had to pay Connie for the taxes and pay the property maintenance fee before he was given a permit. Councilman Allar said Connie, we have been talking for some time about 230 S. Main Street. Is that under any sheriff sale, anything like that? Mrs. Crull said as far as I know, I haven’t gotten any notification. Councilman Allar asked has it ever been? Mrs. Crull said not that I know of. Mrs .Crull said this property owner was turned in for 2012 late taxes. He was in arrears, for 2011 and 2012 and I don’t know how far back. Councilman Noll said the property was posted around 8 o’clock this morning, by noon the posting was gone. Councilman Strausbaugh said for sheriff’s sale you can’t take that down. Councilman Allar asked do you get any information on liens on the property? Mrs. Crull said no. I don’t think that property has a mortgage.

Patrick Wolfe of the Dallastown Cougars came to council to ask permission to use Yoe Field for our baseball program. Same program as we had last year, we have a spring program and fall program. We are expecting that we will have a lot more usage of the field this year that we did last year. Last year on about 75% of days we had someone on the field. We may end up with more need for the fields, just for the fact that we may have to bow out with the Lion’s Park because they are charging us $2500.00 plus cut grass there as well. It will cost us roughly $4000.00 which is about $10.00 per head. We have a meeting with them next week. We are requesting the field. Councilman Noll asked you will take care of the portable? Mr. Wolfe said absolutely. Mrs. Crull asked if she could ask them to use the toilet. Mr. Wolfe said absolutely. Councilman Noll asked do you have any plans to do any upgrades on the field? Mr. Wolfe said the back stop really needs work. Work day is coming up at the end of March and we really need to do some work on the back stop. We had our first registrations last Saturday and have two more registrations. We need to see where we are with the program. There are a lot of programs that are asking to come over to our programs. We want to see how many kids we have registered. The back stop will be worked on. Councilman Noll said about two years ago, we put out about the fence being fixed, restored, proper materials? Mr. Wolfe said it is still sitting there, we do get a lot volunteer support from Kinsely, Dave Carr and Mr. Stambaugh are working on that. I don’t know how far along they’ve gotten recently, there are conversations at their monthly meeting. Councilman Noll asked Dana is there anything you can see that needs to be done? Mr. Shearer said I want to get the trees cleaned up and the locust done. The tree work is going to be done, other than that, coordinating to have the dug outs cleaned up. The only major issue overall is fencing. Councilman Snyder read the letter from Cougars. The November 3rd is that an extension from previous years? Mr. Wolfe said we normally end the fall league the weekend before Halloween, the only reason I put it till there, two years ago we got snow, and so everything backed up. Its only there for contingency. The secretary said and then the portable is taken away from Halloween, and you know about the certificate of insurance and I will follow up with a letter. A motion was made by Councilman Howett to accept the proposal as outlined. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Susan Beard of 210 S. Main Street said first of all, Mr. Richardson the man of 230. The tree is coming over unto our yard, he carries kerosene into his house a regular basis and he has no running water. I can see a pink glow by my kitchen window. I saw him three times within the last week. I also a got price from a friend who works at Penn Waste for the removal of the trash at 196. $225.00 to remove that. I don’t think that is a bad price. Two days after we moved into the house, a skunk came from underneath that house. That has been there for awhile, I don’t know how long. I am willing to put it in the dumpster so I don’t have to look at it out of my bay window. Also have, a total of six empty houses within the area. Trash laying on their porches comes into our front yard. 288 that doesn’t look too bad. 196, 211, 187. Newspaper, phone books. Someone took the metal drawer at 196 and threw it over at our house. Right by the stockade fence. We tried to talk to Richardson he used the F word, every other word. We asked him what are his intentions with the property? He said its none of our “F” ing business. Him and my husband are always nose to nose. We called a police officer out, and he said he don’t see a “F’ ing thing wrong with this property. I don’t want him taking kerosene in there, with it as crisp as it is. I am right next door, its not going to take nothing for the houses to go up. I see him carrying kerosene cans in and out. Councilman Strausbaugh asked if he sees him there over night, should she call the police? Mrs. Beard said he told my husband, that every time he and his “F”ing woman fight, he sleeps there. He isn’t reasonable. Even the police officer told him, sir, you need to do something with the property. He never shovels his sidewalk. Mrs. Myers said yes he does. Mrs. Beard said no, the neighbor did. Mrs. Myers said I saw it was shoveled. Mrs. Beard said all these empty properties are never shoveled, the corner where the kids go to school there is a bus stop and its slippery, its very dangerous there, because we have the dropped curb for wheelchair. There are little kids there, but the sidewalk is not shoveled. The trash is unbelievable. Like I said the drawer was over there, it ended up at my stockade fence. I picked it up and put it on the pile. I have been told that we can’t remove it, in case we get hurt. I am willing to remove it and get hurt, its that bad. It stinks. Like I said, a skunk crawled out. Also if you there, and you watch the traffic at Philadelphia and Main Street, and how those people fly up, almost hit my van parked three four spots up from the stop sign they come the whole way across and fly up, is there any possible way to get a stop sign and I’m not sure what the street, it would be W. Philadelphia and then the next street. Mr. Shearer said Elm Street. Councilman Noll said we have transcripts with the county, and we paid for a traffic studies, and they out right denied us. Definitely change the whole flow of traffic from Main Street if there was a stop sign there. Mrs. Beard said so cars can go on two wheels and go around and bust up the cement. Councilman Snyder said we tried for years to do that, and they would not approve that. Mrs. Beard said they actually come sideways. Councilman Snyder said we tried for years to get that traffic pattern changed and they just don’t have anything to do with it. Mrs. Beard said we looked at this property two times at night time, if I would have seen these things, I would have run the other way. Our oldest son came to visit for the first time and said do you live on Philadelphia Street in York City because that’s what it looks like. The grass is up high across the street. Don’t tell that house just started looking that way in a month or two. Even a year or a couple of years. We were willing to help him and get the trees back and pick up the trash. He said you don’t fing work, it was terrible. Councilman Allar said you mentioned animals. Mrs. Beard said you name it, they are around there. Like I said skunk. There is a pile of brush between Richardson’s and ours. This summer hopefully we can remove it. If someone drop a cigarette, including the one at 196 and in the alley, I pick up cigarette butts all the time at my property. That is a fire hazard, the brush between Richardson’s and ours and also across the street. Councilman Strausbaugh said someone said something about rats. Mrs. Beard said the guy that came with you, said Richardson has to have something living in there. If we don’t do something we are going to have rats. Richardson also has a tree growing right into his house. Councilman Snyder said nothing that you have said, we haven’t heard before. Your husband and son were here last month. This has been an ongoing thing for council and we have been trying to address it. I think your husband when we directed our solicitor to look into the options that we have for like conservatorship, to take the thing over. We are going to be discussing throughout the solicitor’s report, and the zoning officer’s report. Our code enforcement had citations up against 196, she is going to be reporting back on that. Council was suppose to go around town and get a list together on how we are going to attack this. We are going to be addressing these issues within the next hour or so, you are more welcome to stay and listen and even chime in with your concerns. Mrs. Beard said Richardson is taking fuel in there and its crisp, there is hardly any paint left on that place. And I can see it, behind the curtain/mini blind or whatever. He has spent a night before. There is no running water, and he said the f there isn’t, they said they turned it off, but I have “f”ing water. That is what he said runs kerosene to keep the pipes from freezing. He is a work of art to try to discuss with him.

Solicitor’s Report

Attorney Springer started with the conservatorship. You ask me to do a cost analysis on what a conservatorship would entail. I can tell you, just this foundational information, in order to pursue a conservatorship, you have plead initially four requirements. The first is of which, the building has not been legally occupied for at least the previous twelve months. That said, digging deeper into the research. I found a court can conclude that an inhabited property is being occupied in violation of a code and therefore is not legally occupied. I think that’s how you’d have to go. Cost wise to initiate this, you would have to file a petition with a court. Petitions run $194.00, the filing fee. Then you also have to file a list pendance with the recorder of deeds. That is going to run you another $30.00 to $40.00 depending how long it is. The issue becomes, who is the conservator. Under the code, this has only been enacted in 2009, so there hasn’t been much use of this yet. Its hard to go to someone else and say how did you do this. Its fresh ground here. They’re looking for, as far as a conservator, the first consideration the court looks at is the senior lien holder on the property. So you would have to find out who the senior lien holder is. If its not under mortgage, its not the bank. So who would it be? I imagine it would be Yoe, if they have a bunch of violations that they turned into liens. Councilman Strausbaugh said that’s the impression I’ve gotten. Attorney Springer said all you have to do is to give notice to the senior lien holder, if there is one above you. Saying that you are going to rehab this property, we’re going to take this under this law, do you object? That said you can proceed when it comes to those regards. Now it becomes a tangible analysis that you have to do, how much is the property worth? And how much would it cost to rehab? Because you don’t want and do all this and incur debt. That puts the property under water when you sell it you’re not going to get back what you need to. There are some ways to effectuate this, if you get the conservatorship, you have the power to take out debt on the property. So you can put a mortgage on the property if you rehab the property. Then you become, in charge for accounting for the revenue that is generated through the property. You can sell it, you can rent it. Its up to you. You have to make an accounting to the court though. Then there it’s actually written out in the statue how the revenue is distributed to the lien holders. First things first, you have to find out who the senior lein holder is. If you are, you can proceed. Then you have to do a plan, you’ve got to get a contractor in, find out how much its going to cost, what its encumbered by. And if you do a cost benefit analysis and it looks like its going to work, then you do a plan then you proceed to petition. Discussion continued. Councilman Allar asked it talks about party of interest, if we declare a conservatorship, who has the deed? Attorney Springer said he retains the deed. Councilman Allar said we still have authority to sell the property. Attorney Springer said yes. Councilman Allar said it says one of the entities we can sell it to is a non profit entity. Attorney Springer said you can sell it to anyone. Councilman Allar said instead of us fixing it up, we can sell it a non profit. I think we have one that is interested in doing that, Habitat of Humanity. I called them, and Regan and I had a  meeting. The guy I called was the construction manager. I thought it was way over what they do. He looked at it and he said we have handled much worse than this. He saw no problem from his standpoint. I’m going to have them in next month to discuss what they do. They will go for the permits and pay for them. They have volunteers, in all the different skills. They get materials on a volunteer basis. They are trying to do 115 houses from now until the end of 2015 in York County. If you are saying the parties of interest will have the authority to pass ownership to them. To rehab or demolish it. Councilman Strausbaugh asked is there anyway you can find out what it would cost to do a conservatorship? Any estimate and where the money would come from? Councilman Noll asked what is the difference between conservatorship and out right condemnation? Attorney Springer said when you are talking about taking the property and selling it, you’re really talking about condemnation. Under conservatorship, you can sell the property but you’re allowed up to and including selling the property, its more rehabbing the property. Councilman Noll said the idea of conservatorship is that we get it to the point where a. the borough becomes a landlord and rents it out or b. we sell the house. What we really are talking about is condemnation, where we literally take the property and give it/ sell it in its present condition to another. And condemnation with a property like that we would have legal battles. The biggest problem with condemnation is subjective. Attorney Springer said there are legal advantages to conservatorship, you can encumber the property which is to say, if you are able to get the conservatorship at that point, you can go to bank, this is our plan, use those funds to rehab the property at the same time you are limiting your liability. You are only holding the property as a guardian in conservatorship. Any liability falls on the title owner. Councilman Allar said you mentioned about a person living there, what is the definition, do they have to be there a certain number of days a year, what constitutes residency? Attorney Springer said they are saying if it was occupied within the previous twelve months but the flush language is legally occupied. And if he is inhabiting property that is uninhabitable then he can’t legally occupy it. Councilman Strausbaugh said he has an order to vacate? Councilman Noll said we are right there condemnation, order to vacate has not been issued? Councilman Strausbaugh said it hasn’t? Councilman Noll said no, the reason being, he says I don’t live there, that is legal quandary, what steps does the borough want to do, to prove that he lives there? Councilman Snyder said if he is claiming that he doesn’t live there, it mets the definition of conservatorship. Attorney Springer said is he putting this in writing or is he saying this? If we put him in front of court, he could say he never said that. Councilman Allar said I’m reading an August 10, 2010 letter from Code Administrators. The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the owner of the above referenced property, of written notice of violation and an order to vacate in accordance with Pennsylvania Uniform Code 08-83 and 43-84. Mr. Shearer said that was the notice they gave, when the sewer authority had the water turned off, they had them give him that notice to vacate. Attorney Springer said notice of violations have been given? Mrs. Myers said for grass. Discussion continued. Attorney Springer said, under the petition, meets requirements, we know that its not been actively marketed for sixty days, its not on the market. We talked about the legal occupancy. The building is not subject exsisting direction that is easy to find out. And the owner fails to present sufficient evidence that he has acquired the property within the existing six months. Those don’t apply. Then you have meet three other of nine requirements. I think we’ve gone over them. The building or physical structure is public nuisance, it can fall under that. The building is unfit for human habitation. We’ve got that thru the order. The building is in need of substantial rehabilitation and no rehabilitation has taken place within the previous twelve months. No argument there. The building is subject to unauthorized entry leading to potential health and safety hazards. One of the following applies: the owner has failed to take responsibility and necessary methods to secure the building, do we know if we can just walk in? Councilman Noll said there is a police report on file from about five to six months ago. Councilman Snyder said we have a neighbor here. Mr. Shearer said broken windows, that’s not secure. Discussion continued. Attorney Springer said it’s a step by process but you have notify the senior lien holder. Councilman Snyder asked for estimate for legal hours? Attorney Springer talked to Charlie about it, I thought it would be around $10,000.00. Charlie said he didn’t think it would go that high, the problem is its new to this county, never been done before. I talked to people on the redevelopment authority, they do condemnation. If you go on a plan, with going to sell it, it sounds like a condemnation, it’s a taking. Discussion continued. Attorney Springer said I can find out about the condemnation process. Councilman Snyder said have him come back next month, give us an idea on condemnation that will give us a chance to have Habitat of York here. See what they are going to be offer then we can make a determination which way. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said contact the police, since we have that order to find out about having kerosene carried into property. Councilman Snyder said we had to prove that people were living in a commercial entity twenty years ago. The order vacate, does that preclude an owner from going in and check on their house. Councilman Strausbaugh asked is it illegal to take kerosene into an unoccupied house? Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said since we have the order to vacate, and we adopted the boarding standards of the property maintenance code, is there a way that you could initiate boarding a house up so no one can get in, so it would be a breaking entering situation. If he does remove material to enter the property. Attorney Springer said you may be able to. You are trying to rehab the property, I wouldn’t muddy the waters otherwise. If he is saying he’s not living there. Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said come back next month with a price. Councilman Allar is concerned about the vacate order, should we have something more current on file? Councilman Noll said we can show we talked about this problem. Attorney Springer said I think we should move on it. Councilman Snyder said to get with Charlie and see if this is a condemnation. Attorney Springer said we could go into the conservatorship then have Habitat. I like the conservatorship because it limits the liability and allows you to encumber the property as opposed to coming out of the borough’s pocket. Discussion continued. Mrs. Beard asked if we can cut back the tree limbs that are hanging over from the Richardson property. Council said yes. Attorney Springer asked that the records be checked for the senior lien holder. Councilman Snyder said the only other thing, anyone have an idea on how we are going to pay for this? A half of mill on a real estate tax generates $15,000.00. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said we already have a half of mill from the street projects or whatever, stormwater projects. Keep raising taxes, who wants to live here. Then you wonder why people aren’t being able to pay their taxes. Economic status, the job situation, what are you going to do? I understand that is the biggest source of revenue, how long can it continue. We still have elders who are on fixed incomes. How many more properties are we going to have, just sit here, nothing is selling. Councilman Snyder said do one at a time. Before you proceed you need to have a way to pay for it. Everyone knows what our budget was. A half of mill, on a average home accessed at $100,000.00, would be $50.00 year. I would be for that, to start cleaning this up. For as many people that walk through that door and complain about, your town looks like this, your town looks like that. Now I’m telling Yoe Borough residents its time to pay the piper. We’re willing to do it, it has to come from somewhere. Mrs. Beard what is the $100.00 my son has to pay, the property was an apartment building, but now we are all Beards living there. The secretary said you have to let the property maintenance inspector know that, the gentleman that just left to go to the fire. You have to do it in writing. You have to say it is no longer used a rental and that we live in it together as a family and no one pays rent. You have to let him know that. Mr. Heintzelman paid $100.00 fee. It was a former rental property. That is the reason you got the letter. The owner of the property no longer rent. Mr. Shearer said its still two units. They are still are going to be paying two sewers, two waters. Mrs. Beard said we don’t pay two sewers, two waters. The secretary said he never go the zoning to make that a rental in the first place. If you are not paying two sewer bills. Councilman Noll said if it ever becomes a rental property, you will have to be brought in front of the zoning hearing board. The secretary said he just needs to write a letter. Councilman Snyder said is everyone in agreement with that, to give him his marching orders to proceed, we have to way to pay for it before? A general estimate is around $50.00 per $100,000.00. We are giving him marching orders, he has already said around $10,000.00. We have to prepare, we know where the budget is, we can’t start a procedure without knowing where the money is coming from. Mrs. Beard asked what gives you, the right to say we are going to raising taxes for about $50.00 more per household? Councilman Snyder said because that is what we were elected for. We were elected to make decisions. We are in the hot seat, we are not going to pleased. I could tell you, we don’t have the money, you go home. We’re not going to make everybody happy. Mr. Shearer said the hours we spent discussing this property. You are not the first person to discuss this property. We have to start with one. Councilman Snyder said the property isn’t going to get any better, its certainly not going to get cheaper. The Riedel property, we are into that $16,000.00 $17,000.00, no one batted an eye on that, we haven’t gotten to the point of erosion control yet, what that is going to cost. DEP permit before we can work on the creek. We are probably talking about five to ten thousand more. Councilman Snyder said we had that budgeted for, so far that is in our budget. It hasn’t cost us. We weren’t expecting York Township to send us invoices for their reviews. We already knew we were going to pay $8,000.00 for the engineering, $5,000.00 for the property. And whatever we have in for solicitor. We had a plan of where the money was coming from, and if we are $1,000.00 of, then we have to make that up at the end of year. All I am saying is, we now have a plan, we want to move through, we got an estimate of for a conservatorship of $10,000.00 or less. We know what we are going to do. He’s coming back for condemnation, it may be a lot less. But we need to know, before we go through, how are we going to pay for it. You can’t just go down the rabbit hole, then have a $10,000.00 bill. Then at budget time say now what. Councilman Allar asked about expenditures for the Riedel property? You have to take action on the problem Dana mentioned before about erosion. We have a grant in to cover it, Jake worked on . Mr. Malesker said what he submitted was for a big long stretch of the creek not just. Councilman Allar said its now our property and its our responsibility. Councilman Noll said there is a difference where we go over a budgeted line item, or spending funds that are not budgeted for. We anticipated 80% to 90% for Riedel, we anticipated zero dollars for this. Councilman Allar said but when you go over you still have to get the money somewhere. Councilman Noll said I don’t disagree with that. Councilman Allar said that didn’t seem to be an issue at the time. Councilman Noll said we planned and budgeted for it. Councilwoman Coble Tyson said if we are going to keep raising taxes, then Yoe Borough has to offer something to its residents. Because we have absolutely nothing. We have nothing for the youth. It’s a whole lot more than the ugly property. Its not a nice place to live. It may have a small borough atmosphere, its not a nice place to be. We have to do a lot more than making the properties look nicer. You have to offer more as to a place to live. Councilman Allar said that is why I am fighting for this rail trail, that is why I fought for batting cages for the kids. It would have brought in about $25,000.00 a year. Councilman Noll said lets stop this argument, lets not bring that up again. Councilman Snyder said I’m willing to put the money into it and get going. Councilman Strausbaugh said we will have address it, sooner or later. Mrs. Beard said I just moved in and already there is this problem. Councilman Noll said this is not just a Yoe Borough, its everywhere. Discussion continued. Councilman Allar said I will be meeting with Felicia Dell from York County Planning Commission. She is working on some ideas but won’t have a workshop ready until later in the year. They can have dialogue with the state or others. Councilman Snyder said a line item will be put into budget. There is about $3,000.00 put into the budget under zoning in 2013. The new line item won’t be on the budget until 2014. We are looking at $10,000.00 or less. We need a line item. There is not $10,000.00 in there. You go back to Patti, have her hammer him with citations week after week. Then if he can’t pay them, then he will go to jail. Mrs. Beard said but there are all those properties I mentioned. Councilman Snyder said absolutely. Councilman Allar said Sam, raised a point, can we have a record of citations on this property before we go on. Attorney Springer said absolutely. Councilman Allar said what things should we be citing? Attorney Springer said cite him for everything. Build a record. Councilman Snyder said I told Patti, make a determination as the code officer, just like the porch, its unsafe. Councilman Strausbaugh said you can go after his personal assets. Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said as Yoe Borough’s Health and Safety officer, I declare that property to be a public nuisance. Councilman Noll said we have an international property code which we can use. There is an issue with our ordinances, that we need to get taken care of. Things that are in zoning, that should be in the code. Patti isn’t a zoning officer, she’s a code officer. My recommendation that we use the property maintenance code. And make a resolution that we adopt the most current issue of the property maintenance code and that Patti is our enforcement officer for the property maintenance code. The other thing that Dana brought up, there is a 2012 Property Maintenance code. We say that we use the most current copy of the code, the state Pennsylvania is using 2009. Are we on the 2009 or the 2012 the way our ordinance is written? Attorney Springer said if you adopted the 2012, then you are under the 2012, you don’t have to have the state to adopt that? I will check on it. Councilman Snyder said we adopted the 2004 and subsequent revisions and he is saying the state adopted up to 2009 but did not adopt the 2012, so which one does the borough use? The state doesn’t recognize the 2012. Councilman Noll said he has to send out letters, which does he use? All the permits are issued under 2009. Councilman Snyder said its written for 2012, if someone challenges it. Take a position, until someone tells you different, you’re right. A motion was made by Councilwoman Coble Tyson to recognize the 2012 Property Maintenance code so that Mrs. Myers can do what she needs to do with the current rules and regs. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Councilman Noll made a motion that Patti Myers be directed as our Yoe Borough Enforcement officer for the 2012 Property Maintenance code. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Attorney Springer said the other issue, you were talking about amending ordinances to include provisions for attorney’s fees. After mulling it over, I would go through and pick out the ones you think are going to be challenged. Taking it up to the summary appeal. Councilman Snyder said if we do it under the administrative section of the code of ordinance book. Attorney Springer said no. Councilman Snyder said we would have to do it for each individual ordinance. Okay that’s the dead.

Councilman Snyder said we also had the draft ordinance for the no parking. We were presented with the traffic studies. There was also when he went out to do the traffic studies, there are two areas on Elm Street that were already posted that weren’t adopted. They’ve been adopted to the lastest draft/revision. Those traffic studies are on file. A motion to have the solicitor advertise that for adoption for next month’s meeting by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect that Regan was absent for the vote.

Councilman Snyder said we will bringing up under unfinished business, about the committee and the zoning ordinance update. One thing that was brought up, if we intend to use the comp plan as it was presented with the three municipalities. There will be a need for an ordinance for an intermunicipal agreement to recognize the comp plan. Councilman Noll said there should be a sample ordinance in the comp plan. Councilman Allar said this was done at the first meeting, as a requirement by the state. Councilman Snyder said I know we did an ordinance to adopt the comp plan, he said we will need an intermunicipal ordinance to operate under the comp for joint zoning. And that is only with Dallastown. Councilman Noll said we can share zoning districts because we are contiguous. We aren’t with Red Lion. Councilman Allar asked would Dallastown have to do one? Councilman Snyder said they would have to do one too. So you may want, touch base with David Jones, Dallastown’s Solicitor.

Councilman Snyder said I’ve been on the chain on emails from Charlie to Jake to York Township. The ball is in Steve Hovis’s lap. The last one, as of the middle January, is this good enough. Councilman Noll said I saw Steve last week at another meeting, he wants a municipal plan put together on how we want to maintenance it, to York Township. He was going to call Charlie to talk to him about it. He wants to see that in place before he recommends York Township signs the agreement. Councilman Allar said he has the agreement. Councilman Noll said the management plan is what he wants to see. Councilman Snyder said we have let Charlie know to let Jake know. Charlie sent him an agreement that was signed in 2012. I have not received any response back from Steve Hovis. Councilman Allar asked is Steve sending emails to Charlie saying what he wants? Councilman Snyder said that I do not know. He said he wanted an agreement, Charlie sent that agreement to him saying is this is what you wanted? I haven’t seen any response. Councilman Allar said I would hope Charlie would nail it down. Attorney Springer said its in the agreement that Yoe will take responsibility for the maintenance of that part, not York Township. Councilman Snyder said now Seth is saying, he wants a plan in place. Councilman Noll said Steve is fine with the agreement, but he will not allow York Township to sign until that maintenance plan. To be signed by him. He wants a maintenance plan. Councilman Allar said I can ask Jake to put one together, don’t know what isn’t in the agreement now. Attorney Springer said basically contacting Steve and say what do you want. We’ve undertaken liability, that’s what we did. Councilman Noll said Steve admitted, he’s the one that needs to get back to Charlie. Charlie has done everything he is suppose to do. Steve is the hold up. The only way to get this solved, get everyone into a room and make a decision and walk out and do it. I don’t know why he wants to hold it up. Councilman Allar said with the nasty gram with the Army Corps, Mike Danko, he is holding a cease and desist order over Yoe Borough. By delaying this thing, its not helping. Attorney Springer asked Councilman Noll, did Steve elaborate on the management plan. Councilman Noll said he wants one, addressing exactly, when you look at anything currently with permits dealing with water, you have a maintenance agreement dealing with long term how the property is part of plan, for everybody is in another municipality. He wants to see that plan now. Councilman Allar said the township has no liability or jeopardy on anyway. Yoe Borough has the jeopardy. Councilman Snyder said give Charlie the lastest information. Maybe he needs to have a phone conversation with Steve and say, this is what is coming back. That agreement takes all the liability off of York Township. Charlie needs to ask what exactly do you want. So we know who to go to, say okay, this is what we need. Councilman Allar said he has already seen this, he didn’t mention anything about a maintenance agreement or anything. Mr. Malesker said the permit has been issued. Councilman Allar said construction can start without this document. Construction is going to start soon. Discussion continued. Attorney Springer said I was under impression everything is good.

Engineer’s Report

Mr. Malesker said I did send the legal description for the Riedel property. York Township will require new deeds and proper descriptions. Councilman Snyder asked when will you need that? Mr. Malesker said its not on the commissioner’s agenda until February 25th. It will need to be recorded. Is that all you need, do you need anything else from me? I gave you a set of plans. I can give you a full set of plans. Attorney Springer said let me get back to you on that. It will need to be done by next month.

Mr. Malesker said we already talked about the wetland mitigation.

Mr. Malesker said I will be sending you an email to set up a time, according to the MS 4 for this year, Derek Reinalda wanted to have a meeting around this time and to discuss the Chesapeake Bay plan.

Mr. Malekser said we did submit the Emergency Action Plan based on the comments from last year. We did the letter from DEP on basin inspection. They were agreeance with all our recommendations. One of the comments on there, there is not an approved EAP on file. That was submitted. Councilman Snyder said we did receive the copy from DEP, I will point out in the third paragraph of the letter, several items were identified which need to be prepared. Many of these same items were documented by your engineer in the annual inspection report. The department requests that the borough prepare a plan to have these items addressed before they become a major issue and cost the borough more money. Now everyone has been forewarned to plan according to that. Mr. Malesker said one of them was the rodent burrow, caulking of the joints and concrete at the outfall structure. Councilman Allar asked that Dana have this reviewed these items with him? Mr. Malesker will send Dana an email. The secretary said York Township and Jerry Pickel got a copy of the basin report. Mr. Malesker said I can send you an electronic version.

Mr. Malesker said York Township had a few more comments on the basin lot. It was approved by the planning commission. One thing we have to do, I’ll mention this to Dana, I included a copy of the plan with the engineer report and all their comments. The rebuttal letter that we had from Dave Fureman. Their last comment involved site distances, asking why they are concerned about site distances on an existing driveway. That is a legitimate question. They’re going by the book on this. As it stands on this, right now, off the Riedel’s driveway, you need to have a site distance of 140 feet. Based on the existing site characteristics of the roadway, the grade and the speed limit. What that is going to require then, and what York Township had us add to the plan, for them to approve it. Was the note, to say in order to obtain the required site distance of 140 feet, the bottom fifteen feet of the limbs on the white pine tree, will be removed and maintained. So we added that note, they approved it. So that is going to have to be done. Its just a matter of trimming the bottom limbs, then when you are coming out the Riedel’s driveway you can see up towards Dallastown 140 feet. When we took it over to the signatures, the Riedels said, the borough is going to take care of that, right? Because its. Councilman Noll said have Dana go down and trim that. The secretary asked that item be explained to Dana in your email. Mr. Malesker said they were very much by the book. They wanted additional notes and documentation added on page 3. It was recommended for approval for the commissioners meeting for February 25th. Councilman Noll said its on the schedule for February 12th. I will be going to that meeting.

Attorney Springer said I’m going to continue researching conservatorship, reverse condemnation. I am interested on a personal level. Let me know when you want to receive the petition. Patti, you are going to start issuing citations right? Mrs. Myers said yes. Councilman Allar said you may want to contact attorneys involved in this, to get an idea on the costs. Discussion continued.

Maintenance Report

Councilman Snyder asked did everyone have an opportunity to look at the maintenance report as submitted?

Councilman Snyder said a request was received from Charles Morrison who is going to move into 107 E. Pennsylvania Avenue. He is requesting a handicapped placard, he is issued a handicapped card from the state. A motion was made by Councilman Howett to have Dana do the appropriate traffic studies, upon a successful traffic study put up the appropriate handicap parking sign. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Zoning and Code Officer Reports

Mrs. Myers reported on 196 Main Street. At the hearing the gentleman did not show up again. Although I was citing him under zoning, and it’s a civil matter. I refilled and it went out the next day. Requiring ten days. He probably has not picked it up. January 29th was the tenth day. So we are within the rights to clean it up. In the letter it stated that we would take steps to remedy the situation at his cost. Councilman Noll said by his costs, we will clean it up, lien it and probably never see that money. Councilman Snyder said he is eventually going to try to sell it. Mrs. Myers said he is a flipper. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll asked do we want to bring in a dumpster? Councilman Snyder said we were suppose to go around town and pick ten properties with issues with. As a private citizen, I’d like to make a complaint, I think we need to cite 187 and 197 and go in there and clean them up. I have rats, infestation of rats that are in my house. Councilman Strausbaugh the garage of the Floyd property, its falling down, has that been cited? Mrs. Myers said I had forgotten about that. Mrs. Myers said at 230 he has ten days to do something. He has ninety days to repair the roof and front porch. Councilman Snyder said if there is going to a be a dumpster and crew there, she can send a citation to those two properties. Mrs. Myers said I will send the letters to 187 and 197, then they have ten days, which is around the sixteenth. Councilman Snyder said I was asking as a private citizen, I have rats, if there is going to be a dumpster going out. Pictures were sent around the table.  Mrs. Myers said the house to the right of Mr. Morton’s house and the Tobias Floyd property, is now under a maintenance company. I contacted both of those. That is who I will be contacting. Councilman Snyder said is council considering including those two properties. Councilman Noll said lets cite all three of them, see what action is taken, if no one complies, lets get all three of them at one time. A motion to expend up to $2000.00 to clean up properties cited by Councilman Strausbaugh. Councilman Noll said I know I have list and Sam has a list, how many people have their lists for properties? I came up with fourteen. How are we going to collect all that stuff to get it to Patti? Anyone else has a list, get it to me. Discussion continued. Emails will be sent to Patti with listings from council. Councilman Noll said when you have time Patti, we can get together with Regan and go over the lists and I will get you a copy of the 2012 Property Maintenance Code. Discussion continued. Councilman Allar said under criteria for ranking properties, Main, George and Broad should have a higher priority. Councilman Snyder said honestly location is going to be the same. I went down on George Street, and I could see a garage on Water Street. You can see it from Broad and Main. Everything is the same. Councilman Allar said its not the same, because of the number of people traveling through Yoe, driving through. They aren’t going to go down side streets to get their impression of town. Not if you want to change the image of Yoe Borough. Councilman Snyder said when you are coming down the hill you can see everything in Yoe. Councilman Strausbaugh said you could list a street and not weigh it as heavy. Councilman Noll said you have a committee and they will make recommendations on how they are going to do it.

EMA Report

Councilman Snyder said there was no emergency management report.

Mayor and Police Report

Councilman Snyder said there was no police report at this time.

Councilman Snyder said Mayor Sanford was contacted by someone that works for the City of Baltimore, that does websites, lives in town and is willing to set up and actually he has already set up a Yoe website and is willing take that on. That is what he does for a living. No cost to the borough, was the borough interested? What he put up was our entire website. There it is. YoeBorough.com is available. I can get back to John. There was a consensus of council to go for it.

Secretary’s Report

The secretary said once you know the website information. I will need to know that so I can send information.

The secretary said the audit will take place February 8, 11 and 13, 2013 during the day.

The secretary said I am working on sending the dam maintenance letters hopefully this month. I am waiting for the insurance. Councilman Allar asked if there is any figures yet? The secretary said no, I’m waiting for more information.

Councilman Snyder reported that the annual report of Yoe Borough Sewer Authority for their fiscal year 2012, that will be in the circulate file.

Councilman Snyder reported that we also received the 2013 operating budget for Yoe Fire Company Ambulance Service. With revenues and expenses, that will be in the circulate file.

Councilman Snyder said we received a request from York County Planning asking for the LGAC membership update, our current representative is Tom Allar. Asking for any updates? No volunteers, so the current representative is okay as Councilman Allar.

The secretary reminded the council that they received the year end banking statements 12/31/2012.

Unfinished Business

Councilman Snyder said the committee for the zoning update met the finalist, Urban Research and Development Corp. is the one that the committee is recommending to council. A motion to accept the proposal of Urban Research and Development Corp. and their cost of $14,800.00 and for the Council President to sign the contracts once YCPC submits them was made by Councilman Allar. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Councilman Allar said the county is giving us the $40,000.00 for the planning of the rail trail.

New Business

Councilman Snyder said there was no new business.

Payment of Bills

Councilman Snyder asked did everyone have an opportunity to look over the bill list? Councilman Allar asked what about the bills from York Township. I understood feels were to be waived. Councilman Snyder said we got these bills for their review. Councilman Snyder said two additional bills to be added: York County Solid Waste:$590.59 and Milt’s Repair Service for $95.00. A motion was made to pay the bills as listed along with the additional bills by Councilman Howett. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said bills paid.

Adjournment

A motion was made by Councilman Strausbaugh to adjourn the meeting at 9:44PM. The motion was seconded by Councilman Snyder. All in favor.