borough of yoe

150 North Maple Street, Yoe, PA 17313  •  (717) 244-5904

Minutes for April 2, 2013

The regular monthly meeting of Yoe Borough Council was held on April 2, 2013 at the Yoe Borough Municipal Building, 150 North Maple Street, Yoe, PA. The meeting was called to order at 7:03PM by Council President Sam Snyder followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council members in attendance:
Sam Snyder
Seth Noll
Tom Allar
Barry Myers (arriving at 7:34PM)
Wendy Coble Tyson
Regan Strausbaugh (arriving at 7:04PM)

Others in attendance:
Randy Stambaugh,Dallastown Cougars
Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
Dana Shearer,Maintenance Supervisor
Steve Malesker,Engineer
Seth Springer, Sitting in for Borough Solicitor Charles Rausch
John Sanford, Mayor

Minutes
Councilman Snyder asked if everyone had an opportunity to look at the minutes from the prior meeting. Any additions or corrections? A motion was made by Councilman Noll to accept the meeting minutes of March 5, 2013. The minutes were seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect that there is a quorum here, at the time the meeting opened. And we just make note if when additional council members come in.

Visitors
Councilman Snyder asked if any visitors would like to be recognized?

Randy Stambaugh from Dallastown Cougar Baseball. I am here to talk about the ball field. Things that we would like to work on with Yoe’s cooperation to upgrades and maintenance. Basically what we’d like, the Cougar Organization I’m here to represent, we were talking to Dana about doing some maintenance up here. We would like trim some of your trees down, Dana had mentioned something about from the left field side to centerfield outside the fence. Take those downs. I am also tied into Old Timers, I can get a lot of volunteers, come down to help. Dana said he can help us shut the down the roads to get those trees down and get them out of there. They have caused problems with damaging the fence. So we would like to see if we could take care of that. We were talking about doing it around April 20th. We also talked to Dana and Seth too, we’d like try to get water on this field. Get water on this field, to keep the dirt from blowing down and improve the quality of the field. We talked to Dana about trying to hook into the meter right off the right field foul line. I am working on trying to get a volunteer to try to help us dig that and donations to donate time and money. So we could get water. The issue is how do we deal with the water as far as who will pay for it. Would Yoe be willing use the water on the field etc? Mr. Shearer said that’s the meter pit for this building. Mr. Stambaugh said with that, we would like to get a shed up here this year if possible, we would like to put the shed on a cement slab and run the water close to the right field, first base. At least first base so we can water the field quickly. So, we could store equipment, maybe a small lawn tractor. We want to repair the fences as they stand now, especially the back stop. The bottom is all tore up. We are going to get someone in to wire it up this year. We got a price for just the back stop is $9000.00, to replace the fence all around the field is about $21,000.00. That is a capital improvement, I think we should go back and talk about. Ways that we can do it in cooperation with Yoe Borough, to try to get it taken care of. We had some capital money issues in our budget, we were unable to replace the back stop this year. We are going to fix it up so its safe. The Cougar organization is doing repairs to the backstop and fencing, whatever we need to do, we will help. The only I ask, when I was talking to Dana about the trees, he said he would be able to get a chipper from Red Lion, I’ll haul away all the big stuff. If you could just chip that stuff up. If Yoe is willing to do that, I’ll provide the manpower to do that. The bigger issue is the water, and I can come back at a later date to talk about it. We can lock it up. Put a shed on the foundation. Councilman Noll said are you talking about one of the frost free that goes down and has a handle that latches? Mr. Stambaugh said yes. That is kind of what we are hoping to do. We would like to cut the lip down between the infield and outfield. We would also like to talk to Seth. We have a couple of Scouts that interested in doing work at the Yoe Ball Field. The playground equipment and maybe a little roof over the stands. Talk about it. We really want to take down the trees. The big thing is the fence. We would like to talk to you on a later date, to see how you feel. Councilman Strausbaugh said there are trees back there to be taken down, but there are a lot of American Holly. Mr. Stambaugh said we are only doing it from the left field foul pole towards center field. Mr. Shearer said like I said before, if I can save them I will but my goal here, for $20,000.00, that fence is shot and it is major safety hazard. Every time one of those locusts come down it increases the damage. And I’m all for trees, but we have to do something. If we allow them to play on that field, we are responsible for making sure that those kids don’t become hung up on that fence. So. If the tree can stay it will, if its going to impede my fence, its gone. Mr. Stambaugh said if we are going to put $20,000.00 into a fence, we don’t want a tree falling on the fence. That was our big issue. Councilman Noll said I think I would recommend that council take down the trees, the only question I would have, do we all feel comfortable with the insurance coverage between the two groups since they are providing that type of labor, if everyone is covered. Do we have a sufficient certificate of insurance? The secretary said I’d have to check on that. Councilman Noll said does that cover the people doing the work if they are injured. The secretary said it states Dallastown Cougars on it. Mr. Stambaugh said I’d have to check on that. I just talked about it a week or two ago, you can take those down. Mayor Sanford said we ask that Yoe Borough be named additional insured so it covers both parties. Councilman Noll said it’s a great project, but our fiduciary responsibility has us asking those types of questions. Mr. Stambaugh said I understand that, I just need to know what you need me to do. The secretary said the first thing I need, from Pat, is the signed letter back, that I sent over a month ago, that I haven’t gotten back yet. Second I need you to check to see when your new insurance comes due, I think its right before that April 20th date, I need that in hand definitely before, we need to be named as additionally insured on that liability insurance certificate. Mr. Stambaugh said okay. Councilman Noll said as far as the rest of it, my opinion, if they want to put the water line in, put the labor and material into it, just let us know. Mr. Stambaugh said about the permitting, what happens. The secretary said Dana would have to contact the water authority. Mr. Malesker said or go to the water authority meeting next Wednesday. If there is anything installed its going to have to be inspected. Mr. Stambaugh said we just didn’t know, with all this. Mr. Malesker said as long as you contact Joe, if there is something modified, so they know, as an as built, if there ever is a leak. Mr. Shearer said that would be on our side of the meter. Mr. Stambaugh said we need to know. Councilman Snyder said my only concern about the meter, because I know its going to require permitting, you say you have a lot of volunteers that are willing to put it in, its going to have to go into code, depending on where it’s at, it may have to go down five to six foot. To get your actual angle. Now you are talking back hoes maybe. Mr. Stambaugh said that is what we are going to bring in, I have a friend to bring in the back hoe. We will do what we need to do. Councilman Noll said if Dana is willing to work with you to take care of that. Mr. Shearer said this is something, that we’ve talked about before. Their problem is two fold, the slope of the field, when it rains hard, it floods towards home plate and towards the third base dugout. And it washes their material away, or when it gets dry the wind blows it away because there is nothing to stop it. There has been several times when we’ve had dry weather, when they contacted the fire company to bring the fire truck to try to water it down. Mr. Malesker said something like that, its going to get credits for MS 4. You are conserving the soil. Mr. Shearer said and they go through at least one truck load of diamond tec every year. Its specialized infield dirt. Councilman Snyder said when you are talking about watering that, do you have any idea of how often, or how much. Mr. Stambaugh said in a dry time, it would probably be watered every day. The dirt of infield, it blows away. Just enough to wet it down, hose it down. Helps it mat down. If its raining, or rained recently, we won’t have to water it. Councilman Snyder said the only thing I’m concerned about, this is an unknown factor as far as how much water is going to cost, and we don’t have it budgeted for. What I was wondering is, say you have it installed and its going this year, we don’t say too much about it. And we see that we used $10,000.00 worth of water. If we come back next year and say we have to put a restriction on this, we can’t afford $10,000.00 a year. What would your thoughts be, if we came in an said we can only allow you to water once or week or something like that. Mr. Stambaugh said some water is better than none. What we’re trying to do, is have fund raiser, maybe we can get donations and have a fund raiser. How far we take it, how much it costs, and all that stuff. That is unknown, I don’t know how much that line is going to cost or the materials. We have to figure out where we want it. If we place a shed on the concrete, if we put the water beside the shed, at least that is close enough to get water to the field. I was kind of first, we want to run the water right down to the first base dugout. If we can put a shed there, and run it to the shed, that kind of eliminates the cost of some pipe. If the trees are down in left field. We are going to put up some temporary fencing. I have volunteers that would love to level out the field a little bit but you would need to shut the field down for about eight months. We updated the dug outs last year. We really need to fix the fence. Cut down the trees, block the road and get the chipper. Get the trees down. Councilman Strausbaugh asked if the kids want to play ball, how many thousands of dollars we would need to spend? Councilman Noll asked us, Yoe Borough? They are providing almost everything, the chipper is borrowed. Not much. I look at it, its technically ours, and are we allow them to do it, or are we going to spend a lot of money to do it. Councilman Strausbaugh said you are looking at a ball game, how many thousands of dollars are you going to spend for a game to play there. They can play anywhere. Mr. Stambaugh said we have the York Area Rec League on Sundays. Said if we did capital improvements, we would have some sort of agreement that we have exclusive rights to the field. Mr. Shearer said with the discussions we’ve had, they should have some sort of long term commitment from us. Instead of the year to year renewal. That if we can give them something long range, especially if we are going to rely on them for a lot of the capital improvements to go into fixing that fence. We only talking about trees from the left foul pole up Yoe Drive towards Maple. That doesn’t count any of the trees that are on the neighbor’s property. A lot of those are in just as bad of shape or worse and go out there and walk that fence, see how much damage there is to that fence. That fence is not that far off of the property. We talk about a new fence being a little further in towards the foul line. We’re still going to have issues with fencing out there. Put in the new fence, I can see somewhere along the line have a claim to the neighbor. Councilman Strausbaugh asked is fence necessary? Mr. Shearer said it probably wouldn’t be, but then their down there in the neighbor’s wood patch, picking out balls. How many times has there been complaints about people on their property? Councilman Strausbaugh said $21,000.00 for fence to play a game? Councilman Noll said but if they’re going to pay for it. Mr. Stambaugh said that’s pretty much it. Work with Dana. Councilman Noll said when you have everything together on the water line issue, come back and see us then. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to allow Cougars to take down the trees providing the use agreement is back by that date, and all the insurance is in place with Yoe Borough named as additional insured. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried, very good. Mr. Stambaugh said thank you very much.

Solicitor’s Report
Attorney Springer said a few emails sent to Councilmen Snyder and Springer.

Attorney Springer said recap it, I talked to Mike Danko at the Army Corps of Engineers, around 3PM this afternoon. He said 2/3’s of the way done drafting the letter and it expects it done and upstairs by the end of the day tomorrow. Unfortunately that is a week after I had hoped it would have been done. Its being done. But that’s the status of it, that’s where the conservation easement is. We got the landowner’s agreement to Jake Romig, I passed that around. No comments then that’s ready to go. Steve Hovis and I should be working on the second inter municipal agreement. I want to have that done by the end of the week. We can’t start the project until we have that authorization letter from the Army Corps of Engineers. Now I did speak with AARC, they told me, they are looking at finishing up the York Township part of the project this week. So we are really cutting it close. So that is the status of the Millcreek Wetland Mitigation project. When I met with Steve Hovis, about setting up the escrow account. York Township has this about getting this escrow agreement in place. We’ve run into a problem with PA DEP, any sort of escrow account we set up and the billing to the escrow account, has to reference Yoe Borough. It has to be sufficient so that Yoe can get reimbursement through the grant that they have been awarded. Now included in the email that I sent earlier, was Attorney Tubbs and Jineen Boyle from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. I have them in the loop and Steve Hovis and I are going to knock out the escrow agreement, incorporate the second inter municipal agreement and after we have the structures set shoot it back up with DEP, this is what we are looking at in writing, is it sufficient as to allow Yoe get reimbursement through the grant program. If I get a yes, that’s done. Hopefully by the time that gets down, I’m confident that the conservation easement and the authorization letter from Army Corps of Engineers that will be in our possession. Then we can proceed with the project. Councilman Allar asked if they have to stop work to work on the wetlands is that going to add cost to the project? Attorney Springer said oh yea, if they have demobilize and remobilize, they said that was never anticipated. Councilman Allar said that comes from the contractor then. I knew Danko was not going to allow this, back in October I talked to three attorneys then, fortunately you are getting it done. But I needed to get an answer, I don’t know why it took seven months to get it done. Attorney Springer said I can’t answer that, there were things hung up on other sides. But anyways, the discussion that I have had with Mr. Danko, seem positive. The conservation easement that I’ve already submitted to him, looks good. He’s already sent it upstairs, they’ve already giving the approval. All the changes have been made. Now they are knocking out this authorization letter. It looks like everything is going to progress through. Now can he call me tomorrow and say, everything is falling through, yeah sure. And I wouldn’t know that at this point, but I have to trust, and I have to believe that he is representing himself truthfully and that this will be upstairs by the end of the day tomorrow, this authorization letter. I assume with the conversations that I’ve had with him, that he’s talked to the guys upstairs about this project and they’re going read over, maybe make a couple suggestions for changes or will be good as is, and then we’ll get it. Councilman Allar said as you know the government doesn’t move very quickly. Attorney Springer said I talk to him a few weeks ago, it was I have this really big project, I’m going to try to get this thing done by last week. Then this really big project, which millions of dollars, doesn’t make any difference to me, he said that came in front of us, he wasn’t able to work on the authorization letter. Then there was another project, emergency that came up. In any case, I’ve been talking to him, pretty much once very few day. My last conversation was today and he said he was two thirds the way done, he is working on it, almost done it. He said I tell you it will upstairs by the end of the day tomorrow. Councilman Allar said the cost per the original contract, covered by the two grants, we haven’t allocating more? Attorney Springer said Jake Romig said that was bid, it was bid as one whole project, they wasn’t to be any change orders. So that said, I talked to Steve Hovis, well, they were never contemplating remobilization. Councilman Snyder said Seth Springer did a good job in trying to coordinate this, get everybody on the same page, and get a daisy chain going, all these emails, so everybody knows what everybody is doing and where we stand. When Steve Hovis responded back to his original daisy chain, it was the two issues, 1. we want our twenty nine nine and 2. we expect Yoe Borough to pay for any overages because of demobilization and mobilization again. I sort of responded back for Seth, I had the benefit of knowing what Seth was doing with Elizabeth Heathcote, I knew what Seth Springer knew with the Army Corps. So I said I would respond back to everybody. I told him, let’s not confuse the two issues. I can say on the record here, my personal opinion, York Township knew from day one on, this was needed in place. They also knew and were told ahead of time before they bid the project out. Seth Noll and Tom were both at the preconstruction meeting before the work took place. And when they were informed that this paperwork in place, so therefore its my personal opinion that they fully undertook this on their own, knowing full well what needed to be done, they are putting Yoe Borough at this disadvantage. We didn’t cause this overage. They are going to argue about them sitting on this easement agreement since last year. Clearly our records show, at least communication was done back to his council. I don’t know what communication you had back with them. But at least you communicated back with this council, that these agreements weren’t in place and Steve Hovis was sitting on them. I have numerous emails from between Nicole and then when Charlie took over, before you got on, that he would contact Steve Hovis right after the council meeting, saying where are we at with these, no response. Attorney Springer said there is a chance this might not be an issue, there is chance that we’ll get the authorization letter, have the agreement signed and AARC will still be on the site. Until it becomes an issue, I mean really, we don’t have any choice, its not like we are going to pull out,

we’ve gone past the point of no return. It’ll happen, its just matter of, let’s get it done as soon as we can. That is why I have been bugging Mike. Mike Danko knows and we know we can’t start this project until we get that authorization letter. Councilman Allar said the only contact I had with Steve Hovis was, same day as the preconstruction meeting, in February. I went down to his office. Face to face, I said where are we at on this thing. He said that very morning, he had a meeting with Charlie,they worked everything out. I wasn’t going into details, he had already talked with Charlie. Had a MOU worked out, had the conservation thing worked out. That went on six weeks ago. Councilman Snyder said I got him off that issue because as long as everybody does what they need to do, and this project gets accomplished then that’s not going to be an issue, that’s how I got him off the subject. Discussion continued. Councilman Noll said in all of your research, what happened here, it just seems like the legal side wants to one thing for York Township and York Township wants to do another. Whats your opinion, so we know with agreements and everything in the future, how to handle? Attorney Springer said do that email chain, had we done that from the beginning I think it would, at the very least it holds a record that you can go back, hey, we went this up, this is your email address. I think it would have helped, the first inter municipal agreement was, after talking to Jake Romig, was impossible to comply with. We couldn’t have given them the money, we never go it, it was a reimbursement program, so it made no sense to begin with. There were typos in it, and who was it that prepared it, it was a third party that prepared it. Jake Romig, apparently, we didn’t prepare it, York Township didn’t prepare it, so it kind of got off on a sour note from there. Then there was some confusion with the Army Corps of Engineers, everytime I talked to them, the latest time, they said well do you really want a conservation easement it sounds like you want a declaration, send me a declaration. I looked up the declaration and I don’t know about this. I called the Army Corps of Engineers legal and they said no, no, you want a conservation easement. Not having everybody on the same page. And that was the big issue, once you have everybody on the same page, it helped out a lot. For instance, up to a few weeks ago I never spoke with AARC, finally I talked to Lee Erwine. He is going to still be on sight with the project this week. Whereas we thought they were going to be wrapping up a couple weeks ago, it was a break down of communication, major part of it. You really have to be tenacious when getting these contracts knocked out, it just seems a lot of the other parties just lose interest, for lack of another word. Councilman Allar said Jake had told me that the original start date had been in May. And then they got a hole in their scheduling. Apparently they notified the township and Mr. Miller, the guy in charge. They said yes, go ahead, almost on an emergency basis we had a pre construction meeting, very quickly. Attorney Springer said that shouldn’t happened, I didn’t know that. There is one issue, rather than talking about what has happened, you guys need to talk about what’s going to happen. I think when speaking with Jake Romig, there was something between Yoe Borough and Kinsley Construction, that they were to maintain the last sight, which is what got us to where we are now. Jake, and I don’t know if this is true, Jake represented to me and Charlie who was at the meeting, that Kinsley was going to maintain this sight for five years. I don’t know if that is true or not, you guys have to figure out who is going to maintain this sight because you don’t want to happen to this sight, what happened to the last sight. Councilman Allar said I know what he is referring to. Attorney Springer said okay, I say get it in writing. Councilman Allar said okay, because of the permits, and not taking care of the original wetlands, that is how we got into the cease and desist order. I went to Kinsley, and talked to Chris. One of the problems was, and I pointed it out to Chris that the sub contractor, Kinsley hired when this was built, did not have a crew on how to deal with wetland inspections. They never gave any reports, and the ones they did were not acceptable. And they put in the wrong species in the basin. I told Chris that from a legal standpoint, however, they have been professional and respectable. And he agreed that they would reimburse Yoe Borough for the inspections. Which I was going to have Jake do, because he knows how to do these things, he knows how to do the reports, he knows Danko, DEP deal. I asked Jake to come up with an estimate. I haven’t mentioned it, because we aren’t at the point yet. We haven’t planted anything, the first inspection is six months after the planting. We are talking about something, that isn’t going to take place to probably the fall. And Chris said yes, they will reimburse us in the area of $7000.00. This is five year inspection we are talking about. We will have control, we will have an individual that finally knows what he is doing, doing it. Attorney Springer said I know Kinsley is good operation, I want to make the point that, seeing how this project has gone thus far, I would definitely recommend having something in place, it seems like in the next couple of weeks this is a go, this is going to happen. They’re going to do the wetlands mitigation on this Mill Creek property, then after that, I would recommend having something in place. And whether it was Chris from Kinsley, I don’t know. Whether you want to go that route, I don’t know. But I would definitely have a plan so this doesn’t happen again. Just want to mention that, put it on the record. Councilman Snyder said one thing, so we can this thing moving along, do I have a general motion,to sign easements, documents anything of necessity that comes up between now and the next council meeting to effectuate this. Councilman Noll made a motion. It was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Attorney Springer said going to the closing on the Reidel property. I did contact Bankenstein’s office today, talked to his property paralegal. And basically I want to get some dates when you can sign and have closing. Setting that up now. If you want to give me the dates now, tonight or tomorrow morning. Only you will need to be there. I need to get back to them with some dates. A motion was made by Councilwoman Coble Tyson to have the secretary release the balance of the funds for closing on the Reidel property to the solicitor. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.

Attorney Springer said I spoke with some representatives from the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia regarding conservatorship. They are in the opinion, its not worth the paper its written on. And that would explain why there aren’t many people doing it. I also spoke to Don Hoyt, who sits on the Redevelopment Authority of York Board and asked him about eminent domain or condemnation. And he said typically its about $2,000.00. Its not nearly as much as I thought. The Redevelopment Authority recoups those costs when they sell. That said, you don’t really know that when they have the tax sale that there is someone who comes in and buys the property. So its up to you guys if you want to wait and see or if you want have a representative at the sale. Councilman Snyder said cause if he decides to fight a condemnation, put it this way he comes up with $2,700.00 to pay back fines, but he can’t pay $200.00 to mow his property. It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t try a condemnation and he comes up with the money for a lawyer to fight it. So, and then you have more than $2,000.00 in it. Attorney Springer said well yes and no. If he was fighting, he would have a board of view. At the board of view, you have to give them fair value, it would come down to the appraisal. Councilman Strausbaugh said I talked to Cynthia at the Housing Alliance, I didn’t bring it up that was our recommendation, but she said to see if we can buy it at the bank sale. Our cheapest way around to have it free and clear. Councilman Snyder said if we have a ½ mill tax increase, we can take it out of long term savings, and put it back in next year. I was here when the mail carrier was here, he did say they posted the mail box. So they’ve stop mail delivery. Councilman Noll said he ripped it down that afternoon. Councilman Strausbaugh said apparently he’s there almost everyday. Councilman Snyder said I think they are holding everything up at the post office. If they are vacant, its legal just to go up and post the property. Councilman Allar said again, his legal residence is in Yoe Borough. Councilman Noll asked how long does condemnation take, we have a tax sale coming up? Councilman Allar said let’s look at the steps of condemnation, there is a lot of costs there. We can petition the court, to waive all the taxes and liens, Court of Common Pleas to give us that relief. However, there is what is called a Board of Viewers, which the court appoints. They will have access of the property. Then there will be a just compensation hearing. Now at that point, if they come back and say the house is worth, $20,000.00 and the land is worth 75, then we going to have to compensate him for a $100,000.00. Attorney Springer said I don’t think that would happen. Its true, you do go in front of a Board of Viewers at the same time, they tour and inspect the house, an appraiser goes with you. The few Board of Viewers that I’ve gone too, the appraisers measure the value of property by compass square footage. The properties are not appraised high at all. Councilman Allar said I’m saying that whatever comes out of that compensation hearing, we’re expected to come up with that money. Councilman Snyder said they could appraised it at $15,000.00 for the land, assuming you tear down the building. The lot would be worth $15,000.00. Attorney Springer said but they take in that the building will be torn down. Councilman Snyder said the point that Tom is trying to make, that it will probably be cheaper to get it at tax sale for $6,000.00 than a condemnation. Councilman Allar said we’re not going to get it at $6,000.00 at tax sale, the taxes are already over $9,000.00, $1000.00 are Yoe Borough’s. That doesn’t count for 2013. You are talking county and school, you are going to be up at $13,000.00, there is interest added every single month, six month’s before the sale. So that has to be filled in, there is $300.00 administrative cost, they are going to be checking state and federal, there may be liens, he maybe not paying income taxes. Whatever that figure is, thirteen, fourteen thousand, that is where the tax bureau says we won’t take a bid underneath that. What happens after that, we may own it, but we have to be faced with boarding it up, secure the building, demolition cost, rehab cost. Or give it over to the habitat. Attorney Springer said what I’m hearing is, over $10,000.00 to buy it at the tax sale and I don’t think its going to reach that through condemnation. If you take it through condemnation, you can hold it and give it to habitat. Councilman Allar said it depends on what the compensation hearing comes up with, it’s a crap shoot. We don’t have an idea. The land may have a value. Councilman Snyder asked if you start a condemnation proceeding like that, and we get to that hearing and they say they want $20,000.00, you can walk away from the condemnation then. Attorney Springer said you can withdraw at the appraisal. The board would do the appraisal. You could say didn’t know it was worth that much. Councilman Myers said I thought you have to pay some fees. Councilman Allar said its about $4,000.00 court cost. Attorney Springer said the figure I got through Don is two. Councilman Strausbaugh asked if we withdraw are we back to square one? Attorney Springer said lets look at this way, we go through the board of review, the appraisal comes back and it says worth a lot of money. That’s after they have already factored in the demolition costs, and any other costs for maintenance of the property. Then you still have a property for whatever reason is worth a lot of money. Because that’s what its appraised at. Councilman Allar said I don’t know if it’s the borough’s purpose to get into land speculation. Attorney Springer said I don’t think it’s a land speculation, you are having a problem that you have to deal with. That’s why eminent domain and conservatorship and all these things. One thing I forgot to add in doing, I am doing a CLE tomorrow on blighted properties. I hope that yields something else. But for now the research I have done, the effective way is eminent domain. That’s because a conservatorship hasn’t been tried, can’t say, what it is going to cost. Councilman Snyder said plus you end up giving it back to them. Attorney Springer said you could. Councilman Allar said you probably talked to Judy Beckman with the Redevelopment Authority down there. Attorney Springer said I believe I did. Councilman Allar said I talked to her and I also talked to several attorneys who have actually done this and I also talked to Butler County Redevelopment. The thing is, you are probably talking about fifteen properties that have gone from A to Z. They are very high on it. Last month we talked about getting something on the back end, they are telling me that we can get something on the back end. Attorney Springer asked are we talking about conservatorship? Councilman Allar said conservatorship, we would first of all, we would condemn the property through the maintenance ordinance. It would be easy to do. We would file for the conservatorship, again through the Court of Common Pleas, we would ask the judge for release from all taxes and liens. Now, as part of that, we would submit the plan. We had to show what the end user is going to be. If we would have a MOU with the habitat. This is fairly attractive to a judge because it clearly not only are putting the property back on the roles,we’re helping a family, we’re helping the neighborhood, all these kinds of things looks good to the judge. Now here is where some of the differences are. There are no just compensation hearing, we are giving conservatorship, we control the property. He is not, he does not control the property. There is no payment to him at this point. Attorney Springer said he is still directed owner. Councilman Allar said that’s right, but that’s all, looking at how much is this going to cost us. Now, at the end, after, at some point the judge will have a new deed issued for the final user, which will be whoever the family is that habitat finds. At that time, the property, is a sale. The habitat is selling this. Now after all the costs and fees are added up with the habitat put into it, what Yoe Borough put into it, what we paid to board up the property, what we paid in legal fees, the liens and taxes which were wavied, they are still thrown in there as a cost. Now if there is anything left, then he gets that. They say that usually there is nothing left. So he gets nothing out of this. We keep good records of this, and we do approve the value of the property. Its very likely, that we may be compensated for all or most of our costs. We certainly won’t have taxes and we certainly won’t have to do any just compensation board. Attorney Springer said that’s true but you are again talking about breaking into a new trail. Doing everything from scratch. Councilman Allar said not quite. Attorney Springer said in York County, yeah. Councilman Allar said let me finish, said I’m sure the judge or his clerk, is going to check the precedence of these other counties and these other Courts of Common Pleas, which already have passed muster. Attorney Springer said no, we would want to do that for them.Councilman Allar said however, the precedence will be laid out before then. And there is ample precedence, people that I talked to, I’m not talking to a redevelopment authority who is looking up on high and doesn’t understand the legal steps and mine fields. I talked to the attorneys, that I think you need to talk to. They are saying its totally different, its not a big deal. In fact the Butler County, in this case it was the redevelopment attorney, he said I’ve done about eight projects, and its cost about $2,000.00 in legal fees per project. Their attorney goes bang bang bang and done. Attorney Springer said that’s what the eminent domain/condemnation would run but the difference, you take the property and it ends up costing you$5,000.00 and you end up selling it for $15,000.00, you keep that ten. When you go through the conservatorship, it goes down the list in superiority, and you just pay off costs. Councilman Allar said what I’m trying to say that in a conservatorship we have total control, all with the property, we know what the costs are going to be,the only cost we have is legal fees, and we may actually get some of that back. Attorney Springer said on plan, that’s the plan. Councilman Allar said I’m counting that as part of the legal fees. That goes with the petition, which of course will be a legal petition. Attorney Springer said he fight a conservatorship just as mauch as could fight an eminent domain and the judge, if he doesn’t fight, might not accept it. You really have to, its hard to go into, if it hasn’t been done before, its hard to say, as long as we have all this stuff, we should be good but that’s why I talked to Judge Linebaugh and I wanted to know, if we go forward, what do you want to see cause that is what I’m going to show you, exactly what you want to see. The people that I talked to in Philadelphia. Councilman Allar said again, I’d like you give some calls to some of the attorneys and an authority that has been successful at it, and get their point of view on it. Because if you talk lawyer to lawyer, rather lawyer to administrator, you might be a whole different ball game. Attorney Springer said I’d like, all the attorneys that I have spoken with, have said that they have not pursued it, it didn’t seem to make sense. Councilman Snyder said really with the condemnation, we could still turn it around the Habitat of York. Councilman Allar said that’s true. Discussion continued. Councilman Myers asked if we contacted one of these house flippers and said you come in and fix it up and we split the profit, could we do that? Attorney Springer said I wouldn’t see why not. Councilman Myers said pay the bills off and split the profit, make a legal deal with a contractor. Councilman Noll said the Borough Code wouldn’t like that. Councilman Allar said the redevelopment authority sent a letter out, this is in Goldsboro,they have already talked to a real estate guy/appraiser, they sent a letter to a homeowner saying we are willing to offer you this much money, if you don’t accept within sixty days, we are going to start eminent domain proceedings. Discussion continued. Councilman Allar said we can control the situation, we don’t have to rely on a hearing. Discussion continued. Councilman Allar said I don’t like that we are discussing this in open session, we should have gone into executive session, we are talking legal matters. Attorney Springer said we are talking in generalities, we are going to be discussing other properties. Councilman Snyder said take this information back to you, check out these other names. Attorney Springer said I’ll get the names off of Tom. Discussion continued.

Councilman Snyder said the first item is Resolution 2013-03. Everyone had an opportunity to look over through email. A motion to resolve Resolution 2013-03 by Councilman Myers. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. In favor: Councilman Snyder, Councilman Myers, Councilman Allar, Councilman Strausbaugh, and Councilwoman Coble Tyson. Opposed: Councilman Noll. Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect the resolution passes.

Councilman Snyder said along with that. Sandy met with our insurance man, Doug Truax. And he again requested that the fire company should be providing us on an annual basis list of their events that they are proposing for the upcoming year since the borough provides the workers comp. A list of approved events. Mr. Shearer spoke with Scott Cain for the listing. Councilman Snyder said just to put you on notice, nothing is formalized, Doug had indicated that we are good from June until next year, its more than likely that after next year, that worker’s comp for the fire department will likely double in price. If its offered at all for the borough at all. Councilman Myers said you should talk to your representative, I was just at a meeting, that they brought that whole subject it and they are saying its all because of this cancer thing. So far they have had one thing out of the whole state, and now the state is getting involved, sounds like there is going to be a lawsuit with the insurance companies. They are taking advantage of the situation, and that is not happening. They are scaring everybody, such as us, you just said it, they told you. Its crap. Councilman Snyder said he just had to make a mention, he wanted to put that on the radar. Mayor Sanford said some departments are scared already to the point they went out and got their own insurance. The secretary said there are three municipalities that Doug knows of that have dropped workers comp for the fire companies. Lower Windsor Township is going to be self insured through a trust and Spring Garden also a self insured. Mr. Shearer said the code for the boroughs and township, they are to provide the workers comp. Councilman Myers said you are still responsible. Mr. Shearer said York Township is still responsible in your town. The requirement is still there. Councilman Myers said the municipality can not just say, we aren’t going to pay your workers comp. In that meeting, the state is looking at taking it over. What our guy from Harrisburg, is going to the associations and basically fire these people up. Representative Seth Grove was on the insurance thing. Mr. Shearer said the insurance industry helped to craft this legislation. There were a few more claims than they anticipated.

Councilman Snyder said we did receive our annual audit. That is taken care of. Along with the audit, there was the Communication for Internal controls and related matters , that is for council’s eyes, gave us suggestions for internal controls and organizational structures. As well as the financial responsibility report that was submitted. They didn’t see any major problems. That is a matter of record.

Councilman Snyder said on our CDBG, that contract from the county on February 15th, to URDC. At our February meeting, a motion was made to sign the contract when it came in. We haven’t received the contracts back yet, I contacted county, they said it was already sent out. We are waiting to hear back from Mr. Schmel.

Engineer’s Report
Mr. Malesker said the major thing I have is if Broad Street, I’ll need to have those quantities. If you okay with the materials/equipment bid, can you think of any other equipment you may need. I think Dallastown Borough is going to add the track hoe. Need for sewer things. As far as bituminous, we will add whatever quantity. Step it off. I’ll need approval to advertise this, this is dependent that Dallastown has approval to advertise this next week. I’ll have bids for May meeting, then contracts go out. Bituminous Paving of York is no longer in business. Kinsley and Building Products of York became one entity, the materials bids that we opened thus far, the prices are quite a bid higher than last year. If you wanted to, your contract goes through June, you could get Broad Street paved at this year’s prices as long as they’ll honor the current contract. Councilman Snyder said if we gave them the work to do in May. Mr. Malesker said getting with Fitz and Smith. If the invoices, have a different name on it, since the change, the solicitor of Dallastown, said PENN DOT will know, they are going to have knowledge of it. Councilman Myers said get the agreement with the state and have it on file. A motion was made to advertise for the 2013 Equipment and Materials Bid with Dallastown by Councilman Myers. The motion was seconded by Councilman Allar. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. A motion was made to proceed under this current contract with the repaving of Broad Street by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by Councilman Myers. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Mr. Shearer said he will call Fitz and Smith. Discussion continued. With that we would also like you to approve paving Mason Avenue from the bridge to the intersection up to and including Water Street. That was part of what we talked about last year, once we did the bridge work down there, we need to pave over the bridge and I wanted to include the section from the bridge up to Water. A motion to include that portion of Mason Avenue into that project by Councilman Allar. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Coble Tyson. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Mr. Malesker said you’ll get a project number from Gary Tipton. That too will be done under the current contract. Mr. Malesker said we still haven’t heard back from sending the Emergency Action Plan back in January. We haven’t received comments on that, I am going to keep it on the report until then.

Mr. Malesker said one of the conditions that York Township had for the Reidel property was for the tree to be trimmed. Dana did take care of that. Councilman Allar said I talked to Jake, he’d like to a meeting out there on the erosion controls. He wants to have the meeting now. I think Dana, I’ll be there, Jake, yourself and Seth. Mr. Malesker said I’ll get something set up. Councilman Allar said get a copy of the grant application that Jake sent in. Mr. Malesker said I asked for a copy and haven’t gotten it yet. Councilman Allar said it’s a good plan, we can probably use it again.

Maintenance Report
Mr. Shearer asked if there are any questions on his report.

Councilman Snyder said you didn’t mention anything about the handicapped parking. Mr. Shearer it was listed on last month’s report, and its posted. The way the ordinance reads you don’t need a study since its on the street.

Councilman Allar said this complaint on 53 Church. Mr. Shearer said the current tenants of one of the units are complaining about fire accessibility. The tenant of one of the units we had problems with before that Norm Strenger had gotten involved with, had some questions. She invited us, to look at her unit. The issues that were solved with Norm, were still there, and Norm basically says, he has to research that, that isn’t how he remembered it to be when he approved it. So right now I am waiting to know for sure, to know how to word the letter. Basically its means of egress, there are doors where there shouldn’t be doors according to Norm. With the first tenant, Apartment 1, there were complaints, some were founded, some weren’t. Councilman Allar said this inspection rental fee list, are we current on inspections? Mr. Shearer said there is a bunch that I need to schedule. I got to make time.

Councilman Allar asked when are you planning on doing crack sealing? Mr. Shearer said in the near future. The machine didn’t work from Dallastown last fall. Red Lion has the same machine, our sealant is the same as what they bought.

Mr. Shearer said one thing, that was a news article from the state township association website. There was a bill recently introduced, to put a three year moratorium on the prevailing wage. I would recommend you contact your representative to support this. Discussion continued.

Mayor Sanford asked if anyone knows of an act passed that we as a government entity, when we buy something it has to be totally American made. Mr. Shearer and Councilman Myers said they didn’t see anything like that. Council asked for a copy of that.

Zoning Officer’s Report
Councilman Noll said I’ll pass this around, number of letters and all the stuff that is going on. You’ll notice that the properties are cleaned up on Main Street and 196. Signs have been put out on George Street. Patti sent a letter out. Discussion continued. Councilman Snyder said the ordinance says temporary signs can only be put up for 60 days.

Councilman Allar said can Patti, really doing good at getting these letters out, can she put them in the borough file? Rather than at her house. Councilman Noll said Sam and I have talked to her and its under way. Councilman Allar said we want to have a documented history. Councilman Snyder said after last council meeting, we got the invoices for the properties that were cleaned up. The bills were sent out regular and certified mail. In order to find out the timeframe originally notified for, she needed the actual letter. So I emailed Patti, and said to have a central location to have those letters. Dan might need the information to issue permits. Patti said she understood that. I left it for Seth and Regan to add ideas. Next month you may want to think if they didn’t pay the bill, you may want to lien the properties. Now we are getting into the mowing season, some of these you know they are not maintaining. If we are going to lien the properties for the clean up, get on a monthly to six weeks basis, mow those properties, come September lien for all actions. Think about it. She has to notify them to mow. Councilman Myers said we should tell her to get three quotes for mowing so she knows. Councilman Noll said its time to shoot her an email, to get together again. Councilman Snyder said I would think if you notify them an annual notice. Councilman Myers said the judge told her, you have to make that same notice each year and to develop a track record. Councilman Snyder said we have time to think about it for next month, that will give her time to get some pricing together. Give her time to cite them, so we can get them on a schedule.

Emergency Management Report
Mayor Sanford said I have nothing to report.

Mayor’s Report
Mayor Sanford said I forwarded an updated report for February which I did not have available last month. Information on March and February police report also.

Councilman Snyder asked about NFDC, webhosting is due for next year at $140.00. The mayor was in contact with the gentleman on the mayor’s office in Baltimore. Mayor Sanford said I wasn’t aware this was coming up this soon. It is still going to take a couple months to get this through. I have asked Sam to approve it tonight not to exceed the $140.00. And I’ll do what I can do.

Secretary’s Report
The secretary said we did receive our liquid fuels monies for $19,029.74.

The office will be closed April 12, 2013.

Councilman Snyder said we did receive a thank you from the Red Lion Senior Center for the annual contribution.

Councilman Snyder said I mentioned the talk Sandy had with EMC for insurance renewal.

Councilman Snyder said we received the first quarter time reliability report from Yoe Ambulance today.

Unfinished Business
Councilman Allar said we got a copy of this from PSAB on blighted properties, for $40.00, we can take advantage of the research done for blighted properties and I am just wondering if Seth Springer would want to take advantage of this. I have seen this several times now. I was going to suggest this be forwarded to Seth Springer. Councilman Snyder said I saw that, it starts at twelve noon. I didn’t want to commit to it.

Councilman Snyder said I wanted to bring to the attention of Jake Romig. We received another email to the state, he is not filing the required quarterly report. Councilman Allar said I talked to him, and he is going to send them to the state and to the borough. He is not great with paperwork. Discussion continued.

New Business
Councilman Noll said we have a copy in here for the 2012 code books for international property maintenance code and Dana has a copy. Plus Dana has a copy of the 2012 Fire Code. I gave him copies, we went over into a new book for ADA and Chapter 11 in 2012.

Councilman Strausbaugh said I talked to the Housing Alliance, they are going to get back to me. A lot of references and contact info. I’ll get back to you next month.

Mayor Sanford said we received a notice from Stan Saylor’s office about Springwood being closed for bridge repair.

Payment of Bills
A motion was made with notation not to exceed $140.00 on the bill webhosting for NFDC, to pay the bills as listed with the note by Councilman Myers. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor.

Adjournment
A motion was made by Councilman Strausbaugh to adjourn the meeting at 9:12PM. The motion was seconded by Councilman Snyder. All in favor.

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