The regular monthly meeting of Yoe Borough Council was held on August 5, 2014 at the Yoe Borough Municipal Building, 150 N. Maple Street, Yoe PA 17313. The meeting was called to order at 7:04PM by Council President Sam Snyder followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Council members in attendance:
Sam Snyder
Seth Noll
Regan Strausbaugh
Ryan Harper
Barry Myers (arriving at 7:16PM)
Others in attendance:
Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
Dana Shearer, Resident 9 W. George
Dana Shearer, Maintenance
Thomas Dasher, Resident 43 W. High St.
Steve Malesker, Engineer
Mark Erne, Resident 194 N. Main St.
Charles Rausch, Solicitor
Moment of Silence
Councilman Snyder said at this time we like the council to recognize a moment of silence in honor of passing of Officer Michael Georgiou. Councilman Snyder said its appropriate in light of tonight York Area Regional Night Out on behalf of the municipalities at Dallastown Borough. Unfortunately Officer Georgiou would not be with us any longer. Councilman Strausbaugh said he is unfamiliar with what had happened. Councilman Snyder said Officer Georgiou was killed in ATV accident in Texas.
Minutes
Councilman Snyder asked if everyone had an opportunity to look over the minutes from July 1, 2014. Additions or corrections? I had one on page 7, eighth line from the bottom, it should read Snyder said heavy industrial instead of head industrial. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to accept the minutes with the notated corrections. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Quorum
Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect that at this time, we do have a quorum of the members present.
Thank Yous
Councilman Noll said I’ll pass around the thank you notes. We sent three baskets this month. Sandy and Sam with health issues. Dana’s mother passed away. Very nice thank you notes.
Visitors
Dana Shearer of 9 W. George Street addressed council concerning, I wanted to do this officially. It would be better to work this through the borough, these issues will be PENN DOT issues. I would appreciate the borough’s help to get PENN DOT to address these issues. The first one, is the long trucks turning into the intersection. I’ve sustained damage to my sidewalk, I’ve sustained damage to my house when they knocked off street signs, sprung back and broke some windows. And if we can get PENN DOT to do a traffic study there to limit length of trucks turning. The other day, brought to a head for me, I was walking up to the park to get a piece of equipment that I was shuffling stuff back and forth for work. And there was a conventional tractor with a 53 foot trailer trying to make the turn up the hill. While I was waiting to cross to get the signal to cross he was up the sidewalk and almost in my yard trying to avoid the no parking sign so he could make a wide enough turn. If it wasn’t for the no parking sign, he’d of been up in my yard. Trying to miss a pole across the street. It seems like its gotten especially worse since they redid the intersection of High Street up in Red Lion and I know they do have some turn limits up there. So I guess that’s made it hard for trucks from the Red Lion area to get back to 24. Now they come down through town, seems they have to turn to go up 24 to go. But it doesn’t matter, its actually all legs of the intersection whether they are coming down the hill, or from Dallastown, or in town from Springwood and W. George St., trying to make turns lefts and rights, both sides. Its clearly the intersection is not wide enough for those trucks. My opinion they need to look at limiting the lengths to allow them to turn there. Councilman Snyder said it’s a state road, that is why we would have to request on borough letterhead. Councilman Harper said just like the vehicles coming down there, sliding, it didn’t take long after they paved there, the first year. Councilman Noll said they need to fix the hill, can’t imagine coming down there in a fire truck. Mr. Shearer said you would be amazed if you stood there on my sidewalk, come down that hill and see them how they aim to mix those holes. They are almost up on the sidewalk or they literally cross the lane. I’m surprised we haven’t had a head on collision there. Mark Erne of 194 N. Main Street said I had a 26 foot box truck that I used twenty four seven and I drove through that intersection to go to work, I couldn’t make that turn without crossing over to the opposite side to make the turn even if person is back far enough. You can’t make the turn with a 26 foot box truck. Councilman Noll said send a request in. A motion was made by Councilman Harper to request a traffic study and the condition of the road coming down the hill. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Thomas Dasher of 43 W. High Street and I have Mark Erne with me, we are representing our whole block. The only one we didn’t talk to about the ball field is Mark Miglicio. Everyone feels the same.I’ve lived here myself for 23 or 24 years now. Its kind of odd, I really like it here. I have never had any problem with anyone. I close to the Yoe Baseball field. They made fun of it, I don’t say that anymore. Its an incredible eyesore. Everyone one of us, we take a lot of pride of taking care of our property. We all take care of our property. What happened to that Yoe ball field, I understand the trees, they looked like they were going to take care of the issue, they got all the crap out of there and it stopped. The tree stumps are there, they left everything grow around it, I don’t know who is responsible. I didn’t know where to go, either did Mark we talked about it, our whole neighbors. There’s no excuse for everything to look like that. The fence has really gone to crap. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to pay to play ball there. The ballfied in itself is the worse I’ve ever seen. The eyesore is where the trees were ,it stopped. What I don’t understand, why they didn’t keep going, pay someone a hundred bucks to get a stump grinder in there and get them down to the ground. It doesn’t take long and make it look somewhat respectable. It is our borough, we live here. To have it look that trashy. I don’t know. We all feel same way. Councilman Noll said last meeting we made some motions to spend some money on the ballfield for stump grinding and for fence work. The secretary said the fence work is going to be considered for the 2015 budget. Councilman Noll said but did motion for a contractor. Mr. Shearer said he has been given the green light for $900.00 to grind that stump. Councilman Noll said we have expended the funds but are waiting for the contractor. Mr. Dasher asked what about the fence that is busted up and falling down. Councilman Noll said that has been put into for the 2015 budget. The secretary said $1250.00 just to repair part of the fence. Mr. Dasher said let me ask you this, I’m curious. I am not making accusations just want the truth. Has Security Fence or Kinsley offered to do any of the work at a discounted rate? To put up a new fence. Councilman Noll said I guarantee you that Kinsely hasn’t. Mr. Dasher said to help with the ballfied. Councilman Snyder said that’s why its taken as long as it has on the fence issue. Because for the last two years, that was something that the Cougars were going to take on as a project. And then it just never materialized so we were waiting to give them the opportunity because they said they had the manpower and the resources. Its like why should we expend borough funds if they are going to help take care of it. Mr. Erne said I’ve been with Cougars for seventeen years and the last five to seven years that was one of the things, they had enough equipment and people to level it, make it work, the fence was always concern but it was a lot more work. The ballfield in Yoe with Cougars, the need for the field went down. The commissioner at the time, give us the rights to that field and we will make what we want it to be. And the need was there then, with the decline of the baseball program, the condition of the field. The other fields that Cougars were paying for, were of better quality. The need has gone down. I’ve been involved for playing ball for five to seven years, they use to love to play there. I rarely see a game being played there now. They don’t need it. Councilman Snyder said and that is why we held off on doing the fencing ourselves. We’ve put it in the budget for next year for the fencing. We saw this too and that is why we moved to get stumps taken down. Mr. Erne said a year and half ago when all those trees were down in the left field, the Cougars helped with that. Mr. Shearer said we were promised a lot of assistance from Cougars when we took those trees down and they probably used the field last year, they came in the last minute this year to use the field. Each spring when they come in they are full of ideas but a couple weeks later, we don’t see much out of them. They had estimates for $10,000.00 for the back stop and $20,000.00 for new fencing. We’ve been upfront with them. Mr. Shearer recommendation to them was ask for long term commitment for that field if they want to do the work. Because we are not in the position to try to get any recreational funds, we already used those funds for the park, we have other things we are trying to do. We would love for that field, we told them to take more interest in the field. My concern is, we’re putting money into a field that they are not using, we need to find someone who will use it. Councilman Snyder said or take out the ball field and put something in that will be used. Councilman Strausbaugh said you are talking about all this money, what return does it offer for the borough? Councilman Noll said the way it worked was for the exclusive use of the field, they build the dugouts one year. There was plan the year after to resurface the field, at multiple thousands of dollars. Things dropped off. Mr. Erne said that is the year the higher ups of Cougars had changed. People that were there for so many years that cared are gone. There are new people here. Councilman Strausbaugh asked is there any other league play besides the Cougars? Mr. Dasher asked if they have to pay a fee to play there? The answer is no. Mr. Dasher commented then there is no income coming in. The secretary said Cougars pays for the portable toilet rental. Councilman Myers said even when you have a field, even soccer field you are never in the black. All part of recreation. I know that from work. Getting donations, charge a certain amount. Redoing the field costs how many thousands of dollars. Every municipality has recreation. Councilman Snyder said municipalities aren’t here to make money, you can say that about almost everything, zoning, look at what we put into for having the code enforcement, yes we get a fine but it doesn’t cover half the amount we put into going after these people. Why do we do it, because its part of the municipal government and part of the job people expect. They want to have recreation sights, whether its utilized or not. People like to have recreation. They want garbage collected, they want to see codes enforced. We don’t make any money on it. We saw the same issue, we were trying to work with Cougar. We started piecemeal. Mr. Dasher asked are the stumps coming out this fall? Councilman Snyder said he was called and they are on the schedule to take care of. Mr. Dasher said that is ugly. Councilman Snyder said since the fence is large expense its going to be brought up at budget time. Mr. Dasher said I am curious, said Security Fence they are local for everybody, you’d think someone would step up and give a discount. Councilman Noll said I work with the all the time with other non profits, they say they get too many requests. Councilman Myers said Ben Druck Door, they do all the doors on the fire companies in the county. Mr. Dasher said if I come up with anything I’ll let you know. Councilman Snyder said we appreciate the comments, at least you know we saw the same thing. Thanks for coming.
Solicitor’s Report
Solicitor Rausch said on the agenda is the resolution for the opt in or opt out of the York County Chesapeake Bay Reduction Plan, you have until August 31, 2014. Yoe Borough’s fee for the next five years is fairly nominal. We just finalized the intergovernmental agreement to go along with the resolution. In September we need to adopt an ordinance. Councilman Noll passed around copies of additional information. Councilman Snyder said our fee is $284.00 per year for a five year period. A motion to resolve Resolution 2014-05, Councilman Noll added that we do opt in and that the borough council authorizes Councilman Noll to fill out the Municipal Separate Stormsewer MS4 Plan Reduction sign up sheet that goes to YCPC was made by Councilman Noll. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said so be it resolved. A motion was made by Councilman Noll for the solicitor to prepare the documents for the ordinance for the month of September and the advertising for the MS 4 agreement ordinance. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. A motion was made by Councilman Harper to appoint Councilman Noll as the Yoe Borough representative for the committee. The motion was seconded by Councilman Myers. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Solicitor Rausch said he will be on vacation in September.
Councilman Myers said I need to get with Solicitor Rausch on the land thing referencing the MA & PA Rail Trail. The second thing is there is come kind of letter or proof needed that Boundary Avenue is ours. So I can give it to YCPC for their MA & PA part up here. They want proof. Councilman Noll asked can we give him a copy of the map. A map was presented to council for review during the meeting. Discussion continued with the engineer. The map was given to Councilman Myers to take to YCPC to prove Boundary Avenue is in Yoe Borough.
Councilman Snyder said the only other issue that I had under Solicitor was the zoning update. We received notice from York County Planning that our revised ordinance is on the schedule for Monday August 25, 2014. Because of the timing of when Mr. Schmel sent it to YCPC, there is a forty five day rule, he was just outside of that. We won’t be able to act on that until October as the earliest possible date for adoption. Any discussions after comments are back, we can make a motion then and I will email Solicitor Rausch for advertising for adoption in October.
Councilman Noll said if anyone wants to look at the three railroad spikes up at Orchard Street. The first one the line goes across and cuts through the House of Windsor and its marked to the center of the road past the bus company. There is another pin here. Every part of Orchard that was repaired is in Yoe Borough. We need to consider two things, one is we will be getting a bill and I think it will just be for the materials to make that repair. I talked to Scott about this. The other part is, is it worth it, I don’t think we have this adopted for liquid fuels and with the survey work done so far, do we want to consider putting that in liquid fuels. York Township is going to claim from the intersection Orchard to Walnut from there. Up to the center line, the second point, from there back to the intersection for liquid fuels. We can claim the rest of the way down Orchard. Discussion continued. Mr. Shearer said in previous conversation, including with Rick Levan from Municipal Services it had been said, we have to adopt it, claim it, to get liquid fuels monies. If we do not claim/adopt the area, we can not use liquid fuels. Discussion continued. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to have the engineer to prepare the description and exhibits for Orchard Street and have the resolution prepared by Solicitor Rausch to go include needed information for taking over this area of Orchard Street. The motion was seconded by Councilman Myers. All in favor Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Engineer’s Report
Mr. Malesker said one thing Seth brought up last month is the lack of a good borough map that is accurate. We have done surveys of the borders. The image map here is from images taken from an airplane, this information is from the state and is better than Google Earth. We can use the state plane ordinates and overlay it on this map and have the borders to be accurate without distortion. Your street map would be an accurate reflection of your borders, the best boundary. This needs some clean up, some of the road names are in the wrong place, there is some drafting issues. It would take a couple hundred dollars to be in a good presentable state. Councilman Noll said a lot of it comes down to MS 4, part of BMP 6 not only to have an accurate assessment of all the things we have in the borough. I used the mapping and came up with the number of storm drains and number of outlet structure. All the streets we have and all the buildings that we now have, we have an inventory of all the assets that Yoe Borough physically owns. The next part is they want us to put those assets on a map. We need an accurate map, that is up to date. We can show the assests. We need show contingency plans for all he assets and activitie that we need show, as in leaf collection, snow plowing, fueling vehicles. Each activities you do, you need a plan. How you are going to fuel your vehicles, our plan will simply say, we send our vehicles to a commercial fueling station. Discussion continued about meetings about MS 4 and expectations and inspections. Councilman Noll said GIS is the next thing. GIS is very complicated and expensive to get up and run and maintain. C. S. Davidson works on a dumb GIS system, they use Google Earth Maps, they use all of our overlays so it does same the thing as a GIS system. We have all the information, we need to layer it on. The cool thing that we can do is put information blocks in there, we can add the tax map parcel on there. You would be able to click on the property on the map and get the history. I think we should consider a line item on the budget of about $2400.00 to get full system up and in operation. Discussion continued on the system. Mr.Malesker gave a copy of the proposal to the Council President. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to have C. S. Davidson make us a decent map for around $400.00 to $500.00 to meet our MS 4 requirements and BMP 6 of those requirements. The motion was seconded by Councilman Harper. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried. Mr. Malesker said I get this done, I can send pdf’s and a color copy for the borough.
Mr. Malesker said you had asked if the Reidel property reverse subdivision that we did for the basins would affect the existing permit for the basins for the proposed rip rap work that we are doing, if that could be under that existing permit or would it be totally separate permit. I got a quick response to that from Mike Danko, that attached that to the engineer’s report. He checked with his office’s counsel, he is saying the proposed rip rap stabilization work as an independent utility from the flood control basin and associated Army Corps authorizations to construct and maintain the basins, we are okay if the proposed rip rap bank stabilization work is under taken under a new and separate permit. If you can keep the impacts minimal and qualify for a GP 3 and perhaps you can receive corps authorization by a category one activity under the PAS PT 4. He has copied John and Mary Beth, make them aware of the proposed work to let them know that category one is on the table for use of corps authorization. SO this makes Jake’s job a lot easier so when he puts in for the permit to do the work because DEP already knows about, and Army Corps is saying its just a category one activity. So I think that clears that up. Its good its treated totally separate.
Mr. Malesker said the booth for MS 4 at the Dallastown Carnival. David Garabedian from Dallastown Borough is in charge. He is on vacation this week. He will be back Monday August 11. He built a rain barrel and everyone will get a ticket for a raffle that comes to the booth to raffle off the rain barrel. Someone should be there, but coordinate it through David Garabedian. Show up if you are at the carnival and take a picture that you are there. Mr. Malesker said let me know if you need his contact information.
Mr. Shearer added the four houses on Denton Drive are located in Yoe Borough.
Maintenance Report
Mr. Shearer said the street sweeping is completely as well as they could, the machine had mechanical difficulties. I did ask them for an estimate of what they removed from the borough in some sort of documentation when they send us the bill to include with our MS 4 records.
Mr. Shearer said the rip rap replacement on Yoe Drive, Fitz and Smith asked if we could have York Township help with vegetation removal with their boom mower. Tim Poff was on vacation, but they will send the boom mower down to remove growth so we can get Fitz and Smith in there.
Mr. Shearer said Ecostruction did complete the dredging, the first one for 2014. They completed some other sediment removal and erosion. Mr. Shearer said Sandy had sent everyone the statement of funds, do we want to wait until we address Yoe Drive, then look at the stream restoration later? It is a matter of time. Councilman Snyder asked if we have an estimate for the stream restoration. The way he wrote out this proposal is hard to understand. Mr. Shearer will contact Mr. Romig to clarify his estimate. Councilman Noll said if we rewrite the agreement and have one quarter of the cost to go to York Township, they would sign. Councilman Snyder asked Councilman Myers if he contacted Red Lion yet, and Councilman Myers said no. I will get over. Councilman Snyder asked Councilman Noll to contact York Township and have them make the agreement the way they want. Councilman Noll said they were okay with the old agreement, but wanted the Red Lion Borough off the signature block. They were saying it was unofficial since Red Lion was listed but didn’t sign it. Councilman Noll said he will need a copy of the old agreement.
Zoning Officer’s Report
Councilman Snyder said there was no report from Patti Myers. Councilman Noll said Codes report reflects on 230 S. Main Street , they realized that they were working without a permit. There was a stop work order and that should be all going through Codes.
Councilman Myers asked for an update on the stop work order on the Strobeck’s Auto Sales old place. Councilman Noll said they still have the stop work order. Councilman Strausbaugh said they were working through county planning. Councilman Noll said they had to do a land development plan. They haven’t done anything since the stop work order. Councilman Myers said its hard to see there.
EMA Report
Councilman Snyder said no report.
Mayor and Police Report
Councilman Noll said the report is presented as a matter of record, he can go over it next month.Councilman Snyder said we will say the report speaks for itself.
Secretary’s Report
Councilman Snyder said the issues about the auditor. The way the prices came in and Stambaugh Ness wanted a fixed fee to the tax collector auditor, annual cost of $1750.00 but if you do it each year $1500.00. If there is cost of $1750.00 involved, just do it when there is a resignation. Smith Elliott, Kearns quote for 2014 is $6200.00 compared to Stambaugh Ness at $6600.00. SEK was $6350.00 compared to $6600.00,$6500.00 compared to $6700.00 and $6650.00 compared to $6700.00. So SEK and CO. is clearly cheaper for all four years. They didn’t give a quote for the tax collector, they will give a quote at the time. A motion was made by Councilman Noll to award the auditor work to SEK & Co. for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 audits. The motion was seconded by Councilman Myers. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Councilman Snyder said we did receive a thank you from the Red Lion Recreation Department for the contribution towards the 2014 fireworks display.
Councilman Snyder said let the record reflect that our secretary-treasurer did submit the second quarter statements for the different accounts. I will remind council, per the auditors, its councilperson’s duty to look over the financials of the municipality and look for any inconsistencies.
Unfinished Business
Councilman Myers said we have to write a letter to the commissioners telling them that the Marcellus Shale monies is going to carry over for another year so we have to let them know by November 1st. Bills will be coming in during 2015. A letter has to go to Chuck Noll. Right now we have to meet with Solicitor Rausch. It was a consensus of council to send the letter now.
New Business
Councilman Myers said Dana is going to be on vacation August 8 and August 22.
Payment of Bills
Councilman Snyder asked if everyone had an opportunity to look over the bill list. There are additional bills: York County Solid Waste: $808.89, York Township $1000.00, Columbia Gas $31.21, Columbia Gas $25.70, Met Ed $25.57, Burchart Horn Inc. $1558.00, Buchart Horn Inc. $645.90, Buchart Horn Inc. $1366.80, Ecostruction LLC $6240.00. Councilman Snyder asked tonnage was on that bill. A motion was made by Councilman Strausbaugh to pay the bills as listed, with additional bills, and to hold payment on Ecostruction bill until we have tonnage for record for FEMA and MS 4. Councilman Myers seconded by motion. All in favor. Councilman Snyder said motion carried.
Adjournment
A motion was made by Councilman Harper to adjourn the meeting at 8:51PM. The motion was seconded by Councilman Snyder. All in favor.
