borough of yoe

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

Minutes for November 10, 2015

The regular monthly meeting of Yoe Borough Council was held on November 10, 2015 beginning at 7PM at the Yoe Borough Municipal Building, 150 N. Maple Street, Yoe, PA. The meeting was called to order at 7PM by Vice President of Council Seth Noll followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council members in attendance:
Seth Noll
Barry Myers
George Howett
Ryan Harper
Regan Strausbaugh
Bill Bankoske

Others in attendance:
John Sanford, Mayor
Steve Malesker, Enginner
Peter Haldermann, Sitting in for Attorney Rausch
Dana Shearer, Maintenance
Sandy Sterner, Secretary-Treasurer
Chief Thomas Gross, York Area Regional Police Department

Minutes
Mayor Sanford has two corrections on page five under EMA Report. Line one, scope should read speed. And second paragraph strike out, I took in front of Mode 1. A motion was made by Councilman Howett to accept the meeting minutes of October 6, 2015 with the noted corrections. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Noll said motion passes.

Adoption of Ordinance 2015-04 Floodplain Ordinance
Ordinance 2015-04 was advertised for consideration of adoption at 7PM. We got email back that FEMA has read it and is good with going through with it. We have our floodplain ordinance. A motion was made by Councilman Harper to approve for adoption Ordinance 2015-04, Yoe Borough’s Floodplain Ordinance. The motion was seconded by Councilman Bankoske. All in favor. Councilman Noll said so moved.

Visitors
Councilman Noll said we will be going over the 2014 annual Police Report. Chief Gross said Lt. Zech was not able to attend. You have the 2014 annual report in front. I have a detailed report with some of the same information. The information on the hand out, on the bottom is also in the annual report. This handout has more detail on the crime in the borough. Over the last eight years. The bottom first, you had 25 criminal incidents in 2014. Down significantly. Part1 10, Part 2 15. That is good news. There was 202 miscellaneous incidents, something that didn’t become criminal. There were 9 traffic accidents. 568 total 911 calls. That was increased. 247 traffic citations and 24 criminal arrests. That’s for 2014, everything was down except for traffic citations and 911 calls. Fortunately over the last several years, you had two rapes, none in 2014. One assault down from four in 2013. Four burgurleries which was a slight increase. Four thiefs one car thief, one vandalism, one sex offense. Five drug offenses, 2 DUI and four disorderly conducts. Again no significant changes. There is drug activity. We just had another drug overdose. We do see heroin in the borough. We administrated Norcan. We see this in all communities. The annual report, in the other municipalities the crime went down in 2014. We did become reaccredited, gives a break on liability insurance, and to meet certain standards. In 2014, 28166 911 calls. We investigated 2 murders, 2 fatal accidents and 8 suicides, death by overdose and three accidental deaths, 322 motor carrier extensions. We had 1700 hours of training, 115 hours of volunteer services and we drove 349,000 miles. Some of the highlights. Description of our programs. We are pleased with adding norcan in 2015, its not the solution to the problem. The coroner said we have used 70 noran, with 40 deaths. I have never seen anything like this in my 42 years. We gave you some preliminary budget figures. The commission has one with zero increase. They are trying to make cuts for health care. That is one projection. The highest is more that 2%. There is discussion that they will try to do the zero increase. They have a commission meeting tomorrow night and then one in December. The number you have may somewhat be less. Mayor Sanford asked why the call volume is down, the arrests are down. Chief Gross said the calls are down. Mayor Sanford said the 911 numbers are up. Chief Gross said we would have to take a harder look at that. All the municipalities , the 911 increase, we say that pretty much across the board. All 911 calls have increased due to cell phone calls. Nobody in 2014 , had a crime increase with any significance. Good question, I did not look into that. Our conservation about the article in the Patriot News, Chief Gross said I did get an answer. I did not respond. I tried to see where they got the date. There is no question in my mind, there is a statistic to bring Yoe in the top ten. Mayor Sanford said there was an article in the Patriot News that says Yoe Borough is in the top ten of the most crime in the state. Chief Gross said I have no idea where they got that information. Mayor Sanford said I would like to challenge that, property values are down, it can’t help. Chief Gross asked if you have any questions. Lt. Zech tries to keep on top of the daily activities. Councilman Harper said beside the PPU’s, how many hours do you patrol in the borough? Chief Gross said we can actually break that down, I’ll bring that back to Lt. Zech. You are getting the monthly incident report. We can see if we can separate that out. Mayor Sanford said explain the bill about state police and billing. Chief Gross said the one bill, most of them come up with an amount of $156.00 per capita. You would pay $156,000.00. Red Lion was paying $577,000.00. Using the formula that is the state it would be $900,000. The state police would be saying $900,000. Our costs would be around $576,000. From a borough’s point of view, getting something for free is good. Everyone that goes to the gas pump, pays taxes, is paying for it. There is a township that has 40,000 people that uses the state police. You have to be aware of your budget. Councilman Noll asked if there is any progress on the bill. Chief Gross said its been more, more publicity and attention. More attention in the local newspaper, with what Red Lion did. There was an editorial, there was crash with a state police car in Warrington Township and locally here in Dallastown. The local legislature, Ms. Phillips-Hill, she has met with us about it. Chief Gross said thank you.

Solicitor’s Report
Attorney Haldermann said we covered most of it with ordinance for the floodplain, It was duly advertised.

Attorney Haldermann said there was a question on the trees and liening properties that were going into tax sales and if there was any way to avoid that cycle. I looked into it and talked to Charlie, any way to avoid a lien on the property when it goes to the free and clear sales. There is no mechanism to get around that.

Councilman Noll said we have two resolutions. 2015-04, it’s the resolution to appointment of Smith Elliott Smith and Kearns LLC to do the audit for 2015. A motion to resolve resolution 2015-04 by Councilman Harper. The motion was seconded by Councilman Myers. All in favor.Councilman Noll said so be it resolved.

Councilman Noll said we have second resolution 2015-05, this has to do with the dollars put in from penision. A motion to resolve resolution 2015-05 by Councilman Myers. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor. Councilman Noll said so be it resolved.

Councilman Noll said we need to do the budget. We had a slight admendment of $4000.00. Went from a roughly $8000 to a $4000 inappropriate balance. A motion to advertise the preliminary budget for 2016 by Councilman Bankoske. The motion was seconded by Councilman Strausbaugh. All in favor.

Councilman Noll said we have proposals for animal control contracts, whether we want to go with Klugh Animal Control or Allegiant Animal Care. Allegiant provides some things that Klugh does not. I did talk to some at the municipal manager’s meeting to talk to them, they come highly recommended, they do an excellent job for them. We will not adopt an animal control person. We will copy the contracts and put them in your packet. I believe Allegiant is within the budget.

Councilman Noll said with the SPCA contract? The secretary said the price hasn’t changed, we need to leave the SPCA know who are animal control officer is.

Councilman Noll said there is a lady Christine Arnold,of Nobody’s Cats. It’s a no cost program. They capture cats, spay and neuter them and release them back into the area. Something to consider. I will leave that card, to see if there is interest next month.

Engineer’s Report
Mr. Malesker said we will do the basin inspection reports this month. I will get forms to John, to sign off on the posting notices. I can email them to you.Mayor Sanford will get email info to Mr. Malesker.

Mr. Malesker asked if Seth has looked at the zoning ordinance/permit recommendations. Councilman Noll said to keep that on the agenda. I brought another copy. If anyone would like a copy, here is one. It captures everything. The three of us might want to get together one evening, and anyone else. The secretary said not the detail a check list.Councilman Harper said I would be interested if available. Copies on the table, there are copies to look at it.

Mr. Malesker said thank you for the basket.

Councilman Noll said I did go to the meeting that York Township was holding on the clean waters on October 23, 2015. Top five BMPS for urban. They are pushing not doing anything to the yards, no fertilization. They think home fertilizer is the number one killer of the bay. The other thing was don’t rake your leaves and let your grass grow tall. It will interesting what the state pushes through. Not mowing your grass is a flood control measure. Mr. Shearer said the national code is ten inches, ours is six. Councilman Noll said as this is progresses, we may be challenged on our ordinances. They are pushing water features, gardens and things like that. We may have to spend the money to update our ordinances.

Mr. Shearer said we are getting things ready for winter.

Mr. Shearer said still mowing and cleaning up leaves.

Mr. Shearer said we had meter removed at park.

Mr. Shearer said Fitz and Smith should be able to start on the fire hydrant soon.

Mr. Shearer said tree was taken down.

Mr. Shearer said Jake did dredging and some repair work at the dam.

Mr. Shearer said I am working on some prices for the outfall boxes. Hopefully by next month we will have some pricing on that. When we do that work, we will be doing some bypass bumping. So we will be observe anything else that may need done. Concrete is loosening up at the boxes.

Mr. Shearer said I will taking my Veteran’s Day holiday the day after Thanksgiving.

Mr. Shearer said the email about the municipal manager’s meeting and Met Ed. What I was interested in for the building, was the lighting in here. Councilman Noll said the programs are difficult to navigate. Mr. Shearer said we did contact them. Councilman Noll said we need LED’s out in the street.

Mr. Shearer said Regan and I went to the seminar at State College. They did an analysis. I plan to forward this out to everyone via emal. This we done by DEP’s Pollution Prevention and Energy Assistance Bureau. The savings won’t be totally accurate. What we did find out that right now First Energy has all their operating bureaus. We were the only ones from MET ED. They have a lot of interest in LED as far as street light. The reason they haven’t had any installed, they haven’t had an operating tariff for it. They are just starting to get comfortable with the technology in the street lights. Essentially right now, the agreement says we have 47 lights,mercury vapors from 2001. I can’t get my hands on sodium vapors. Once they put something in, for the life of it, its ten years at that operating tariff. After ten years you can make changes.Before that ten year is up, there maybe some costs involved. Buy the light, maintain the light, power the light, that is how they figure in their tariff. Once we get that info back from MET ED, on what lights we have that may be eligible. Projection is $3730.82 per year, estimated would be our savings. Mr. Shearer showed information on the lights. Councilman Noll said get with Met ED and get all the information together and present a full package. I think its excellent. Mr. Shearer provided that we aren’t under contract. Councilman Noll said savings would be important to a borough our size.

Zoning Officer’s Report
Councilman Noll said Patti’s report is in here. She has been going around the borough looking at trees and other things in the borough. WE have been going back and forth on it. We can’t do anything about it until someone is actually living there. The court doesn’t see it as a violation if there is no human habitation. As soon as they do violate, checking on it on a regular basis. I’ll pass this around.

EMA Report
Mayor Sanford said there is no report.

Mayor and Police Report
Mayor Sanford asked if there are any questions on my report that I passed around.

Mayor Sanford reported said there were some speed details in the last thirty days in the borough. Arrest on Broad Street for either speeding or a truck violation. There is an increase in daytime burgularies in the borough. Keep everything locked up. W. Water Street and East High Street. There was within 45-60 days, vehicles on Broad Street area have been targeted. I believe that may tie into our drug situation.

Secretary’s Report
The secretary reported that the third quarter financial statements were distributed.

The office will close early due to medical on November 13th and surgery on November 19th.

Unfinished Business
Councilman Noll said we need a consensus of council to look into a new solicitor. The rates are going up for 2016 to $125.00. Attorney Springer offered to attend the December meeting. There was a consensus of council. Councilman Noll said he would want to get up to speed then go into the new year.

New Business
Mayor Sanford said there are some leaves on Elm Street. Mr. Shearer said he will have to get notices out to those.

Councilman Noll said Sam had sent around to a couple of us. There is a new or revised state law which will affect how zoning and maybe share this with Patti. If a person is a repeat offender, meaning that they, you tell them to mow their grass and they don’t and you have to go back to tell them again. Its then a criminal offense. We need to talk to regional about this. To see about enforcing. Things that are a hazard, multiple violations, then it’s a criminal act. Councilman Myers said we may need to talk to the police department. Its out there. We want to get more clarification. Sam was going to do more research.Councilman Noll said this is, state crimes section 6115. It goes through different things home owners can get cited for. This is part of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code. Copies will be distributed.

Mayor Sanford said with me being around during the day, I see more bus traffic on Elm and Walnut. How do you want me to proceed? Council to write a letter. They have been told the rules. Councilman Noll said I am comfortable with the Mayor to write them. There was consensus of council to have them cited.

Payment of Bills
Councilman Noll said everyone should have the bill list. There are additional bills: Verizon: $36.57, Ecostruction $700.00 Ecostruction $2750.00 seek approval for those two bills, we will not pay those bills until we have a current certificate of insurance, Patti Myers: $245.07 and PA State Association of Mayors : $60.00. A motion to pay the bills as listed and with those additional and with the understanding that Ecostruction will not be paid until they present a current certificate of insurance by Councilman Harper. The motion was seconded by Councilman Bankoske. All in favor. Councilman Noll said motion passes.

Adjournment
A motion was made by Councilman Bankoske to adjourn the meeting at 8:12PM. The motion was seconded by Councilman Noll. All in favor. Councilman Noll said so moved.

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