The Pledge of Allegiance Was Repeated

Regular Meeting

March 28, 2016

The Regular Public Meeting of the Harrison Township Board of Commissioners was called to order at 7:30P.M. by Chairman Poston.

The Pledge of Allegiance was repeated.

Roll Call -Commissioners Lilly, Poston, Bergstrom, Heasley and Dizard responded to roll call.

The Solicitor and Engineer were present.

Chairman Poston said we woulddispense with reading of the minutes since each Commissioner received a copy of them.

Chairman Postonsaid we will hold a Public Hearing and public Meeting on the Conditional Use Request of Arnold cook for the use of the structure at 25 Garfield Street for a warehouse for his Ironwear Fitness business.

Solicitor Means asked anyone wishing to make comments at the hearing to rise and be sworn in. Mr. Cook was present and was sworn in.

Attorney Means advised Mr. Cook wants to use the building at 25 Garfield Street for a warehouse for his business which is located in another town. He has received recommendation for a Conditional Use by the Planning Commission and the Board has received a copy of that letter.

Mr. Cook said he has had several different companies over the years in the Pittsburgh area and detailed the history of his Ironwear Fitness business and others. He said he had a warehouse in Harmar and moved the production part of the business ta different location. He said his business entails people sewing fitness garments.

Mr. Cook advised he needed a place to store materials in Sharpsburg then found this building in Natrona. He said it would be just storage space. He said he plansto renovate the building also. Mr. Cook said that people would only be in this building an hour or so a day bringing in or taking out materials that are stored.

He said there would be no sales there and no need for outside lighting.

Chairman Postonsaid the only vehicle would be a van making deliveries?

Mr. Cook said that is correct, no UPS trucks or anything like that.

Mrs. Walters in the audience asked if this would create any jobs.

Mr. Cook said that could be a possibility in the future.

Mr. Heasleysaid the parking would be all off-street.

Mr. Cook said there is a paved area where anyone going there would park, which would be one or two cars at the most.

Mr. Cook said he likes the quiet street.

Mrs. Bergstrom asked if this is storage of the finished product or raw materials.

Mr. Cook advised there may be barrels of materials to be used elsewhere for his business.

Mr. Lilly said he has been the owner for about five months, and he hascleaned up the property and is a good neighbor.

Mr. Cook said he will get building permits for whatever is necessary. He plans to renovate another building in the area.

Mary Jane Zdila asked if there would be offices.

Mr. Cook said he couldconsider that later. He is limited to the conditional uses for the property in the Village zoning district.

Chairman Poston moved to close the hearing. Motion seconded by Mr. Heasley and carried.

Mr. Dizard moved to approve the Conditional Use Request of Mr. Cook for his warehouse at 25 Garfield Street. Motion seconded by Mr. Lilly and carried.

Remarks from Visitors:

Frank Morrow, painter Avenue, said they still have those birds doing damage to their property.

Mrs. Bergstrom advised she met with Mr. Kostka and he said he will take down one house and lower others to change the flight of the birds.

Mr. Morrow said they weren’t there before and he doesn’t believe it will make a difference.

Mr. KenKostka, the owner of the purple martin bird houses on Painter Avenue, was in the audience and he advised that there will be less rooms for the birds to use, the flight direction will be changed, and that willreduce the number of breeding pairs.

Mr. Morrow said that won’t help and the birds are also damaging others homes and properties.

He said Cook justup and left his house because he couldn’t take it anymore.

Mr. Kostka said Mr. Cook told him personally that he got some kind of a settlement and he was moving to the country; it had nothing to do with the birds.

Further discussion ensued with Mr. Morrow adamant that nothing will help but to get rid of the houses altogether.

Mrs. Bergstrom said that the Board agreed to go along with Mr. Kostka’s plans and see if that helped.

ChairmanPoston asked how many houses there are. Mr. Kostka said he has 14 but he has completely closed 2 so that leaves twelve for the breeding pairs. N He said he thinks this will cut down on the number of birds greatly.

Mrs. Bergstrom said we agreed to try this for this year.

Mr. Lilly said can’t we make an ordinance about birds? All that bird crap would be like if you let your dog crap in my yard and there is an ordinance against it.

ChairmanPostonsaid we will see how it goes.

Rich Osiecki, Davis Street, said on Karns Road there are barricades where the road is caving in.

Chairman Postonadvised that is a state road.

Mr. Osieckisaid they made Karns one lane and ChairmanPoston said that the state has to fix it as it was caused by a washout of their road.

Mr. Osiecki said there is the same problem n Saxonburg Road where it is down to one lane and is dangerous.

Chairman Poston said we will bring it to their attention.

Mr. Osiecki said the state caused it and Chairman Postonsaid we cannot fix it and we have no control over the state roads.

Committee Reports:

Mrs. Bergstrom, reporting for Fire and Property and Grants, read the three fire company reports for the month detailing calls made and training sessions.

Mrs. Bergstrom said we submitted a CITF grant application for Freeport Road and will make a GEDF applicationalso. That would be for a grant to separate the sanitary sewers in Chestnut Street. Another grant application would be for the bike and walking trails because people are walking on Freeport Road and it is dangerous where there are no sidewalks.

Mrs. Bergstrom said they will be meeting with the Planning Commissionand the streetscape designer.

Finance, Mr. Lilly, read the list of Bills Payable for March in the amount of $34,747.13. Mr. Heasley moved to approve these bills; motion seconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Mr. Lilly advised the Bond Account invoicestotal $13,570.03. Mr. Heasley somoved. Motionseconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Mr. Lilly said the Liquid Fuel Fundinvoicestotal $28,594.57. Mr. Heasley moved to approve this for payment. Motionseconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Mr. Lilly advised the February Paid Bills to be Ratified total $223,126.25. Mr. Heasley moved to ratify these payments.

Mr. Heasley said this included over $113,000 for the new truck we just purchased. Mr. Dizard said it was budgeted in 2015 but was not receiveduntilJanuary. Motion seconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Mr. Lilly said we used a truck for over 20 years and it only has 60,000 miles on it but was worn out.

Chairman Poston, reporting for Public Safety, read the Police Department Report for the month of February as follows:

207Accounted Calls to Police Office

380Reported Support & Service Calls

16Traffic Accidents

4Prisoners Detained

2Juvenile Arrests

58Traffic Citations

15Non-Traffic Citations

1Ordinance Citation

10Misdemeanor/Felony Warrants

10Parking Tickets

Fines collected from Allegheny Co. Court839.19

Fines collected from Magistrate 5,122.59

Parking Tickets135.00

Copies of Accident Reports 90.00

Total Receipts$ 6,186.78

Disbursements to Police for District Court Hearings 900.06

ChairmanPoston advised Bucky is retiring next month and the Civil Service Commission has started the testing process for a replacement officer. He said the Commissionwill get the testing results and refer the top three candidates to the Board for interviews. He said that Bucky is 71 years old and the new contract requires that officers have to retire at age 65. He said Bucky is still going strong.

Mr. Heasley, reporting for Public Works, red the activities of the department including repairing or replacing collapsed catch basins and sewers, installing manholesrisers, cold patching streets and alleys.

He said we purchased 1,800 tons of salt this winter and have about 400 tons on hand. Mr. Heasley advised the department used millings from paving work to repair a couple of unpaved streets.

Mr. Dizard, Zoning and Ordinance, advised we were approved forthe TreeVitalioze planting grant but there is no money available at the State level. He said we will; plant in the fall and are already applying for fall funding.

Mr. Dizard said we also got approval for a grant from the LocalGovernment Academy for an intern in the zoning and ordinance office.

Mr. Dizard stated that there were 128 applicants for 22 positions and we interviewed 32 of them. He said there will be two more interviews this week for the candidates.

Mr. Dizard said we are lookingintoour property on River Avenue where it appears the adjacent owner has built a fence on our property. We could open that up as an exit to Federal Street for pedestrians and bikers.

Mr. Dizard said the new website is open and looks great.

Mr. Dizard handed out copies of a new report that will come out of the zoning and ordinance office with specific detail.

Mr. Dizard advised the office did 21 occupancy inspections, issued 21 permits for over $14,000, and had 12 complaints, mostly garbage and dogs.

Mr. Dizard said he willhave the ordinance officer review 518 Painter Avenue.

ChairmanPoston read Ordinance No. 1983 – Amending the Ordinance regarding the Recreation Board.

Mr. Dizard moved to approve the ordinance. Motion seconded by Mr. Heasley and carried.

Mr. Dizard suggested that we have the Chairman of the Recreation Board hold a meeting and have the five members of the advisory committee attend the meeting.

ChairmanPoston read Ordinance No. 1984 – Amending and Restating the Police Pension Plan Document.

Mr. Heasley moved to enact this Ordinance. Motion seconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Chairman Poston read Resolution No. 1710 to authorize the 5 year Comprehensive Maintenance Agreement with PennDOTfor the sweeping of Freeport Road. He said we do one entire sweep of the road from Brackenridge to the Countyline.

Mr. Heasley so moved. Motion seconded by Mrs. Bergstrom and carried.

ChairmanPoston read Resolution No. 1711 – Designating April 2016 as Local GovernmentMonth in HarrisonTownship. He said this is part of our status as a Banner Community in Allegheny County.

Mr. Heasleymoved to adopt the Resolution. Motion seconded by Mrs. Bergstrom and carried.

Chairman Poston said the next item is to act on a one year contract with Accurint, a company that can locate addresses and cell phone or other numbers. The cost is $960 and would be used by the Zoning Office and the Police Department.

Mr. Dizard the zoning officer often cannot locate owners with addresses of record but this company can work to find new addresses, etc.

Mr. Dizard med to approvethis one-year contract. Motion seconded by Mr. Heasley and carried.

Chairman Poston said the last item is a reminder of the Spring Cleanup dates in April, and advised that no TV’s will be collected in the cleanup. He also advised there is a hazardous householdwaste collection here on April 30th for TV’s and other household materials. The Township will payhalf the cost of the materials dropped off.

Mr. Osieckiinthe audience said there is no time on this flyer.

Chairman Poston aid you have to call them for an appointment.

Ray Antonelli, Township Enjoiner, reviewed the partial payment that was approved last month to A. P. Wise for demolition work. Itwas less than the stated amount because the job is not yet complete.

Mr. Antonelli said he will have the 2016 paving program informationready for bidding by the middle of April,

He advised that 275 feet of sanitary sewer line shouldbe replaced ion Warner Alley and Randy will get the bid to Mr. Poston. He said it would be done by pipe bursting.

ChairmanPoston said we should do the work before we pave the alley. Mr. Antonelliadvised there is also all new waterlines in that alley.

Mr. Antonelli went over his detailed review of the storm water problemsin the Dallas avenue area. He said our storm sewers go out to Freeport Road but when we have those downpours they get backed up and the water from our linescannot get into them. He proposed a new storm water system to carry the water away from there which could cost anywhere from $439,000 to $689,000 depending on how we approach it.

Mr. Antonellisaid that probably the way to go would cost $535,000.

ChairmanPoston said we cannot live in fear of rains storms because the existing system is insufficient to carry the water.

Mr. Heasleysaid he would rather do it right than do part of the job and still have problems.

Mr. Antonelli aid to do everything we should it could cost $1 million. He will prepare a formal reportfor the Board’s review.

Mr. Heasley moved to adjourn. Motion seconded by Mr. Dizard and carried.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 P.M.

ATTEST:TOWNSHIP OF HARRISON

______By______

Executive Secretary President of the Board

Of Commissioners