ROCKLEDGE BOROUGH COUNCIL
COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
OF August 8, 2005

The Rockledge Borough Council met at 7:30 p.m. on August 8, 2005, at the Rockledge Volunteer Fire Company. After the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance were recited, the roll was called as follows: Mr. Denelsbeck, Mrs. Walz, Mr. Mori, Mr. Beady, Mr. Kelleher, Mr. Caffrey, Mr. Casey and Mayor Costello.

The following addition was made to the agenda: Mrs. Walz stated she would be tabling her motion regarding the Parks Advisory Committee until the next meeting; she added an update about Rockledge Park. Acceptance of all monthly reports was added to the agenda. Mr. Denelsbeck added a budget discussion under Finance.

A motion was made to adopt the agenda. All were in favor.

Law and Planning:

Mr. Beady made a motion to accept the monthly Building Inspector’s report. All were in favor.

Finance

Mr. Casey made a motion to accept the monthly bills, Mercantile Tax report, Tax Collector’s report, and Financial report. Mr. Denelsbeck noted that we are $5,000 over budget in collection of Mercantile revenue. Mr. Caffrey and Mr. Casey questioned a bill from Wachovia concerning the police pension fund. Mrs. Metzinger stated this is a quarterly service fee paid to Wachovia for management of police pension fund. The following bills were added for approval: American Office Systems $46.30; BFI $8,818; Circus Time deposit for Crime Night Out: $435.00; PA One Call $8.40; United Concordia $361.00; Berkheimer $150.00; Montgomery Newspapers $147.50; and Altchem $146,143. Mr. Denelsbeck requested that the bill for $4,160 to Kise Straw Kolodner be removed until some outstanding issues are resolved. All were in favor of accepting reports with above-noted provisions.

Mr. Casey made a motion to adopt the Ordinance that enacts an Emergency Municipal Service Tax. Mr. Denelsbeck asked if an adjustment could be made to the Ordinance before it is voted on. Mr. Bresnan instructed if it is a major change it needed to be re-advertised. Mr. Denelsbeck stated he would like to motion the date of collection be changed to October 1, 2005 instead of January 1, 2006. Mr. Bresnan stated it would have to be re-advertised. Mr. Denelsbeck respectfully requested to deny Mr. Casey’s motion and adjust the Ordinance so that the tax can be collected now. Mr. Denelsbeck stated he is making this request for the sole purpose that a review of the budget has made it apparent that this money will be needed now. Mr. Casey withdrew his motion. Mr. Denelsbeck made a motion that the Ordinance be changed for collection to begin October 1, 2005. The vote was 6:1 with Mr. Caffrey casting the nay vote.

Mr. Denelsbeck explained that in reviewing the budget there have been some payroll anomalies and some expenditures due to issues in the Borough that are not related to the current building renovations that have depleted the General Fund balance. In order to keep current with the bills, sources of revenue will need to be added as well as conservation of some of our expenditures. Mr. Denelsbeck has met with the Manager and the Chief of Police to address some conservation of expenditures so that the Borough may meet its financial obligations. He will also meet with the Streets Crew Foreman regarding this issue. Mr. Denelsbeck reiterated that these issues have nothing to do with building renovations and that these renovations are within budget.

Public Service

Mr. Caffrey stated that he and Mr. Truman met with Kayden Group regarding the design of the web site. Mr. Denelsbeck asked if the rockledgeboroughs.org address would be used. Mr. Truman stated that this address is owned by the PSAB (Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs), therefore, we would not have full ownership, maintenance, and hosting abilities. Mr. Mori asked if we could replace our active web page on PSAB with a link to our new active web page. Mr. Truman stated there would probably be a nominal fee for this and Mr. Mori felt this would be worth it.

Public Safety

Mr. Mori made a motion to accept the Police Report, Second Alarmer’s report from June, Fire Marshal’s Report, and Fire Company Report. All were in favor. Mr. Mori felt it worth repeating that the Fourth of July holiday was extremely successful and this is owed to the Police Department. Chief Leary stated that the Police Department was just a part of the success of the Fourth of July events, but that the Fourth of July Committee and citizens of Rockledge really made these events happen.

Mayor Costello announced that Crime Night Out will be held on September 11, 2005 in the Acker’s Plaza parking lot from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Streets, Lights, and Sewers

Mr. Kelleher made a motion to accept the Streets Department and Streets Opening Reports. All were in favor.

Mr. Kelleher stated that we are still awaiting shipment of the louvers for the traffic light. Mr. Truman stated he spoke to Charlie Hall of Lenni Electric last week. Mr. Hall stated he ordered the tool to fix the louvers three weeks ago and he was told there was a four-week leeway. Mr. Kelleher stated that if we do not hear from Mr. Hall by opening of business next Monday, Mr. Truman is to call Mr. Hall and tell him he must come up with an alternative.

Paving bids will be opened at a special meeting to be held on August 22.

Aqua is out of the residential areas and should be off Huntingdon Pike by the end of the week, weather permitting.

CRI has begun repair of the inlets.

Mr. Mori asked Mr. Truman if he has received any comments or concerns from residents regarding the replacement of water meters. Mr. Truman stated that early on in the Aqua project there were complaints from one or two residents regarding water pressure or water volume concerns. Aqua immediately went in and replaced their water meters. Mr. Mori stated he believed they were replacing everyone’s water meters. Mr. Casey stated they were not replacing the meters, but simply putting a new device on the meters so that they can read the meters from the outside. Mr. Mori stated that while he was away on vacation he received a notice that his water would be shut off in 10 days if he did not allow Aqua to get into his basement. He was wondering if any other residents received a similar notice. Mr. Truman stated he has not aware of any other resident receiving such a notice.

Recreation

Mrs. Walz thanked Summer Camp Supervisor Diana Discher for a great job this summer. She also gave thanks to Counselors Mary Crossin, Matt Walz, Ellen Cimorelli, and Aides Danielle Discher and Beth Crossin.

The walking trail is complete at Rockledge Park. The sign should be complete in about two weeks. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be announced at a later date.

Property

Mr. Beady deferred his building renovation update to Mr. Truman. Mr. Truman advised that the HVAC duct work was installed at the Police Station. The rough electrical work is now complete. The concrete steps at the side entrance have been poured. The concrete steps for the main entrance will be poured tomorrow. Rough framing is nearly complete. Once this has been inspected they can begin insulating and drywalling. The primary concern at the RCC is they want to see how effective their waterproofing job was. Several cracks have been caulked and hypoxied along the foundation and up the front walls. They are now waiting for an adequate rainstorm to see how effective their work is. Electrical work is about one-two days away from being ready for a rough electrical inspection. Barring the lobby issue to be addressed this evening, their framing is complete. Once the lobby is done, the waterproofing issue is settled, and they have their rough framing inspection they will begin insulating and drywalling there as well.

The issue regarding the lobby ceiling at the Community Center was discussed. A change order of $11,300 to raise the ceiling needed to be voted on. Mr. Kelleher stated he will be voting no on this change order as he felt there was not enough information included in their estimate. It was agreed that this was something that should have been included in the bid package. Mr. Truman made mention of the possibility of approving this change order for the time being and then going after Kise Straw for recovering this cost as it is felt that this is an oversight on their part. It was decided to hold off on any decision regarding this change order until more information is received at the Wednesday construction meeting.

Personnel

There was nothing to discuss at this time.

Public Comment

Mr. Denelsbeck asked for public comment. There was no public comment at this time.

Motion was made to adjourn. All were in favor.

Respectfully submitted,

Grace Metzinger
Assistant Borough Manager