President Thomas E. Stinnett called the regular meeting of the Riegelsville Borough Council to order at 7:00 p.m.  Following the Pledge of Allegiance roll call was taken.  PRESENT:  Edward Bartosiewicz, Thomas Stinnett, Kathleen Weiss

 ABSENT: Mayor Todd Myers, Steve Lance and Rich Strawn

 

            K. Weiss motioned to approve the minutes of the September 12, 2007 Council Meeting.  E. Bartosiewicz seconded.  Unanimous.

            E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve the minutes of the September 17, 2007 Special Council Meeting.  K. Weiss seconded. Unanimous.

                         

CORRESPONDENCE

            A letter of Support for the DCNR Grant for the Borough’s Open Space was read from Executive Director Lynn T. Bush of the Bucks County Planning Commission.

            A letter was read from Doris Keller; she will be leaving Riegelsville and will be resigning as a chairperson of the Planning Commission.

            A letter was read from Jeffrey P. Ryan owner of the Riegelsville Inn to Carl Dicker Borough Engineer in reference to the Pedestrian Bridge walkway easements.

            A letter was read from Carl Dicker Borough Engineer to Jeffrey P. Ryan in response to the above letter.  Carl will provide Jeffrey with updated drawings showing any changes.  At some point in the next few weeks SSM will prepare an easement drawing and legal description of the easement.  T. Stinnett asked Jeff if DEP came to talk to him about the leach field in the driveway.  Jeff said he did meet with DEP and they are working on different ways to construct the temporary bridge. 

            A letter was read from Borough of Doylestown in reference to the Bucks County Consortium Salt Bid.  Cargill Inc. was the lowest bidder at $47.42 per ton delivered and $45.42 per ton undelivered.  Sherry will call to get a delivery. 

            A letter was read from Williams Township to invite Council to a meeting on Tues. October 30th to discuss the designation of the D&L Drive as a scenic byway through your municipality.  T. Stinnett asked Sherry to call Debbie Patterson and let her know that T. Stinnett, K Weiss and Ed Bartosiewicz will be there.

            A letter was read from Upper Bucks Regional Emergency Medical Services to remind us to send in the rest of the 2007 Contribution.  They also sent their audited financial statement for 2006.  Their check is in tonight’s bills.

REPORTS

            Mayor – Absent

            President- None

CITIZENS COMMENTS-

                Craig Skerkis Owner of Riegelsville Market would like to get 2 new signs that are at each end of town redone.  Craig showed Council a drawing of what he would like them to look like.  Borough local businesses could help sponsor the sign by adding their business name on the side of the sign.  Craig said he would work on getting quotes to present to Council.  T. Stinnett stated that Riegelsville was incorporated in 1916 and maybe they could add that to the signs. 

            Allen Madnick asked if anything was being done to look over the current zoning ordinances.  T. Stinnett said it definitely needs to be addresses and maybe a committee could be formed to do this task.  T. Stinnett asked Sherry to contact the Bucks County Planning Commission and see if they have the current one electronically.  That would help looking it over and amending it too.  Allen said he would like to be on that Committee to redo the Zoning Ordinances.

            Bob Rainey, member of the Downtown Enhancement Committee, said he saw a PBS documentary program and feels the knowledge of GIS may be useful to Riegelsville planning and future operations ... if only on a limited scale, to help us to communicate with County and State resources. Geospatial Information System (GIS) is one of the major "information structures" being utilized by the Federal Government, many States and some local Governments.  It has the ability to associate "information" and "mapping" which has proven value for emergency response, utilities, community planning, zoning, law enforcement, etc. “GIS has proven to be a major tool in the evolution of the Public / Private partnership an emerging model of improvement to traditional government structure"  “More and more examples demonstrate that only through a 'Public / Private, non-profit partnerships that many of today's projects are feasible both from a planning, funding and operational viewpoint" 

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Community Affairs- Citizen’s comments:  None Expressed. 

            Gail Pedrick from The Delaware Riverside Conservancy, Inc. came to do a presentation regarding the Delaware River flooding and the NYC reservoir management.  The Conservancy is undertaking a massive education initiative to gain support for permanent NYC reservoir voids.  This is necessary in order to protect our communities from spillages and releases as those we had experienced during the last 3 flooding events.  The flood of “55 was a 1 day flood not days like the last 3 floods.  Wednesday September 26th, 2007 in Trenton, NJ there is a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission to discuss this issue.  Gail urged all of us to take off of work and attend.  Remarks: T. Stinnett commented that an article was in the paper that read DRBC temporarily passed the flexible flow plan they had developed.                

The next Downtown Enhancement Committee meeting is scheduled for September 26th at 7 pm.  Bob Rainey said he would donate a safety sign to put up in the cross walks on Delaware Road.  Sherry will do more research on pricing online.

Saint Lawrence Church has asked if they could use the Borough meeting hall during their renovations.  Council all agreed that would be fine.

Pedestrian Bridge News:  Carl Dicker Borough Engineer is still waiting to hear from DCNR.  Then he will send the final drawings to DCNR and the Historical Society.  Borough Resident asked how long it would take once we get to this step.  T. Stinnett stated that construction should be pretty quick.  T. Stinnett stated that Sherry has contacted an appraisal Co. to appraise the Moll property that is next to the Pedestrian Bridge project.  Sherry has called Belson and he has not sent the information yet.  S. Lance said to call the First Saving Bank of Perkasie to ask Susan Mathias if she can suggest an Appraiser.

EMS News:  S. Lance reported that they are working on a placemat fundraiser.

Recreation Board News: Sherry asked Council if someone could come to the office and assist her in writing the contract for the CDBG project for the park paving.  S. Lance said he would come in and help her on Friday.  The next event is the Fall Roll-Out Car Show on Sunday November 4th 2007.  The recreation board will run the Concession stand.

Library News: E. Bartosiewicz reported they are still in the process of looking for a Children’s Librarian.

Zoning News:  Council received the 2008 fee schedule for Bob Bordeaux Borough Zoning officer. T. Stinnett wants to discuss this with Richard O’Brien the President of Keystone Municipal Services, Inc.  Sherry will call Rich and have him meet Council at the Finance meeting on October 3, 2007.

Utilities - Comments from the citizens:  None expressed.    

            Matt Brady gave a letter to Sherry stating that he would like to have Overtime pay instead of Comp Time.  Council said that was fine.              

Benchmark Analytics sent back the results to the Lead and Copper testing and the Borough passed both tests.

T. Stinnett asked Sherry to Contact Bill Concolino at Senator Wonderlings office and State Representative Quinn to let them know we are having SSM prepare a DCNR grant application for the Borough’s Open Space project. They may have some monies for these projects.  Also they could both write a letter of Support to DCNR.

R. Strawn said Spring Hill’s tar and chip job is like a wash board.  Sherry will call Rich from ABE and have him contact R. Strawn. Remarks: Sherry talked to Rich from A.B.E about it and he said it is due to the excess stone.  He will come and clean it off in 3 weeks.

Craig Skerkis owner of the Riegelsville Market told T. Stinnett that he is going to take on the project to get the Borough signs redone at both ends of town.   

Streets and Properties Comments from the citizens:  None expressed

            Rich O’Brien President of Keystone Municipal Services, Inc. came to answer questions and concerns that Council had in reference to the 2008 fee schedule.  T. Stinnett and Council are concerned with the 15% increase in the cost of services.  Rich replied that the modest increase is due to obtaining and maintaining the required certifications pursuant to the Uniform Construction Code and a double digit rate increase in the cost of providing medical health benefits to his employees and their families.  The Borough office was getting a lot of calls that Bob Bordeaux was not returning calls so Sherry contacted Keystone Municipal services to see what was going on.  Sherry also left numerous messages on Bob’s cell phone and was getting concerned.  Rich returned the call and said Bob hurt his back and will still be servicing the Borough. The Council explained to Rich that this series of events was troublesome.   T. Stinnett would like Bob to hand in his monthly reports to the Council.  The last one was for up to January 4th.  Tammy wants Bob to separate the fees in the zoning invoice for better bookkeeping.

            A.B.E. will be removing the extra stone on Spring Hill Road.  Sherry will fax them the leaf removal proposal and try to schedule a date. 

            Sherry forwarded the contract to GoreCon for the park paving project.  Once they send back the paperwork then it needs to go to Carol Janssens, CDBG Administrator, to proceed with the paving.

            Craig Skerkis asked Matt Brady if the Borough could put in a cross walk from the 5&10 across Maplewood to the Durham Gallery.  Council agreed.  Sherry will let Matt know.

            Dr. Stokes told Matt that the old Bank building has a large sink hole in the parking lot next to his building.  Sherry contacted the realtor and he was aware of it but didn’t realize it was really bad.  He will get someone to fix it.

Finance ~ Comments from the citizens:  None expressed.

            Spotts, Stevens and McCoy sent the application to DCNR.  Sherry is going to send Bill Concolino and Marguerite Quinn’s offices a copy of the application and also ask them to send letters of support to DCNR.

            Joe Szafran called from Friends of the Delaware Canal and said the Borough gave them $700.00 back in 2004 and then we had a flood so the money was not used.  Joe wanted to know if the Borough wanted the money back.  Council said they could keep the money and use it towards another project. Sherry will contact Joe. 

            Belon Appraisal group sent the appraisal for the Moll property and Bill Dudeck the Borough Solicitor will let Council know the next step of action.

             Sherry needs to tell Bill Dudeck that the Borough has not received our share of earned income tax from the few houses that were not annexed into the Easton School District.

            Budget was discussed from 7:55PM ~ 10PM.

           

UNFINISHED BUSINESS-

             

            Approval for check from the Highway Aid for $5,000.00 to A.B.E for chipping

 Spring Hill Road  E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve. K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

            Approval for check from the General Fund for $4,950.00 to A.B.E for chipping Spring Hill Road E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve. K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

            Approval for Friends of The Delaware Canal to retain the 2004 funds of $700.00  K. Weiss motioned to approve.  E. Bartosiewicz seconded Unanimous

            Approval for check to Community Fire Co. #1 Relief Association for $6,987.16

E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve. K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

            Approval for check to Imperial Equipment $494.70, both trucks inspection

and Repairs  K. Weiss motioned to approve.  E. Bartosiewicz seconded Unanimous

            Approval for check to Wurley HVac $672.49  E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve.

K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

            Approval for Severn Trent $690.00 Rebuild the Chlorinator E. Bartosiewicz

motioned to approve K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

            Approval for W.Dowd for $2,497.00 for 321 Route 611 water repairs K. Weiss motioned to approve.  E. Bartosiewicz seconded Unanimous

            Adoption pf Resolution R-10-07 for Borough Council authorizing the

 Condemnation of 802 Durham Road, Riegelsville PA a/k/a Bucks County Tax Parcel

 Nos.38-006-211 and 38-006-212 E. Bartosiewicz motioned to Adopt. K. Weiss seconded

Unanimous

           

NEW BUSINESS

             Adoption of Resolution R-09-07 for the Borough of Riegelsville to Support the

Referendum for the Bucks County Bond issue for the Open Space preservation

E.Bartosiewicz motioned to Adopt. K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

Approval of Kiwanis Request of Use of Ball Field for the Annual Car Show,

November 4th;Banner Display, Possibly Two Banners, Across Rt. 611 for the Month of October thru November 5th – E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve. K. Weiss seconded Unanimous

APPROVAL OF BILLS

E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve payment of the bills as listed.  K. Weiss seconded.  Unanimous.

 

 Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm.  Next Meeting November 14, 2007

 

 

 

Sherry Masteller, Secretary