MINUTES  Borough of Ambridge Workshop Meeting of Borough Council  Tuesday, May 28th, 2024 - 6:30 PM  I.  Call to Order /1 Roll Call Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro  Also in attendance: Lieutenant Chickos, ChiefLarrick, Borough Manager Mario Leone  II. Pledge of Allegiance  III. Public Comment on/offAgenda Items (5 minutes per speaker)  No public comments IV. New Business  1. Discuss/Consider Action to Purchase ai new 2023 Charger Pursuit fully equipped in the amount of $56,639.70. It will be a 3-year loan with the first payment being due one year Mr. Gill questioned why purchasing a car when we don'tknow the status ofbills. Mr. Leone stated bills are paid. Mr. Gill asked ifthis item isi in the budget. Ms. Tessaro stated this purchase does not affect the 2024 budget. This isa a 2025 expenditure as no payment is due for one year. Mr. Gill stated we hired people when it wasn'tin the budget. Mr. Leone disagreed and stated the hires were all in the budget. Ms. Tessaro stated this purchase will be in the police budget, as a 2025 expense. Lieutenant Chickos stated they are currently down three cars. One is having a transmission fixed. Another one is not repairable. Also, ChiefDeLuca's car, the oldest one in the fleet, is at the end ofits life cycle. Mr. Leone said it's an aging fleet. He and ChiefDeLuca consistently look for grants to help defray the costs of the fleet. No car was slated in the 2024 budget. It will have to bei in next year's budget. Mr. Gill stated ifwe don't get grants, we will have to raise taxes. Mr. Leone answered most police cars have a life expectancy of5years. We have a number of cars in the fleet that are 7 plus years old.  from close in the amount of $21,562.94 year.  The chief car is even older.    Ms. Tessaro added that taxes haven't been raised in twenty years. We can't keep raising fees and hoping that will suffice. The cost ofeverything has gone up in the last twenty years. Mr. Cafarelli agreed. Ms. Tessaro mentioned we need to look at possibly leasing in the future not only for the Police Department but for the Fire Department and Public Works as well. We also have to realize that the police and fire departments can not have cars that don'trun. We can'thave our Police officers inj pursuit and have their transmissions slipping. Mr. Gill answered that we should spend more time planning on these issues. Mr. Leone responded by saying you can't plan when a transmission is going toi fail. And it doesn'tmake sense to replace a transmission at a cost of$10,000.00 ina a 2018 vehicle that is already over its lifecycle. It's better suited to invest that money towards the purchase ofa new vehicle. Inaddition, stating the chiefdrives the oldest car in the fleet sO that his officers can have the best equipment available for their use. Heis very conscientious of finding the best price. Mr. Cafarelli concurred that the chiefis very budget oriented would not ask for a car ifit wasn'ta absolutely necessary. When something breaks, wel have to replace it. We should look at getting all the departments on ar rotation to get our fleets back up to par. Mr. Prentice agreed. Mr. Leone added first  payment not due for one year after acquisition. Motion by Mr. Dunn. Second by Ms. Gilliam.  Council Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill  Vote Y Y Y Y  Council Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro Mayor Miller  Vote Y Y Y  Motion carried 7-0.  2. Discuss/Consider Action to hire Seasonal/Part-time Public Works employee Rylan Jeter Ms. Tessaro asked when he would be available to start. Mr. Leone stated he can start immediately. He was interviewed by both Mr. Leone and Richard Dobrosielski.  at an hourly rate of $16.00.  Motion by Mr. Prentice. Second by Mr. Basalyga.  Council Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill  Vote Y Y Y Y  Council Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro Mayor Miller  Vote Y Y Y  Motion carried 7-0.  2-    3. Discuss/Consider. Action to hire Social Media Director as a contracted employee at an hourly rate of $25.00 for a minimum of101 hours, and not to exceed 20 hours per week. Ms. Gilliam recommends Renee Mason. Mr. Gill asked where the money would come  from to pay for the position. Mr. Leone stated it was budgeted. Motion by Mr. Basalyga. Second by Ms. Gilliam.  Council Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill  Vote Y Y Y N  Council Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro Mayor Miller  Vote Y Y Y  Motion carried 6-1.  4. Discuss/Consider Action to hire Nakeya Mosley as a Summer Intern thru the Local Government Acamadey at an hourly rate of$18.00 hour for up to 420 hours. (Funded thru Mr. Leone said that the offer has not been tendered to Ms. Mosley yet. This is the best  Pa Realtor grant of $7,500.00)  offer the Pa. Realtor grant would allow. Motion by Mr. Basalyga. Second by Ms. Gilliam.  Council Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill  Vote Y Y Y Y  Council Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro Mayor Miller  Vote Y Y Y  Motion carried 7-0.  5. Discuss/Consider Action to approve Bicentennial Parade/Block Party/Car Cruise events. Mr. Leone said the police department is OK with the parade and the car cruise. Harkins Mill will utilize the 5th Street Park, Altered Genius and The Orbit stated they can utilize their own space. Firehouse was also mentioned previously, but they did not submit an application for road closure. We only received three applications for road closures, with Altered Genius stating they may not do anything; but ifthey do they could just use their lot. To close the streets, we would need tol have six officers. Without a strong justification for additional staffing, its recommended that the block parties do not take  place.  Motion by Mr. Basalyga. Second by Mr. Gill.  -3-    Council Mr. Basalyga Mr. Cafarelli Mr. Dunn Mr. Gill  Vote Y Y Y Y  Council Ms. Gilliam Mr. Prentice Ms. Tessaro Mayor Miller  Vote Y Y Y  Motion carried 7-0.  V. Other Unfinished Business 1. Chamber/ Harkins Mill Winery Sub Lease.  Mr. Leone said they are still working on the details on the sub-lease. They are verifying 2. Property Deed Transfers -2 properties we recently sold (Duss Ave & Park Road) Mr. Leone said he received the documentation for transfer and these should be completed  who will be responsible for repairs, maintenance, etc.  in the next few weeks. 3. Glenwood Properties  Mr. Askar and Mr. Leone are working on these.  4.  5. Junior Council  Ms. Tessaro said the school district is targeting Juniors for this program SO they could use  this as their Senior Project.  6. IPMC- Ticket Ordinance for Zoning/Code Violations  Both chiefs, code enforcement, Mr. Leone and Mr. Askar will meet to further discuss. *Splash Pad update* There was a pipe that had a small leak that is being addressed. In addition, a storm caused a transformer in the Borough to blow and it reset the computer on the Splash Pad which caused the actuator to de-program. Public Works and the equipment manufacturer are addressing the issue. Public Works was able to bypass the  actuator in order for the Splash Pad to: run.  VI. Adjournment  NEXT MEETING OF BOROUGH COUNCIL: Regular Meeting: Tuesday, June 11th,2 2024 Workshop Meeting: Tuesday, June 25th, 2024 Bicentennial Mural: Saturday, June 1st  ANNOUCEMENTS:  Bicentennial Celebration: Parade June gth at 10:00 am, June gth Car Cruise    5