1 1 2 3 4 OLD FORGE BOROUGH COUNCIL OLD FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA 5 IN RE: COUNCIL WORK SESSION 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 OCTOBER 4, 2022 7:00 P.M. OLD FORGE MUNICIPAL BUILDING 314 SOUTH MAIN STREET OLD FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA COUNCIL MEMBERS: RUSSELL RINALDI, PRESIDENT RICK NOTARI, VICE-PRESIDENT JAMES HOOVER MICHAEL LETTIERI 22 ANDREW BUTLER WILLIAM RINALDI, ESQUIRE, SOLICITOR MARYLYNN BARTOLETTI, BOROUGH MANAGER 23 24 25 ROBERT LEGG, MAYOR Mark Wozniak Official Court Reporter 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to call the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.) MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Roll call, please, Marylynn. MS. BARTOLETTI: Councilwoman Avvisato is absent, Councilman Febbo is absent. Councilman Lettier1? MR. LETTIERI: Present.. MS. BARTOLETTI: Councilman Butler? MR. BUTLER: Here. MS. BARTOLETTI: Councilman Hoover? MR. HOOVER: Here. MS. BARTOLETTI: Councilman Notari? MR. NOTARI: Present. MS. BARTOLETTI: Councilman Rinaldi? MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Here. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the work session of the 01d Forge Borough. Tonight is Tuesday, October 4, 2022. The purpose of our meeting is to set the agenda for our next meeting, which would be our 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 regular meeting, October 18th. We'17 go down the table, we'11 hear from our members and our mayor, our department heads. There's a public sign-in sheet the chief of police has if anyone from the public would like to address us at the end. We'17 begin with our first department head, Joe Lenceski, DPW manager. Anything for the agenda for our upcoming meeting? MR. LENCESKI: I have nothing for the agenda. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Does anybody have any questions for Joe? Thanks, Joe. Chris Hart, code enforcement/zoning officer, anything for our meeting coming up? MR. HART: Nothing for the agenda. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anybody have any questions for Chris? MR. NOTARI: Do we have statute updates on the lower Main Street issue? MR. HART: Yes. I just got off the phone them before. Everything's been good so far. A17 they have is a little bit of scaffolding left to go on the truck. The 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 truck is coming back tomorrow. I just got off the phone with him. That's all they have outside. MR. NOTARI: So is the driveway empty? MR. HART: Yes. There's the two cars still there, but unfortunately, like the chief said, there's nothing we can do with the two cars. MR. NOTARI: How about the winery with the people on West Morton with the issue? MR. HART: We were just in court with them this morning. For the West Morton side everything's cleaning up very nicely through there. He got building permits off me today. He's building kind of a tool shed on his concrete piece of land over there and his plan is to reopen the winery. He's coming to planning on Tuesday. I guess he has somebody who wants to come in and revamp the whole place, open the winery back up to full operation. Tuesday he'11 be at planning. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anyone else 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 have anything for Chris? MR. LETTIERI: Did we ever find out who the owner of that building is? The Junkin Monkey. MR. HART: Amy Martin. MR. LETTIERI: It's not Chicky? MR. HART: No. The assessor's office still shows Chicky, but I spoke to him before here, I confirmed it was Amy Martin. I have all her contact information if we have any problems in the future. MR. HOOVER: The shed, what's the date? MR. HART: I didn't set a date yet for zoning. MR. HOOVER: He keeps asking me about that shed, Dunn Avenue. MR. HART: No. I'm waiting for one person to confirm on a zoning meeting. I'17 schedule it within the next three weeks as opposed to two. I'11 schedule it by the end of the month. MR. HOOVER: The neighbors seem to think it's staying there. MR. HART: No. Like I said, I have 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 to give him a fair shot to go for what he wants. Unfortunately, only because last week when we needed to add Jerry Hobbs to the board that completed it. So now I have to get a date for a meeting. MR. NOTARI: If he wants to move it off his property just move it out of that corner. Correct? MR. HOOVER: Move it back, apply for a reasonable variance. MR. HART: Even move it back even with the house. They're not living in it. He put the mattresses in there on purpose. MR. BUTLER: Bed and curtains on the windows. MR. HART: I'm aware. He did it on purpose. I spoke to him. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Did he just do it to dress it up neatly or something? MR. HART: He overheard some comments from people walking by and stopping, saying what, is somebody going to live in here. So it was more or less a joke. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: But there 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 isn't anybody living there. MR. HART: No, absolutely not. The shed came from his father's house in Pittston. His father passed away. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anyone else have anything for Chris? Thank you, Chris. Dave Lopatka, engineer, anything for the meeting coming up? MR. LOPATKA: I € don't have anything for the agenda. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anybody have any questions for Dave? Thanks, Dave. Chief Dubernas, anything for the meeting coming up? CHIEF DUBERNAS: I'm not sure. It depends on the civil service. I'd like to meet with personnel and have a meet with them, decide what's going on. The test is due back Monday from Chicago. Hopefully I'17 have them by Friday to set up the oral interviews and then go from there. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Do you want to have a personnel meeting before the next regular meeting? CHIEF DUBERNAS: Yes. 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Or next Monday or Tuesday or Monday or Tuesday before the meeting? CHIEF DUBERNAS: No, let's have it earlier because I might be pretty close to oral interviews coming closer to the meeting. I just want to get the results back. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Let's set it up. After this meeting we'11 discuss it and we can set it up for either Monday or Tuesday this week. MR. BUTLER: Did we get our quota? CHIEF DUBERNAS: I have four right now that passed the physical that took the written. I'm just waiting on the results. One person didn't show up. Today I actually had a kid come in for a part-time application rather than -- I had two part-time applications. One kid that I'm doing a background check on and another one that's, you know. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anyone else have any questions for the chief? Thanks, Chief. 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Attorney Rinaldi, anything for the agenda coming up, for the meeting? ATTY. RINALDI: No, nothing for the agenda. I'm going to have Marylynn -- I have a draft and criteria for you for future street names. You can add to it. But it's something to look at. Also, I got dates from Charlie Schimmel. I would suggest two days in case one gets cancelled. Any evening he's available. October 10, 11, 19, 20, 24, 25, 31. and November 1 and 2. I sent them to Marylynn. Pick two. MS. BARTOLETTI: Anyone have dates that they're not available? MR. LETTIERI: Next week I'm not. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: I'm not next week, too. I'm not good the 19th or 20th. ATTY. RINALDI: The 11th is no good anyway because of the planning commission. MS. BARTOLETTI: The 24th is the first date, the 26th is the second date. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: At 6:30. Anything else? ATTY. RINALDI: No, that's all. The 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 subdivision I think we may have done if it gets done by planning and Dave and Chris has it. That's for the pit. That's it. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anybody have any questions for the solicitor? Thanks, Bill. Marylynn, anything for the agenda? MS. BARTOLETTI: I do not. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Anybody have any questions for the borough manager? Thanks, Mare. Chief, anyone from the public? I know Rusty wanted CHIEF DUBERNAS: I think he's going to counter off the mayor. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: We'11 go down the table, see if the mayor or council have anything for the agenda. Mayor Legg, anything? MAYOR LEGG: Not a thing. Thanks. MR. LETTIERI: I - do not. MR. NOTARI: Nothing for the agenda, but I just want to let everybody know that our recreation committee met last week, Mike and myself, along with Joe 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Lenceski, who is our director of parks, and Tony DiMattia, who is the president of the rec board. We asked Tony to reconvene the rec board on Thursday here, at 6:30, and talk about our parks pretty much going forward and the use of them and the order of operation, I should say. That we're bringing all these groups in, youth groups, the representation that will mix up our recreation board. So they're going to come in and we're going to talk about the use of our facilities and the proper channels to go through with using them and seeking to improve them, is the safest way to say it. We'17 meet on Thursday and we'17 have a report to council. MR. BUTLER: I have nothing. MR. HOOVER: Nothing. MR. RUSSEL RINALDI: I don't have anything either. At this time the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn. MR. NOTARI: I'17 make that motion. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: By Councilman Notari. MAYOR LEGG: Before we adjourn, 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 everything was settled at the last meeting and Dale and I have been working on this for a - couple months. We want to thank you. We will meet with Marylynn and come up with an agenda. We have to have some kind of ceremony. MR. FENDER: I want to thank Mayor Legg and council for this. We're working on this actually for 40 years, since the 1980s. It's a whole different regime as far as a lot of folks weren't even born on July 20, 1969. - Glynn Lunney was a friend of mine. Presently I'm the senior space systems engineer for NASA at the Goddard Flight Center in Greenville, Maryland. I'm working on the Mars project. I'm also the senior civil engineer for PennDOT the last 11 years. I work out of Harrisburg. My territory is district six in Montgomery and Philadelphia counties and district five, the Allentown area, and there are five counties. So this Glynn Lunney thing was the perfect time and the perfect storm to have this done. A NASA guy who's going to get tons of publicity from NASA, and we can't 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 put a price on publicity. We've established this town, I'm born and raised in this town. I V was born over Flora's Gift shop on Oak Street. I've lived in this town, Lawrenceville Hill, still live here. This is one of the best things to do because in this era of diversity we are the pizza capital of the world. It's engrained in everybody's mind. But I think to honor a person from this town who a lot of people don't even know that the 56 year veteran of-NASA in charge of Apollo 11 and then Apollo 13 and actually named in the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13, Glynn Lunney, was the flight director for all these flights since 1959, before it was even called NASA. So I think that the publicity and the promotion of this - again, I'm in the radio and television business 51 years this year. Since I was 15 and a half. Channel 16 is in on the deal, Fox 56 is in on the deal, and WYOU and WBRE is going to cover this deal. So I think the publicity for the town is just a hundred fold. And that brings more 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 publicity because now the word leaked out a little bit and now I've been contacted by relatives of Frank Claus. Frank Claus was an eight time pro bowler's tour winner from Mary Street. They're thinking the same thing. I know we're not in the street rededication business, but I think that these ancillary tactics to gain incredible publicity for this town, which is already on the map with a gold star, is worth its weight in gold. This has maximum impact for minimal price and minimal labor. So I think this was a really good thing. - want to thank everybody for being in on this deal. It takes a lot of eggs to be broken to make an omelet. This took a long time. I think this should have been done 40 years ago. That's not here nor there because, again, people have a great memory but it's a short one. But I think that the publicity, again, on top of all the great publicity Imean, look at this town. You got franchises, MacDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts. You get more than the cities to the 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 north and south of here, plus that's not even the five star private restaurants. So I think this was long overdue, and I don't think there's one negative aspect that could be said about doing something for a few blocks of Main Street. I think it's great. IV want to thank everybody for being on board with this. As long as it gets done, it gets done. As a spokesman for NASA and a spokesperson for PennDOT this was the perfect time to get this together. Once again, underlining minimal, minimal, minimal effort, maximum impact, and I thank council and the mayor. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Thanks, Rusty. MR. NOTARI: Dale, you have connections with NASA. Can you get us any artifacts? We're naming part of a street after Mr. Lunney and eventually we will have one of those historical plaques. Can you get us a rocket for one of our parks? MAYOR LEGG: Just to be clear, Mr. Chairman, again we are not renaming the street. You can't do that. We're just 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 designating a portion of it Glynn Lunney Way. Dale did a lot of work. He did about four month's work in, like, four days. He's got great connections. That's all I have. MR. RUSSELL RINALDI: Thanks, Rusty. If there's nothing else, the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion by Councilman Notari. A11 in favor? (Unanimous. Meeting adjourned.) 17 1 2 3 4 5 CERTIFICATE Ih hereby certify that I attended the foregoing proceeding, took stenographic notes of the same, that 6 the foregoing, consisting of 16 pages, is a true and 7 correct copy, done to the best of my ability, of same 8 and the whole thereof. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Mark Wozniak Official Court Reporter