EST. Wy 1901 Borough of West Homestead Council Meeting Tuesday, November 12, 2024 Minutes Council President Ashley Cain called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance: Moment of silence for Veterans Day. Roll Call: Ms. Nikolas. Present: Ms. Cain, Ms. Ferson, Mr. Fonos, Mr. Harhai, Mr. Karafa, Mr. McLaughlin, Also in attendance: Mayor Joseph Baran, Engineer Mark Brashear, Solicitor Michael Lederman, Manager Russell Combs, Secretary Donna McMichael. 1. Enter into Executive Session at 6:18 p.m. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. 2. Return from Executive Session @ 6:32 pm. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. McLaughlin Discussion on legal matters. Public Comment on Agenda Items agenda items. No comments. President Cain asked anyone in the audience if they had any questions on REPORTS Engineer: Mark Brashear The swing set was installed yesterday. Pavillion due in December. Will work with Russell and Public Works on doing weed block and mulch. Working on bids for the 10% Sewer projects. Solicitor: Michael Lederman Mayor Joseph Baran One Resolution to be approved this evening. Last Friday there was Civil Service testing for six police applicants. Thanks to the Police, Fire Department, and Baldwin EMS for the The two (2) new cars are here. The Christmas Parade will line up on 7th Avenue. Halloween detail. Manager : Russell Combs Implementing a new process for the credit card and keys. Survey property lines at 454 West 8th Avenue. DPW has completed 18 out of 19 work orders. Four (4) applications for DPW received and interviews will be scheduled. Steel Valley Accelerator is planning a 5K Race in April 2025. There will be a work session tomorrow for the 2025 budget. Joe Deasy is here to answer questions on the progress of the barge The new American flag has been lifted. project. Police Chief Charles Rozzo Report given for the month of October. The Christmas parade line-up will be on West7th Avenue (837). The 5K race in April will start and end in Homestead. More to come. Two new cars are in service now. Should we get rid of the old ones? Moving forward with the Manager on projects. Fire Chief John Dindak Report for the month of October: 397 calls, 41 drills and 16 work details. Halloween detail was completed. Veteran banners will be taken down this Saturday. The fence at the station is being worked on. Baldwin EMS: Chief Todd Plunkett (Dan Churma reported) Report for the month of October: 46 calls in October with a response time of 5.9 minutes; 450 calls year to date. EMC: Dan Churma Council. The special event action plan for the Christmas Parade has been sent to The grant has been approved for the emergency vehicle. There will be no cost to the Borough. Adopted the 2025 budget. Steel Rivers Council of Governments: Barb Ferson Street sweeping will increase to $110 per hour from $100 per hour. Jenn at SRCOG will write grants for us. Steel Valley Enterprise Zone: Dave Harhai No report. Meeting on Monday. COMMITTEE REPORTS Capital Improvement: Ray Fonos, Chair We met in October on the 2025 budget. Need to fund. Rules need to be put in place for unplanned revenue. We need $233.5K for next year. This needs to be top priority. Communications: Lynn Nikolas, Chair There will be a new contract with Savvy Citizen. Code Red will be reduced Iwill be posting information about the Christmas event and parade. by $900, and Savvy Citizen will be $900. Community Affairs: John Karafa, Chair Thanks to everyone involved with our Halloween event. Light up the Night will be on Friday, December 6th, TBD. We have a meeting next Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. Personnel: Ashley Cain, Chair We have received four applications for the Public Works position. Thanks to the Fire Department for the Halloween event. Interviews will start soon. Properties: Dave Harhai, Chair Public Safety: Bill McLaughlin, Chair The meeting in December is cancelled. Meetings for 2025 need TBD. Thanks to Council for attending the Baldwin EMS meeting. West Homestead is the top runner on subscriptions. Security lighting at the playground has been turned off. The playground needs motion detector lights on the bathroom and Russell will contact lighting consultant Granger to get a free quote. We will discuss business owner parking next month. Sewer Management: Barb Ferson (Mark Brashear reported) concession stand. List for 2025: Hire a Sewer Tech, finalize Alcosan trunk sewer transfer, two manholes need repaired, separate 7th Avenue and Hays Street sewers. The Army Corp is still working on the MS4 on West Run Road. The storm sewer at Howard Street needs a section redone. Documents have been signed by Alcosan. Legislation 3. Accept minutes from the Council meetings, as written, for October 1, 2024, and October 8, 2024. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. 4. Approve and ratify all bills paid and to be paid for the month of November 2024. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. 5. To approve Resolution No.24.020: Amending contract with On Solve LLC (Code Red). Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa Michael explained the amended contract. All voted in favor of the motion. 6. To approve the Tri-COG Land Bank Notice of Intent to acquire and waiver of all taxes, tax claims and municipal claims due for the following property: 540 West' 7th Avenue, Parcel 90-G-8. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. 7. Toapprove a $500.00 donation to the "Best of Batch Turkey Drive". Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. 8. Toa advertise the West Homestead Borough 2025 Budget meetings. Motion: Mr. Harhai Second: Mr. Karafa All voted in favor of the motion. Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items President Cain asked anyone in the audience if they had any questions on non- agenda items. John Rende, 1125 Cascade Drive: Asking for an update on the tree. Manager Combs: Four bids have been received and sent to Council to review and discuss at the December Caucus meeting. We will move as fast as possible. Andrea Harhai, Cascade Drive: Read a letter and she would like it to be submitted Brendan Deasy: He was stopped by the Building Inspector for putting on a new roof at 644 West 7th Avenue without a permit. He said multiple commercial for the record. properties are working without permits. Ashley: We will get to the bottom of this. Thank you. Joe Deasy: Thanks to Russell for the update on the barge project. He is asking West Homestead for a long-term lease for the walkway to the river. Mr. Deasy talked about the "Main Street Matters" grant, which is due by Friday, November 15th. He is allowed to do footwork. He can use it on this project. The funds would come to the Borough, and we would control the account. He asked Ray: The terminology for Joe to apply for the grant is similar to SVEZ and TIF. Michael Lederman: We cannot vote on it because of the Sunshine Act. for the Borough to approve. Adjournment President Cain adjourned the meeting at 7:13 p.m.