Borough of Coraopolis Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Council Workshop Meeting by teleconference May 7, 2025 6:30 PM The Workshop Meeting of the Borough of Coraopolis was called to order by Council President, Robb Cardimen. A Roll Call of Members was then taken. Present Robb Cardimen Rudy Bolea George Mihalyi Allison Marine Gary Flasco Kim Haskins Mike Harris Joe Szabat Michael Dixon, Mayor Mr. Cardimen said are there any comments on agenda items by Council Members? Being none, the meeting continued. Ms. Haskins made a motion to approve the closure of Birch Way from Main Street to Kendall Avenue on Sunday, May 25th from 11:30 am to 11:30 pm for a reception being held by Keith Jackson. Mr. Harris seconded the motion. Motion approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Mr. Harris made a motion to approve the use of Shelley Jones Memorial Park Basketball Court and Pavillion and Bliwas Field on Saturday, June 28th from 8 am to 7 pm for the Summer Jam being held by Tyrone Fisher. Ms. Haskins seconded the motion. Motion approved by Onanimous Voice Vote. Ms. Haskins made a motion to approve the closure of Mill Street from State Avenue to Fifth Avenue on Saturday, June 21st from noon to 7 pm for the Grand Opening ofNation Style Grocery Store. Mr. Bolea seconded the motion. Motion approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. 1 Mayor's Report Mayor Dixon directed everyone to the handout he distributed and said this is from The Flourish Group who is a Pittsburgh based wellness organization. Their mission is to empower professionals and organizations to thrive by providing practical evidence-based strategies for physical and mental wellbeing. They specialize in helping high stressed teams like police departments and fire departments manage stress and build resilience. Their workshop, Leading with Resilience is tailored for first responders and they are offering Coraopolis a full day program of a nonprofit rate of$1,500.00 and he continued to explain. Mayor Dixon said I propose that Council review this information and make a decision at your pleasure. Public Works Foreman's Report Mr. Larry Tollis said we received our new sweeper this month and street sweeping season began May 1st. All is going well with the new machine, it is very nice. Mr. Tollis said normal grass cuttings are in full swing. Mr. Larry Tollis said we had No. 17 F-150 and No. 23 F-550 inspected and both passed. Mr. Larry Tollis said we cold patched twelve holes throughout town. Mr. Larry Tollis said we had a major cleanup from a concrete spill on Watt Street between 4th and 5th Avenues where we assisted cleanup with Bryan and Riverside. Mr. Larry Tollis said during the storm last week we were called out to take care of eight trees that fell and we got everything cleaned up from the ones crossing the road. The storm also took out the front of our salt tepee and as you know, we are starting talks on working with that. Mr. Larry Tollis said we put up the flashing "Watch Children" sign on the east side ofthe 1400 block of Ridge Avenue coming from Montour Street and the second sign is ready to be placed tomorrow. Mr. Cardimen said thank you, I have received a lot of compliments from people all over town on the Public Works response and clean up after the storms. Valley Ambulance Report Mr. Pete Miles said in April Valley Ambulance was dispatched to 858 calls for service with 110 being for Coraopolis and 63 patients transported. Mr. Miles then introduced everyone to Brian Herskovitz, the Chief of Valley Ambulance Authority. 2 Committee Reports / Comments from Council Mr. Flasco said the Personnel Committee has completed all interviews for the Library and Public Works, which we will discuss in more detail in Executive Session. Mr. Mihalyi said I want to thank Public Works for all they did during the storm; it really looks good. Mr. Bolea said I do not have a committee report this evening, but do have some information concerning the knotweed by the river. There is a young man who lives across from our park who is a landscaper. I asked him ifl he would be interested in tending to the knotweed along the riverbank. He gave me a bid of $2,000.00 for the initial cutting and for $400.00 a month he would maintain the knotweed until the end of summer or early fall and he continued to explain. Mr. Bolea said I mentioned this to Mr. McCutcheon earlier and he said, if we were to do this then we would probably need an agreement with the Union. Mr. Cardimen said yes, when we contracted grass cutting out, we did need an agreement with the Union. Mr. Bolea said I want to verify with Mr. Tollis that I'm not trying to take work away from the crew. Mr. Tollis said I was going to mention that there may be an issue with the Union work, but I also want to say that we do not have a problem taking care ofit. Mr. Tollis said, we actually started the fence line today, from our building down to the overlook and we would like to keep maintaining it and a discussion pursued. Ms. Marine said I have a follow up on my report that I gave at the last Workshop Meeting when we discussed traffic calming policies. I sent everyone an email this afternoon, but know that not everyone has : had a chance to read over it SO I'll explain some of what I found out. I called and spoke to the director of the traffic calming program in Upper St. Clair and found that they work closely with their police department to collect data with signs that read speeds and vehicle counts and can be moved around town. Trans Associates wrote their policy and the director stands firm that having a policy in place provides a fair and structured process. She continued to explain and a discussion pursued. Ms. Marine said take some time to read over what I sent and give me your feedback. Ifyou have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Ms. Haskins said I have nothing this evening. Mr. Szabat said I don' 't have anything this evening. Mr. Harris said concerning the traffic calming issues, and I have mentioned this before and I think of Ambridge with all oft their one-way streets, but cost wise with devises and signs and installation and everything I think there are a lot of streets and ifit works in Ambridge then Coraopolis would automatically calm a lot of the traffic. I would make State Avenue one way because it is SO tight. I know it's a radical movement, but I think we should consider and a discussion pursued. 3 Mr. Cardimen said State Avenue would be a very difficult sell, because there are multiple sections that are part of different state routes SO you would have to get PennDOT involved. Mr. Harris said I would start off with those areas being exempt from a program if we looked at it. Just cost wise and planning and all of the things that we have to look at to process to get individual blocks, just thinking about it I think that may be something that we consider. Mr. McCutcheon said many people in the morning go up Montour Street and make the right on State Avenue to get to Cornell and Moon Twp. In the evening those same people are coming down the hill making the right on State Avenue going out to 79 or Neville Island. I don't know how to make that road one way, I don't see it working. Mr. Harris said I know it's confusing, but I would leave that particular block of State, maybe all the way to 79 two way. Ifyou were coming down Maple Street the left would be one way all the way to Uni Mart and then the Ridge Avenue dip kind of do the study and when the traffic is the most, I'm probably going to think that it is more in the evening and he continued to explain. Mr. Harris said I would make 1st Avenue one way too; to help control with the children and I think it would ease parking too. Mr. Harris said Terry Wodarek contacted me about his driveway onto Main Street. When traffic builds up all the back to 5th, > they can't get out of their driveway. They asked if we can do what was done at Uni Mart and move the line back behind the drive. Mr. Cardimen said years ago there was a sign that said Stop Here on Red and it was before his driveway. I'm not sure what happened to that sign, but it disappeared around the time we did all of the traffic studies. I don't! know why that sign was removed and don't know how we'd go about enforcing it and he continued to explain. Chief Stewart said you can probably move it back, but wouldn'tyou have to reset the sensors in the lights SO that it would activate when people pull up to them? Mr. Cardimen said the traffic light people would have to come out to do that. Chief Stewart said in the past we ran into an issue where there were signs erected on a borough street. Officers wrote traffic citations for violations. The citations were thrown out because the person at the Magistrate office brought a lawyer and wanted to know where Borough's traffic studies were for erecting these signs. If we are talking about doing different things on various Borough roadways then you might want to consider first if we are going to have to pay for a traffic study and a discussion pursued. Mr. Harris said we are all aware of the condition on the 800 block of Hiland and I didn't know, ifit is on any kind of rehab program. It's getting bad and a discussion pursued. Mr. Harris said the lookout at Riverview Park, are we going to do anything? Mr. Cardimen said it needs torn down. I would think that would be included in the next phase of the park with Lennon Smith and a discussion pursued. 4 Mr. Harris said I have brought this up many times, I was out via the video last week and I kind of saw Brian, but this has nothing to do with Brian, but we need those parking meter poles out. They just look SO bad and I know Public Works is busy. Mr. Tollis said we are ready, we got the equipment needed to remove them, we were just waiting until after the parade sO we could post the No Parking signs on them and a discussion pursued. Mr. Harris made a motion to remove parking meter poles before the Memorial Day Parade. Ms. Haskins seconded the motion. Mr. Bolea said when they take the poles down, are they filling in the holes? Mr. Tollis said yes, we will be putting concrete back in the holes and he continued to explain. Upon Roll Call Vote Robb Cardimen Yes Rudy Bolea Yes George Mihalyi Yes Allison Marine Yes Gary Flasco Yes Kim Haskins Yes Mike Harris Yes Joe Szabat Yes Motion carried. Mr. Cardimen said during the storm we had shingles blown off of the roof, were we able to get in contact with someone to take a look at it? Mr. McCutcheon said it is done. Chief Stewart said I want to bring something to your attention, because I have a feeling it is going to come up at the meeting next week. This is something that we do have an ordinance on, but hasn't really been enforced in years. Regarding containers, there is one on Chestnut Street, two at Rudy's old building, and several are on the 1300 block of 5th Avenue. Per the ordinance, they can obtain a permit for 14 days and then renewi it. There is a resident coming to me frequently is starting to demand that one specific individual be cited, but we are not going to do selective policing. I am bringing it to your attention; do you want us to enforce this ordinance? Ifs sO, we have to tell these businesses that their containers have to go or does Council want to make a decision to rewrite the ordinance to allow a longer time period for containers? Mr. Cardimen said have we talked to Tucker Arensberg about the validity oft this ordinance and can it be enforced the way it is currently written? Chief Stewart said I have not. Mr. Cardimen said that should be our first step and a discussion pursued. 5 Manager's Report Mr. McCutcheon said PennDOT plans to do some tar and chipping on Maple Street from State Avenue up to past Cornell. They did say they're going to cut and fix the potholes that are in bad condition. We need to work with the Authority and get them to fix the manhole covers SO they lift up to match the road. They are also doing State Avenue from Cornell Street to George. Mr. McCutcheon said Tucker Arensberg looked at the conservatorship agreement and Solicitor Conlon had some concerns about what liabilities it might be putting on the Borough. Mr. Conlon has written something up and sent it to the group. Mr. McCutcheon said I have asked Solicitor Conlon to work on a grading ordinance for the work that will take place on Euclid, SO the grading is done properly. Mr. Bolea made a motion to go into Executive Session to discuss litigation and personnel. Ms. Haskins seconded the motion. Motion Approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Mr. Bolea made a motion to come out of Executive Session and return to Regular Session. Mr. Harris seconded the motion. Motion Approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Mr. Bolea made a motion to hire Carrie Patterson for the Reading Specialist with the Coraopolis Library and Karen Wallace, Teresa Spencer, Kateri Straub, and Donna Hummel for the Circulation Clerk positions with the Coraopolis Memorial Library. Ms. Haskins seconded the motion. Motion Approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Mr. Bolea made a motion to hire Eric Mudrick as a Laborer/Truck Driver for the Public Works Department. Mr. Harris seconded the motion. Motion Approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Mr. Bolea made a motion to Adjourn. Mr. Harris seconded the motion. Motion Approved by Unanimous Voice Vote. Meeting Adjourned. 6