Penbrook Borough Caucus Meeting Minutes May 19, 2025 6:30 PM 1. Call to order and roll call: President Deardorff called the public meeting to order at 6:30 pm. The Mayor was absent. Present were Deardorff, Newcomer, Dry, Stokes (virtual), Shaw, Burdine and Armbruster. Moore arrived at 6:43 pm. Kern and Hogarth were also present. 2. Citizen Comments on Agenda Items - N/A 3. Consent Agenda Armbruster made a motion to accept and approve the items on the consent agenda which included the minutes from the April 7 Council meeting, April 21 Caucus Meeting, the April Treasurer's report and the approval of bill to be paid. Newcomer seconded. Carried unanimously. 4. Discussion and Action Items A. Representatives of Keystone Municipal Solutions (Brooke Queenan and Chad Saylor) presented Council with the public copy of the Strategic Management and Planning Program, Financial Conditions Assessment and Trends Analysis (attached). Future benchmarks and reports were also detailed with the next public presentation scheduled for late August or early September. B. Officer Isaac Tritt and Detective Nikki Schaffer provided Council with information regarding a community services K9 program including training requirements, funding and types of community involvement. Hogarth was instructed to get information from the insurance company. Deardorff suggested this be added to the June 2 Council meeting for further discussion and possible action. C. Penbrook Revitalization is looking to enter into another agreement with the Borough and is interested in applying for a DCED grant for a program similar to the old Mainstreet Program. Hogarth found old documents between PRI and the Borough but none of them current. Hogarth told Council that he reached out to DCED to find out what programs exist and what is necessary from both the Borough and PRI to move something forward. He would advise when a meeting is set up. D. Solicitor Kern provided the current IMA between the Borough and the City of Harrisburg for solid waste and recycling collection. Several comments were made for a draft proposal to be drafted and sent to the City for years 2026 and beyond. Moore made a motion to direct the Solicitor to engage with the City regarding a new IMA. Armbruster seconded. Carried unanimously. E. Moore sent documents outlining the cost for Get It Now to publish and mail the Borough's newsletter. Dry asked if they could provide a draft sO she could see what it would look like. Moore doubted they would do something like that for free since they're essentially publishing it. Newcomer commented that Armbruster provided a draft that could be sent out. Shaw said that it was the Borough's policy that any draft newsletter be voted on by all of Council. Hogarth directed to put an action item on the June 2 agenda. F. Hogarth provided Council with a handicap parking application for on-street parking at 2330 Boas St. The applicant has off-street parking to the rear of his property. Armbruster asked at what point Council should consider applications that have off- street parking such as a garage but the garage is unusable. Shaw said we shouldn't approve an application contrary to the ordinance. He also commented that he learned in a recent class that the. ADA suggests limiting handicap parking on public street to a very small percentage. Deardorff pointed out that the 300 block of 29th Street is almost all handicap parking especially on the east side of the street. This will be added to the June 2 agenda for action. G. Hogarth presented Council with a letter of resignation from Public Works Supervisor Mark Sostar effective June 27, 2025. Shaw asked if that was the original resignation date. Hogarth said it wasn't. Sostar had given May 30 as his last day but when Hogarth received the letter from Sostar, Sostar claimed that he is ineligible for health insurance for 30 days and wanted to stay on the Borough's payroll using PTO for that month. Hogarth said that borough employees are not eligible for COBRA because of the number of employees we have. Burdine made a motion to accept the resignation at the June 27 date and Newcomer seconded. Armbruster called for a roll call vote. The motion did not carry with Burdine, Newcomer, Stokes and Deardorff voting yes. Dry, Moore, Armbruster and Shaw voted no. The Mayor voted against the motion breaking the tie. Dry then made a motion to accept the resignation on May 30 and Moore seconded. Aroll call vote resulted in the Mayor breaking the tie in favor of the motion to accept May 30. Votes were Dry, Moore, Shaw and Armbruster for and Deardorff, Newcomer, Burdine and Stokes against. 5. Citizen Comments i. Clyde Bateman reporting potholes, llegally parked vehicles and doesn't think the police do their jobs. ii. Neal McCawley reported the commercial trash hauler at the Penn Square Apt complex makes a lot of noise at unreasonable hours waking him or scaring him. i. Joe Wagner, learning of the possibility of a K9 program, supports such an idea. iv. Sabrina Herb asked if everything will be handled for the Little Valley Summer program with Sostar's departure. 6. Council Comments i. Deardorff read a letter he received from the DEP regarding the approval of the sewer project as part of the SALDO application at 2701 Herr St. ii. Burdine asked for an executive session at the June 2 meeting to discuss a personnel matter. ili. Newcomer reported that the Borough was awarded $37,500 for the Community Park Master Plan. He reviewed the meeting with JT Dorsey regarding the mini pitch project. And asked for a June 2 agenda item to hear from Chief Hogarth about cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. iv. Shaw asked that a June 2 agenda item be added to discuss the Public Works Supervisor position. V. The Mayor asked to discuss curb painting. 7. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 pm. Respectfully submitted, Joseph Hogarth Borough,Secretary