Audio and Video from the SEPTEMBER 24 council meeting. The full transcript is not 100% accurate since it's hard for software to hear full audio (but it's close!)

Audio file download

file size: 445.4 mb -- 54m:02s  

https://bit.ly/09-24-24-council-meeting-video-audio-transcript

Video 1:

Video 2:

Transcript *

(*please note transcription isn't 100% accurate but it is close!)

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for

which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank

you, and welcome to our new permanent home, at least for now, or meeting room, at

least. Alright, first order of business is public comment for agenda items.

[Speaker 4] (0:48 - 1:06)

I had sent an email earlier asking if the first part of the stormwater was what Chuck, I

think, Chief Teller had mentioned on the E13 meeting about the stormwater pipe busting

in Conowago Valley, I think had to replace it.

[Speaker 1] (1:07 - 1:09)

No, we're still, it's still under design.

[Speaker 4] (1:10 - 1:13)

Okay, is that what that is referring to though?

[Speaker 1] (1:13 - 1:14)

Yeah, that's what it was.

[Speaker 4] (1:15 - 1:24)

Yeah, I didn't know what exactly it meant, so I was asking if those two were connected,

because that wasn't in the minutes from E13, but I remember you saying that.

[Speaker 2] (1:24 - 1:46)

Okay, other public comment on any agenda items? Alright, thank you. Finances, first is

payables from, I'm sorry, approval of the minutes from the September 10th council

meeting.

I'll entertain a motion to approve.

[Speaker 5] (1:50 - 1:51)

I'll make that motion.

[Speaker 2] (1:52 - 2:19)

To approve. To approve, understood. Alright, it's been moved and seconded.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Thank you. Now, on to finances.

Payables from September 5th to September 18th. In the amount of $100,667.14, I will

entertain a motion to approve those payables.

[Speaker 5] (2:19 - 2:22)

I'll make that motion. Second.

[Speaker 2] (2:23 - 2:50)

Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? Carried, thank you.

Next item under finances is the payroll from September 5th to September 18th. In the

amount of $60,754.26, I will entertain a motion for approval of the payroll for those

dates.

[Speaker 5] (2:51 - 2:52)

I'll make that motion.

[Speaker 2] (2:53 - 3:17)

Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Thank you. Alright, next item is new business and the first item under the area of new

business is the Lakeview Drive slash Park stormwater project to be discussed by the

Borough Manager.

[Speaker 1] (3:18 - 6:51)

Yeah, this is, I've talked about this a couple times. Hopefully at 3 o'clock this afternoon, I

wasn't, they met on this, I wasn't there. What this is, it's tied into the park but it isn't.

And we did some engineering changes on it to get, to pick up all that water that comes

down Lakeview and comes down behind the lighting place there in their driveway. And it

was just, we found that there was just a huge amount of water down there and storm

drains in the road aren't even large enough to pick up the amount of water that comes

down through there. So as a result, what happens is that water then goes over the curb

and floods down into the park.

And it's causing a lot of issues so basically what we're going to do is take that pipe, we're

adding a storm drain in Lakeview Drive to collect some of that water. And the way we

have it designed now, it's going to go completely down through the park. It's going to

pick up some of the drainage areas that we have an issue with in other areas of the park.

And we're taking it down past the parking lot, almost down around that top pavilion and

dumping it down into the Alloway Creek there. We're still working with Adams County as

far as our water runoff permits and stuff that we need. And we should have that.

The only good thing is we can probably, since we're tying it into the park, we don't have

to get a separate permit for that. We can hook that in with our current existing permit

we have for the park now as far as your EDS permit. Basically, we will meet with them

probably before Friday, I would hope this would be done.

I'll meet with the engineers once we get the final price and work with the contractors to

see if we can start that construction because that actually can hold some of the park

project up. There's so much water underground there through that whole park. We don't

want to tie that into the old pipes.

We would prefer to tie that into the new ones, obviously, and get that water out of the

area. Once that's done, I will meet with Liquid Fuels because since that is stormwater

management and it's really not connected with the pipe, you can actually take that offsite to get rid of that. A lot of this cost can be covered by our Liquid Fuels money.

There are certain things that we would have to pay for that wouldn't be covered by

Liquid Fuels, but the majority of the cost should be able to be covered by that. Hopefully,

within a week to 10 days we have this and we can start with the construction of that.

That's basically all I have right now until we get that finalization.

[Speaker 2] (6:51 - 6:54)

Any questions for Chuck on that project from Council?

[Speaker 3] (6:56 - 7:02)

Since I'm new to this, when you say the Liquid Fuels money, what does that encompass?

[Speaker 1] (7:03 - 7:20)

Liquid Fuels is the money we get from the state for our roads. That covers a lot of the

replacements, the overlays. It doesn't pay for sewer and water.

You can use some of it for storm drains and that's all this is.

[Speaker 3] (7:21 - 7:21)

Okay, thanks.

[Speaker 1] (7:23 - 7:25)

Other questions for Chuck?

[Speaker 3] (7:27 - 7:27)

I have a question.

[Speaker 4] (7:29 - 7:39)

I guess it's no problem running that stormwater runoff into the creek? I guess it's no

problem running that stormwater runoff into the creek?

[Speaker 1] (7:40 - 8:05)

No, it ends up there anyhow. We would prefer it goes in there without tearing our park

and our roads all up. It causes problems in the parking lot.

The last couple of big rains, fortunately that one big one we had, we really saw how bad

that problem was. There was water blowing out of the storm drains. Six feet in the air.

That's an issue.

[Speaker 2] (8:09 - 8:26)

Alright, next item under new business is a request from Littlestown. Watch dogs to hold

an event in Crouse Park on April 12, 2025. Are you going to speak to that?

[Speaker 4] (8:27 - 10:15)

Sure. It's going to be called Bark in the Park. It will be a dog show dedicated to Luke who

passed away recently.

He's actually one of my good friend's fathers. We put it in his name and Ruth will be

helping us. We plan to have a dog competition, but it's not really.

We're not looking for show dogs. It's like cutest dog. We're going to involve the kids.

They have a kid's choice award. We'll have the best costume, best dress. Basically, we're

playing off the watch dogs.

Then we'll have a watcher health area where hopefully you can get the mobile

mammogram station, maybe a chiropractor, maybe athletico or pivot therapy as it's

called. Then watch your mental health where we'll get the trauma dogs to come. We've

reached out to them, the ASPCA to get an adoption pet.

Then mental health services if you're looking for a therapist, meet and greet kind of

thing. I quoted insurance, sorry. I quoted insurance.

The quote I have right now is up to $1 million. Basically, $1,000 payout for each person.

On top of that, we plan to write out some kind of waiver saying if you put your dog in the

show, you're under complete control.

Dogs do not need their leashes. You clean off after your pet. The second portion of that

would be if you bring your dog to watch, that you take the same liability.

We'll probably go into an event break and put a disclaimer in there. If you want to come

into the event period, you have to sign and say, you understand you're going to be

around dogs and you need to control your dog and your dog should be able to get

vaccinations.

[Speaker 2] (10:16 - 10:29)

That was good. I had some questions around exactly what you just addressed. Counsel,

questions?

You talked about the SPCA. Have you thought about doing an adoption thing with that at

that time too?

[Speaker 4] (10:30 - 10:46)

We have. ASPCA cannot do it. I want to reach out to Double Dog Rescue.

I also want to bring in dog groomers and dog trainers so people can adopt any pet and

train them to be a trauma, not a true support animal.

[Speaker 6] (10:47 - 10:48)

Commercial support.

[Speaker 4] (10:48 - 10:50)

Yes, exactly. Well behaved.

[Speaker 3] (10:53 - 11:04)

I just have a question. When you say control, I would like to see something that specifies

control as a leash. Because there are people who will show up with their dogs off leash

and say, I have control of my dogs.

[Speaker 4] (11:04 - 11:09)

Absolutely. Everyone needs to be on a leash. I don't think they can.

[Speaker 3] (11:11 - 11:12)

People do what they do.

[Speaker 4] (11:13 - 11:23)

When we deconstruct everything, we'll ensure that it's all pet. You won't know that a lot

of dogs have just been there. We'll make sure that we leave everything as we found it.

[Speaker 3] (11:24 - 11:27)

Just a quick follow up, if you would just introduce yourself.

[Speaker 4] (11:27 - 11:57)

Hi. I'm Johanna Rouse. I live in Littlestown.

I'm the president of the Littlestown Marshalls. We recently got our 5013C certificate. We

opened a bank account.

What we want to do is work with everyone to help give back to the community. We

thought it would be great for the community to have a mental health fair, since that

seems to be the biggest health topics in the school board right now. Mental health.

We thought it would be great for the community.

[Speaker 5] (11:58 - 12:00)

Well, you need electric.

[Speaker 4] (12:00 - 12:07)

I don't think so. It's going to be just kind of like a known carnival. Is what I have in my

head.

I thought that was a question.

[Speaker 2] (12:10 - 12:33)

All right. I will entertain a motion to either approve or deny the request from the

Littlestown Watchdogs to hold the Littlestown Watchdogs competition, as Johanna just

described, on April 12, 2025 from 1 to 4 at Crouse Park, contingent upon a certificate of

insurance being received by the borough office.

[Speaker 5] (12:34 - 12:37)

One other question real quick. Do you have a rain date?

[Speaker 4] (12:38 - 12:38)

No.

[Speaker 5] (12:39 - 12:40)

Or is it rain or shine?

[Speaker 4] (12:40 - 12:47)

Rain or shine. The insurance won't cover a rain date. So we're just going to stick with the

12th.

Plus Easter's next weekend and Mother's Day.

[Speaker 5] (12:47 - 12:57)

Well, I know what will happen is once council does their motion, like sometimes we'll get

calls. So they can kind of say, like, no, they don't have a rain date.

[Speaker 4] (12:58 - 13:16)

So I just wanted to make sure. I didn't mean to cut you off. I was just a thought that

popped in my head.

I'll put it on the flyer. Not that everyone reads the entire thing, but every day. We'll also

have mommy and pup pictures that you'll get before Mother's Day.

I'm a dork for this stuff.

[Speaker 2] (13:17 - 13:28)

All right. Council, I need a motion. If you're so in this request.

[Speaker 5] (13:29 - 13:31)

I make that motion. Second.

[Speaker 2] (13:31 - 14:37)

Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? Carried.

Thank you. Thank you. Last item of new business is from the park project.

It's a change order for the baseball backstop. And that's for the change order is for CS

Davidson, the engineer to change the baseball backstop fencing with a hood at a 45

degree angle. You all got that information emailed to you with a photograph of it.

The amount of the change order would be $4,835.75. And this has been reviewed and

recommended by the park committee. So I'll entertain a motion to approve that change

order. I make that motion.

Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Carried. Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (14:38 - 20:12)

All right. Reports. Mayor?

Okay. So just to kind of give an overview, not that everybody really needs to know, but

I've been mayor now for two months and one day. In that time, we've had a funnel plow

form outside of town, a tornado warning, the remnants of a hurricane come through and

a truck into the laundromat.

And so I say all that because yesterday, Senator Casey's office hosted a disaster

preparedness for local governments. It was a good use of 90 minutes of my day. I just

want to let you know.

I also recently had the ability to attend the Adams County Borough Association. So I'm

getting my fingers wet and learning about what's out there and all the rest of it. So those

are the things I'm doing to help learn to be the mayor.

Just an announcement. It's come out on Booz Savvy, and I think there was an email that

came out, that the Thunderbolt Foundation is hosting a viewing of a, I guess, a small film

called Screenagers. It is this Thursday, the 26th, from 6 to 7.30 p.m. at the Littletown

High School Auditorium. If you are the parent of individuals who are attached

electronically to this, it just looks like it might be worthwhile, children or grandchildren.

So those are all my public service announcements. I did put out that there will be office

hours with the mayor.

It will be the 1st and 3rd Tuesday from, oh, I didn't write it down. That's the evening

ones. I think 6 to 7.30. So council meetings are the 2nd and 4th. I will be hosting office

hours the 1st and 3rd. I will put out exactly where they're going to be this week. We're

having a little discussion around that.

I will also do a Saturday morning, the second Saturday of every month. I will make

myself available from 8 to 10 for those of you who don't want to be hanging out with me

once it gets dark in the winter hours. I'm not sure I should be driving after dark.

So 1st and 3rd Tuesdays for me between 6 and 7.30. I'll have office hours in the

evenings, and then the second Saturday of every month I will have office hours in the

morning. I have a planning committee that has been started. They've done really nice

work with planning Christmas on the Square.

So I announced this last time, but again, I'm going to put it out there again. Christmas on

the Square is Saturday, December 7 from 5 to 8 p.m. We do have signs. I just want to

give that update because we talked about it at the planning committee, but we do have

signs that will be posted on the entrances to town that will go up.

They'll go up the first week in November. And then I will make flyers and other things too

up with the local businesses. But the planning committee meets again on October 21 at

6 p.m. And those meetings will all be at the library. They're going to be on Mondays.

When I went to the library wanting to do Wednesdays, Wednesday just doesn't work for

them, so they'll be Mondays. It will be the third Monday of every month.

So for the rest of the year, it's October 21, November 18, and December 16. Finally, on

October 26, and I'll get moving on getting word out about this because October's right

around the corner. On October 26, I will be doing a fall craft event for the children of the

community whose ages may range from 0 to 99.

Because I would appreciate if the parents and the adults and the grandparents or

whatever brought their children or grandchildren in. We will have activities. I have been

using all of my neighbor's children under the age of 6 to test the activities to make sure

that they are child-friendly.

The only thing I'm holding up on announcing a time is whether or not those sports, like

the youth sports, Littlestown Elementary football and all that, if they are playing in the

morning that day or if they have moved to their evening hours because it's either going

to be 10 to 12 or 1 to 3 depending on the hours. There will be activities for the kids. I got

some cool little games and things for them to do so they can know if one finishes an

activity sooner than another one does.

Should you have more than one child, they will be entertained. So it will be just an

activity. Kids can come in, and I'm also considering doing a sensory hour.

So if anybody knows anybody who's got a son or a daughter, an adult son or daughter,

grandchild or whatever, who doesn't do as well in a crowd with people moving around

and a lot of noise, I will set aside an hour either right before or right after for people with

sensory issues to come in and be able to do an activity. I've also reached out to some

middle schoolers I know, and actually high schoolers, I'm getting old, some high

schoolers I know to ask if they would volunteer to come in and assist. So that way the

students can get community service hours if they need it.

Also local crafters like Jody over here, anybody who wants to come in and is artsy or

crafty, please reach out. I will gladly use all the volunteers who want to come forward

and help me. So that one is October 26th, and I will get word out in a better

announcement by the end of this month.

It's going to be at the library. The community room at the library that we used to meet

in, they have tables and they're just easier to move and easier to set up stations, and

that is still available to us. And it was a generous donation to get that room for us from

the Eagles, so I'd like to continue to use it.

And that's it. You're welcome. The tree lighting, that's going to be at the same time as

the...

December 7th. December 7th.

[Speaker 2] (20:13 - 22:31)

Okay. Council President updates. I guess the only thing that I want to speak to, since

we're in here now, at least this far, and we are no further, and we won't be for some

time, back there and down there.

So the rest of the building is really off limits right now. We've kept the doors locked

because there's all kinds of materials back there that were just left by the dialysis

center, and it's really not wise to have people tripping around back there, literally

possibly tripping around back there, until we start to decide just how we're going to

utilize the rest of that for borough offices, potentially for the police department at some

point, that kind of thing.

So we're very happy to have this. We'll get our desks back after a few years. This is for

those of you that never came to borough meetings in the building where Monique's is

now, and Monica Daisy.

This was how the meeting room was set up up there when the borough owned that

building. So we have to start to do some planning and probably start to consider what we

may do and what it may cost to start to occupy more of this building and move the

offices down here. If we do indeed move the police department, eventually an

alternative we have, and it's an alternative to consider the council will make that

decision at that time, would be to sell the building that we currently own up here on the

corner to recoup some of the expense related to this building.

So that's basically all that I wanted to update folks on tonight from my point of view. So

that being said, I'll hand it over to the borough manager, chief of police.

[Speaker 1] (22:33 - 29:56)

A lot of people have been asking when Halloween is. We do it on Thursday night.

Halloween night is October 31st from 6 to 8, so that's when we will have trick-or-treat

night for the borough.

So I keep reminding everybody that it's October 12th from 10 to 3 p.m. in the Public

Works building on Whitehall Road. We will be doing a bulk trash pickup. Everybody in

town can register.

It's free. Bring all your stuff that you want to get rid of, furniture, washer, dryers, no

electronics, tires, liquids, or hazmats, and brush. People are asking if they can bring

brush.

No, we're not going to get rid of brush. We really have no way of getting rid of it, so that

brush is not allowed either. Microwaves, and we were saying refrigerators and freezers,

but we'll take that.

We will have different dumpsters there to separate that stuff out and get rid of it. But

again, it's free to borough residents. The park project is progressing well.

The rain's not helping. That's slowing us up a little bit. The walking trails are almost in

the bases, not the final coat.

They're coming out really nice. The playground equipment is currently being installed.

That company came in this week and started beginning to do that.

Fencing should be put up next week. We're starting to pour sidewalks. The wheels fell off

of that with the rain this week, but we're going to try to get that done this week.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes. All in all, it's going pretty much according to

plan, and hopefully we get this other issue with the Lakeview Drive water runoff and get

that taken care of, and we can tie that in with this project. Any questions so far from the

council or the department back there, or anybody?

Okay. No. We are pretty much completing, as you all know, we rearranged the laundry

mat a couple weeks ago.

We're completing the accident investigation on that. I haven't talked to the owner, but

I'm almost certain it's probably going to be totally removed. The gas company called me

for permitting and stuff.

They're going to pull new gas lines in. From what I understand in talking to earlier

conversation, he's trying to move this along as fast as he can. I mean, that's a needed

item in town.

A lot of people use that laundry mat, so hopefully we can get that done. We will help in

any way we can to get that. But everybody was saying, you know, it just looks like the

guy had an accident.

I mean, as accidents go, if you're going to do it, he did it right. There was no cars. I

mean, we have truck cam videos.

He just veered off the road and hit a parked car. Speed was not an issue. The car was

not illegally parked.

The car was tight against the curb. You see him going down the road, he just veers over.

It just launched the truck into the air.

It went downhill from there. But you got to figure that's a lot of weight. So when it gets

going, there's not a lot you can do to stop that.

We had this generator here checked. This building is redundant power. It's a gas

generator out here, natural gas generator, which we actually need because we open up

an emergency operations center and we'll lose the power and stuff we need to run the

police radios and everything else.

So that was one of the purposes that we needed for this building. That being said, we're

looking at now we have two new generators. We have big generators at the plants and

some out at the well houses.

We're changing the companies. I had Gene get somebody in to look at it. I'm going to

change the company that does our generator maintenances next year, and it should be a

significant savings.

Just the one at the wastewater treatment plant, we would probably be paying $3,000,

$4,000 a year just to keep that under a service contract. And hopefully now with this

guy, the way it looks, and it's a reputable company, so they will do it. Hopefully we can

do all of them for $5,000.

So that would save a lot of money if we would have to do all the new generators. So

that's going to work out. I'm working with a realty company.

I talked to him twice now. And they're under contract, and they're trying to bring a

couple of pieces in, and I'm going to meet with businesses in for the old VFW building. So

hopefully we can get that building repurposed with a commercial property and get that

building back and operating.

Because the longer it sits there, the worse it gets. So hopefully they can get that worked

out. We're still continuing to work on all the codes issues and issuing all the permits.

That's being taken care of. Sandy and I, we've been working with all the different

employees, getting a bunch of stuff put together. So hopefully that will be out at the end

of the month.

We're still getting contract prices on our contracted services for our sewer and water

plants, and that just takes a while to get in and get these people to give you the prices

you need. So hopefully that will all be done, and your council will have that by the end of

the month. Just to remind everybody, we're having that medicine take back.

It will be up at the police station October 26th from 10 to 2. So any unused medicines

and anything you want to get rid of, just bring them in and we'll get rid of them for you.

If you have any questions, that's pretty much all I have going.

Questions for Chuck?

________#2

[Speaker 1] (0:03 - 0:06)

Thanks, Chuck. Sandy, a couple of updates.

[Speaker 2] (0:08 - 0:27)

I didn't take these off, but we're still working on the municipal records, and I put out

another RFP to CPA firms. I did four more. I just got one back, and staffing is an issue for

a lot of them.

That won't take on any more work.

[Speaker 1] (0:27 - 0:28)

CPA firms?

[Speaker 2] (0:28 - 0:34)

So I have three more that I'm still waiting for, so hopefully one of them will turn up.

[Speaker 1] (0:38 - 0:53)

Sandy, on either one of those digitalization of our municipal records or the CPA RFPs, if

not, no code officer report.

[Speaker 8] (0:53 - 1:33)

Yeah, I do want to just say, wow, I got you all here. I know we've kicked this around, and

we're not getting a lot of interest, because there's just a lot of these guys out there, girls

that want to do this. But I need a clear direction from council, and I believe we have

enough to make this a full-time position, if that's the council's wishes.

It wasn't part-time. No, it was kicking it back and forth. Yeah, I think we did.

[Speaker 1] (1:34 - 2:31)

Yeah, I did. All right. Eddie, Wanda, are you still in agreement with being a full-time

person?

Everybody down this way? All right. Okay, I'm good.

All right. I'm done for the night. The words committees and commissions, and then we're

meeting in August for planning.

We've already talked at length about what's going on with the park and approved that

backstop change order. We've got nothing on the tax collection committee for Adams

County. And everybody just got from Dave the emails today on those areas.

They have one more meeting.

[Speaker 11] (2:32 - 3:05)

I'm not sure of the exact date, but it's usually one meeting each quarter, and I don't

know if it's in November or December. Council of Governments is meeting this Thursday

at 8.30 over at the Emergency Management Services Building on Greenmire Lane in

Gettysburg. And we'll report after that.

[Speaker 1] (3:09 - 3:37)

All right. At the public comment non-agenda items portion of the meeting, just a

reminder to everyone, public comment is limited to borough residents. Also, we ask that

you identify yourself by name and address when you make comment.

Any public comment, non-agenda items? Yes?

[Speaker 9] (3:37 - 3:48)

Grace Beeson, Borough. I'm bringing this up for Joyce Unger about her street light that's

out on North King. She said it was never fixed.

[Speaker 8] (3:49 - 3:54)

It's on the list. I'd like to call Med Ed and see what they'll do.

[Speaker 1] (3:56 - 4:14)

She asked me to ask about that. That's okay. I mean, Med Ed, they operate on their

schedule.

We let them know, and it's hard to do much beyond that. And I do have one other thing.

[Speaker 9] (4:15 - 4:42)

Down at the library, the garden club takes care of the flowers and stuff, but there's a

bush down there that they ought to take out. It's a rose that's dead. It's on the corner.

So that would be the borough workers. Would they be able to do that? I'm always talking

about leaves.

It is. Seriously, it needs taken out. So the borough would do that for me.

[Speaker 5] (4:44 - 5:15)

Yeah, I'd like to plant a seed tonight. We have this beautiful new room, and I think we

should plan to make it ours. And I don't know how we can do this.

It's going to take some planning. But I would like to see all of the former mayors that

we've had in the list down. Maybe placed on a plaque that could maybe go against that

wall back there.

I don't know how far back we can go.

[Speaker 1] (5:18 - 5:20)

We may have to rely on your memory for that.

[Speaker 5] (5:20 - 5:38)

Yeah, I can't go back too far, but I've gone pretty far. But I think that would be something

that somebody should be looking into. I don't know if I could do it, but I'm sure there's

someone in town.

I know probably Marilyn Zanger would be a very good one to have on that committee.

[Speaker 2] (5:41 - 5:51)

Betty, I know you mentioned that to me, and I started to get some together. I try to do it

in my spare time, because I can go back through old men and women.

[Speaker 8] (5:51 - 5:55)

Actually, you don't. You don't have to do that. Because I have a book.

[Speaker 5] (5:57 - 5:58)

Yeah, that book.

[Speaker 8] (5:59 - 6:07)

That centennial book, but it wasn't this one. It wasn't a recent one, but it has all the past

mayors listed in it.

[Speaker 5] (6:07 - 6:17)

I have that one too, but I'm not sure that that has all. It could have gone pretty far. I

know it could have gone pretty far, but it's probably all the buildings you go back to.

[Speaker 2] (6:17 - 6:33)

Well, we'll see, because once all the records and minutes get digitalized, it'll be easier to

search in that. It's just going to take some time for that project to get done. But I do

have it on the list.

[Speaker 1] (6:35 - 6:52)

That's a good suggestion, Betty. I for one agree with you. We were talking informally

before the meeting started about new room.

We obviously need some things on the walls in here anyway, so we're getting there, but

that's a great suggestion.

[Speaker 5] (6:52 - 7:29)

I also have the old map of Willowstown from 1865. There's only... Well, I can go back for

six.

I think there's six in existence, and I have one of them. Now, my daughter right now has

it. I had it at the shop when I had the antique shop, and when I gave the antique shop, I

didn't have any place to put it at home, so I gave it to my daughter to keep for me.

So if I can get it from her, I think I would like to donate it to be placed someplace in the

history.

[Speaker 1] (7:31 - 7:35)

Yes, Mr. Zanger.

[Speaker 12] (7:36 - 7:44)

Scott Zanger, Willowstown. I think you should talk to Ken Thomas at the Historical

Society, because he has records from forever.

[Speaker 1] (7:45 - 8:06)

So he could take care of that. I'd like to get some really old pictures. There's that

Willowstown, I remember, Facebook group that has periodically posted some really old

photographs on there, and if we could get our hands on some of them and have some

made up to put around in here would be kind of cool, I think.

[Speaker 7] (8:10 - 9:21)

Suzanne Johnson, oh, I'm sorry. Littlestown, a resident. I would just ask that, I don't

know, maybe through the mayor or somebody reaching out and working with the school

board to, when they set up their meeting schedules, and they'll set up their meeting

schedule in December, if there's any way to try to minimize the overlap, because in

October, I can't be in two places at once.

I can't be here and at a school board meeting. So if there's people that want to be

involved in everything Littlestown and the governing of the town, it'd be nice if there

wasn't a conflict between the council's meeting and the school board's meetings. And it

happens a couple times a year on Tuesdays.

Not very often, but I know that you guys set your schedule, and I don't know how far

ahead it's set, maybe for the whole year, and they do their schedule, and they do their

schedule in December for the next year. So if there's any kind of coordination that could

happen and any liaison between the two, that would be helpful to the public. Okay,

Farrah.

Thank you.

[Speaker 10] (9:24 - 9:52)

Yes, sir. Chris Erdle, 31 Wheaton Drive, Littlestown. Just wondering if you guys, one of

the questions that came up was whether you guys have a quorum, minimum amount of

people that you need to have a meeting.

Is there any quorum rule, you should say. I don't see any in any of the paperwork that

you guys have. I mean, there's been a couple guys out here recently.

[Speaker 2] (9:53 - 10:13)

You need three. You need a majority of council. So if I have less than three council

members, there's no quorum.

So they would still come in, sit down, the meeting would be called to order, and then the

council president would state that there's no quorum of council and then close the

meeting right away.

[Speaker 10] (10:14 - 10:17)

So three. So if there's less than three, you don't have a meeting. Right.

[Speaker 2] (10:19 - 10:23)

And that's actually set by the borough state code.

[Speaker 10] (10:23 - 10:24)

I didn't see that.

[Speaker 2] (10:24 - 10:29)

You need a quorum. You need a majority.

[Speaker 1] (10:32 - 10:33)

Yes, ma'am.

[Speaker 4] (10:34 - 11:32)

I'm Jody McLucas here in Littlestown. When we have to activate the emergency alarm

thing like you did for the possible tornado in the area, is there any way, and I know some

people might, don't kill me if I ask you this, but I know people that live right in town,

right on the square, they can hear perfectly well. But us that are a little bit down further,

when you're in your house, this last time, we really didn't hear it.

And like three of the different neighbors, I heard the dogs barking and I was like, what's

going on? So I did go outside and then I did hear it. And then I alerted the neighbors too

and our phones started going off.

But if you're in your houses, especially if you've got good windows and insulation, you

really can't hear it. And I know people on the square are...

[Speaker 1] (11:32 - 11:33)

What neighborhood do you live in?

[Speaker 4] (11:34 - 11:44)

Like down towards Lobella's. And I know people that live right in town, they don't want it

louder, but we don't set it off.

[Speaker 8] (11:45 - 11:47)

It cannot get any louder.

[Speaker 4] (11:47 - 11:48)

Okay.

[Speaker 2] (11:48 - 11:51)

That's county that sets that off. We have to control it.

[Speaker 1] (11:52 - 11:58)

I mean, I heard it. I heard it and then mine and my wife's phones were going crazy.

[Speaker 4] (11:59 - 12:10)

And they were going crazy because I was working at home that day too. And I was like,

okay, what's going on? But I mean, the dogs obviously heard it.

Not my dogs, the neighbor's dogs. And that's what really alerted us.

[Speaker 1] (12:11 - 12:15)

That's... That's fine. Okay.

[Speaker 4] (12:16 - 12:20)

I just told the neighborhood I'd ask just to be on the safe side.

[Speaker 8] (12:20 - 12:25)

That's actually a TMI siren. That's the loudest one I could get.

[Speaker 4] (12:25 - 12:26)

Oh, okay.

[Speaker 8] (12:28 - 12:35)

Yeah, I don't know. But they control that, setting it off to do the maintenance. They need

to upgrade that kind of stuff.

[Speaker 4] (12:35 - 13:00)

Same with that alarm that comes on the radios. They need to get somebody that

actually speaks clear to... I mean, not saying anything against you guys, but I mean,

come on.

How many times have we heard things on the radio and we're like, what did they just

say? You know, they need to be a little more clear. But yeah, I just think eventually...

Thank you. ...it should be a little louder because the houses are made better than what

they were back then.

[Speaker 6] (13:00 - 13:04)

And I've been using that siren for 30 years to alert me when there's a fire going in this

town.

[Speaker 4] (13:05 - 13:09)

And I know people hated that when it went off all the time, but now it just...

[Speaker 6] (13:09 - 13:34)

So when you hear it goes off, but unfortunately, it's going to be one directional. So if the

wind's blowing south, you're probably not going to hear it as well. The next time, it'll

probably sound like it's in your living room because sometimes I can hear it when it goes

off one side, and other days I'm like, yeah, I think it's going off.

And unfortunately, it's just wind directional a lot of the time.

[Speaker 4] (13:34 - 13:45)

That explains it. I mean, we don't really need it. I know you used to do it once a month as

a test thing, but we haven't really turned it on except for when we had this.

[Speaker 6] (13:45 - 14:15)

So that was to get the community conditioned to this is not a fire call. If it's not the first

Saturday of the month or whatever the idea behind it was, like there's actually a problem

going on and we need you to hear that. So it is, I mean, we have our phones, we have

the radio system, we have this.

This is just one more layer of a protection system. Unfortunately, we can't control the

wind and which way it's going to go. And like Chuck said, that is one of the loudest ones

if not the loudest one that we have.

[Speaker 7] (14:16 - 14:33)

That's fine. And there's, I'm sorry, just to follow up on what you said, the county says it

has to be heat in this location, not like one on one side of the town or one on the other

side of the town.

[Speaker 6] (14:33 - 14:59)

So that's probably a better question for Chuck. But again, this is used for to alert farmers

in the field that were volunteer firefighters. That's originally how it started.

It has turned into a warning system for tornadoes or natural disasters. So that's why it's

in the middle of town. Because back in the day, this was all farmland.

Behind here was farmland. They could hear it. That's what was going on.

Chuck might be able to answer if they can move that.

[Speaker 1] (15:00 - 15:32)

I don't know. I guess I could ask for a show of hands. Is there anybody in here that

doesn't own a cell phone now?

To make the point sort of moot here, your phone's probably, I'm sure everybody's phone

probably went nuts that morning. And that's pretty damn loud. I know it made me jump

when I was sitting there drinking coffee when my phone started.

And I heard that. But I also heard the siren on top of the building in town.

[Speaker 3] (15:34 - 15:38)

There was a rail in the front of the education. I didn't even see it.

[Speaker 6] (15:38 - 15:46)

And that was delayed that day. The phones went off a good minute before that even

went off. So it's antiquated.

[Speaker 4] (15:46 - 15:47)

That's fine. I'm cool.

[Speaker 6] (15:48 - 15:50)

Any other public comment?

[Speaker 14] (15:52 - 15:52)

Yes.

[Speaker 3] (15:53 - 17:26)

I sent an email a couple weeks ago. And I apologize. I totally was late on the email about

the suggestion with the community block development.

Community development block that? I caught myself. I got it.

No, I caught myself. I didn't know if you could reconsider that motion. And when you said

something earlier, it kind of made more sense to me.

The liquid fuel funds are for the roads. And that's ADA compliant. Usually counties use

their highway funds, boroughs use the highway funds to make the sidewalks ADA

compliant.

Majority of people who receive the community, I'm sorry, development block grant use it

to improve their water infrastructure. So majority of the people that are receiving this

from HUD, 71 percent, so I truly feel that money should be used towards the water

infrastructure. Maybe with my proposal or five point options of different ways because

maybe January's increase from town that we could push that back if we use that grant

for infrastructure improvements and use the liquid fuel to fix the ADA curbs, which isn't a

necessity.

It's a nice to have. Water is a necessity. It's important.

[Speaker 1] (17:28 - 18:45)

I understand your suggestion, your point. Council voted on that, made a decision. We're

not going to rescind that decision.

We made a decision some time ago over the last several years to use that CDBG money

for just what we're using it for. That's the handicap accessible curb cut-ins. I'm not going

to go into all the other suggestions you made about trying to alleviate, including perhaps

not doing the January water increase.

That's also always done in public meetings, voted upon by the council that gets elected

by the citizens of this borough, and that's how things work. I doubt that any of us have

any opportunity to ask the county commissioners, the state legislature, or the Congress

of the United States to change their minds once they vote on things and pass laws and

pass regulations and things like that. That actually happens all the time.

I'm sorry.

[Speaker 14] (18:45 - 18:48)

That's fine. You don't have to be sorry. Maybe you are sorry.

I don't know.

[Speaker 1] (18:49 - 18:56)

But we are not going to and I'm going to end this conversation right here.

[Speaker 3] (18:57 - 18:58)

Why are you getting so angry?

[Speaker 1] (18:58 - 19:03)

I'm just trying to I'm going to tell you we are not going to No.

[Speaker 2] (19:07 - 19:54)

May I just say too that it is you cannot rescind that motion anyway because CDBG is time

limited. We already had both of the public hearings on it and it's already been sent to the

county and the commissioners will act on it and then our application will be sent in so it's

too late for them anyway to rescind and redo that because it's very time sensitive. That's

fair.

Have you looked in the community block service grant? We go through the county for all

of our stuff because CDBG is very complicated. No, I've read all the rules but what I'm

saying is Well, the rules aren't nothing to the people that you have to put all this

information through.

[Speaker 3] (19:54 - 19:57)

I understand but you had the due diligence to let the entire town know.

[Speaker 2] (19:58 - 19:58)

I did.

[Speaker 3] (19:58 - 20:00)

Not once did it show up on Savvy Citizen.

[Speaker 2] (20:00 - 20:38)

Hey, email me ideas of what I do it for the county what they tell me to do. For CDBG all

you have to do is advertise it in the paper. That is what I have to provide to the county.

The money goes into the county and then the county disperses however they do it. I

don't get involved in their end. They just tell us what's allotted to Littlestown.

The county will tell me what I have to do to meet all the compliance with CDBG and

that's just what I have to do. And then we had our two public hearings.

[Speaker 3] (20:39 - 21:25)

I wrote plenty of grants in my day. The town is very worried about the January increase.

To my second point I sent you two water rate calculators that are only going to help the

people of this town figure out what their water bill will be before they get it.

So if you guys could please take the bill that you received and check my calculator so we

can help town people figure out from metric meters to the hundredths to 1.6 and

multiply it. Not everyone knows that math. We're working with the community that is

blue collar.

An easy online calculator would only help everyone. If you could give it its blessings. I

can post it online and share it with the community.

[Speaker 2] (21:26 - 21:28)

I did respond to you that as soon as I get some time.

[Speaker 3] (21:32 - 21:37)

As simple as putting your together.

[Speaker 2] (21:39 - 21:47)

It's a little bit different. I'll be able to see the accounts and I can make sure it's all

calculated properly.

[Speaker 3] (21:51 - 21:56)

Because there's different meters in the community.

[Speaker 2] (21:57 - 22:32)

Some read in tenths. Some read in hundredths. So each account has a multiplier.

It depends on how your meter reads. That calculator, it will make a big difference. I have

a calculator.

I just never put it on there because it's people will need to know what their meter reads.

Whether their meter reads in tenths, hundredths.

[Speaker 3] (22:39 - 22:41)

So most people have a three-fourth inch.

[Speaker 2] (22:42 - 23:04)

That has nothing to do with that. The size of the meter has nothing to do with how the

meter reads. There's a meter head on there.

I don't know if you can explain it a little better. It can read in because we're still in the

early So it's two different residential meters.

[Speaker 13] (23:05 - 23:14)

One is an older style. One is a newer style. The newer style reads in tenths.

The older one reads in hundredths.

[Speaker 2] (23:16 - 23:19)

And then you have your radio reads that are one. Yes.

[Speaker 3] (23:20 - 23:29)

Well, if provide us with that information we'd be happy to make whatever until people

know what size meter they're reading. It actually says it right on the meter.

[Speaker 7] (23:30 - 23:31)

Well, we're all blue collar so we won't know.

[Speaker 3] (23:33 - 23:38)

That's not what I meant, but okay. That's exactly what she said. That's not what I meant.

[Speaker 1] (23:38 - 23:43)

Any other public comment now that we've gone all for real and got into discussion?

[Speaker 3] (23:48 - 24:00)

I'm blue collar. I'm not trying to offend anybody. Any other public comment?

Meeting is adjourned.