Tuesday - August 3: Wellsville Village Council met in their only regularly scheduled meeting for the month last night at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Council Members Susan Haugh, John McMahon, Joe Soldano and Tony Cataldo. Also in attendance was Village Administrator Jim Saracco, Village Legal Advisor Andy Beech, Village Zoning Administrator Rick Williams, Fiscal Officer Dale Davis, WFD Chief Bill Smith & WPD Chief Joe Scarabino. President Pro-Tem Rosie Goss was excused for a family emergency and Councilman Randy Allmon was excused for personal reasons. Mayor Joe Surace is still vacationing.
With the absence of both Surace & Goss, Clerk of Council Dale Davis asked for a nomination for Acting Pro-Tem. Haugh declined siting her lack of experience being a first year Council member. McMahon then nominated Joe Soldano who accepted the position.
After approval of the minutes of the last three Council meetings, Cataldo made a motion to retire into Executive Session "to discuss police compensation" inviting WHS Alumni Activities President Kenny DeLauder & Carmela Boyce to join them. Chief Joe Scarabino also went with them and a few minutes into the session Fiscal Officer Davis was invited to join them. Returning 25 minutes later the meeting was resumed with no comment made on what was discussed behind closed doors. Following the Council meeting we were advised that there would be an Activities Committee meeting immediately afterwards when asked if there was any comment on the bill for the reunion security.
For Public Speaking, Scott Beech of New Life Church petitioned Council to block off 13th Street from Main to Center on Saturday, August 14, for a "Back To School Bash". It will be an all day event running from 10 A.M. to 9 P.M. with music, games, food and contests. The event will be held on the church's lots. Beech advised they are inviting the Fire Departments to have trucks on display for the youngsters to view. Plans are to use that portion of 13th St. for that display. Council voted to approve the closure provided all necessary paperwork is completed.
Tim Long of Commerce St. also petitioned Council for closing streets on October 16 for the running,jogging or walking of the 2nd Annual "Dash for Mat's Bash". The event is a fund raiser for the Mathugh Johnston Scholarship Fund which is dedicated in memory of the young Wellsville man who lost a courageous battle to cancer in 2007. This year the mini-marathon race course has been extended to make it a true 1.5 mile total distance. Long advised last year's event only took a maximum of one hour to run the race with approximately 400 people participating. It is not expected to be much longer than that this year and he asked that Main St. from Village Hall to 5th, Riverside from 9th to 5th and 9th between Main & Riverside be blocked during the actual running portion of the event. Approval was given by Council pending the completion of all necessary paperwork.
For Administration Reports, WFD Chief Bill Smith reported one contractor that demolished four delapidated structures in town left the properties in bad shape adding "the guy did a terrible job". Proper procedures were not followed with dust control. He was never contacted by the company and did not get the opportunity to inspect them. Consequently he is not signing off on them and is preparing a letter to the County Commissioners and Pam Dray with his full report. According to newspaper reports Smith was referring to Maverick Inc.
Smith also reported he is awaiting the FEMA report on the flood system and cautioned Council "to be ready. It's not going to be pretty". Smith explained the FEMA inspectors went over the whole system with a fine tooth comb, turning every rock over and he was with them the whole 10 hours it took. The flood system was put in back in the late 1930s and includes the floodwalls, gates, earthen dikes and pump stations. Once completed maintenance on the system became Wellsville's responsibility which has been mostly neglected in the last 70 years. Soldano remarked that he has asked the Village's grant writers to investigate if any funding for repairs is available. At a joint conference, arranged earlier this year by the Chief, with Federal, State and County officials and agencies Smith wasn't given much encouragement that any funding will be available anytime soon.
Village Administrator Jim Saracco reported the work on the digesters has begun remarking "it's the first little step but at least it's underway". Saracco was referring to the $451,862 conversion project at the Sewage Treatment Plant. See our post dated August 2.
Saracco also reported the work on the bear traps on McQueen's Run is completed but the bill from the contractor has not been received yet. A contractor was hired to clean out the bear trap which was expected to cost around $5,000. At a Special Council Meeting on July 20 it was reported that a new trap was constructed which everyone at that meeting claimed to have no knowledge of. Instead of $5,000 it was reported that the work on McQueen's Run was going to be $39,200.
Mayor Joe Surace called the Morning Journal's Jo Ann Bobby Gilbert from Florida that same day explaining that he had declared it an emergency and authorized the construction of the new trap. According to her report the Mayor accepted the blame for not advising members of Council. The Mayor reportedly told Gilbert that project would be paid out of the Sewage Update Fund. Several questions were raised at that Special Meeting that mostly remain unanswered.
No notes were left for anything to report for the Mayor's Report. Soldano did extend his congratulations to the seven members of the WHS Alumni Activities Committee present for the "outstanding reunion".
In the Committee Reports portion of the agenda, Council approved paying the extra $537.50 over the approved amount authorized for camera work on sewer lines recently completed by LSW. Council had authorized spending $31,000 total and the final amount was a bit over that.
Another invoice was approved to pay Mike Pusateri Excavating $3,192 for black top recently completed. Cataldo explained there were two sewer line breaks last year that Pusateri repaired - one on Riverside & the other on Clark. Repairing the street surface was held off until the weather permitted.
Council also approved a contract with the Warren Fire Equipment Company for the Fire Dept. to purchase 12 self contain breathing apparatus plus extra bottles at a cost of $69,604. Another bid was received from Fire Force Inc. for $67,092 but Smith explained that the tanks the department already has are all manufactured by Scott Aviation. The tanks from Warren Fire are the same manufacture with parts interchangeable. Even though slightly higher the Warren Fire tanks were considered the best bid to complement equipment already on hand. Soldano explained the tanks will be paid for out the FEMA grant awarded to the Village for new fire fighting equipment.
Council approved the appointment of Chester Avenue resident Jason Miller to the paid call list for firemen. Miller is a certified EMT and will need to be certified as a fire fighter. Chief Smith explained his training can be handled by the Village or the volunteers with possible grant reimbursement for the training costs.
Council placed three ordinances on second reading before wrapping up the meeting. The first is the ordinance terminating the contract for five Village employees with AFSCME Local 1869. The second is the ordinance for wages and conditions of employment for the Fiscal Clerk. Currently that is a union position covered under the existing contract. The third ordinance is establishing wages for the other union members also covered under the existing contract.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:49 P.M. Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 7 at 6 P.M. at Village Hall. Council will resume their regular meeting schedule in September with meetings the first and third Tuesday of each month.
ole nib
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9 comments:
Why are so many issues with council kept so quiet? An executive session for the Alumni-police situation. It is no wonder trust in our administration is at a all time low. Actually it is very sad.
The Mayor has no power to declare an emergency, nor does he have the power to hire L.S.W. or anybody else. Fire Chief Smith told Council that this was not a situation that he even could declare an emergency. The Mayor needs to answer a lot of questions. By the way, the lack of communication won't fly this time.
The question should be, why do people only come to council meetings when they think there will be trouble. Come to all the meetings, maybe they would not go into executive session. It's a damn shame people only come when the rumors start.
It appears council pretty much has their minds made up before they go to the meetings. The question is not why do people come to council meetings when rumors start or there will be trouble, the question should be whether there are a lot of people at the meetings or not, why does council hide so much from the people of Wellsville and why do they always point the finger at each other when things aren't going well or there is no communication with the administration and vice versa?
Not a good public relations move by the Wellsville PD. What were they thinking charging almost $6,000 to the Alumni Group. Glad they worked out a fairer price.
We agree it wasn't good p.r. but...
Speaking just for ourselves we get the feeling that the budget crunch that is effecting every department in Village Hall was the main reason for the bill. WPD salaries are paid out of the General Fund and if you have been paying attention you know it's in very poor health.
At any rate it is water over the dam. We're sure lessons were learned from this. We believe that in the future pre-arrangements will be discussed and agreed upon. It might be something the Ordinance Committee should take a serious look at. If rules were on the books for providing security for special events everyone would know up front what is required of them and could plan accordingly. There would be no surprises after the fact.
nib
If the budget crunch is the issue for every department in village hall, why would it not be the same for the Alumni association? They are not blessed with a huge bank account and remember their money is made by dinners and other money raising methods. I feel if they did not meet before the reunion and worked on the cost of security they were both at fault, but the village should never have sent a bill that outrageous to a non-profit hard working organization.
Who said it wasn't a problem for the Activities Committee? There were some very worried people over this bill before they worked it out. We got the impression that the future of the All-Class reunion was in limbo until they got together with Village Council. Fortunately they were able to work it out. Now it's time to move on.
nib
That was my point, I know it is a problem for the Alumni Association as well. Communication is the key for success, and it needs to be used by all organizations and government entities.We have a great village with a lot of great people, safety forces that get paid very little and do a great job. Without communication, you definitely are going to have these problems.
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