Wellsville Council Meeting

Tuesday - January 5: Wellsville Village Council held their regular meeting Tuesday evening at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Mayor Joe Surace, Council members Rosie Goss, Susan Haugh, Joe Soldano, John McMahon, Randy Allmon, Tony Cataldo and Fiscal Officer Dale Davis. Also in attendance was Village Solicitor Andy Beech, Zoning Administrator Rick Williams, WFD Chief Bill Smith and former Councilman Don Brown.

Pastor Darlene Zanders of Wellsville's Mt. Sinai FBH Church offered the opening prayer.

The first order of business was the election of Council Pro-Tem. With a nomination by Joe Soldano and a second by Randy Allmon, Councilwoman Rosie Goss was elected to that post by a unanimous vote. The Mayor thanked Haugh for running for Council and Goss for running for re-election. Goss noted she is indeed honored to be elected to that position. She said she is the first African-American to hold Council Pro-Tem in Wellsville and that means a lot to her. She then went on to read her "Wish List for 2010" which she composed. In it she spoke of hope of unity among her fellow Council members and a bright future for the Village. She expressed hope that they all stand as one, helping each other when needed. She advised the Mayor she is depending on his help to make it all come true. She said "Wellsville is a great little village where the people I feel are sincere, so why don't we all try to make 2010 our greatest banner year".

Goss went on to announce her selection to the various committees for 2010. The first person listed for each committee is the designated Chairperson. For Finance - Cataldo, Soldano & McMahon. For Personnel - Soldano, Goss & Cataldo. For Streets, Lights & Parking - McMahon, Allmon & Soldano. For Claims, Rules & Ordinances - Goss, Soldano & Haugh. For Sewage - Allmon, Haugh & Cataldo. For Property, Equipment & Cemetery - Haugh, Allmon & Goss. Police & Fire Depts. Liaison - Haugh & Goss. Fire Dependency Board - McMahon & Allmon. EMS Committee - Soldano, McMahon & Cataldo. Goss went on to say if there is any problem give them a call. If not available please leave a message and they will get back to you in ample time.

For the Public Speaking Riverside resident Jack Cataldo addressed Council asking for a resolution to support a grant application to alleviate truck traffic on 17th & Clark streets. The resolution will have to commit $40,000 from the Sewage Update Fund as the Village share of the grant. The grant is from the Appalchian Region of OMEGA. It is intended to be used to build a one lane street for truck traffic to enter and exit the industrial sites from the Nevada Street area. Needing to move a sewage pump station justifies using funds from the Sewage Update Fund according to Cataldo. Application for the grant is due in June or July but Cataldo said he would like to have it in by the end of the month. He stressed that the resolution is key to being considerably favored to be awarded the grant. With a motion from Allmon is was voted in to order in the resolution supporting Cataldo with this grant application.

Commerce Street resident Jeff Ori thanked the Mayor for the wonderful things accomplished this past year. Ori noted the streets are in the best shape he has seen in years. The Mayor quickly gave credit for that to the members of the Street Dept. and agreed they have done a very good job. Ori also complimented WPD for more closely patrolling Commerce & Broadway controlling the speeders. He also praised the WVFD for driving fire trucks around playing Christmas music during the holidays. Ori said he's never seen that and he liked it.

For Administration Reports WFD Chief Smith submitted his report of 2009 activity. For the year the departments had a total of 184 calls. Of those calls over 28% were for medical assists followed by nearly 24% for full alarms. The property value of all fire calls totaled $2.74 million. Smith noted he was kind of proud that the fire fighters were able to save $2.65 million of that total in '09.

Smith also reported that bids for demolition of properties in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program are expected to go out at any time now. He noted that in other areas bids are coming in lower than expected. The Chief said hopefully that will continue which will allow enough funds to complete all the dilapidated properties on the list.

Zoning Administrator Rick Williams advised he will be filling in for vacationing Jim Saracco. He also reported that the Zoning Office took in $2,858 in 2009.

Although not in attendance Animal Control Officer Leslie Dean left her monthly report. There were a total of 13 calls received for the month of December.

For the Mayor's Report Surace recognized Local Chapter President of the NAACP Tom Jarrett in the audience. He also noted he was glad to see the participation with lots of people attending the Council meetings. Noting things were up & down in 2009 he expects good things to happen in the new year. Lastly he noted that sewage bill collections locally totaled $203,125.93 in 2009. That's up over $14,000 from the year before and includes current bills and ones past due. Surace remarked there is still a lot of people that don't realize they can pay their sewage bills at Village Hall.

Just being newly appointed there were no Committee Reports. Also there was no Legislation or New Business and the meeting was adjourned at 6:22 P.M. Next meeting is Tuesday, January 19, at 6 P.M.

Our wish for 2010 is that Council would start to include a Treasurer's Report as part of their agenda. We feel it is important for Village residents to know how the funds stand, how much was taken in, how much was spent each month and what it is spent on. We feel it would help to understand the state of the Village.

ole nib