Wellsville Village Council

The Wellsville Village Council held their regular meeting last Tuesday, October 19, at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Mayor Joe Surace, Fiscal Officer Dale Davis and Council members Sue Haugh, John McMahon, Joe Soldano, Randy Allmon & Tony Cataldo. Also in attendance was Village Administrator Jim Saracco, Legal Advisor Andy Beech & WFD Chief Bill Smith. Councilwoman Rosie Goss was excused.

There was no one wishing to speak in the Public Speaking portion of the agenda and no administrative reports.

In the Mayor's Report, Joe Surace took the opportunity to salute Hillcrest resident S/Sgt. Paul Metrovich, US Air Force, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Surace remarked "the man has not served once or twice but he's been there four times" as he issued the proclamation. We'll have more on Metrovich in a separate post. Pictured above is Surace reading the Salute proclamation to S/Sgt. Metrovich and the proclamation.

Also, in the Mayor's Report, Surace announced that "the money for the STAG fund has finally been released" and now we can "start doing our safety items" with engineering and bidding. The Mayor thanked all involved including G,G& J, Congressman Wilson's office, Dale Davis, the Council members and everyone involved in digging out the old records to prove that the original grant monies was spent as intended.

About a year ago the balance of over $600,000 of the original STAG fund was put on hold with the EPA saying Wellsville owed $1.2 million from the original portion of the grant since there was no documentation on where that money went. The grant goes back to over ten years ago. That got everyone involved at Village Hall scurrying and digging through old records, including those stored in the basement. They had plans for two or three other sewage projects using that STAG balance.

After going through every piece of paper that could be found Village officials had documentation to justify all but $12,000 of that $1.2 million. When that appeared to still not satisfy the EPA, Congressman Charlie Wilson had members of his staff come to Wellsville to do their own investigation. As a result of that, it was declared there was no evidence of malfeasance using the original portion of the funds. The Congressman made a personal appeal on behalf of Wellsville to the EPA for release of the remaining portion.

There were three sewage projects that we were aware of using the money from the STAG funds. Number one on the list was the Sewage Treatment Plant digestors. With no word coming from the EPA about the grant Village officials found another way to fund that project and it was started this past summer. The other two projects are Highland Avenue and the Forced Main. Now that the balance of the STAG funds are released the Village will be able to get started on those two also.

For the Finance Committee, Tony Cataldo reported that as the end of September the General Fund had a balance of $7,654. Total of all funds was $566,874. Cataldo reported there will be a Finance Committee meeting called in the near future.

For Streets, Lights & Parking, John McMahon reported that the lights in Broadway Park would be controlled with a timer instead of replacing and relocating the sensors. According to Jim Saracco later in the week members of the Wellsville School District maintenance staff offered mutual aid to convert the system to the timer and from our vantage point the lights are now working on a timely basis.

Randy Allmon, for Water Sewage & Refuse, made motions to approve announcements of available engineering contracts for both the Highland Avenue project and the Sanitary Lift Station & Force Main which was passed.

Allmon went on to discuss cleaning out storm sewers that have a history of flooding especially at six different areas. Those are the corners of 13th St. & Commerce, 10th St. & Commerce, 10th St. & Wood, both 4th & 6th Sts. at Broadway and all four corners of 10th & Center. Village Administrator Saracco said he got prices from three different sources. The lowest quote was "right around $20,000".

Councilwoman Haugh asked if this would pose a risk of damaging the lines. Many of the Wellsville storm sewers are original clay pipe that date back to when they were first installed. Earlier this year LSW found one line that has collapsed when scoping was being done. Surace remarked that he would be worried if jet rodding would be done on the sanitary sewers. However many of the storm sewers are filled with debris that was washed down the street drains and need to be cleaned out. Saracco added with winter coming on there is the added risk of those puddles freezing over and turning to ice.

Haugh then asked who submitted quotes. Saracco responded that one company he approached refused to give a quote. They were around $200 per hour the last time. Another company included mileage going back & forth. LSW quoted the same price of $125 per hour. Their cost has not changed in six years. Davis advised the money for jet rodding the storm sewers would come out of the sewage fund.

Allmon concluded the discussion saying since it's under the $25,000 limit that advertising for bids would not be necessary. He felt it's necessary to do for preventive maintenance on Village infrastructure and should be done regularly. Soldano agreed and Cataldo added that G,G&J recommended that a fund be established and set aside to do this yearly.

Under Legislation, Ordinance 10-08 was unanimously tabled. Cataldo remarked that the Administration has an idea of what it is going to cost repairing the sink hole at 17th & Main. He recommended they get together with Wellsville Terminals & Marathon Oil to see if they would agree to share 1/3rd of the cost. Haugh suggested any agreement be put in writing and that those two companies would agree to any extra costs should additional problems be discovered. According to the Mayor Marathon has already given a verbal offer to share the costs and he will arrange a meeting with himself, Andy Beech and representatives from the two companies as soon as possible.

The Village Administrator has gotten quotes from three different companies. He also had the engineering firm of G,G&J to draw up a job description for the repair job in accordance to ODOT specificatons. The Fiscal Officer pointed out the sink hole repair was reported in a news article but it has not been legally bid.

Council also tabled Ordinance 10-09 repealing the 2006 Tree Board ordinance. It was reported in the newspaper that Sue Haugh stated prior to the meeting she would not support getting rid of the Tree Board. According to that article Haugh pointed out that a Tree Board has to be in existence in order to remain a Tree City USA. That has to be justified by a Village ordinance. Allmon remarked he would like to do more research and is worried that getting rid of the Tree Board would hinder obtaining future grants.

Under New Business, Mrs. Haugh issued a reminder for everyone to get out and vote November 2nd and support the two Fire Levies. Passage of those two levies is extremely important.

Being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 6:26 P.M. Since the first Tuesday in November is Election Day, the next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, November 3 at 6 P.M. in Village Hall.

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