Wellsville Village Council Meeting

Tuesday – February 1: Wellsville Village Council held their regular bi-monthly meeting this past Tuesday evening at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Mayor Joe Surace, Council Members Susan Haugh, Rosie Goss, Joe Soldano, Randy Allmon, John McMahon & Tony Cataldo. Also attending was Fiscal Officer Dale Davis, Village Legal Advisor Andy Beech and Village Zoning Administrator/Acting Village Administrator Rick Williams. Williams is filling in for the vacationing Jim Saracco.

Lisbon Street resident Laurie Harmon addressed Council during the Public Speaking part of the agenda in regards to the safety hazard on 9th Street when students from Daw Middle School are dismissed. Harmon noted that the traffic congestion problem is something that is very important to her. Harmon went on to say that last Friday was the last straw when her son was “just inches away from getting hit” while they were in the cross walk on 9th St. She indicated there are cars parked bumper to bumper on a yellow curb and private property waiting to pick up Middle School students at that time. With lives in jeopardy there needs to be a solution to this problem. From Main to Broadway, 9th Street is a solid yellow curb on the old MacDonald School building side that is completely ignored at that time of day.

Soldano observed that the Appian Way alley is just as bad, noting what Miss Harmon was saying is the exact truth. There's no parking lot for the school. He suggested that it will probably be necessary to get the police involved. Susan Haugh said she had spoken with Miss Harmon on the phone and was going to ask that a Street, Lights & Parking Committee meeting be scheduled to address the problem. In the mean time she asked the Mayor to make a plea to the parents giving them one week to make other arrangements to pick their children. That way the children will know where to find their rides. McMahon noted he's lived on that street for 40 some years and it's always been a problem. Aten Avenue resident Diane Dinch suggested getting school officials involved too. She recalled when MacDonald School was being used there were crossing guards and maybe there are teacher volunteers willing to help.

In the meantime there has been a Street, Lights & Parking Committee meeting scheduled for Monday, February 7 at 11 AM at Village Hall. John McMahon is chairman of that committee and has Randy Allmon & Haugh on his committee.

For Committee Reports, Finance Chairman Cataldo reported he will be scheduling a meeting shortly and said he would also like to get a work session to compare the 2010 budget line item by line item and department by department.

Dale Davis reported that proper papers have been filed with the Board of Elections to place the police levy on the May Primary ballot.

Under New Business Rosie Goss said she wanted to see what Council has to do to get “this random drug testing into play”. The Fiscal Officer advised it has been discussed and the question was how it would affect worker's comp for the Village. Since worker's comp rates are based on experience he doesn't believe it will have any effect but hasn't had the chance to check into it. Goss advised she had heard that if a policy is in place it would lower the premiums for worker's comp. Cataldo remarked it's already in the Policy & Procedures Manual. Soldano said it's been gone over before and a policy is needed to set guidelines on what to test for, who does the testing, who gets tested and etc. Cataldo said there use to be a contract with a testing facility located in Calcutta that had no affiliation with the Village. However, he stated he could not remember the name of the company. Goss volunteered to look into different testing facilities to see what is out there and report back.

Before closing the meeting Joe Soldano offered Council's sympathy to former Council member Jack Cataldo on the passing of his father John Cataldo. Cataldo was a life time Wellsville resident and retired to Gulfport,Florida. A lot of Wellsville people got jobs at the former Crucible Steel Mill with John's influence.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:26 PM. The next regular scheduled meeting is Tuesday, February 15 at 6 PM at Wellsville Village Hall.

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