Minutes of the regular meeting of the east petersburg borough council

Page 5803

January 8, 2013

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

OF THE EAST PETERSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL

The meeting of the East Petersburg Borough Council came to order at 7:00 P.M. with the following members of Council and employees present: President Cappy Panus, Vice-President John Wolf, Connie McElwain, Tom Huber, Greg Bucher, Mary Armstrong, Adam Gochnauer, Mayor Jeff Geoghan, and Borough Manager Robin Hemperly

Call Regular Meeting to Order 7:00 P.M.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given.

It was moved and seconded (Huber/Wolf) to accept the minutes of the December 18^th, 2012 Borough Council Meetings. Unanimous approval.

Attendees – See attached attendance list.

Bill Payment Review.

Visit From: Chief Harkens (MTPD) commented on the incident on Graystone Road where a student was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street to the bus stop.

Comments from Citizens: A group from Constitution Square commented what they see as a lack of police traffic enforcement on Graystone Road and would like to know what can be done about it. The group also had concerns about the bus stops their children have to walk to. Council President Panus told them about a meeting at Hempfield High School on safety and also gave them a phone number to call the vice-president of the school board. After much discussion council said they would ask Dan Forry, Hempfield School District Transportation Director to come to the next Committee Meeting. The spokesperson for the group said they would like to see the community work together to improve the safety of the children.
Mayor's Report:

Police Report – Mayor Geoghan read the police report for December and year to date.

Reports from Appointed Officers:

Borough Manager Report – Chief Harkens commented on options for places to take lost/found dogs now that the Humane League is not taking them.

Public Works Superintendent's Report- See attached.

Zoning Officer Report- See attached.

Committee Reports:

Fire Company Report – Chief Rohrer gave the Fire Company Report for December. Discussed problems with a house on Broad Street that the fire company has been called out to, need for something in the zoning ordinance/building code concerning smoke detectors.

EMA Report – No report.

HARC – (Adam) - HARC approved taking over the operation of the pool this year.

EIT – (Greg) – Greg thanked the Fire Department for the help on dropping the “jug” on New Year’s Eve. Greg and John both said it was well attended, close to 300 people.

LIMC – (John) - LIMC is looking at different funding formulas. East Hempfield has pulled out, watching to see what MT does. There is a withdrawal fee to get out.

Unfinished Business:

Vacancy Board Appointment

Vacancy – Zoning Hearing Board

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January 8, 2013

New Business:

1. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve the following appointed service organizations. Unanimous approval.
   

1. 
   Solicitor - 2013 - Barley, Snyder, Senft & Cohen - Michael W. Davis
   
2. 
   General Engineer - 2013 – Appointment per project.
   
3. 
   Water Engineer - 2013 - Arro Consulting Inc.
   
4. 
   Auditor - 2013 - Trout, Ebersole & Groff, LLP
   
5. 
   Zoning Officer – 2013 – Edward Fisher – Light-Heigel & Assoc., Inc.
   
6. 
   Sewage Enforcement Officer – 2013- Light-Heigel & Assoc., Inc.
   
7. 
   Code Compliance Officer – 2013 – Andrew Nelson – Commonwealth Code Inspection Service, Inc.
   

2. 
   Conditional Use Plan from CarGroup Holdings for the property located at 5375 Main Street. It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve sending the conditional use application from CarGroup Holdings to the Planning Commission for their recommendations. Unanimous approval
   

Announcements:

Meeting Adjourned 7:49 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

Virginia A. Groff, Recording Secretary

Page 5805

February 5, 2013

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

OF THE EAST PETERSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL

The meeting of the East Petersburg Borough Council came to order at 7:00 P.M. with the following members of Council and employees present: President Cappy Panus, Vice-President John Wolf, Connie McElwain, Tom Huber, Greg Bucher, Mary Armstrong, Adam Gochnauer, Mayor Jeff Geoghan, and Borough Manager Robin Hemperly

Conditional Use Hearing
Application of CarGroup Holdings LLC, 1400 N. Providence Rd Media PA, for a Conditional Use of Sections 402A.7, Auto Sales, of the East Petersburg Borough Zoning Ordinance of 2009, property located at 5375 Main Street East Petersburg PA.
It was moved and seconded (Wolf/Bucher) to approve the conditional use application of CarGroup Holdings LLC, 1400 N. Providence Rd Media PA for use of Sections 402A.7, Auto Sales, of the East Petersburg Borough Zoning Ordinance of 2009, at the property located at 5375 Main Street East Petersburg PA. Based on a recommendation that:

1. All vehicles on site must be parked in designated parking space as shown on the plan. Based on the parking requirements for the existing building, 10 spaces shall be reserved for employees, office and customer use.

2. All loading and unloading of vehicles shall take place on the property. No loading or unloading shall be permitted from Main Street and all business shall be conducted on the hours that were submitted on their conditional use application.

3. The property owners shall install sidewalks on the Rt. 72 road frontage. Motion approved six to one.
Cappy Panus - Aye John Wolf – Aye

Connie McElwain – Aye Tom Huber – Aye

Greg Bucher – Aye Adam Gochnauer – Aye

Mary Armstrong - Nay
Call Regular Meeting to Order 7:10 P.M.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given.

It was moved and seconded (Huber/Bucher) to accept the minutes of the January 8, 2013 Borough Council Meetings. Unanimous approval.

Attendees – See attached attendance list.

Bill Payment Review.

1. 
   It was moved and seconded (Huber/Bucher) to approve payment of the Fire Company Bill. Unanimous approval.
   

Visit From:

1. 
   Barbara Gant – did not show. It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve the shutoff of the water for non-payment of bills. Unanimous approval.
   
2. 
   Phillip Brath from ARRO discussed MS4. See attached.
   

Mayor's Report:

Police Report – Mayor Geoghan read the police report for January.

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February 5, 2013

Reports from Appointed Officers:

Borough Manager Report –

Public Works Superintendent's Report- See attached.

Zoning Officer Report- See attached.
Committee Reports:

Fire Company Report – Chief Rohrer gave the Fire Company Report for January and the annual fire report for 2012. Copies were distributed to council.

EMA Report – No report.

HARC – (Adam) – No report.

EIT – (Greg) – No report.

LIMC – (John) – John said that in light of some of the news with the LIMC and what’s been going on recently and what their future role may or may not be we’ve discussed our role and pretty much concluded we don’t feel a need to be part of the LIMC any longer. That being said we are still committed to working with our neighboring communities to foster that relationship we’ve always had with them and continue to work with them on different projects. East Hempfield to our west and Manheim Township to our east. It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Gochnauer) for East Petersburg Borough to leave as a member of LIMC effective April 1, 2013. Unanimous approval.

It is with regret that we will be presenting a motion that contains our intent to withdrawal from the LIMC if membership fees remain in place. We feel the LIMC has, over the last several months, strayed from its original intent of helping municipalities to co-operate together for the greater good of all its residents.

If or when they return to the original premise of its founding, we will then re-consider our present position.

Meanwhile we will continue our communication with our neighbors, East Hempfield and Manheim Townships.
Unfinished Business:

Vacancy Board Appointment

Vacancy – Zoning Hearing Board It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to appoint Mark Wagner to the vacancy that is on our Zoning Hearing Board. Unanimous approval.
New Business:

1. 
   It was moved and seconded (Wolf/Bucher) to approve accepting the agreement with the SPCA. Unanimous approval.
   
2. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Huber) to approve closing the “Sweep” Petty Cash account. Unanimous approval.
   
3. 
   It was moved and seconded (Wolf/Bucher) to approve the establishment of Petty Cash Account. Unanimous approval.
   
4. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve exonerations and turn over the delinquent accounts to collections. Unanimous approval.
   

Announcements:

Meeting Adjourned 8:30 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

Virginia A. Groff, Recording Secretary

Page 5807

March 5, 2013

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

OF THE EAST PETERSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL

The meeting of the East Petersburg Borough Council came to order at 7:00 P.M. with the following members of Council and employees present: President Cappy Panus, Vice-President John Wolf, Connie McElwain, Tom Huber, Greg Bucher, Mary Armstrong, Adam Gochnauer, Mayor Jeff Geoghan, and Borough Manager Robin Hemperly

Call Regular Meeting to Order 7:00 P.M.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given.

It was moved and seconded (Huber/Bucher) to accept the minutes of the February 5, 2013 Borough Council Meetings. Unanimous approval.

Attendees – See attached attendance list.

Bill Payment Review.
Visit From:
Mayor's Report:

Police Report – Mayor Geoghan read the police report for February. Copies were distributed to council.

Reports from Appointed Officers:

Borough Manager Report –

Public Works Superintendent's Report- See attached.

Zoning Officer Report- See attached.

Committee Reports:

Fire Company Report – Chief Rohrer gave the Fire Company Report for February. Copies were distributed to council.

EMA Report – No report.

HARC – (Adam) – No report.

EIT – (Greg) – No report.
Unfinished Business:

Vacancy Board Appointment

Vacancy – Zoning Hearing Board Alternate.
New Business:

1. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Huber) to approve Resolution #664, to Erect Signs and Banners across SR 0072, Main Street. Unanimous approval.
   
2. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve Resolution to Appoint and Accept Police Officer of Manheim Township. Unanimous approval.
   
3. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Wolf) to approve the 2013 schedule for the East Pete Rec Association with conditions. Unanimous approval. (see attached)
   
4. 
   It was moved and seconded (Huber/Gochnauer) to approve the EPFC Special Fire Police Events Schedule. Unanimous approval.
   

Announcements:

Meeting Adjourned 7:27 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

Virginia A. Groff, Recording Secretary

Page 5808

April 2, 2013

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

OF THE EAST PETERSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL

The meeting of the East Petersburg Borough Council came to order at 7:00 P.M. with the following members of Council and employees present: President Cappy Panus, Vice-President John Wolf, Tom Huber, Greg Bucher, Mary Armstrong, Adam Gochnauer, and Borough Manager Robin Hemperly Absent: Connie McElwain, Mayor Jeff Geoghan

Call Regular Meeting to Order 7:00 P.M.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given.

It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Gochnauer) to accept the minutes of the March 5, 2013 Borough Council Meetings. Unanimous approval.

Attendees – See attached attendance list.

Bill Payment Review.
Comments from Citizens: Council President Panus said this is where comments from citizens are taken. Obviously people are here for a reason, so council would like to ask your indulgence, if we may go through our basic reports and then come back and open it up to the residents to ask their questions or comments.
Mayor's Report:

Police Report – Councilperson Armstrong read the police report for March. Copies were distributed to council.

Reports from Appointed Officers:

Borough Manager Report – See attached

• 
  Councilperson Greg Bucher said, as everybody knows, over the last year we’ve been working very, very hard to get our expenses in line in the borough. At the end of 2011 we were running in the red. We promised the people, the citizens that along with doing a tax increase we were going to work very hard to cut expenses in the borough and bring things in line. In conjunction with our employees who have been doing an excellent job doing their job and picking up more work because we laid off two people last year, we put a lot of things out to bid that we hadn’t put out to bid in a long time, getting new contract agreements. We went from being in the red to a $350,000 surplus after one year. $100,000 of that was the tax increase, but to give you a perspective on this, if you take that $100,000 tax increase off the $350,000 brings you down to $250,000. Round it down to $200,000, multiply that over ten years that’s 2 million dollars. That’s repairing 5 of our streets, which is the job of the government. Part of that money is building up our rollover from year to year because we need ¼ million dollars before the taxes come in. But after this year we’re going to realize that money every year to be put into the proper funds. We’re starting reserve accounts for the streets, starting reserve accounts so for the years that we don’t have big snow removal bills we’re going to put that money away and start creating some rainy day funds. Bucher said he just wants to commend council and all the employees for working very hard over the last year. Council spent many nights until late at night arguing out where we were going to make the cuts and still try to keep our borough intact the way the residents enjoy. And one of the big things this year is HARC taking over the pool. We haven’t realized any savings off of that yet. We’ll see how that goes, it’s a two year contract and after that two year contract they have a five year option. So if everything works out in the first two years we have an option to go on or the option to take it back.
  

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April 2, 2013

• 
  It was moved and seconded (Huber/Wolf) to approve the amendment of the swimming pool management agreement reducing the required umbrella policy from 5 million dollars to 2 million dollars which is what it was when we were running it. Unanimous approval. Council President Panus noted that just for clarification HARC is going to run the pool but the borough still owns it.
  

Public Works Superintendent's Report- See attached.

Zoning Officer Report- See attached.
Committee Reports:

Fire Company Report – Chief Rohrer gave the Fire Company Report for March. Copies were distributed to council.

EMA Report – No report.

HARC – (Adam) – Reported that HARC is in the process right now literally redoing everything from their constitution, their by-laws. They have committee’s that are looking at all that, updating from a long time ago when it was last done. It’s been about a year project and in the meeting this month (April) Adam said he will be bringing up some issues. There are a lot of changes being made as far as borough representation versus at large members etc, etc. which he said he has a few issues with. The current constitution is we have to approve it each municipality just like budget has to approve it as of now, in the future we won’t have to. Should be getting something from Adam or Barry Newton in the next couple of months to basically approve.

EIT – (Greg) – No report.
Unfinished Business:

Vacancy Board Appointment

Vacancy – Zoning Hearing Board Alternate.
New Business:

5. 
   It was moved and seconded (Bucher/Armstrong) to approve the advertisement for the Lock Box Ordinance #265. Unanimous approval.
   

Announcements:
John Wolf announced the East Petersburg Day Committee summer series of events starting May 4^th with the car show.
Comments from Citizens

A resident asked what council knows about the plans for Village Commons, that the current property owners plan to sell it and LMS plans to tear down two of the buildings and put in an Auto Zone Retail Store and a Dollar General Store. Council Vice-President Wolf said that is what they are proposing. Resident asked where it is in the process. Councilperson Bucher said it just started; they came to the planning commission meeting. Council Vice-President Wolf said it will go from there, to the LCPC and come back to PC for a more formal presentation on April 18. Councilperson Bucher said so everybody understands, the way it is set up is our PC makes recommendations to the County. The County gets final say on this. One of the things that we can’t stress enough is we want to hear everybody’s concerns and comments (we have our own concerns and comments) but people need to go to the LCPC since they get the final say. Council Vice-President Wolf said they were welcome to attend the local PC meeting and go to the County one also.

Council President Panus read a report from the Zoning Officer: Processed the Land Development Plan for Village Commons. The applicant is proposing to replace 4 of the mixed unit buildings with two small retail stores. One proposed building will be just under 7,000 sq.ft. and the other will be just over 9,000 s.f. The retail use is permitted and buildings under 10,000 sq.ft. are allowed and the square footage of the retail space will be reduced as is the impervious coverage for the site. I met with the Applicant to review the drawings, and held a Planning Commission meeting. There are a number of comments to be addressed and a traffic study to be submitted. The total number of new trips is anticipated at less than 100 daily. However, the Planning Commission and staff want to be sure the truck traffic is handled safely. Also, any changes to the entrances need to be reviewed for overall compliance. The plan will be back before the Planning Commission in April for a recommendation to the Lancaster County Planning Commission, who is the approving agency.
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April 2, 2013

One resident asked if the reason the Neighborhood Commercial District to keep the neighborhood feel but allow small businesses and stuff like that, he commented that two retail stores doesn’t seem to fit a Neighborhood Commercial zoning. Council President Panus said that in the zoning buildings under 10,000 sq ft are allowed in Neighborhood Commercial and both of those meet that condition. Another resident said their not just talking about the size of the buildings but about who owns the buildings. Talking about a big box store crammed into a tiny building and no longer being a part of decision making in the community, not going to be locally owned, not going to be locally operated. That’s what we are talking about here more than anything, not the actual size of the building but who is behind this building. Council President Panus said that is where you need to take your concerns and questions to our PC and LCPC, because the owner’s will be there. There was a question about ownership, Councilperson Bucher said one person owns it now but it is being sold to someone else on the condition that this gets approved. So it’s actually going to switch ownership once the plans are approved. One resident asked if there was any discussion at the initial meeting about tractor trailers. Both Councilperson Bucher and Council Vice-President Wolf said yes. Councilperson Bucher said there was a lot of discussion with our biggest concern is traffic flow in there, where the deliveries come in and out. Councilperson Bucher said John Schick (PC) is working on that and traffic studies that he is recommending to the County to do on egress and ingress into those properties, how the trucks would get in and all that. He’ll have more of that at the next PC meeting April 18.
Resident Todd Weiss said his gut feeling with stuff like this is that if East Pete Residents want to complain about it and say they don’t like it that’s not going to do anything. Not liking it isn’t a reason to not approve it. So you have to look for reasons not to approve it. Traffic, and if they are saying this could be 100 extra cars a day that’s nonsense, it’s going to be way more than that. Just based on traffic studies, two big stores, imagine that. So that’s something that the PC and the LCPC could look at, but they’ve got numbers and formulas to generate things like that. On the other hand, there are things that residents can do, I think, and that includes pressure on LMS, letting them know in a big way, letters, phone calls, bother them till they can’t be bothered anymore, tie up their phone

lines with complaints about it and then, guess what, Dollar General I bet doesn’t want to put a store where people really are adamantly opposed because of traffic and children and a park and no way to get tractors in and out.

And I bet Advance Auto is the same way. So, I will personally dig up the name of the CEO, the phone number, the address and all that stuff and find a way to get that to East Pete Residents because those are the people we really need to know. You don’t want to put a store here because it’s not something that fits in this community; it’s not something that fits in the spirit of these buildings. These are little dinky stores, I go to Timblain Tailor.
Councilperson Huber said it wouldn’t hurt to have this many people show up at that meeting. Weis said this many people should show up at the PC meeting, the LCPC meetings are hard to get to because they are during the day, but we can write them letters. I can give you the name of Jim Cowhey who is the head of the LCPC, send him a letter send a letter to Scott Standish who is also on the LCPC, let them know personally how you feel. Is there some place we could put this information, could we put this on a bulletin board in borough hall and people could come and get that information, it’s our borough hall. Someone asked about putting it on the borough website, they were told not on the website. Council said they could put it on the community bulletin board outside the borough hall. Someone asked why not put it on the borough website. Manager Hemperly noted that we have hired the county to do our planning for us, so we’re being adverse to them if we put it on the website. Manager Hemperly said the bulletin board is going to be better. Council President Panus said we have to deal with them (County). Council President Panus said stick to the facts; it is very difficult not to get emotional about this. Went through a firestorm with the parole office several years ago. Council President Panus said Todd is absolutely correct in that you need to stick to the facts, because you start to get emotional and you use emotional arguments it goes nowhere, it truly goes nowhere. And you get yourself all wound up and it’s just not worth the effort if you stick to the actual facts and find out what the points are that they would pay attention to you’ll go farther. If you get their backs up or they feel you are personally attacking them quite frankly they will not listen, your arguments will just fall on deaf ears. So if you stay with your points of fact that you’ve researched and deliver them in a professionally manner you’re going to have people listen to you.
Resident Elle Hooley said she was on the LCPC website and they have a “tool box” and it has about the different things the LCPC puts up, tips or help on zoning and what they feel about how zoning should be and there is one called Main Street that’s really interesting, about how to preserve Main Street, meaning your little community. It kind of applies to what we are doing here. So that’s another fact, that we can use their words on how to preserve the community. Councilperson Bucher said one of the things that, sure some of the people remember a couple of years ago, we put in place a demolition review board to prevent something like this happening right in the
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April 2, 2013

center of our town. He said we do have some things in place to protect the center of our town it’s just with something that was already existing for all those years you can’t change that aspect of it.
One resident asked if there is going to be more land covered by the buildings. Council Vice-President Wolf said it will actually be less, less impervious coverage. Councilperson Bucher said we threw some of those red flags up at them where we don’t want more water being dumped into the basin. A resident commented that according to the borough zoning rules the larger store has to have at least 2 acres of parking. What’s to keep them from tearing down the last house that’s over there? Councilperson Bucher and Council Vice-President Wolf said they can’t go any further north. Resident asked if they can’t go further east. Councilperson Bucher said if the post office would move out they could tear down the post office. Council Vice-President Wolf said that is what we have the zoning officer for; to look at those items to make sure they meet the specific criteria. Council Vice-President Wolf, in certain incidences they could ask for a reduction in spaces. But that is what the zoning ordinance addresses, number of parking spaces based on size of the building, based on type of buildings.