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TURTLE CREEK VALLEY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
MAY 22, 2014
VOTING DELEGATES:
Timothy Bridge, Max Spencer, William Price, Peter McGinty, Darrell Rapp, Paige Trice, Sylvia Martinelli, Mark Swinney, Jack Wilson
ALTERNATE DELEGATES:
Joe Costa, Bill Pfoff, Diana Yankes
STAFF:
Amanda Settelmaier, Barb Fallon, Liz Kozub
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 6:30
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Motion by William Price, seconded by Mark Swinney to approve the April 24, 2014 Minutes and Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed unanimously.
Amanda is asking that the Board of Directors pass a resolution in support of continued federal funding for the community development block grants program. She read over the resolution. Amanda is asking that the Turtle Creek Valley CCOG support full funding of the program at $3.3 billion. If passed, the resolution will be sent to political representatives.
Motion by Sylvia Martinelli seconded by Paige Trice to pass the CDBG resolution. Motion passed unanimously.
DIRECTORS REPORT:
See attached report for specific information.
Amanda announced that the Vactor is up and running which is great news. If your municipality needs vactor service please let us know.
The COG is working to update its webpage. We are going to be designing a new page with the help of Mirage. The new webpage should be really nice and simple, and easy to navigate.
We are continuing to make progress with our Land banking efforts and we are coming to our deadline for the business plan. Amanda, along with An Lewis and John Paylo, met with the Hillman Foundation to discuss the land banking efforts. The three executive directors were very excited about the Foundation’s reaction. The representatives from Hillman were impressed with our Land Bank plan and our work to date. As we roll out the business plan we are going to be asking for some commitment from municipalities in order to ensure the land bank is sustainable. We may be asking for a scrape of municipalities’ budget of delinquent tax collection. Generating operating funds with delinquent tax collection seems to be working well for other land banks and it is something we are looking in to.
Sylvia talked about the importance of the media coverage that Tim Bridge and Chris Roland were able to get for North Braddock. She believes this kind of press is vital to our efforts in fighting blight and suggested we get some more momentum on that piece. Tim said Channel 4 was very receptive to the issues of blight and suggested that municipalities that are interested in having them showcase something with blight to give them a call. Channel 4 is planning on coming back out to North Braddock in June to do another news segment. The station was made aware of the issues surrounding blight when they attended the council meeting on Marcellus Shale and noticed a lot of vacant houses in North Braddock.
The EPA is going to be hosting a meeting on June 17th at the Double Tree Hotel in Green Tree at 7:00 pm. Darrell believes this will be a valuable time to hear from the EPA and gain an understanding of what they are expecting from ALCOSAN. Joe said they recently received a flyer about the event in the mail.
The COG is continuing its work on code enforcement. We are hoping to have the program up and running by the first of next year.
Amanda attended the BuildingOne PA conference and came back with the sense many of the municipalities in the region are having the same issues with limited capacities. Darrell advised that BuildingOne PA is going to Washington DC and will be meeting with one of Representative Shuster’s top aids.
New Business:
Bill Pfoff brought up his concerns about the lack of delegate representation at the TCC meetings. The meeting was held today at 2:00 pm at the Monroeville Municipal building. Keystone has a contract with 43 communities to be the earned income tax collector. The TCC decisions are made by delegates from each municipality and the vote is weighted based on borough size and other factors. The committee has been having difficulties getting a quorum for their meetings. Bill is asking that board members go back to their municipalities and make sure the delegate who is supposed to be attending the meeting actually is. The meetings were previously held in the evening but have recently been moved to the afternoon to accommodate delegates’ schedules. Pete McGinty asked if the delegates who are attending the TCC meetings be posted in the COG director’s report. That way we can keep each other accountable. Sylvia felt the board should be aware that last month the TCC did not have quorum and therefore had to schedule a meeting for this month. In October the meeting is scheduled for the evening. Bill also advised the committee has been asking the delegates to send in their financial interest form. If someone comes in to audit the organization the individual can be fined $250 per day.
Darrell came across a program that the University of Pittsburgh is doing called “Advancing Entrepreneurship in the Mon Valley.” Workshops are being offered to small businesses in the Mon Valley. Some of the events are free but some have a small fee. Darrell is hoping Amanda can send the flyers out to all the board members.
Sylvia announced that beginning June 17th Wilkins will be having a summer festival. The week will be filled with fun activities, food, music and much more. There will be fireworks Saturday night and a car cruise over the weekend. Darrel announced that Swissvale will be having its Community Days June 27th and 28th. . Mark announces that Chalfant will be celebrating their centennial in 2016 and the preparation has begun to have a kickoff car show. Liz suggested that communities that wish to have their special events advertised on Twitter can email her with event information (ek@tcvcog.com).
Motion to adjourn by William Price, seconded by Pete McGinty Motion passed unanimously.
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