CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion Borough Officials announced at Tuesday’s monthly council meeting that recent heavy rains caused at least $3,000 in damage to the Clarion Free Library.

(Photo of the Clarion Free Library entrance where recent flooding has occured.)

According to councilman Jason Noto, who sits on the Library Board, there is reoccurring issues with flooding by the bottom basement entrance (across from the post office) every time there are heavy rains.

“The water comes down the sidewalk and into the door and through the door,” Noto said. “It happened again last week when it rained hard. Just to get the carpet cleaned, it costs around $3,000. Also, the doors are rotted out.”

Noto suggested council should look into fixing the problem because he believes it isn’t going away.

Mark Hall — the Borough Secretary, Treasurer, and Police Chief — said he will be meeting with engineers Wednesday (Sept. 7) to see if there is an engineering solution that would work for the Library. Once that meeting takes place, Hall will report back to council.

Rotted out portion of the bottom doors to the Clarion Free Library

Mayor David Walters mentioned that with recent fixes to the fire hall flooding is no longer an issue in that building.

In other business, council voted to decrease its pension contributions for the 2017 fiscal year for both the police pension and general employee pension from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.

According to council president Carol Lapinto, this is the second straight year this decrease is being made.

“There was an actuary study in 2015 that recommended this,” Lapinto said.

When asked if there were any concerns about the pension fund being underfunded by the decrease, Lapinto said she didn’t believe so again citing the 2015 actuary study.

In decreasing the pension contribution, the council also adopted the 2017 minimum municipal obligation for the police pension plan in the amount of $36,864 and the minimum municipal obligation for the general employees’ pension plan in the amount of $40,112. The minimum municipal obligation for the general employees’ defined contribution pension plan will be $7,339.

Prior to the council meeting, there was a public hearing on the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan for the old Owens-Illinois Factory site that is being proposed for development by the Miles Brothers, LLC.

The only comments at the hearing were by Jamie Lefever, representing the Clarion County Industrial Development Authority.

Lefever presented a Findings of Blight report to council, which is one of the steps needed in approving a TIF.

Reading from the report, Lefever said only one of seven conditions of blight must be met or determined to make a finding of blight and in the case of the discussed property there are at least two of the seven conditions present — (1) Unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded conditions and (2) The area contains economically and socially undesirable land uses.

The next step in the process will be for borough council to vote on approval of the TIF at its Oct. 4 meeting.

Also during the council meeting the following took place:

• Halloween was scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, with council asking residents who plan on participating to leave their porch lights on. It was also announced that the annual Clarion Fire Department Halloween Parade will be held at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 31 starting at McDonalds and going to the Fire Hall on Wood Street where treats will be handed out.
• Ratified the Toby Street Storm Sewer Repair Project as awarded to Eagle Contracting, Inc. for a total contract price of $10,000. The project will start Sept. 12 and take a maximum of five days to complete
• Ratified the Second and Wood streets Concrete Restoration Project as awarded to M&B Services, LLC for a total contract price of $4,195. The project is for replacement of the ADA accessible ramps and sidewalks after a storm sewer project in the area.
• Awarded a contract for the South Street and Sixth Street Storm Water Repair Project to Eagle Contracting, Inc., in the amount of $7,900. The borough elected not to pay Eagles Contracting $1,800 to repair the pavement and instead will have the borough maintenance department do the work.
• Accepted the resignation of Andrew Szafran, part-time police officer, effective Aug. 18.
• Accepted the resignation of Barb McCombie from the Zoning Hearing Board. A replacement has not been found yet, although Hall has called the alternates on the list. He is waiting to hear back from them.
• Appointed Todd Colosimo as the Assistant Zoning Officer. Colosimo is already a borough employee who is wearing many hats and this will just be added to his duties.
• Gave permission to Mark Hall to attend the PSAB Fall Leadership Conference Oct. 14-16 in Gettysburg.
• Gave permission to have Clarion County drawdown Fiscal Year 2015 Clarion Borough CDBG funds in the amount of $24,025.24 for the purpose of reimbursing Clarion Borough for expenses incurred for the Community Park Access Road contract.
• Approved the inclusion of the Paul A. Weaver Park Improvements Project in Clarion Borough’s Fiscal Year 2016 CDBG application.
• A proclamation for Clarion County Community Bank FoodStock Month was made by mayor David Walters.