CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — The Clarion Borough Council took a step forward in creating a park, or parks, in the borough at the Tuesday, September 4, council meeting.

A month after hearing from borough resident Janice Horn that she was developing a plan to fund the creation of additional parks in the borough, the council decided to amend its fiscal year 2018 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application to include the Clarion Borough Neighborhood Park Project.

“It’s good to have neighborhood parks,” said Councilman Ben Aaron.

He also stated that he had the idea a couple of years ago but had trouble getting support at the time while thanking Horn for bringing the idea back to the forefront.

“We can use this money to procure the land and develop the park,” Aaron continued.

Later in the meeting, Horn thanked the council for taking this step and said her park committee would be meeting Thursday, September 6, to discuss the next steps.

In a related move, the council set the project portion of the 2018 CDBG allocation at $82,717.00 or 82.1 percent of the total allocation and the administrative portion of the allocation at $18,034.00 or 17.9 percent of the total allocation.

MAYOR PARKER PROCLAIMS SEPTEMBER CLARION COUNTY COMMUNITY BANK FOODSTOCK MONTH

Clarion Borough Mayor Daniel Parker declared September as Clarion County Community Bank FoodStock month.

FoodStock, as it has traditionally been done, will be held during Autumn Leaf Festival, which this year will be September 29, 2018, through October 7, 2018.

According to Tracy Becker, Executive Director of the Clarion Chamber of Business & Industry, the collection points for FoodStock have been more than doubled from last year from 23 locations to 48 locations.

Clarion Mayor Daniel Parker and Clarion Chamber of Business & Industry executive director Tracy Becker share a light moment after Parker declared September FoodStock Month in Clarion Borough.

COUNCIL AGREES TO SUBDIVIDE TWO-ACRE PARCEL OF MILES BROTHERS PROPERTY

After holding a public hearing that lasted all of a minute with no public comment, the council agreed to a “simple” subdivision request that was presented by Miles Brothers, LLC, to subdivide a two-acre parcel from the 35.31-acre parent tract owned by Miles Brothers, LLC. (This is the same property that was rezoned from R-1, Single-Family Residential District to C-1, Commercial Industrial District at the first August meeting.)

Under the subdivision, the two-acre subdivided parcel will be consolidated with an adjoining property in a property that is known as the “McNeil Subdivision Plan.”

PENNVEST, CENTER PLACE STORM WATER REPAIR PROJECT UPDATE

The council adopted Ordinance No. 2018-827 to increase the indebtedness of the borough in the amount of $684,078.00 in order to obtain the PennVEST loan to fund the Center Place Storm Water repair project.

According to Clarion Borough Treasurer Todd Colosimo, this step will assist in the closing of the loan with the second teleconference for the closing of the loan to take place October 5, 2018.

Colosimo also said the Center Place Storm Water project is out for bid with those bids due back September 25, 2018.

The council also appointed HRG (over EADS Group) as the engineering firm to assist the borough with the PENNVest closing and fund disbursement procedures

PENSION OBLIGATIONS APPROVED

In routine business that needs to be taken care of every September, the council approved several pension obligations for 2019 including:

• Setting at $8,218.00 as the minimum municipal obligation for the Clarion General Employees’ Pension Plan (DC-Defined contribution)
• Reducing the General Employees’ Pension contribution from 5 percent to 2.5 percent
• Setting at $17,917.00 the minimum municipal oblotion for the Clarion General Employees’ Pension Plan (DB-Defined benefit)
• Reducing the police pension contribution from 5 percent to zero percent
• Setting at $0.00 the minimum municipal obligation for the police pension plan

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business, the council:

• Approved the deposit of $250,000.00 into a Certificate of Deposit (CD) at S&T Bank for a term of 24 months at an interest rate of 2.3 percent and authorized Carol Lapinto, Jason Noto, and Brenda Sanders DeDe, all members of the council, as signers of the CD while authorizing the bank to discuss financial information of the CD with Colosimo and Clarion Borough Secretary Linda LaVan-Preston for auditing purposes.
• Accepted the resignation of Karla Deal from the borough’s cleaning service and authorized advertising for cleaning services for the borough office and the borough’s public works building.
• Received an update on the Seventh Avenue and Wood Street stormwater repair project and was told the project started on Tuesday, September 4, and should be completed by Thursday, September 6.
• Gave permission to Scott Sharrar, the Local Emergency Management Coordinator, to attend Intermediate Incident Command G-300 in Pittsburgh from November 5-7, 2018, at an approximate cost of $248.00.
• Received an update on the Library stormwater project. Colosimo said the project is in the design phase with no timetable as to when the design would be done which prompted Noto to say he was happy that there is movement -even if it is “glacial.”
• The next council meeting is at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 2. The council had contemplated holding a second September meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 18, but decided it wasn’t needed.