June 23, 2022 - Committee Meeting
Regular monthly Committee Meeting notes.
Overview
Several residents attended this meeting, mostly made up of those impacted by the Lemon Street sidewalk/curbing issue. This was the first topic addressed, and it sounds like plans to meet with residents by the borough engineer and Council VP Schick are continuing. It was noted that the roadwork may be delayed, and due to council needing to address the verbiage of the current ordinance, the residents' will have a lot more time to plan a means of financing the work for the future.
Greg Kendig - Mad Chef
An owner of Mad Chef Craft Brewing came to Council for assistance on a noise exemption from the PA Liquor Control Board (PLCB). His business wants to offer amplified music (mostly solo/duo acoustic style up to 75dB volume) on their patio. This would just occur primarily on Wednesdays from 5:30pm - 7:30pm.
The problem is that the PLCB has a very restrictive ordinance regarding amplified music, essentially making it impossible for Mad Chef to do what they would like. But, the PLCB ordinance can be superseded by municipal ordinance. The catch: The municipality (East Pete) has to petition the liquor board for that. And in typical Pennsylvania "let's prevent them from sinning" mentality, it's not just a simple process. Read the PLCB ordinance here.
Amy, the borough's solicitor, advised that the borough can rescind the exemption through a petition at any time. For example, if Mad Chef was sold to another entity and they began to violate the noise ordinance, East Pete isn't stuck in a bad situation.
Kendig is working with his own legal advisor to do the legwork on the petition so that no cost is incurred to the borough. Through a table vote, Council agreed to continue working with Kendig so that his business can offer another feature.
Traditions of America - Blasting Agreement
Traditions of America (TOA) is awaiting approval to begin development of Phase 3, which is the section within borough boundaries. The start of that development requires blasting, something the borough and residents have balked at due to aging infrastructure nearby and the hours of blasting desired by the developer.
The borough is requiring that the developer (TOA) take responsibility for the blasting agreement and financial security, because our position is that the borough's relationship is ONLY with the developer. However, TOA wants to shift responsibility of the blasting process and any potential liabilities to its contractors, which will end up sub-contracted out. That's a bad idea.
Here's how the borough gets screwed when things go bad:
Let's say there's an issue with blasting and large sections of asbestos pipe in the area are damaged/destroyed. The borough has an environmental issue, a potential flooding issue, major loss of water, and significantly costly infrastructure replacement to contend with.
TOA ghosts the borough because "it's not our problem".
Contractor who should be on-the-hook closes up shop, files for bankruptcy protection, and ghosts the borough.
The borough, with a budget of just over $2 million/year, must now squabble with its insurance to hopefully get some money to fix the damage. This will take a lot of time, and while they wait, repair must begin.
The borough will need to raise taxes significantly to pay for all of this while years of lawsuits against former businesses and owners sit in the justice system.
Our solicitor advised Council that TOA will most likely come to the next Council meeting for final plan approval. She is advising that if the blasting agreement is not handled before then, that Council should not approve the final plans.
Automated Red Light Enforcement Grant update
The money generated from red light enforcement cameras throughout the state gets divided into various methods. Much of the money goes back to the city who "hosts" the red lights, but a good bit goes into a fund that PennDOT uses to provide municipal grants. These are called ARLE grants.
The grants generally pay up to 80% of the cost of a project. In fact, the signals at borough square (State Street & Route 72) were 80% funded by an ARLE grant.
For future upgrades, the borough will be submitting for grant money to improve the signals at Miller Road/Route 72 and Enterprise Drive/Route 72. These upgrades will include:
Upgraded pedestrian safety features, including a 3 second stoppage of traffic to allow them to cross the intersection. During this, there would be red lights in all directions.
The crosswalk signals will be upgraded to not only display a hand signal, but also a countdown timer for more pedestrian information.
Addition of loop detectors to switch signals and improve traffic flow. This will be through the use of advanced RADAR detection which can monitor traffic and speed. Something interesting Schick mentioned was that this helps prevent red-light collisions. Rather than automatically changing the light signal from green > yellow > red based on strict timing, the detection system can determine car speed and eliminate the dangers in the "dilemma zone", which is the point of determining "gun it" or "slow down" with a yellow light. This detection system will delay the oncoming signal change to help prevent collisions.
The cost of these RADAR detection systems are approximately $10k each. However, the payoff is improved technology and not having to replace $1,500 loop systems in the roadway that get damaged frequently. The overall project is estimated to be $120,000. The ARLE grant would pay $100k, and then East Pete & East Hempfield would split the remaining $20k 50/50 (each municipality owns half of the intersection).
Upcoming Event:
National Night Out will be Tuesday August 2, 2022. It will be held at the Swimming Pool area from 6pm-8pm. There will be an open swim, bounce houses, touch-a-truck, and more activities/snacks for everyone. (All swimmers 18 and under must pass a swim test or have a responsible adult with them at all times). For more information, visit the East Pete borough page.
