Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Monday night, Tyrone Borough Council reviewed a letter from consulting engineer Ray Myers concerning repairs to the swimming pool at Reservoir Park.
The borough had asked Myers and water department superintendent Gary Barr to make a list of improvements and budget costs to allow council to pick and choose improvements within its budget.
Mayor Patricia Stoner said the borough has $200,000 available for the project. The list presented by Myers covered 16 different improvements totaling more than $322,000.
Myers also noted previous concerns about safety issues involving the existing diving board area. An October 2002 report prepared by Wade Associates, Inc. detailed three options to remedy the unsafe conditions with costs varying between $45,000 and $108,000. Those costs are in addition to the other improvements detailed by Myers in his letter to council.
Myers recommended concentrating on the diving board safety issues. He also indicated repairs to concrete and a recoating of the main pool and baby pool at a cost of $135,000, as well as the replacement of a pool drainage and grating system ($7,500) were priority issues for the borough to consider in its decision.
Barr also suggested a chemical storage building ($7,000), the replacement of deteriorated piping and valves ($8,200), the purchase of a main pool ADA access ramp ($6,500), a main pool ADA transfer ladder ($6,500), an Aqua wheelchair ($1,600) and a drinking fountain ($2,000) to comply with ADA requirements were important.
Another priority is the renovation of the men’s and women’s locker room to comply with ADA requirements at a cost of $32,000. Myers’ letter also offered the option of a unisex locker room in compliance with ADA requirements at a cost of $30,000.
The costs involving the concrete repairs and recoating, the storage building, pipe/valve replacement, locker room renovations and main pool access ramp total $196,200; slightly less than the funding currently available.
“If we don’t get the maintenance issues fixed, we aren’t going to have a pool,” councilwoman Sharon Dannaway told The Daily Herald.
She indicated the borough should concentrate on the concrete repairs, recoating, the drainage and grating replacement, the storage building and the pipe/valve replacement.
She also said in a conversation she had with Myers and Barr before the meeting it was suggested some of the work, specifically the work on the pool, should be done after the 2005 pool season. She said it might also be necessary to shorten the season to allow the work to begin sooner.
Myers explained that doing some of the work in the spring could be problematic and not as cost effective. He suggested contractors are busier at that time of the year and bids could come in higher than if the work were done in the fall.
Council will now have to decided what priorities to focus on for the project. Dannaway indicated bids for some of the work could go out sometime shortly after the turn of the year.
In other business at Monday’s meeting:
• council agreed to have a traffic study done to see if Lincoln Avenue from 10th to 14th Street could be changed to a one-way street. A resident had asked the borough to consider the idea due to the narrow street width in the area and a high traffic volume. The cost of the study is estimated at $1,000;
• council agreed to have its engineer prepare specifications for a sound system on the second floor of the municipal building. The system will be used in the council chambers and a separate meeting room. Originally, estimates had been obtained for installing the system in council chambers only. Members agreed to consider estimates for both rooms. The project will eventually have to be bid because of the price tag involved to complete it.
• council tabled action on a proposed ordinance involving abandoned and junked vehicles and an associated fee schedule. Code enforcement officer Tom Lang was instructed to change some of the language in the new ordinance as to when a vehicle is considered to be abandoned or junked. With the revision, residents would be given 30 days from the time a vehicle is placed on their property to apply for a permit for a fee to continue to park the vehicle on their property. Lang should have the revisions completed in time for council to consider both the ordinance and fee schedule by next week’s meeting;
• council also approved an ordinance accepting Schell Run Lane as a public road/street of the borough;
• approved a resolution designating Mayor Stoner and councilperson and vice president J.R. Watson as being authorized to execute all forms and documents associated with financial assistance through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency;
• agreed by consensus to allow Tyrone Youth Baseball to seek naming rights for the baseball field from a major contributor to provide funding for repairs. The field which is owned by the borough sustained damages of approximately $150,000 to $170,000 as a result of flooding in September.

By Rick