Update on watershed evaluation received
Tyrone Borough Council conducted its October regular session swiftly last evening at the municipal building. Councilperson Jennifer Bryan was absent from the meeting.
With an already light agenda, council tabled a request from the Tyrone Rotary Club to replace a shed at Reservoir Park that the club used frequently for events. The existing shed will be removed in part of the renovation project on Pavilion One.
Council members asked Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway to have Code Enforcement Officer Jim Metzgar continue his work with Rotary to etch out official plans and details with the new shed.
Rotary member James Ramsay addressed council last week at its work session about the shed replacement, and said that the club would purchase the shed. He noted that Rotary would also like to have running water at the facility.
Running water would require a holding tank, so Dannaway said that the borough and Metzgar would need more information, for insurance reasons, from Rotary dealing with the club’s needs for running water. Once all the information and plans are compiled, a vote for approval will come back to council.
Mayor Jim Kilmartin and Councilperson Patricia Stoner both stated that a shed for the Rotary at Reservoir Park would be a great asset to have.
Council also came to a consensus to look further into the possibility of purchasing surveillance cameras for the downtown area. Once Police Chief Joe Beachem acquires cost estimations for different camera packages, council will decide whether or not it will be something the borough will invest in.
There was no direct talk from council on Gamesa’s proposed 10 to 15 turbine wind farm site on the borough’s watershed property, but council heard an update from Dannaway on the evaluation of the watershed by Casselberry & Associates of State College.
Council sought the evaluation to give them a better understanding of the watershed, as to whether or not a wind farm and/or natural gas drilling would be appropriate on the property.
Jim Casselberry, in a letter addressed to borough officials, said that his firm walked the entire watershed and completed all of the flow measuring and water sampling work. He said that the lab results should be available shortly, and he plans to start the data analysis portion of the project next week.
In other business, Dannaway informed council members of five handicapped ramps that the borough is responsible to construct at the intersection of State Route (SR) 453 and Hamilton Avenue, and the intersection of SR 453 and North Avenue.
PennDOT has asked the borough to collaborate with the department at a cost of $17,000. Working with PennDOT would keep the borough from having to bid out the project to the public, along with saving the borough money.
Dannaway said that because of American Disabilities Act (ADA) rulings, any project that intersects with state routes and borough roads has to be “retro-fitted” after improvement projects are done. PennDOT recently paved the section of SR 453 where the handicapped ramps need built.
Council had a consensus to move forward with PennDOT’s willingness to complete the project for the borough. PennDOT will send out bids on November 6, and the project will begin around mid-March of 2009. It will have to be completed by July 1, 2009.
The borough will have four options to pay PennDOT for its efforts, which will be something council will decide on in the near future. The first option is to make the payment to the Commonwealth in full within 30 days of receipt of the invoice.
The second option is for the borough, after receiving the invoice, to make monthly payments to the Commonwealth for a period of one year. The payments must be in equal amounts and total all costs due.
As a third option, the borough can make payment to the Commonwealth in full after receiving the necessary funds from a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank (PIB) loan. The borough would have to make payment in full within 30 days of receipt of the loan, which must be no longer than 60 days after completion of the project.
The last option would deal with the borough authorizing the Commonwealth to withhold and apply so much of the borough’s Liquid Fuels Tax Fund allocation as necessary to reimburse the Commonwealth in full for all costs due.
The borough had to move quickly with a decision to jump on board with PennDOT due to the department having to send out bids on November 6.
