City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this Altoona City Council meeting to order Monday, June 8th, 6 p.m. Now I'll have a moment of silent prayer. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Linda, would you take a roll call, please?

Councilman Beatty.

Here.

Councilman Butterbaugh. Here. Councilwoman Klinich. Here. Vice Mayor Ellis.

Here.

Councilman Ickes.

Here.

Councilman Kelly.

Here.

Mayor Pacifico.

Here. Okay, our first presentation this evening is some well-deserved firefighter recognitions, and to do that is Chief Adam Free and Deputy Chief Mike Hawksworth. Chief?

Mayor, members of council, city manager, city staff, and guests, it is my privilege to be here tonight to recognize a group of firefighters whose actions exemplify the courage, professionalism, and commitment to the service that defined the Altoona Fire Department. Every day, firefighters answer the call knowing they may be asked to place themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of others. Most often, their work is performed quietly, without recognition. They do not seek praise or awards. They simply do their job. However, there are occasions when the actions of firefighters rise to a level that deserves special recognition, and tonight we are here to honor those individuals. On April 26, 2025, our department was dispatched to a reported dwelling fire at 105 East 4th Avenue in Altoona. While units were responding, the Blair County 911 Center advised that children were reportedly trapped inside the residence. Police officers and EMS personnel arrived on scene prior to the fire department and confirmed that three children were visible at an attic window, while a disabled adult was reported trapped on the second floor. The firefighters who responded were immediately confronted with a rapidly evolving and highly dangerous situation. Despite extreme conditions, they acted with courage, professionalism, and a sense of duty that reflects the highest traditions of the fire service. As a result of their actions at night, three individuals were successfully rescued from the burning structure. Tragically, despite the extraordinary efforts of the first responders, one occupant could not be saved. The firefighters being recognized this evening distinguished themselves through their bravery, quick decision-making, teamwork, and selfless service. Faced with challenging and life-threatening situation, they acted decisively and professionally, placing the safety of others above their own. Their actions reflect not only exceptional skill and training, but also the character, dedication, and commitment that define outstanding firefighters. It is for those actions that we gather here tonight to recognize their service and honor and their accomplishments. Captain Cameron Sunderland and Captain Nicholas Vukovic will be receiving the Lifesaving Award and Valor Award. The Lifesaving Award is presented to members whose action directly contributed to the preservation of human life during an emergency incident. This award recognizes individuals who, through their skill, training, quick decision-making, and dedication to the duty, successfully intervened in circumstances where life was in immediate jeopardy. The recipient demonstrated exceptional professionalism and commitment to service by taking decisive action under challenging conditions resulting in the survival and recovery of another person. Their efforts exemplify the highest standards of the fire service and reflect the great credit upon themselves, their department, and the community they serve. The Life Saving Award honors those whose actions made a profound difference in the life of another and service as a reminder of the critical role firefighters and emergency responders play in protecting life and public safety. The Valor Award is presented to the member who demonstrated extraordinary courage, selfless dedication and exceptional bravery while facing imminent danger. This award recognizes actions that go beyond the normal expectations of duty where the recipient knowingly placed themselves at significant personal risk in order to protect or save the life of another. Through the decisive action, unwavering commitment, and exceptional courage under the most challenging circumstances, the recipient exemplified the highest ideals of the fire service. Their actions reflect great credit upon themselves, their department, and the profession as a whole. The Valor Award stands as a testament to courage, sacrifice, and dedication that define the fire service and serves as an enduring example of service above self. At this time, I would like Captain Sunderland and Captain Wukovich to come forward. Thank you. The following firefighters will receive the Unit Citation Award. Assistant Chief Steve Osmolensky, Engine 311 Captain Brian Caldwell, Firefighter Robert Seiler, Engine 312 Captain Jeff Hall, Firefighter Matt Rowe, Engine 313 Engineer Sean Dockenbaugh, Engine 314 Captain Trent Miller, Engineer Ben Parrish, truck 351 engineer kevin coon the unit citation is presented to a fire department unit whose members demonstrated exceptional teamwork professionalism courage and dedicated dedication while operating together during a significant incident or special event this award recognizes collective actions that resulted in an outstanding service to the community successful mitigation of a hazardous situation or performance that brought distinction and honor to the department the members of this unit exemplified Sorry. High standards of fire service through their coordinated efforts, commitment to duty, and what unwavering dedication to public safety. At this time, I'd like these firefighters to come forward. These awards represent far more than a single incident. They reflect countless hours of training, preparation, sacrifice, and dedication. They symbolize the commitment these firefighters make each and every day to protect the lives and property of the citizens we serve. They embody the values of service, integrity, courage, and teamwork that form the foundation of the Altoona Fire Department. To the recipients, know that your actions have brought great credit not only upon yourselves, but also upon the Altoona Fire Department, the city of Altoona, and the fire service profession as a whole. Through your professionalism, bravery, and dedication, you have demonstrated the highest standards of public service, and we are proud to recognize your accomplishments this evening. On behalf of the City of Altoona, the Altoona Fire Department, and the citizens we proudly serve, I extend our sincere gratitude and congratulations to each of you. Thank you for your dedication, your professionalism, and your unwavering commitment to protecting our community. Your actions serve as an example of the very best of our profession has to offer and remind us all of the extraordinary sacrifices made by firefighters every day. Congratulations and thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, our next presentation, joining us from the Blair Regional YMCA is Phyllis Baker and Frank Capriva to talk about the annual Angie Giusa Fourth of July Race.

Yes, thank you for having us. Hard to follow that, but another round of applause for those guys. Because of them and other people, we're able to do the race that we are doing, and it has been going on for 50 plus years. Reporting on last year's numbers, we had 1,084 registered participants. If you include the lollipop, which is the free six and under kids, we approached about 1,200 total participants. And that's just registered participants. Spectators can jump that number pretty high. It is an Altoona race, not just by location, but nearly 40% of the participants of those 1,200 people have an Altoona zip code as a resident. So that's a lot of Altoonans in the same place on July 4th. We also had eight states represented, as well as Pennsylvania, as far away as the state of Washington. We're seeing a lot of people from Maryland starting to come up. Not sure how they know about it, but we're glad they do. um we had people as young as one year old in the lollipop and we had an 86 year old participate in the race so we're covering all the bases and we're very excited to do it again this year because of the 250th anniversary we wanted to show our appreciation and gratitude to the city so the mishler we are exclusively having packet pickup on the stage of the mishler on july 3rd and we've been working with mayor pacifico jamie faust other businesses downtown we're telling people they have to come downtown Altoona to pick up their packets and then we're coordinating with the railroad mainline mania the levity brewing and we're trying to encourage people to come downtown and frequent whatever the activities are going on so we are trying to help get people coming down here and seeing all the good things that are happening

Yeah, we want to start a new tradition on the night before the race, right, Phyllis?

Yeah, and this is just the beginning. So we want people to come down to the, you know, historic Mishler Theater, take a tour of that beautiful place, see just the people from out of state or even out of the county, see what a beautiful venue we have, bring them downtown to Levity or the Railroad Museum and just see how beautiful downtown is because some of these folks may not have been here for quite some time. But without this committee right here, without the fire chief, the police chief, Jamie, everybody, we could not do this. It's not a one man show. So we appreciate the city council and all the entities that allow us to do this. I mean, we're going to come in and take over the city for a day and we hope that we leave it in as good a condition as we have found it. But without you folks, we couldn't do it. So we really appreciate the fact that we can do this This year, next year with the race being on a Sunday, we can even grow what we're doing this time. So we can even do more. But let's see how this one goes and let's see how we can grow the city and make this a truly, this is not our race. It's not the Blair Regional YMCA's race. This is the City of Altoona's race and we are just the stewards of this race and we hope that we have made the city proud with what we've done.

And we hope to see everyone there. Yeah.

Come to the race.

Thank you guys. Thank you.

Okay, we'll move into public comment. Before we open the floor, I have to announce last month we had an executive session to discuss real estate, potential litigation, and active litigation. With that, we will open the floor for public comment. If anybody would like to address counsel, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and please keep your comments to three minutes. The floor is now open.

Good evening, council members, Mayor Pacifico. My name is Mary Ann Muehle. I live at 2513 Oak Avenue in Altoona. I live by the great Isalina Park, and that is what I'm going to talk about tonight. Okay, we the undersigned residents and neighbors of Isolina Park respectfully request immediate action to address the ongoing safety and quality of life concerns occurring at the park. Over time, residents have witnessed repeated incidents including fighting disorderly conduct, vandalism, property damage, excessive noise, disturbances, activity after park hours, concerns for the safety of children, families, and nearby residents. We are asking the City of Altoona to address the ongoing fighting, vandalism, noise, and safety concerns occurring at Isolina Park. We can provide documented incidents, gathered support from neighboring residents, and believe the current situation is negatively affecting the quality of life in our neighborhood. We understand the importance of public parks, but residents should not have to live with repeated safety concerns. We have gathered signatures, and the ones we gathered, we gathered in one day, from neighbors who share these concerns and are asking for the city to take action. Requested actions, increase police patrols, security cameras, better lighting, limited park hours, removal of problem structures. If the city cannot effectively control these issues through the requested actions, we ask that the city closes or restricts the park. Recent incidents at Isolina Park, we have videos, we have pictures, and we have statements. They have fight club every Saturday night. Police have been called. They have jumped at least five different small children. Police have been called. They have trash everywhere. They've damaged a tree. Horn holes on fire. They set a tree on fire. Noise. They smoke weed. I caught a drug deal on my security camera in front of my house. They hit an elderly woman. They maced a woman in the face holding a small child. They give adults the middle finger, call them horrible names, threaten to give them a beat down because they know no adult will hit a child. They tell them to F off. They use racial slurs against the white neighbors. The dirt bikes, which should not be legal, are constantly in our neighborhood close to our vehicles. They're touching vehicles, using suction cups to attach phones to people's cars. They are literally having sex. We have sex sounds on our camera beside our house. We see it at the pavilion. They're chasing children away who should be at the park. They're climbing private roofs, yards, and messing with kids' toys. They're trespassing. They're damaging private property. They're hiding their backpacks on people's porches when the police come. There is one bicycle that drives around. When someone says police, he has a whistle, and they are all alerted. They are claiming now to have to pee, and there's a group of four children trying to walk around and get into people's houses. I understand the city police are short staffed, but these kids are so disrespectful to even law enforcement, they take videos and pictures beside the police cars. The adults on scene are not given any help or guidance. Example, on June 2nd, after a group of kids jumped two different kids at the park and fought with at least 10 adults, we were told by the police they're just kids playing at the park. Needless to say, we were shocked. Continued with, told by our supervisor not to do anything. Since the juvenile system is overwhelmed. Well, guess what? That's why the adult prisons are overcrowded. These kids do not fear the police. That needs to change. Mr. Huey? Yes?

I'm sorry, your time is up.

Okay, right here and then this is the letter. Okay.

Hi, my name is Cassidy Faust. I grew up in the neighborhood, 2600 Maple Avenue, and I now live over at 897 Race Street. These kids do not fear the police, and that needs to change. Now that school is out, and I'm also a teacher, so I can see this all firsthand as well, how it starts in second grade and it goes up through middle school, high school, if it's not caught. Now that school is out, we know you have to deal with these kids all day, every day. Something bad is going to happen. And when it does fall on the city and the police for not doing anything. Yes, two arrests were made, but that does not solve all the problems. I truly hope you continue to fix this problem before it's too late. We are not going away. If our concerns are not met, we will elevate to the next level, which will include higher elected officials, all new media outlets and any other means needed to be heard. We hope these concerns are heard and addressed. We hope that you have as much pride in our city as our elected officials, as we the residents do and want our city to thrive, not to be known as a joke. Thank you. Concerned residents of Altoona. And then here's a letter from Islino Park. And it says, I am personally unable to be at the city council meeting on June 8th, 2026 due to personal illness. And I believe this is from Debbie Isolino. But many years ago, my father, George Isolino, deceased, wanted a place for the kids in the neighborhood and his grandchildren to play and have fun with numerous activities. He put numerous hours of work into the park and agreed to have our family names associated with it. I was recently made aware and has come to a place for juveniles to hang out and fight, making it unsafe and having police summoned. The city police have more important issues to deal with than go to a kid's park for fighting. My family lived on Maple Avenue for many years, but since we have moved to other parts of the city. I am asking city council to remove my family's name and take it back to the original taut lot. also there was a cement plaque placed in the park that i would like to be given back to my family i hope that was not taken or destroyed could the city or central rec have someone remove it and notify me and our family and we would like it back and no longer remains on the property I am mortified as what the park has come to and I'm sure my father and other family members would feel this the same. As his executor, I would like to see this accomplished for the good of my family's name. I do not wish to have our name associated with the teens fighting at the park as it puts a bad reflection on our name. If you need any additional information from me, please email me in confidence. Signed and approved by Debbie Izzolino. It's dizzolino at msn.com.

Thank you.

I live at 2600 Maple Avenue. I don't want to reiterate everything that's already been said. I want to look going forward what we need to do with the park. In years past, my children played at the park. It was a safe place for them. In return, I would clean the park on a regular basis because people couldn't keep up with it. I have observed neighbors mowing the grass up there. So the city is putting resources into it that obviously they can't keep up with it. I project that we downsize the park to more of a taut lot where it's for younger kids. There's no reason for the teens to be going there and hanging out, bouncing their basketballs at 1030 at night because you can hear them on the back. I'm half a block away. If I can hear it half a block away, they shouldn't be there at 1030 playing basketball. There's no lights. They're up there, they're doing no good. They pass by the house, they litter, they trash, the profanity. God forbid you say something to one of them, then they're all over you. I was actually one of the ones that they knocked on my door and claimed that they had to pee. So glad that my screen door was locked, as my husband insists on that, because as I opened the door, she was trying my screen door. So if the screen door would not have been locked, what would have happened? and i know all of you are sitting there and thinking well just call the police well it's not my job to police these teenagers i work all day i'm sitting on my recliner watching tv and i can hear the commotion outside coming from half a block away so my instinct is to jump up look out the window what's going on in the meantime i'm getting texts or i'm getting phone calls it's heading your way and lo and behold here come sometimes there's 20 sometimes there's 30 of them Am I going to go out there and confront them by myself? No. But I call 911. They question me as to why I'm calling. Then when the police come, it's like they take no stand. They were TikToking in front of a police cruiser and the one officer actually said, just don't touch the cruiser. Are you going to give her a snack too? I mean, seriously, like you're not here to be their friend. You're here to take control of the situation and it's not being done. many years ago we actually had a drug dealer that lived in our neighborhood virtually in my backyard very frustrated by the situation but mitch cooper was in charge then and mitch personally came to my house he sat down with me and my husband and wanted to know what is going on he sent joe merrow out with another undercover cop they sat in our neighborhood for weeks on end resolved the issue Now we call them and it's just like, eh, they're teens, you know, we really can't do anything. You know, the juvenile system, they just, eh. And they don't even talk to the adults sometimes. We're afraid these teens are so out of control. Something bad is going to happen. Somebody's going to get hurt, and if nothing is done, we need to head it off. City Council needs to look to what they can do. Can you downsize the park? Can you completely get rid of the park? It's in your hands, but we want you to be aware that this is the situation that is going on. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Harriet Gaston. I live at 302 2nd Avenue. And what I want to talk about, hopefully will be good news. I want to thank Mayor Pat Pacifico for the proclamation for acknowledging Juneteenth. The other associated with that, as some people may know or might not know, it is recognizing the end of slavery in the United States. It occurred on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas. One of the things I do is research history, especially African American history in Blair County. And working with the Blair County NAACP, the Shaped by Faith Initiative, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church, we have managed to restore the historic Eastern Light Cemetery, which is located on South 10th Street near First Avenue or Crawford Avenue alley. It was created in 1864 in response to a black person not being able to be buried in the white-owned cemetery. It was outside of the city limits at that time. Also, looking at those people who were buried in that cemetery, there were at least six men who fought with the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. At least two of them were in Texas of 1865, but not in Galveston. And there are other men buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Rose Hill Cemetery, and other cemeteries throughout the county that were all part of the United States Colored Troops. So I'm just bringing up to you that we have a local connection to Juneteenth. So it is an observation, holiday observation for all of us. Thank you.

If there's no other public comment, we will close the floor and go into the resolutions. Linda?

item a is approving the minutes of the Altoona City Council meeting held Monday May 11th 2026. item b is awarding the city of Altoona's three RTUs at East Uniatta rec center to Clark contractors in the amount of seventy five thousand nine hundred and thirty two dollars and thirty cents payable from the capital budget and authorizing the city manager to execute all documents in the city clerk to attest to same Item C is approving a license agreement for an ADA ramp at 2714 8th Avenue between the city and Virginia Reed and further authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement and the city clerk to attest to same. Item D is authorizing 37th Street over NS Railroad PennDOT reimbursement agreement for repair replacement with the city support of the bridge. with the city's portion of 5% payable from liquid fuels funds and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item E is awarding the improvements and upgrades of Logan Boulevard and Beale Avenue traffic control signals to Dixon Electric of Claysburg in the amount of $423,002.25 payable from the GreenLake Go grant. up to $397,831.04 and the remainder from liquid fuels fund and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item F is awarding the street signs and materials for 2026-27 to PA Municipal of Huntington for item number one in the amount of $7,609 payable from liquid fuels. further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item G is awarding street signs and materials for 2026-27 to National Highway Products of New Jersey for items 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the amount of $45,642.40 payable from liquid fuels, further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item H is adopting the 2026 CDBG home annual action plan and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents and the city clerk to file appropriate statements, certifications, meeting minutes with HUD. Item I is adopting the Blair County 2026 hazard vulnerability assessment and mitigation plan as the official mitigation plan for the city of Altoona.

Items, I think we have a few. They're all going to be demo bids. Let's see.

What do I have on my paper? It's J through O are demolition bids. The first one is for 1508 13th Alley awarding it to GNR and they're all being awarded to GNR excavating and demolition of Tyrone. The first one is 1508 13th Alley Altoona in the amount of $14,900. The item K is for 1128 17th Avenue in the amount of $13,640. Item L is demolition of 1522 North 7th Avenue in the amount of $7,907.50. Item M is 1908-12 West Chestnut Avenue in the amount of $16,288. I demand is 2622 West chestnut Avenue garage only in the amount of $3973 an item is 2001 7th Avenue in the amount of $14,122 these are payable from the city of Altoona altogether Altoona fund and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents in the city clerk to test the same. Item P is approving a repository bid in the amount of $2,000 for property located at 806 6th Avenue to Jonathan Wolfe of Hollidaysburg and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Item Q is approving a repository bid in the amount of $251 for property located at 3127 33 to 33 7th Avenue to Jeremy Weaver of Port St. Lucie, Florida, and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and execute the taxing district form. Item R is approving a repository bid in the amount of $300 for property located at 417-19 South 8th Street and in the amount of $300 for property located at 1513-1550 North 6th Avenue to Chloe Demange of Long Beach, California. and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Is there anything that needs to be pulled for separate vote?

Yes, I'd like to pull Q and R for separate vote, please.

Okay, I'm going to call for the consent vote on all other items, excluding items Q and R first. Councilman Beatty?

Yes.

Councilman Butterbaugh? Yes. Councilwoman Klinich? Yes. Vice Mayor Ellis? Yes. Councilman Ickes? Yes. Councilman Kelly? Yes. Mayor Pacifico? Yes. And the consent vote passes 7-0. And then we have item Q, which is approving a repository bid in the amount of $251 for property located at 3127-33 7th Avenue to Jeremy Weaver of Port St. Lucie, Florida, and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Councilman Beatty?

No.

Councilman Butterball. No. Councilwoman Klinich. No. Vice Mayor Ellis. No. Councilman Ickes. No. Councilman Kelly. No. Mayor Pacifico? No. And the vote does not pass. The viewer is seven. And then we have item R, which is approving a repository bid in the amount of $300 for 417 to 19 South 8th Street and $300 for 1513 to 15 North 6th Avenue to Chloe DeMange of Long Beach, California, and further authorizing the city manager to execute the taxing district form. Councilman Beatty?

No.

Councilman butter bar now Councilwoman clinic you know vice mayor Ellis know Councilman Nick is no Councilman Kelly no mayor Pacific oh no and the vote does not pass city manager updates thank you council discussion items Councilman Kelly

I would like to add my congratulations to the members of our fire department for their commitment to the city as well as their incredible bravery.

Thank you. Councilman Ickes.

Thank you, Mayor. I will also echo similar regards Councilman Kelly made regarding our fire department. That was a really difficult evening that night for not only the family involved there, but also for many on our fire department that evening, and hopefully it's a situation that we don't see our men involved again, but we're fortunate to have a great police and fire service here to the group that addressed us here tonight with isolino park your message has been received and we will do we will get it corrected thank you thank you councilman butterball yeah definitely uh congratulations to uh the firefighters and uh

And it is my prayer that they never have to go through what they had to go through to get an award like that again. And and just congrats to them. And as Councilman Kelly said, we're very blessed in our city to have them. Is he part? That's also my neighborhood. And it's definitely gotten out of hand up there. I just don't like the way the roles are. You used to be able to be punished if you did wrong. whether you were under 17 or whatnot. You know, today the legal system gives the young people an absolute free pass and it's nonsense and it needs to stop. There needs to be consequences for actions. And some people say we live in the worst generation of children. I don't think so. I think we live in a very difficult situation for parenting. I think some of the parenting is either not there at all or just horrible. And that's something that needs to improve. But in the meantime, we definitely need to do something with the park, whether it's a closure of some kind or a partial closure of some kind. or we're revamping it as was suggested earlier tonight and so yeah as councilman Nick has said that that will be addressed and I do understand there are some things underway that we can't get into with investigations and things of that nature and so thank you for your comments tonight councilman Ellis

Yes. Could I just ask Chief Swope to maybe address some things that his department's been able to do out there? Give us an update, Chief.

Sure. As an Altoona resident myself who lives directly across from a city park, I certainly understand your concerns and you know, they're valid. This isn't a problem that's localized to that park in particular. Since this issue was brought to my attention probably the end of February, beginning of March when it started getting nicer out, my directive was to have zero tolerance for any crime that was reported over there where we could make an arrest and then also increase our daily checks of the park. With what was reported on June 2nd, I'll be certainly reviewing some body cam. The statement told by our supervisors not to do anything is concerning, so we'll do some internal evaluation to see where the disconnect is. it doesn't sound like what we've been doing is made a big difference so we will reevaluate what what we're doing to try to address the issues over there we have had several arrests since march and we have a pending arrest from a larger incident that occurred may 29th where it was videoed a very disturbing video but you know We plan on making arrests. I thought that video was linked to another large assault that we were investigating now that we've kind of ruled that out. Arrests are imminent from the May 29th incident. The description of this place being a fight club, I think that's accurate based on some search warrants we've done. some cell phones we've seized luckily for us they've been video on a lot of their crimes over there and we're addressing it and trying to target some of those main actors per se so again I hear your concerns and we are willing to reevaluate what we're doing if it's not having the effect that that the residents want and keep moving forward and see if we can get the issue under control I would ask give us some time it's not going to happen overnight, but it is on our radar and it will be addressed.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor, I'll just follow up with saying that as only member council, but a member of the park and rec board. We we will address this is will be addressed and we will certainly be working with chiefs will to to make sure we get some increased patrols out there and try to stop this conduct.

Councilman Beatty.

For the neighbors over Isolino, I was made aware about this about two months ago. So I did start cruising around that neighborhood just to see the activity that was going on. I had also suggested that we put up trail cams to get, you know, a little bit better accurate information on who it is and what time it's happening. I really appreciate you coming in because That's the only way that we know about it, unless it's in the paper or unless we're informed by the city that there's a problem. I appreciate coming in and letting us know what's going on. I also wanted to reiterate, we had the groundbreaking for three new homes up at Garfield Park last week. So we are investing in the communities and in the neighborhoods and we want them to be safe. So I'd like to assure you that we will move forward to get this resolved. Thank you.

Councilwoman Clinton.

I just want to say congratulations to all the firefighters and to Adam also. And thank you for coming in and voicing your concerns. And I also want to say thank you to the Altoona Women's Club, the Tipsy Tulip, and Kelly Irwin with Kelly's Collection. We got flowers planted down in Heritage Plaza, and it looks really nice. So just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you. I have a few. This just recently, the issue with the park just recently got brought to my attention when Councilman Butterbaugh made me aware. As Councilman Ellis said, also as a member of the CBRC board, we'll definitely be sure to look into what's going on up there and take whatever appropriate action we need to. A couple other things. I would like to get the shade tree commission revived so if we could start getting some talent bank applications submitted for that I feel like we need to have those checks and balances in place for when it comes to tree requests and tree removals taking a step further. I think that we should also take back responsibility for tree maintenance under the city and not leave it to the responsibility of the property owner. Especially if we're going to be serious about following the comprehensive plan and doing a lot of the community development type initiatives that it calls for in there. We need to have better control over that. We need to be doing a better job of the trees that we're planting so that we're being more mindful of low maintenance, things like that. So yeah, wanted to put that out there so that we can hopefully get some Talent Bank applications coming in. and finally on saturday the pittsburgh pirates invited myself and pittsburgh mayor corey o'connor to participate in a clinic baseball clinic at pmc park we invited youth baseball and softball players from Altoona and Pittsburgh and they had a one-hour free clinic on the field of PNC which was really cool even for myself to be on the field so that was a lot of fun so thanks to Pirates MLB and the U.S. Conference of Mayors for organizing that and that's all I have questions from the media now Bill

Today's Bill's birthday, by the way. And as you're present today, Bill, you get one question off. You may remove one question, like a little mini vacation.

29 years old.

Adam, who was giving the citations and awards today? The city. The city, okay. That was the same incident that the organization in Northeastern Pennsylvania gave, right, for the same, basically the same thing. Okay, thanks. Would anybody else want to say anything about the, I know you talked about the firefighters. Anyone else want to say anything about the firefighters and what they did?

I will tell you that actually the city manager and I were on the scene of that fire. And the work that was being done there was just absolutely unbelievable with what was happening. I mean, there were firefighters being removed from that scene by ambulance. while their fellow firefighters had to continue to do the job that they were doing. I was just in awe at their professionalism and the way they took care of business there.

That evening, Bill, I heard sirens as I was preparing to go to bed, and I heard sirens noticeably different than what you normally hear sirens in the city. It sounded like a lot more. And I actually turned on the police scanner, and I heard Nick Lugovich's mayday call go out across the 911 system, which was a pretty indescribable feeling, knowing that one of our firefighters was in truly harm's danger. So the work that they did there and not only taking care of those that were in the dwelling that night, but also taking care of one another. Only a few people in this world run toward danger to take care of someone that's in danger. And they deserve, whether it's police, fire, and other EMS personnel, they deserve all the credit in a time of a situation like that. So thank you to them.

Anybody else?

I thought they did an excellent job, Bill. We train. We have a very well-staffed, very experienced fire department, and they do their job, and they have great leadership, and we appreciate everything they do.

I've lost my cursor here. Sorry.

Okay. Yes.

I'm just going to add to this. With the firefighters, those who are married, we want to also thank their wives because of, you know, it's their loved one that's there saving others. So, yes, we want to thank them as being the firefighters' wives.

Derek, can you say, you mentioned when you were talking about Isolino Park, there were videos, I guess, or incidents on July, or June 2nd and May 29th. Could you say, kind of explain what those showed, or what happened?

As much as I can speak to it, we made aware of several flight videos that were circulating online. We had actually responded to the original 911 calls. The dates of those exact calls have escaped me. That led into a larger scale investigation where I assigned several detectives to look into those cases. Seeing the videos myself, they were they were disturbing, where larger groups of juveniles were assaulting and picking out other juveniles to assault. Those investigations led to multiple search warrants being served, one on the primary residence of one of the actors, and then several search warrants for digital devices, their cell phones, that they were using to record the fights. And during the search warrants that was discovered, they were recording other fights. Some of them appeared to be from the parking question tonight. So, you know, we're looking into that and making the appropriate arrests as we're uncovering information that we were able to gather during the search warrants.

Okay. Are the people that are involved in this, the ones that are doing the stuff that is generating the complaints, are they from that neighborhood?

some of them aren't from what our investigation have shown have shown not sure what the attraction is to the park but no a lot of them it's that's just a place they're congregating and i'm not sure why

When you said fight nights, are they like organized fights or semi-organized fights between willing participants?

It appears so. The age of the participants is pretty shocking. They're a tender age, 12, 13, 14 years old. So again, it's something we're aware of and looking into. I have some arrests pending. I talked to the detective today. He had five juvenile allegations ready to file with some serious charges to include aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, riot, disorderly conduct, and things of that nature.

To make sure I understand, so there are instances where kids go after other kids who are not willing participants, and then there are other sort of organized events where they fight each other in a?

That seems to be what we're seeing, yes.

Okay, and they fight with fists?

Yes.

Bare fists?

Yes.

Have there been any serious injuries?

We've had several juveniles that have been injured, yes, and those are some of those injuries are what's prompting the serious charges.

That's all. Thank you.

Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Bill.

How can we keep it a secret?

Any questions? Yeah.