City Council - Regular Meeting

Call this Altuna City Council meeting to order. Monday, December 1st at 6 p.m. We now 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 the roll call, please? Councilman Batty, here. Councilman Butterball, here. Councilwoman Clinich here. Vice Mayor Ellis

here. Councilman Ikis here. Councilman Kelly here. Mayor Pacificico here. All right, we'll open the floor for public comment. If anybody would like to address council, please uh come to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and please keep your comments to three minutes. The floor is open.

Hi there. My name is Jim Ferary, 10:15 Lelane in the Logan Township. Although I do operate a business here in the city of Altuna. Good evening. We're here to discuss whether we believe discriminatory actions are being taken against our hauling company. After learning of my father's plan to sell his company and retire, we started our own hauling business to continue continue serving this community after surveying the market. And we are known as Fernary's Hauling. This morning I went to a local transfer station for the se for the second attempt to dispose for to request permission to dispose of waste and recycling properly. I was denied without explanation. This concerns us not only as business owners but as members of this local community. If a local hauler can be denied access without reason, what does that mean for fairness, competition, and customer choice? If customers chose to switch to us or any other company, will their hauler also be denied the ability to dispose of their waste? We are asking the council to look into this issue to determine whether such denials are permissible under local rules or whether clear, fair policies need to be reestablished. We also respectfully request that the transfer station provide written explanation of the criteria used to accept or deny haulers. Our goal is to operate responsibility responsibly, serve residents, and be treated fairly. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Is there any more public comment? Okay, seeing none, we will close the floor and move into the resolutions.

Item A is approving the minutes of the Altuna City Council meeting held Monday, November the 10th, 2025. Item B is approving the 2026 to 2030 capital improvement program which includes a reasonable prioritize and practical list of capital projects to be undertaken by the city over the next five years. The projects are designed to preserve the city's infrastructure, ensure safety and efficiency of city personnel, and maintain quality of life in the community. Item C is amending and restating the fee resolution to include fire department fees as follow. Increase fees for rooming, boarding house inspection, fire safety inspection code official, flammable tank permit, operational permit, CPR training class, and remove and transfer room and rooming and boarding license to codes and inspections. Create and increase fees for codes and inspections as follows. Create halfway recovery home, rooming boarding home, institutionalized housing program license and establish fees. Increase per increase permit renewal fees and increase sexually oriented business fees. Remove electrical and plumber licenses. Item D is awarding the request for proposal for independ independent auditing services for the city for the years 2025,6 and 7, including a financial audit of the federal housing and community development funds redevelopment authority and the water authority to Young Oaks Brown and Company and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to same. Item E is approving the scheduling of the city council meeting for Monday, January 12th at 5:00 PM in accordance with the home rule charter administrative code of the city of Altuna. That will include the council meetings swearing in, organizational in the regular meeting. Item F is appointing the deputy police chief Derek Swope to the position of

police chief of the Altuna Police Department effective January 2nd, 2026. Item G is appointing Lieutenant Nathan Snyder to the position of deputy police chief of the Altuna Police Department effective January 2nd, 2026. Item H is approving the donation of a 2014 Ford Explorer from the city of Altuna's fleet to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Act 120 police municipal police academy for law enforcement training and further authorizing the city clerk to execute the title and complete any additional items to remove said vehicle from the city's fleet. Item I is approving a professional design services contract with aquatic facility design of Millersburg, PA for design services for the new aquatics complex at Prospect Pool in the amount of 298,165 for swimming pool complex design and 115,000 for bath house and concessions design payable from the central Pennsylvania community foundation funds and further authorizing the city manager to execute all documents and the city clerk to attest to do name item J is awarding these are all demo bids and they are the first few are from are being awarded to G&R excavating. They're all being authorized for signing by the city manager and then attesting by the city clerk. The first one is for 2196th Avenue and it's in the amount of $20,26540. These are all payable from the city's altogether. Altuna fund. The item K is for 215 East 5th Avenue and it's in the amount of 616,828.50. I should say these are all these are GNR excavating. The item L is awarding to

for 1908 18th Street in the amount of 17,240. Item M is for607 Bell Avenue and it is in the amount of 17,64450. The next few are being awarded to Leky's Demolition of Johnstown. The first one being 21206th Avenue and that is in the amount of $7,400. Item O is 1111 North 6th Avenue and that is in the amount of $11,700. And the final one is 171024th Avenue and that is in the amount of $10,900. Are there is there anything that needs to be pulled for separate vote? Hearing none, I'll call for the consent vote.

Councilman Batty. Yes. Councilman Butterbball. Yes. Councilwoman Clinich. Yes. Vice Mayor Ellis. Yes. Councilman Icis. Yes. Councilman Kelly. Yes. Mayor Pacificico. Yes. And the consent vote passes seven to zero.

We have three ordinances on the agenda. The first one is for introduction. It is an ordinance of the city of Altuna, Blair County, Pennsylvania, amending the code by adding a new chapter 571 to be entitled halfway recovery rooming and boarding and institutionalized facility licensing program providing application inspection and licensing requirements and definitions for halfway recovery houses, rooming and boarding houses and institutionalized housing here and after called halfway recovery rooming and boarding and institutionalized facility licensing. program, repealing of all other ordinances or parts of laws in conflict therewith, severability of provisions, and providing an effective date. Is there council member willing to introduce this ordinance?

So move. This ordinance was introduced by Vice Mayor Ellis. The next ordinance The next ordinance is for adoption. was introduced by Vice Mayor Ellis. It's an ordinance of the city of Altuna authorizing the city to join with another political subdivisions of a member of the Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative for to enter into an intergovernmental agreement for the purpose of joining the PMHIC and to to participate as a member of the PMHIC. Is there a motion for adoption? So moved. A second.

Second. This ordinance was moved for adoption by Vice Mayor Ellis and seconded by the mayor and I will call for the vote. Councilman Batty, yes. Councilman Butterb, yes. Councilwoman Clinich, yes. Vice Mayor Ellis, yes. Councilman Icis, yes. Councilman Kelly, yes. Mayor Pacificico, yes.

And the vote passes 7 to zero. And then we have a final ordinance for adoption, which is the 2026 budget ordinance. It was introduced by Councilman Ikis and it's an ordinance of the city of Altuna in the county of Blair Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appropriating specific sums estimated to be required for specific purposes of of the municipal government here and after set forth during the year 2026. Is there a motion for adoption? So moved. Second. This ordinance was moved for adoption by Councilman Butterb. Okay. And seconded by Mayor Pacificico. And I'll call for the vote. Councilman Batty, yes. Councilman Butterb, yes. Councilwoman Clinich,

yes. Vice Mayor Ellis, yes. Councilman Icis, yes. Councilman Kelly, yes. Mayor Pacificico, yes. And the vote passes seven to zero. All right, city manager updates. Chris.

So, uh, mayor and council, um, seeing we're at the last council meeting of the year, I just wanted to give a quick update of, uh, issues and, uh, projects that we've worked on this year. Um, [clears throat] excuse me. It's, uh, been a very busy year. Um, I'm proud to, uh, to say that we were able to hold a line on spending in this year's budget with no tax increase. Um, I'm also uh I'm glad to to have had the opportunity to work with all the staff and all the city employees. Um, it's been a fantastic year. We've taken on a lot of projects. Um, the complete transformation of our computer systems. Uh, Tim is working very hard to upgrade us to the Microsoft Office 365, put us on Outlook. He's also worked on all the security enhancements. Um Nate and the public works crew have done a fantastic job uh with the paving projects uh through the summer. Um they've been out today uh readying for the snow that we're going to have tonight. Uh Jim and the finance crew have done amazing work to put the budget together and work through the uh transition uh with open gov and with paycom for payroll. Christina and the HR staff has done amazing work um with our health insurance uh negotiating saving the city almost $500,000. Um we also I I I do need to to say thank you to all the labor uh organizations. Um we were able to settle five labor agreements this year. Um we made meaningful um work in all the budgets um with the rank and file uh meet and discuss and the crossing guards and the same thing with the police and fire unions. U we were

able to uh continue to emphasize the importance of public safety for the city. Um, and it's just it's due to their willingness to come to the table um, and sit down and we've had frank discussions and I think that we put the city on the right trajectory into 2026. And finally, I just want to say thank you to city council for all the support you've given all of us and staff. And a big thank you to all the city employees. None of this is possible without all the hard work of the men and women that come in every day trying to make Altuna the the best city that it can possibly be. So, thank you.

Thank you. And I echo your comments. We have we have a great staff in all of the departments. All right. Uh council discussion items. Uh Councilman Nickeas. Thank you, Mayor. Uh coming off of Thanksgiving and soon into the Christmas season, I believe we have the Christmas parade this weekend. Is that correct? 1:00. 1:00. Yeah. 1:00 Saturday. uh with the light up festivities beginning afterwards around 4:00, fireworks at 5:30. I'm sure it will be an outstanding uh show uh for for the community. 5 5:30.

Uh please please make an attempt to uh to join and participate. I know my kids are eagerly looking forward to it. Um I also want to echo uh manager's comments. You know, it's there have been a lot of things accomplished this year. Obviously, you know, council's uh very satisfied with having a manager at the helm um helping us navigate some of these big items. Um so, thank you, Chris, and the entire team. I believe that this will be our police chief's last meeting. It's not an everyday opportunity to have a chance to embarrass our current police chief. But Joe, we will we will miss you and we we uh I'm going to speak for everyone here. We wish you and your family all the very best as you head into your uh your new endeavors and thank you for your service. uh in APD. Um one other final comment uh for the community here. We obviously approved the uh final design pro process for aquatics design tonight. So they'll do final design with the intent of that project being bid in the early part of 2026 for what will be a totally brand new prospect poll for our community, which is um something that I'm excited to see be implemented. That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Councilman Butterball,

just uh great work everybody and wish you all the uh best Christmas and New Year's. Thank you, Councilman Kelly. Uh thank you, Mayor. I have nothing else to offer tonight. Thank you, Councilman. Uh yes, I do want to take a minute and uh thank uh our outgoing police chief. uh 20 years ago when he came here. I know State College wanted him very badly as a young recruit patrolman and uh we were blessed to have him here for 20 years and uh we appreciate the work that you did and you finally get to go home and I'm sure mom and dad are going to be happy about that. So B,

I'd like to thank Joe for his service and then welcome the new chief and assistant chief. um looking forward to a long career uh there and the help that you can provide. And then this year, yeah, I want to thank Rebecca for the work that she did um working through codes violations and helping um as we put the blight committee together. And I think this year we'll see a lot of movement on housing in Altuna. We know that um three of the properties, one property is already uh on the market that uh 1329 21st Avenue and the other two will be gone on the market soon. So that'll provide housing for families. These homes will be sold and they will be sold to homeowners. So, we want to um move forward and have, you know, livable, sustainable housing, attractive housing, and uh eliminate blight in the communities as much as we can. Thank you and merry Christmas.

Counciloman Clinich, I just want to thank all of the staff. Um Chris, we we've had a very long year with changes and everybody's adapted to them. I just appreciate everybody and all their hard work. Uh I want to say chief, I didn't know you that long, but appreciate your service here and just want to wish everybody a merry Christmas. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I just wanted to add that um the Salvation Army this evening because of the um impending winter storm that they're calling for um the Salvation Army will be opening up its uh warming center tonight. Uh Major Blessing is here in the back of the room. Uh they'll be opening tonight from 10 p.m. until tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. So, anybody that uh needs that uh questions from the media? Bill Thank you. Um, is the adopted budget the same as the um, tenative budget?

Yes. Okay. Anybody from council care care to comment on the budget at this point? Everybody did a great job holding the line on the spending like our manager Chris said. Good job. The budget sticks with the plan of funding the comprehensive plan along with ongoing capital needs. Say the first [snorts] the word. The budget. The budget is in line with the comprehensive plan that was approved by council as far as carrying out those items along with the current and long-term infrastructure needs and upgrades for capital requirements down the road.

Well, I I think Bill, as we go forward, um you know, this is not going to be a comprehensive plan that draws dust on the shelf. You know, we're actually putting dollars to projects. We're looking to not borrow money. You know, as a city, you know, we've paid a large amount of our um tax income to debt service payments and we're trying to get out in front of that so that all the money that's being taken in is being used wisely and not being paid out, borrowing money for um items that depreciate or don't last as long as the bond issue. So, I think we're working real hard to get ahead and make Altuna prosperous in the future. Anybody else? um regarding Derek uh to I'm sorry, Chris, can you say um did you look outside the um city staff to um to fill the position of the chose leader?

No. Um, I did an evaluation of the talent that we had inside the organization [snorts] and um, we had the right leadership in place. Chief Merrill did an outstanding job in secession planning. Uh, and I saw no reason to bring in any outside leaders. I I think the two individuals that we selected tonight for the chief and the deputy chief are the the two best individuals for the job. And I think that they're going to take what Joe's done as the chief of police and um they're going to put their own stamp on it and they're going to take a good organization and turn it into a great organization. And I have the utmost confidence in both Derek and Nate uh that they will do an outstanding job for the citizens of Altuna.

Would you care to elaborate on Derek's um qualifications and virtues as Certainly. So, um Joe spent some time as the uh acting city manager and uh Derek stepped into that role and was the acting chief of police. Um Joe had some surgeries this year and was out for an extended period of time and again Derek stepped up uh and ran the organization. uh had long conversations with Joe about the direction the police department was taking and uh I took his input uh and I felt very comfortable uh in making that that selection as uh Derek to be our next chief of police.

Okay. Anything else on that? No. Council care to say anything about that about Derek? I I think uh Chief Merl put in place an outstanding command staff uh which led to a relatively uh easy decision by the city manager. Uh his toughest decision may have been who to make the deputy chief, but he picked an outstanding young man for that position. Also,

anyone else? I'm sure they will continue to work hard to keep Altuna as safe as possible. We've been very very fortunate to have a an excellent police department and and uh they're supported by council and the citizens of this city and I'm I'm very happy about that and the work they do. Um, regarding the pool, is the design work already done on the pool or are you commissioning this company to do the design work?

So, we've been working with uh this company for the last six months. Um, we have um designs and now it's in the engineering phase. Um, and they will they will take the approved concepts that they presented to us. uh they will turn them into the engineering drawings that we're going to need to go out to bid. Um as Councilman Ak has said, u this is a a huge project for the city. Uh we were very fortunate to have a donor come in. There is no tax dollars being spent on this project. This is fully funded by donations. Um the pool uh it'll be a complete renovation of the pool. Uh we'll be adding features. Um we will also be adding a splash pad component to the prospect pool area along with completely redesigning the concession stand and the bath house u bringing the uh bath house pool house into full ADA compliance. Um, the money that was was in the agenda, I guess, or listed in the agenda, is that the total construction cost or is that just for this company's engineering of the design?

No, the costs that were on the agenda tonight were the full engineering design costs. The uh pool cost is uh roughly $2.4 $1 million for the pool and the splash pad. And there is an additional uh 600,000 I believe for the the bath house and the concession stand. You mean for construction of this? For construction. And is one donor is going to pay for all of this? That's correct. And is that donor does not want to be identified?

That's correct. Can you give me any details? Is this a native of Altuna?

The the donors asked to keep it completely anonymous and uh I want to respect that. It's just for for a donor to make this kind sizable investment into the city of Altuna just shows that somebody cares about the city, cares about the the children and the youth and had faith in the city that we could put a project together. Um, and I' I'd be remiss if I didn't say that Nate and the public works team worked hand inand on this project. Um, we we went through multiple designs. Um, and I I think the end product is going to be something that the uh citizens of Altuna will enjoy for for many years to come. Well, and Bill, I'd like to add, you know, when the city took control of Prospect Pool three years ago, um, it was on the verge of being closed and, you know, we put the work to it to make it a valuable asset and then put the management in place and I think we were very successful making it a safe, enjoyable place and I think the donor noticed that the city was had a commitment to it and, you know, I think that was a reason why um, he moved forward with that.

Bill, if I may, there was a uh a newspaper article from a local company last December that may answer some of the questions you're asking about Prospect Pool. An article from a company. Yeah, the Altuna mayor last December. That might answer some questions that you wrote. Oh, that was You can't believe it. Okay. Um, can you say why this donor insists on being anonymous?

I don't know the personal reasons. They just asked for complete anonymity and when somebody's willing to step up and invest $4 million, a little over $4 million into your community. I am not going to ask why he wants to remain anonymous. Oh, you have to ask that. [laughter] That sounds like a catch 22 here. Um, okay. Like it's like a reporter roast tonight here. Yeah, indeed. Poor Bill taking a peek.

Yeah, poor Bill. Uh [laughter] um the the design you you said that um there were multiple designs and you chose from among them. Who who did the choosing? we put together um as part of this process uh we um we put out a citizens inquiry. So we had feedback from multiple stakeholders um and we tried to incorporate as many of the uh the citizens of Altuna's ideas into the design. Uh the designers came back with um three uh variations of what the pool could potentially look like and be used. Uh we had a committee, we evaluated cost, we evaluated functionality. Um we evaluated um one of the [snorts] biggest evaluation criteria was whatever we did with pool design, we needed to make sure that we had the sufficient amount of lifeguards available. So we worked hand inand with the Y in uh figuring out what the right mix of lifeguards was going to be required and we uh the committee ultimately uh decided on the concept which was concept number two which was a complete redo of the main pool. um a beach shelf area that you walk in on the shallow end with amenities um and the ability for family members there. The swim lanes were important. There was a lot of community feedback that they wanted the swim lanes and then um slides and um diving boards down on the deep end of the pool and then a splash pad area, shade structures, um things like that that were incorporated into it. And then a unique part of the design, um there was

a lot of requests for the pool to be heated. Uh with the early spring opening, water still cold. Um so we've incorporated uh solar panels to do passive heating uh for the pool project. The is the splash pad going to be within the pool or on a separate off to the side. Off to the side. That was one feature bill that was important to me that that was included there because um there's a lot of single parents in the city that have, you know, multiple children and, you know, they might have a poolage child and a smaller child and they have to choose between taking, you know, going to the junior out of spray park or going to Prospect. Well, now they, you know, won't have to choose between the two.

I'm just saying my pool wasn't heated when I was a kid. So, the fact that this is going to be heated is pretty nice. back when men were tough. I wouldn't quite say that, but [laughter] burn. That was good, though. Why don't we switch sides one of these evenings? You can sit here and I'll I'll ask questions. Sorry. Uh let's see. What when the um Jesse said that the bids could go out in the spring? Is that is that drive with what you

we should have final engineering uh drawings to go out to bid uh January February time frame. Uh we hope to award uh late February or early March with construction to commence immediately and we uh had multiple conversations with the uh the pool designer and the companies that uh we have a hard opening. It was a requirement that this pool be ready, fully functional for an opening in the spring of 2027 and they've assured us that our timelines are completely on track. Um, so we'll be down this summer with the pool being closed, but we will have a grand opening of a brand new facility in the spring of 27.

Okay. Thanks. um the halfway house ordinance. Could somebody explain the purpose and the significance of it?

So, we've had um we've had multiple requests coming in um for halfway houses for recovery houses. Um and we we had a facility go in front of the zoning uh hearing board. Um, and in doing so, uh, the zoning hearing board put some stipulations that came back requiring, uh, these properties to be full in full code compliance. Um, Rebecca and her team did a fantastic job. They got with the state. Uh, we were able to get all the requirements when the state licenses a facility. Uh, and we were able to incorporate that in. So we have a very comprehensive inspection program that uh codes building inspectors and the fire inspectors will work hand in hand. Um, and we didn't have uh we didn't have a licensing program in place. And again, Rebecca and her team did fantastic work and they put together an application all the requirements. Uh, so we're completely transparent to anybody that's trying to open up one of these facilities of what their requirements are going to be. And at the end of the day, it was about safety. uh you have these um facilities opening up in single family residences that are being converted uh are being proposed to be converted into recovery or halfway homes. Um in uh going out and look at some of these proposed uh residents to be converted, we we found that there were a number of code violations, serious code violations, not ADA compliant. Um, in if we're going to have people housed in facilities, it's our responsibility to make sure that they're done to the appropriate standards, to the appropriate codes, and make sure that we address all the life safety concerns. Um, it's been a very long, busy year for the fire department.

Tragically, there's been a number of fatal fires, and if we're going to have group home type settings, we want to make sure that we've done our due diligence. and uh if we're going to permit a facility to open that they're opening and that they're full compliance with our guidelines and the state's guidelines. Well, it does this basically match the state requirements that were in place already? Yes, we the inspection requirements were pulled straight from the state's requirements. Does does that make it redundant? In other words, like if theoretically under the state requirements, should this have already been happening?

So the the state sets the requirements and it's the local municipalities that have to enforce the requirements and go out and do the inspections. And in looking into this, we realized that uh we needed to put the mechanisms in place to adopt those standards uh and then have a comprehensive checklist. So there's there's no uh there's complete transparency for anybody that wants to come in. They'll know coming in sitting down with the codes department what their requirements are going to be business licensewise and then to to be licensed to to the appropriate facility that they're trying to do, whether it's a roaming house, whether it's a halfway house, whether it's a recovery facility. So the expectation with of the state and putting this in place is that the municipalities would do the kind of things you just did.

Yes. [snorts] Yes.

Uh let's see. Would anybody care to comment on well before I ask that um regarding what Mr. Fornari said in the during the comment period um does the city have anything in this sort of uh dispute any any authority or jurisdiction I guess?

So the city as you're aware is part of the IRC. So, uh, we've reached out to Brock, the executive director, who happens to be on vacation. Um, we will we will find out what the IRC charter says about this. Um, this was just brought to my attention about a half hour before the city council meeting. So, we will run that to ground tomorrow u and then we will get back in uh contact so that we can provide a way forward. But it's it's an IRC issue. It's not a city issue, but because we're a signature in and the largest contributor inside the IRC, we will do that. We will look into it.

So, the IRC definitely has jurisdiction over this sort of thing. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Um I think that's all I have. Thanks. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.