Borough Council - Regular Meeting

We're live. Like to call order the coming burough council meeting for May 12th, 2026 at 7 p.m. I have a roll call, please. Help the person here. Here

mayor here. Today's invocation will be from Pastor Mark Harris. All rise, please. I'm going to take just a couple seconds before I go, if that's okay.

Um, I'm the pastor of Old Salem, which is now the Historic Salem United Church of Christ over on Walnut Street. Uh, Old Salem has been there since 1803. It is the oldest congregation in Colombia and is the oldest standing church in Columbia, built uh the current church was built in 1860. Um, as of Pentecost, which is Sunday, May 24th, that will be our last service. So, the church is going to be merging, the membership will be merging with Trinity UCCC out in Mount and after a period of sorting through 223 years of records, we will uh put the church up for sale and that will happen through the Keystone Conference of the UCCC. So, just wanted to let people know that. And the other thing, because I know lots and lots of people in town have connections to Old Salem, next Sunday, which is the 17th of May, we'll be having an alumni service. So, we'll have a normal service at 10:15 in the morning. And then we'll have a bunch of historical records, photographs, all sorts of things out for folks to take a look at. If you'd like to come by, if you just want to stop by the educational building of the church and take a look, please do. Um, and then we'll have a hymn sing later on that afternoon if you're interested in that. Thank you for indulging me and uh will you please pray with me? Most holy and gracious God, be with us here in this room as we seek to do work in this world to benefit all. Grant wisdom to all of those in government to make good choices for the betterment of the largest number of people. be with our business owners and our our property owners as they work to improve the town and improve everyone's living conditions. Be with the residents as they do their best to continue to be the community that they are. And be with the least and the lost and the lonely

among us who are here and need our help to reach their full potential. We ask that you grant us all of this wisdom and courage in this meeting and in the time a thereafter. And we pray in your son's holy name. Amen. Thank you.

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. Are there any additions, deletions, or reorganization of the agenda? I get a motion to approve the agenda as published. Agenda is published.

So moved. Second. Have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Hezy to approve the agenda as published. All in favor say I. I. Assisting comments. Is there anybody would like to make a comment? Two things. Uh, Scott, can you say your state say your name for the record? Oh, Scott Frederick. Thank you.

Two things I want to just touch on briefly this evening. First, we had the opportunity to take our son grandson up to the uh bike rodeo the other week. thought it was an awesome thing for the Burough of Columbia, parks and rack more in particular to do for the citizens of this uh community. I'm originally from Mannheim and I was thinking about this recently with the movie night in the park that you guys used to do, the entertainment in the park that is still an ongoing thing, and now this bike rodeo. Honestly, I've busted on Colombia my fair amount, but I don't remember Mannheim doing this much for the citizenship that live here in this town. So, I think that's a pretty amazing thing and I think you should have your, you know, you should be commended for that. Each and every one of you, Parks and Wreck, Michelle Kaufman was there representing the uh parks and wreck that day. Uh there was a police presence there. Uh even the chief stopped in um as it went on. It was just a wonderful family activity and I I think that's great. Second thing uh saw the post as far as Mel Park goes. I don't know if it was to spur community action or what. But I've always been one people step out of line sometimes they need busted and if there's going to be vandalism back there and I live in that end of town pretty much right across the street from it. I have concerns about that end of town myself.

However, I was accosted a couple years ago down there by a bunch 12 hoodlams, ranging from 12 to 18 to 20, whatever they were. I had a basketball thrown in my face by one of them. Now, if I were to turn that kid's lights off, I'm sure the police department would have found me. It's not that hard. replace the cameras and get more police presence down there. Hourly drivebys, whatever it takes. There should be something for smoking as my wife posted out there. It's just common. There's not a night you can go out there or down there and not have people smoking. And the the language that's going on, I've stopped taking my I'll just say son because that's the way I look at him. I just stopped taking my son to that park. We'll come up here to Jansen. We'll come up to Reservoir or you know veterans, whatever it's called.

Rotary.

Yeah, Rotary Park. We'll go there, but once in a great while I'll go there, but I'm not leaving him there by himself. I'm always there. just I think to even consider shutting down that part is probably not the thing to do. Maybe it was to spur citizen comments. I'm not exactly sure what the motive was, but I know that section of town has problems. I live there. I see them. I hear them. Oh lord. I don't can't tell you how many times I wanted to come off on my porch and holler down the street to tell them to shut them up cuz they're cussing like, you know, it's 10:00 at night and they're cussing like it's 3:00 in the afternoon and nobody wants to bring up a family in that area or in that environment. So all I can say, Chief, you're a burough manager now, so I'll just let that go. But get cameras that are working. When I talked to Chief Brahmer at the time about when I was accosted, the footage on those cameras was so grainy it was worthless. I offered to ID the guy because I saw him coming out of high school walking home one day. Oh, that's not the way we do it. I'm sorry. That's the way it should be done. Like I said, if I beat his ass that night, I'm darn sure there would have been a police presence knocking on my door within a day or two. You would have found me. Find the kids that are doing this stuff. Find the kids that are destroying the the basketball courts. They're new. You cut down a beautiful huge tree to put those courts in. Protect what we got. And if that means find him, I don't care if he's 12. I don't care if they're 20. I don't care

if they're 45. Burn them. Burn them. We got to do that to make the community proud of what we have. And don't let little hoodlams, whether they're 45year-old hoodlams or whoever is doing this, destroy what we got. Colombia has a lot going for it. But you can't put the amount of money that you put into that park and have I'll clean it up. people come along and destroy it, put graffiti all over it, bust stuff up, whatever. Protect what is ours. And believe me, I'll be the first one. Pick up the phone, call 911, county dispatch, give me an officer out here. I've done it many times. I'll continue to do it because I'm not one when my quality of life goes down because of somebody else's actions. No, that does affect me. And if you don't want your business on the street for me to tell you about your business, you will take care of your business. If you do not, and I'm referring to the vandalism, vandalizers. If you don't want me calling you out, don't do it in the first place because I will be the first one to call you out.

Thank you, Mr. Frederick. Um, I believe Burough Manage can comment on cameras. We are already looking into that. Correct. That is correct. Our uh camera vendor is going to meet with us in the very near future to uh to pick points out locations for the installation of new cameras. All right. Can I ask approximately per camera quality camera? What is the cost? Yeah, we're looking at maybe adding three total. That's 13 to 15,000 for those. So approximately four grand a pop. Four to five. Yes.

Okay. All right. That gives me something to think about. I will say both um Jack at the time, chief and the mayor pushed very hard for cameras out there when we put the bathrooms in and remodeled, but we just didn't have it in our budget at the time to do that.

Okay. But my situation happened like two two and a half years ago, I think it was. They're worthless. And poor Mr. Klein that lives on Corn Avenue. These kids as they were chasing me up Corn Avenue took a baseball bat or something, snapped off his radio antenna on his car and put a dent on the side of the thing. Well, it wasn't a baseball bat. It was a stick, a large stick, but he never got compensated. I pushed for it and pushed for it and pushed for it, but one voice doesn't get it. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that information.

Is that all right, Frank?

Good evening you all. Believe it or not, I do look forward to come to these meetings, seeing all my friends. Uh, I did find out at our last meeting, well the one before that that I commented when I get up that there was a speed trap. The burough held a speed trap and I commented on that. I really like that. But I found out they had two more besides that and I didn't know that. What did they have? I'm sorry. Speed trap up on the Arville Pike. Oh

yeah. one of the people that goes to the committee there before the police department let me know. He said we did have two more. So I I give the credit. You have the tools you need to use them. Um, and the last meeting we had at the fire company, I know you wanted a meeting to congratulate Holly and all and but why did we take the council meeting there? We just got our our our streaming straightened out and I even come into a meeting a couple days later and into the burough hall here and they had taped the meeting. I said, "Are you going to put it on? You're going to stream it?" They said, "No." Why?

That's supposed to be on. They were they were having difficulty uploading it because of what they used to take the lecture. That's what I was told. That's why it has not been updated or uploaded to the YouTube. We we can uh split that up. That has to be uploaded. So, it's not up at this point. No, it's not. And they told me they wasn't going to put it up, but I just I was wondering will be up. I was wondering why you had the meeting there to begin with. I mean, it's your call. Don't get me wrong. This is council's business. And but why? Why? Yeah. Because the number of people were planning on attending.

Was it money there at the meeting? Like just like we had about this many there for the for the council meeting. I I understand that. And as far as the congratulation to Holly, that's what you want to do. That's that's great. But I just was wondering why you moved the meeting when we got the streaming straightened out and it would have been a benefit to the people. Uh, a lot of important things. Holly's contract that was debated pretty good. I I really like that, but the public knows nothing about any of that. So I have to ask if I don't I don't know. I didn't know. I appreciate it. I didn't know it wasn't put up.

Okay. And uh and I'll say to Holly and the chief now the bureau of marriage, congratulations to both of them. I can't say one without the other. Um and Holly, how would you like to be addressed being the first woman? Is is Holly okay? Chief, it's okay to call you Holly. Chief or Holly? Okay. All right. Um and at that meeting you voted on her contract. Yes.

And it was always my understanding you do not vote at these meetings only you bring that here but yet you did it there. Why? um out of respect to her for um accepting the position and the contract was more or less a formality and we can legally vote at those they are advertised meetings. We just choose generally not to say that again. We can legally vote at those meetings. Okay. Yeah. And it's your call, you know, don't get me wrong, but I just wonder why, you know, if we don't at other meetings, what was special about this? And

I I believe, if I remember correctly, we voted on uh Chief Bur Manager Brahmer's contract during a during a uh a work shop, too. Okay. And at that meeting I or somebody questioned um if we could get a copy of that contract and at that time they said no. Now is it because it wasn't ratified yet? That's correct. Is that your read? So now we can get a copy of that.

Okay. Uh, and I'd like to talk about the towing service. The last I knew, Holly said they were going to bring that up, stream it at the meeting so everybody gets on the same page so they all know what's going on. Now, the word on the street is Jack originally started out doing this contract or whatever was passed on to Holly. Now on the street it says it's passed back to Jack. Where's it stand? I believe it's with Holl and you're still going to have a streaming of that.

Yes. So every policy that we make up has to come through our because we're trying to get accreditation. So the accreditation manager has to look at it. She'll send me something and then we'll talk about that and then we have to but we have to go through them ultimately so we meet the accreditation standards.

Okay. Well, that's that's big business. I'm I'm looking to hear I'm looking to learn a lot of that. U one of the things that's out there is the one that my understanding is there's there's three teams. There's three towing services that's been in Columbia, but they only acknowledged one and it was supposed to be a rotating service. I don't know where it's at right now, but that's my understanding what went on. Going to be rotating. Yes.

Yeah. But it hasn't been done like that is the way I'm way I'm hearing. That's what the word I get out there. So I' I'd like to see how some of this turns out and I think it'll really give you input on how to, you know, to write that up. A lot of lot of questions. And to me, I I just uh I'm not looking at going in the towing business, but I would like to know how it works. I know it's it's an expensive business. If you get your car towed, it's expensive. So you ought to know exactly, you know, what you're getting into. Um, so we are going to have that. Uh, I probably had something else, but I didn't write it down, but I thank you for answering.

May I respond to Frank? Frank, may I just respond to Frank? He had a question about the market house finances. Oh yeah. At the last meeting. So Frank, at the last meeting, you had inquired about the finances for the market house. Okay. And I wanted to let you know I uh dug into it a little bit further and year-to- date revenue is $23,498. $23,498.

That's revenue. The expenditures year to date are 50,222. So the revenue is about at 47% of the expenditures year to date is

and the budget the revenue budget for the year is 62,000 and we're at about 37 38% year to date. The total for expenditures is around $12,000. It's $12,864. I'm not the best. I always like math in school when I was in there, but I'm not the best here. The 62 is the revenue for the year. That That's the budgeted revenue. That's correct. Okay. And the 29 is the monthly budget. 23. You had You had 29 and you had 50.

That's year to date. Oh, okay. All right. I didn't hear him say that. It's 23, not 29. Being we don't have a finance manager. I don't know who's in charge of that. Maybe you are. Is anybody looking into what we can do to try and put this in the in the green?

Well, we are we have made some changes. I think you're aware of this. Uh Bonnie has agreed to go part-time. We're hiring an assistant manager part-time. That's going to eliminate the benefits. Uh Bonnie's reduction in salary will amount to about a $14,000 savings for the bureau. But keep in mind when this project came forward, uh CHI actually was in charge and they had agreed to a $50,000 60,000, excuse me, 65. Yes. So things have changed since uh the initial plan for the market house,

but Bonnie is doing her best. As you well know, you're there every Saturday. The stands are filled. You know, the market's full for the most part. I mean, there are a lot of individuals that go there. Um Go ahead. I'm sorry. You had a question. No, I just wanted to comment then, but go ahead. You should have something else. Yes. And uh Bonnie's doing her best to try and get uh the uh the events uh to have the events host the events there as well. So uh you know give us some time. Let's look at things by the end of the year. But I think uh the numbers are going to look a little bit better in my opinion.

Okay. Um, I I truthfully think the market is working, but I think when it was rebuilt and the money was all put in it, I I felt that they thought that we were going to come out, we're going to make money. Now, the vendors are making money, but the public's not making money. And that's I just feel it should turn around somehow. I don't I can't tell you how to do it. I don't know. But I just wonder if anybody was working at it other than what was already done. Well, we do have a plan. We've made some changes. We think it's going to have a positive impact. Uh let's see how things look by the end of the year. Okay. Thank you.

Thanks for coming back to me. Yes. Thank you, J. Yes.

One other thing I forgot to mention. uh the dumping or placing sofas and other furnitureures on public sidewalks. I'm down on South Fifth Fifth in Union. There were two of them. Look like a love seat in a sofa there. I noticed them like last Wednesday or Thursday. Uh I know Rap Brown posted something on Facebook which I commented on. I saw it on Friday morning when I was I was walking to my son to school and I thought to myself, WTF, how long is it going to be there? I did contact uh President Kaufman about it uh via email. He uh was very prompt and got back to me with the according information as far as it has been reported. Uh it was as of last Thursday I believe it was they were ticketed for it. One disappeared. I noticed the other day as of this morning the second one disappeared as well. Uh is that at burough cost when you guys have to pick this stuff up and get rid of it? Good. Good. Okay. Go back to

I mean initially it's our cost but we do you pass it on to them in the way of incorporating it into the greater find. All right. Very good. Very good. But I just wanted to acknowledge you, Eric, for getting back to me, taking care of that, Jack. I don't know if that's your area of authority or whatnot, but thank you. Clean this town up and make the citizens proud to be here. I I can't stand seeing trash in the freaking gutters and that stuff. And I've addressed that with you previously over the years. Um, we got to have more pride in this town. That's what it comes down to. We got to have more pride in this town. Thank you.

Sure.

Uh, I'm sure you all been on Facebook and you seen that they had a confrontation across the street here. some bad woman cursed and everybody out. I think it was a Sunday morning. I'm not sure of that. Uh but anyway, even the the person that I talked to after I seen it on online, uh he said enough's enough. He called 911. They assured him that officers are being sent out. He waited and waited. She was still there cursing everybody out. F this. F that. and and nothing was done. So So now this is what I'm told. I wasn't there. So he comes over to the police station. There's four police cars sitting outside. How do you justify having four cars there? I'm sure the officers were there. Why? Why wasn't didn't somebody go there and do something about that? Um, we have multiple cars. Just because there's four cars there doesn't mean

there's officers in the building. Well, they're usually right where they park when they use them every day. Uh, how many officers do we have on Sunday morning? Three officers. Okay. And there was four cars there. The other thing is the last time we had a meeting here, I get out of the car, ebike, went up the street. I took my time getting on the payment. I didn't want to get hit. They went up to the bus stop. Now tonight, two of them back and forth. Guy out in the street come down. We supposedly have a law that we can confiscate the rebikes. Have we ever done that? How many?

How many scooters? I don't know. I don't keep track of and how to get them back. Parents, that's would be the right way. Yes. That way you get the parents in and let them know what they're doing. Good. Good. Thank you. Thanks for letting me come back up. Sure. Anybody else have any questions or comments?

All right. Thank you. Minutes for approval. Consider approval of the Burough Council meeting minutes for April 28, 2026. Questions, concerns. I make a motion that we consider approval of the Bureau Council meeting minutes for April 28, 2026. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Ziggler to approve the Burough Council meeting minutes for April 28th, 2026. All in favor say I. I. Mayor Lutz, Chief R,

let me start with a comment about bike riding. It was a good event. I was there with my wife and one thing one thing that everybody noticed though was the attendance may have been down a little lower than what they figured. Wasn't a great day to start with. It's kind of windy and overcast, but they're going they're planning one for the fall and they're going to have it uptown here. We'll probably block off Third Street here. Uh the thought process was some some of the kids and their parents may not have had the means to get their bike down there. You know, if you have a car, sometimes you can't throw a bike in the back and it won't fit in the trunk or something like that. So, we thought we'll have better attendance here. So, they're planning one for the fall and hopefully uh the attendance will be up. But, it was a good event and they they want to continue that. Now, probably going to make some people unhappy tonight, but I had a call this week from a resident and she said, "You've got to do something. I can't eat the strawberries in my garden or the asparagus because of the cats." Now, I'm not I'm not a cat fan, but I but I do think that the cat group do a wonderful job in their inner trapping and and spaying and luting. I think you do a great job. The question though, and and this lady said, as they create these colonies, where are they going to their bathroom? In my garden. And and I got thinking about this, you know, and and that's a problem.

I don't want to see we got to look into this a little more. I don't want to see anybody, first off, losing the vegetables in your vegetable garden, but I don't want to see anybody getting sick from this. I mean, I can this goes on the line of a health problem and I I think we need to take a little hard a harder look at this. Like I say, I think the cat group does a wonderful job, but since then, from what I'm seeing, they created these colonies and and we had another resident here talking about it. I've had one down on South Fourth Street talking to me about it, these colonies. and they got to go do their business somewhere and they're going in into the neighbor's yards. This is a problem.

Mayor, if I can make a comment on that. Sure.

Um I think when council originally agreed to see and stuff like that and then from further on we went to changing our ordinance to allow colonies as long as they registered. We I believe we were under the impression that these colonies would exist while the cats were being captured. But now I'm being told that the cat even though they're captured and released released back into these colonies, these colonies got to stay there or the cats will go other places. That's not what I would at least in my opinion what I was led to believe. We were going to continue these colonies for eternity. So maybe this needs to be addressed at the worksh I think we need to look at it. I mean, I don't want to be hard about people that love cats or cats.

Absolutely not. The health that the health aspect of it is what what concerns me right now, right? You know, I mean, I just saw this thing on TV about this virus. They want and they tell they said that that comes from rodents. What a cats eat rodent. I don't want to see someone winding up getting sick or deathly sick with this or any other disease. But even at that, not to be able to go in your garden or at your children out in the yard. Hey, that's a problem. We need to look at.

Mr. Mayor, I received a very similar complaint this week as well. Um, I don't know if anybody in this room can answer this question, but the cat colonies um I know that um you have to apply for them. Are they inspected or reinspected um on a any type of type of semiannual or annual basis to make sure that uh the person's adhering to whatever those parameters are? No, the parameters are strictly we have an ordinance that says you can't feed cats unless it's a registered unless it's registered colony. So by registering a colony, you're allowed to feed outdoor cats. But but I imagine there's some parameters to to to ensure that this the colony is know it's very loose.

Okay, that's what I'm saying. Maybe we need to add I think I think we need to take a look. The person that asked me requested a specific answer if if I find find out and that's what I'm hearing is that there's no real real control over these columns. The name of the person from from the CAT team and I didn't get a chance to call and maybe we can address that. I'm just looking at the ordinance now and there are some annual reporting requirements um regarding the number of um total number of cats the number of cats that have been spayed and neutered. That's true that's through CCAT though, correct? Yeah. Well, for any that's in the ordinance

for any Yeah, that's in the ordinance for any registered colony. um which I think CCAT is the one who's largely administering is recording it. Yeah. As well as the number of kittens that are born that sort of thing. So Sure. No, absolutely. Go ahead. I don't want to step on you, but I just don't know all the ins and outs right now of what's going on there, but once the colonies were registered, then I was unclear. I thought codes could still site the people if they were not following the rules that were laid out. Yes, they absolutely they should.

But are they following up to look into that or did they just go like if there's a complaint? Because I think every time a new cat would enter the colony or or a litter of kittens, you were supposed to update your form. And I I don't know that that's being done either. I I mean I don't know that because I'm not really in charge of CCAT. I mean Liz Ross is the chair now and I appreciate you but yeah Sharon but but part that I'm seeing is I understand all that. don't disagree with it, but maybe what what we need to look at is if you're going to if you're if you are going to maintain a colony,

maybe you'll need to put a sand pit in your yard or something like that so these so these cats can relieve themselves. It's not a bad idea. I just don't require litter pans outside. Yeah. And I don't know, you know, how that would work as far as when it rains and things like that. You have to almost have it covered. you know, I've never been exposed to that, right? And I understand that people don't want it in their yard. I I totally get that. I, you know, I'm not trying to disagree with that, but I just I I believe too, though, the colonies were there before CCAT started trapping. They just were not as um visible, I guess. I don't think anybody's been see

No, no. I'm I understand that, but I'm just saying they were there before. You're right. those colonies were there. We just didn't see them as much because they weren't as visible. Now they're around humans. They're being trapped. They're, you know, but the hope of course always is that we're going to see less and less of them as time goes by. And I I think the numbers

have proven that we've had success with the program. Um, but it it still needs some tweaking as far as who's responsible because the burrow is still on the hook because the ordinance and the fact that the registration forms come to the code department here, I think keeps the bureau involved in that process somehow. But I think maybe there's a breakdown with followup on the colonies because the last I talked to someone and I this this number is not probably accurate anymore. But I had heard there was about 30 registered which is pretty good if you get 30 people in here to register. But how often are they following up on anything that's happening with them? We we really don't know. I think part of the breakdown is communication between CCAT who's out on the street doing the work and the burrow who's you know uh recording the the colonies

and Paula used to come to the meetings in the beginning. I don't know if she still does or not because I don't go to all of them anymore. But um that was helpful too. But I just maybe we just need to iron out who's checking in on the colonies to see if they're still properly registered and if they're violating any of the rules set forth. I think we need to get together and and have a discussion and hopefully come up with some kind of solution and maybe at the next meeting uh burough officials could attend and and talk about it. I know Mary did attend one of the meetings. Yeah. And that was a good first step. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I chief.

Not Frank yet.

I was just going to I'll talk about the bike radio again. Um was really successful. Um we actually brought our drone out, too, which I got to see for the first time in action. So, that was really neat. And I got to get on our ebike, which I haven't done yet. And it's actually a lot faster than what I realized. So, there's video of me floating around and us falling off of it. But, um we plan on doing it again in the fall. It was a lot of fun. Um, and if you if you have any ideas of what you'd like to see since you, you know, you were part of it. Well, speaking with Michelle, she had mentioned more center more local as well as adults. It was a wonderful time. is not the best. Wonderful, wonderful family.

Um, just an update. We have a cadet in the police academy. He graduates June 26th. Um, we have oral interviews set up for five applicants May 28th. So hopefully we can get one out of that group and the academy would start in July. Um, right now we currently have three officers. We have four platoon and only three officers on each platoon. So sometimes with vacations and training there's most of the time there's only two officers on duty. So hopefully with this hiring we can get some more. But we're down we're low right now. Chief, what is your count right now? I believe your goal is we have 17.

Yeah. So, we still have one on field training. Counting myself. Well, I don't really like to count myself because I'm not out. Detective Lety, we have 15, 14. We have one out on injury. So, 13 total on right now. So, and our our minimum should be 17. I remember Jack one time saying he wanted to be around 21. Yes. So, yes, it's I mean it's hard everywhere. Everyone is having issues getting applicants. So, um we're trying our best. We have a hiring and retention committee that's really been going out to job fairs, the Millersville University. So, we're trying. So, we plan on having another test in the fall. Hopefully, we get some good applicants with that as well. So,

thank you Yeah. On the cats, uh, just because it's a colony, are they confined to a certain area? No. No. So, we don't know that they were we're we're colony cats. It could have been other cats from the neighborhood doing all the crap. And so, the the idea, and Sharon, you may correct me. I don't know if Harps's ever heard this, but the idea is having a colony is somebody's feeding a group of cats. That group of cats considered a colony should keep the other cats away.

Cats are pretty territorial. Yeah, right. That's like I said, the colony sides on this side, spade neuters on that side. So,

and and what just happened to me last night, I have two female cats. I let them in and out during the day. They go down the yard. There's three houses down from me. They have I don't know how many cats. My cats are fixed. They always come home when they're tired. They want something to eat or whatever. Usually, when I get up, go to the bathroom, I'll go to the door and see if they're out there, let them in, and and then I'll go back to bed. Well, last night I opened the door looking for him. Hear one, they're both females. One of the cats run through my legs with a baby bunny in its mouth. Oh my god. I was I had every light on the house. I screamed at it. That's what they do.

I don't know where it went. I don't still don't know where the bunny's at. That's what they lose. Yum. Yum. It makes me think about them eating the birds. I never really give that a thought. That That's a big problem with feral cats is they decimate the Yeah. rabbit, squirrels, birds. Yeah. I didn't think I She get in there and she's just She was lying on the chair asleep and I asked her where in the hell of rabbit was that. But she can't talk. It might it might be there in a closet or something. I don't know. Or she ate it. Or maybe she's saving it for Sunday dinner or something. I don't know. Thank you.

She was bringing you a present for your present.

Mayor Lutz, when you said about uh residents having feral cats, we'll just call them that. uh coming and doing their business in their gardens. I just constructed for my wife an enclosed area where she she's doing the gardening, but she's doing it in five gallon pales and whatnot.

We have cinder blocks. We have pallets on top of that. And then I got 2x4s and whatever else and uh fur strips. and I actually screened it in where you can lift up the front and get to whatever you want. Now, I certainly don't expect every resident to do that, but there are options that they can take. Believe me, I've been up here and I've talked about the dog poop in yards. So, I feel their pain. But by the same token, if that's happening, that's nature. you have things that you can do to protect your stuff, which is seems to be a reoccurring theme in tonight's meeting. At least coming from me, it is. Um maybe she should look into that. Maybe she should look into um any other possibility to protect what's hers because yes, the health issue could rear its ugly head at some point. Yeah, I don't disagree with you, but I will say why should someone have to go to extraordinary means to to prevent something that some something else someone or something has caused.

I I believe me, I agree. I agree. But I'm a realist. Also, they did trap a cat at this one residence and it was a They turn it. Then they set the cat trap again and someone stole the trap. So that's what they do. Yeah. They're stealing the trap. So how do you do anything when people rock salt guns? Rock salt guns. When I was growing up, that's what farmers used. Yeah. Take cats out of the trap were steel to trap. There are there are some people that some people don't want to live by the rules. Yeah.

All right. Authorization for bill payments. I'll make a motion to authorize the bill payments. I'll second it.

I have a motion by Councilman Kelly, Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Yeezy uh to pay the bills. Any questions, concerns? Hear none. All in favor say I. I. Nice. Consider approval of special event application for Knights of Columbus Corpus Christi Eukaristic Procession on September or Sunday, June 7th, 2026. This is a annual thing they do.

Yeah, this this is an annual thing and it's all on the pavement. I don't understand. Are they going to change it? That's correct. Yes. They're requesting the last two blocks, which would be on Second Street when they turn from Locust Street, uh, that those be temporary temporarily barricaded so that the entire procession can walk in the street and that's the only way to do it safely. And they're they're going to barricade it themselves, right? We would uh the burough would place the barricades off to the side. They would install the barricades prior to the event.

That's good. Great to see that they anticipated growing. I make a motion that we consider the approval of the special event for the application for the Knights of Columbus Corpus Christi Eucharistic procession on the date given with the amendment that uh uh we wave the uh application fee

and if if we were able in the past we would have chief will have officers at at the crossings so they cross usually they have an officer train them following along because I know one year we built up picked up an lady who wasn't able to make the whole thing but

we'll second them. I have a motion by Councilman Ziggler, second by Councilman Yeezy to approve the special event application for Metro Columbus Christi procession uh on June 7th, 2026 and wave the fee for the event application. All in favor say I. I I I second.

Consider approval of special event application for MJM Hoops LLC Saturday, May 30th, 2026 at Maple Park. Now, I'm not familiar with MGM MJM Oops. LLC. um over here. But it is it is an event and those events keep trouble away. So, but um that's a one believe it was a one day event. Yeah. When 4:00 2 p.m. to sundown

50 to 100 people.

Has the fee been received for this? Yeah. The late fe I don't know. I'm sorry. Do we know if the fees have been received including the late fees for this? I don't. Holly, are you aware were the fees received for this event? Not aware of that.

There's a certificate here. That's the insurance. Yeah. No, I'm I'm asking about the application fee. Application fee. Oh, and since it's late, there is a And since it's late, there's $10 added.

We can take a motion. worship independence continue.

Yes. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Gezy to approve a special event application for MJM Hoops LLC for Saturday, May 30th, 2026 at Maple Park contingent upon receiving the application the application fee and late fee for the application. Any other questions, concerns? All in favor say I. Hi Z

considering removing Chris Ver from Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Uh as stated at the workshop meeting, Chris has not attended nor participated in any of the events, tableings or meetings uh the past year and a half and they would like to remove them from the board um or from the the advisory board and uh be able to put somebody else on. Is there a limited amount of uh seats on that board where he's holding? There is a limited but seven seven it's not there. So he's currently holding up a seat.

Yeah. It's basically on each seat but it's still taken.

I'll make that motion. That's a good spirit. their request. I'll second it. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Zinc to remove Chris from Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Yes, sir. Just have a quick question. Did you say for the last year and a half he did not attend the meetings? Yes. But how could he have attended when he was banned from burough property for I mean not the last couple months. I understand the ban was lifted but he couldn't really legally attend could he? That's all I'm asking. I know that that's a fair question.

Okay. I will tell you he was informed very clearly that he would be able to attend those meetings if he wanted to. Okay. So the ban was just for specific buildings you're saying? No, it was it was essentially if because he had that seat on the board on the parks and wreck board. Okay. He was told that the burrow would not you know there would be no issue if he came to the parks and reccks meeting. Okay. Um yeah that was made very clear to him I can tell you. But he was not attending meetings before that went into effect or after it was lifted. Okay. I didn't see

six months where they've done all kinds of events. They've had monthly meetings. Um, and they do tableabling sometimes too as well and it's just he's not involved. Okay. I didn't see his name listed online under parks and Rex as a member of the whatever it is. Obviously, Shar. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And this wouldn't preclude him from reapplying if he wish to correct.

Absolutely. So I have a Did we vote on this? I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Zinc to remove Chris Ver from Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. All in favor say I. I. I.

I. New business. Um, consider Jesse Rabinovich for the zoning hearing board vacancy. Um, I think most of us know Jesse. He's here tonight. Um, you like to come up maybe if anybody take questions, maybe talk about your architectural background.

Sure. Yeah, I've been architect for over 10 years now. Um, I currently, uh, I I've worked on, uh, residential, commercial. Currently, I primarily focus on church design. Um and um yeah, I you know, I was uh asked if uh I would be willing to fill the zoning here uh vacancy board, sorry, the the vacancy on the zoning hearing board. And um you know, with my experience, I'm always looking at zoning codes for for work. And I said that's something I could do. It's a way I could help out. So here I am. Any questions? Thanks for your detailed answers on your application. Yep. I'm

appreciate. Thank you for participating tomorrow. Yes. Thanks. Thank you for applying. Um I know this new business, but I think we could vote for this. I make the motion that we approve Jesse Rabunoitz for the zoning hearing board vacancy. Second.

I have motion by Councilman Ziggler, second by Councilman Murphy to approve Jesse Roberto's presing hearing for vacancy. Any questions? Is he filling He's filling a seat. A seat. How How long is that? We just want to make sure that we know what term it was on record. Yeah, we usually appoint these by resolution. Resolution. Oh, yeah. Yes, we do. Because it spells out the terms and everything else so that we can keep better track of

of everything. And I don't know when um Jazz's term was up. So we did figure that out. I just Yeah. But no, we usually do these by We usually appoint and reappoint boards by resolution.

Could change a motion to uh preparing the resolution for next meeting. Sure. Yeah. Is that okay with you? Yeah. I'll resend my motion. Well, we're not voting tonight. The motion is going to be to direct staff to prepare a resolution appointing Jesse Robinowitz to the zoning hearing board.

Okay. Y motion by Councilman Ziggler, second by Council Murphy to authorize staff to prepare a resolution for Jesse representing board vacancy questions concern this coming I think it's great that we that some of our young people come involved in boards and commissions and council for that matter and as uh Mr. pointed out um his profession as an architect uh fits right in to that zoning and as he mentioned also mentioned that he is familiar with zoning other municipalities also. So, not only do we have a chance to put a young person on on one of our boards, but we also have a chance to bring someone on with experience that can take off take off running right away.

Right. Excellent. So I have a motion by Councilman Ziggler, second by Councilman Murphy to authorize staff to write a resolution for Jesse Rober with zoning hearing board vacancy. All in favor say I. I. I have it.

And that will be our next meetings. Yes. Staff reports, comments, and announcements. Senator Gable already told me he don't have much to say tonight. Engineer Ronaldo is celebrating his daughter's and the B manager report. I just have a uh brief request for council to consider. Uh in my discussion with public works uh manager Jake Graham, the public works department continues to struggle with getting applicants for the vacancy, the vacant position uh within their ranks. And an idea was discussed and this was done so successfully many many years ago where um a high school student was brought in and hired uh in this case we would like council to consider and and I'll put it on the next agenda or next meeting's agenda. uh the possibility of hiring a uh a high school graduate, bring them in just for summer help initially to give them an opportunity to learn about how the public works department functions. It'll give us an opportunity to get to know the individual to see if it's someone that um you know that we would maybe consider hiring long term. And I think uh as you all recall many many years ago uh this was done with at the high school with great success and we had a tremendous employee who stayed here for quite a long time. So uh if council is willing to uh entertain this um we will put something on the agenda for uh for the next meeting. Uh we do feel that um with the current budget

that um we can absorb the cost and we also firmly believe that at least one individual that's currently a senior uh employee within public works is going to retire within uh the next year. So I think this is important for planning for that departure. Support that. And we are not the only municipality having problems getting public works employees. Yes, I can make a comment. CDL license.

This may be understood. I would make sure that the conversation centers around the person applying for the job would be consider could be considered for full-time employment. I would hate to see that piece left out and someone take the job for a summer and then say, "Hey, I'm going off to school." Leave this wasted time. So, it would have to be that if you perform well, we will hire.

Yes, mayor. Um, that is the plan, but we also want to uh have an assessment period. So, we don't want to make any promises up front. No, no, but I mean I mean I think they need to recognize that if it works out they may be offered they may offer full-time employment and they would have to under make the burrow understand that yes I would like to continue on if you want me to. I'm not just going to take it for three months and leave. Yes. Because we used to have summer employees Yeah. that did that aggressive. I don't want that confusion. Then you waste three months. Thank you. With an employee. Yes. You follow me?

Yes, I do. I may not be able to word it right. No, no, no. I understand what you're trying to say. And that is the plan. That is the plan. Nothing further. Thank you.

Boards, commissions, and committees upcoming meetings. ARB will have a meeting May 13, 2026. CCAT will have a meeting May 13, 2026. That is Frank, I believe that's 5:30 at Watch Exam CCAT meeting. Otherwise, it's I believe it's 5:30 at the o'clock in Washington Museum. Correct. Okay.

Parks and Recck will have a meeting Thursday, May 14th. Play Commission JT Commission Commission meetings are canceled this month. Minutes approved. Zing hearing board for December 31st, 2025. NASA for March 26 26 shade tree commission February 23rd 2026 and March 23rd 20 26 borrow council comments we'll start with Heather um I just wanted to share I had mentioned it briefly um before the meeting I attended a training session this morning with PEND do uh section personnel on transportation funding and how that all comes together. It was very interesting. I didn't realize there were so many different buckets of money and and each bucket has different requirements to spend it. And um yeah, it was very interesting. We also had a discussion about how um we would be impacted if the federal gas tax is uh is paused because all of the federal and state transportation funding is based on the income from the gas tax. And so if you pause the gas tax, what does that do for all of our infrastructure money? So it's pretty interesting. um session and lots of acronyms and I don't think I'll ever remember them all but it was really interesting. So, and uh we are we will have the

rework food truck ordinance um ready to be presented and we will also I received the information that needs worked into the rental ordinance for disruptive conduct. So, I'm going to put that um into the into the working document and send that over for legal re for a full legal review to be sure we are ready to present that back to council. So, if they do not come back um at the next voting meeting, they'll be back at the workshop. Yep. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh just a reminder from Derek that the uh uh construction work on the 102 blocks of Walnut Street will be starting around May 26. I anticipate taking roughly six months to complete. Most of the work should be done by again by the end of summer. U might be some small work that needs to be done later in the like October period, but most of it should be done by the end of summer. So, uh, during construction time, you might want to avoid that area. And letters will be going out. Yeah, letters will be going out to all the neighbors. He has a neighbor a letter explaining everything, maps, parking, etc., etc. during that time frame. So,

yep. Thank you. Uh, just a matter of public safety. Chief Art, I hope I'm not stealing your thunder, but you sent uh the Burough Council Board an email this week that you thought was pretty important. So, I'd like to address it if you don't mind. Oh, go ahead. I forgot about that. Sorry.

The chief um provided us with an email. She wanted to update us on a good arrest from an officer of the ship the officer was on. Um, so she explained on the 6th of this month at about 10 o'clock, I guess that was 1000 hours in a in a morning. That was the morning I found that um the Columbia Pearl Burough Police were dispatched to the first block of Locust Avenue uh for a burglary in progress. Uh, Officer Ember arrived on the scene um within 3 minutes um encountered a suspect. He gave chase. Um unfortunately he uh stumbled during the chase but was able to um locate a bag um during the investigation and in the bag they found um among other things a working firearm with obliterated serial numbers. Um, the suspect uh was uh later located uh and charged for burglary, possession of a firearm, and possession of an obliterated firearm. Uh, so kudos to your department chief and thank you for keeping us a breath with the information. again.

Uh yes, today I well to yesterday morning they were at a domestic and the suspect fled out near McInness as I was coming on duty and he discarded a book bag and they recovered uh 200 and some grams of marijuana I believe. That's awesome. So and those are those are solid felonies. So good job. Yes.

That's it. Um and nothing announcement of next meeting at 700 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26th, 2026. Council will hold a regular meeting. I have a motion for second. I have a motion by Councilman Gezy, second by Councilman Murphy to the meeting. All in favor say I. I feel it.