Town Council - Regular Meeting

to call to order of the town council of the town of McCandless for March 23rd, 2026. Will everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge algiance to the flag of America stands one indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Uh to start this evening, we have several announcements. Uh the first one is at the previous town council meeting on March 9, 2026, town council entered into an executive session regarding legal matters. That meeting concluded at 10:08 p.m. Next announcement. The town of McCandless Department of Public Works is hiring two summer laborers. Positions will remain open until they are filled and you must be 18 years or older to apply. Please see our website for more info. The town of Macanas is seeking applicants to fill board vacancies for the Northland Public Library Authority, Macandas Township Sanitary Authority, and the McCandless Industrial Development Authority. Applications for these positions are due no later than April 6, 2026. The town of Meccanas is seeking applicants to fill a board vacancy on the environmental advisory committee. Please visit our website for more information. Applicants are due no later than tw April 20th, 2026. Um and now we have a Northland Public Library Week proclamation. Um public library week being April 19th through 202 through 20 April 19th through 25th of 2026. Um, so I will read this proclamation and I'm proud to do it. Um, whereas libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination, and inspire lifelong learning, offering a space where individuals of all ages can enjoy through exploration and discovery. Whereas libraries serve as vibrant

community hubs connecting people with knowledge, technology, and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and cultural enrichment. Whereas libraries provide free and equitable access to books, digital tools, and innovative programming, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background, have the support they need to learn, connect, and thrive. Whereas libraries partner with schools, businesses and organizations to maximize resources, increase efficiency and expand access to essential services, strengthening the entire community. Whereas libraries empower job seekers, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners by providing access to resources, training, and opportunities that support career growth and economic success. Whereas libraries nurture young minds through story times, steam programs, and literacy initiatives, fostering curiosity and a love of learning that lasts a lifetime. Whereas libraries protect the right to read, think, and explore without censorship, standing as champions of intellectual freedom and free expression. Whereas dedicated librarians and library workers provide welcoming spaces that inspire discovery, collaboration, and creativity for all. Whereas libraries, librarians, and library workers across the country are joining together to celebrate National Library Week under the theme, find your joy. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the town council of the town of MCAS proclaim April 19th through 25th, 2026 as National Library Week. During this week, we encourage all residents to visit Northland Public Library, explore its resources, and celebrate all the ways that library can help our community find joy. And I also want you to thank your librarian while you're there to add that. Thank you. Okay, moving on. We would like to note that the town of McCandless Police

Department will be seeking applicants for the position of police officer. Please see our website for more information. And now we get to introduce a couple of new faces to the town here. If you've had an opportunity to come to town hall, um maybe Mr. Schwin, would you like to introduce Mr. Flow? Yeah, absolutely. First is Kelly. And Kelly, if you wouldn't mind coming up to the podium for a minute and introducing yourself. Kelly joined us a little bit over a month ago now. She's been a a great addition to the team at our front desk. So, if you want to just say hi and tell us a bit about yourself. Hi,

everybody. I'm honored to be here tonight. Um Cali Jacquel. Um, I live in Hampton, but I'm right on the Mampton McCandless border, just so you know, right near St. Paul's. I've been so honored to be here. Um, and getting to learn everybody and get to meet a few of you along the way. And I'm, um, just very happy to be here and proud to be, uh, part of the town of McCandless. Thank you. Thanks, Kelly. And I have to say, thank you, Kelly. Uh we have our Easter egg hunt coming up this week and she's been hard at work doing bunny business. Thank you. Okay, Miss uh I want to make sure. Bananas.

Bonanzi. Thank you. Next is Liz Bonanzi. Liz, if you want to come up. Liz has been here for a whole 12 hours. She just started today. It was her first day and we turned the world upside down by putting new carpet in her office. So, uh, Liz just, uh, has recently been hired as the community engagement manager. We had a typo in our agenda there, but the community engagement manager is her position. This is the retake on public information officer. Uh, so, Liz, we're very excited to have you here. If you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm I'm really excited to be here. It is my first day, but everyone has been so welcoming, and I'm really looking forward to serving the township of Macandas. Um, I spent the last 10 years working at very fast-paced marketing agencies and learning social media and different communication methods. And I really craved the the real community, being able to meet people and see the impact that you can make um, directly. So, I'm really looking forward to meeting everybody. I'm always around and and looking forward to meeting new people. Um, so yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, L. And uh any further announcements from council?

I do have one. Thank you. Um I would like to note the passing of resident Jim Northrup. Um and if you would indulge me, I just have a brief thing that his family had written. Um Jim lived in the neighborhood that I reside in in Oakidge. Um he loved everything about McCandless and he loved nature and he started losing his eyesight when he was in his early 30s. So when he came to Pittsburgh, he had to take the bus into downtown Pittsburgh to be able to go to work and he would have to walk along Pine Creek. And for those of you that are familiar with Pine Creek, it is not the best to navigate, even if you have perfect vision. So he noticed one day that there was a parallel grove that was overgrown with trees and underbush. And every day he would bring garden snippers with him and he would walk through there and he would start to create a path. Um this path became known as the Vestal Trail and if you've been to Vestal Field or you've been on Oakidge, you're quite familiar with it. He um planted grass and trees there. He maintained it. He added wild flowers. He built a bridge over the creek and with the help of some neighbors and his son and other friends, they put two benches there and did small pathways to the creek. Um, we did honor him in 2021 by putting an engraved plaque at the beginning of the trail to recognize him and he was also recognized as citizen of the year by the township at one point. So, it's it was a great loss for our neighborhood, but it's a loss for the community as well. And if you could just keep Jim's family and friends in your thoughts, that would be lovely. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss It's great when a community member has a lasting impact on our on our neighborhoods here. Anything further from council? Yeah. Uh, the Michaela's Business Alliance will have its second meeting on uh, March 30th, which is next Monday at 9:00 a.m. at St. Alexis in the cafeteria. Thank you.

Okay. Nothing further from councel. We will now move on to public comment on agenda items only. If anybody would like to make a comment on an agenda item, please step forward and state your name for the recordation so that our attorney can review them. Okay. doesn't have anything to do with litigation. Well, any we're currently in that litigation, so any papers will be given short term.

Okay. I might follow up with you about that because it's for the council. It's not for litigation.

Thank you. I will follow up with you. Uh first I want to thank you for um the change to the cable ordinance which um is now specifies the effective date. So thank you for doing that. Greatly appreciated. Um I have lots of questions and the questions I have relate to the town cyber risk insurance. Does the town's cyber risk insurance cover biometric data claims? Does the town's public facing privacy policy honestly and properly reflect the use of biometric data? Is there a policy? The town manager's report states that keyless entry system and camera installation uh complete a town hall. Who is being scanned to see if their biometric data is a match? Is the public being scanned every time they enter? Has the town given proper notices to residents and employees about the collection of use of biometric data? Has the town garnered the appropriate permissions to collect and use biometric data? The videos that were made for the 2025 applicants for town boards and committees. Were they placed in the di biometric database? The town manager report states that biometric screenings uh complete for employees. Do t town town employees are at will employees? Do town employees really have a choice about the collection of biometric data? Were town employees allowed to opt out? Does the biometric data collection include all the employees such as the police? Does the police contract allowed for the collection of biometric data? Is the biometric data secure and using the latest in data security protection? Is a vendor being used? If yes, was the vendor properly vetted? If a vendor is being used, is

McCann's biometric data part of general biometric database? And does the biometric data the town's comprehensive plan? When was the discussion at town council about collecting and using viometric data? Okay. And my third question here is about the park resolution from the master park plan. Um, the Pontiac Park is on the site of a former town fill site and um, I was kind of excited to read that the Pontiac Park is a site of a rare o good species. That was kind of exciting to read. But the report also says as a former public work storage site, the property may contain legacy environmental conditions typical of fill site. Environmental due diligence will be required to guide remediation and ensure safe development. So my question is what is the ask for the dollars in the DCNR grant? Is the DCNR grant asking the state for funds to evaluate the phase's ability to develop a park on a former public works storage area as recommended by the parks consultant. So what is that the grant? There's no information in the packet saying what the grant is for from DCNR. And the parks master plan consultant has two, four, six, seven bullet points as to what needs to be done to ensure that that's environmentally safe. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Good evening, Paul Hecman. I would just like to thank council for finally going forward with the redistricting. Uh, it's been a long hall since we did the original plan and it's more than time to get things in the order because by the time we're done getting everything done, they'll be doing another census. Just saying. Thank you. Thank you for coming.

There any further public comment on agenda items? Okay. Hearing none, we will move on to the approval of minutes. Mr. Wall, we have a motion. Is there a second? Please second.

Thank you, Mr. Hickerson. Uh, any questions or uh adjustments or corrections that need to be made by council? Okay, hearing none. Um, all in favor of approval of minutes from March 9th, 2026, please rest with I oppose. Motion carries. Um, now we'll move on to the finance report for the month of February 2026. Um,

okay. Good evening, council. As of February 2026, our year-to- date revenue stands at 1.9 million, reflecting a slight increase compared to 1.8 million for the same period in 2025. On the expenditure side, we are in alignment with the 2025 figures. Currently, we have utilized 12% of the budget compared to 13% at the same point last year. Also enclosed in your packet, you will find the checklisting from February 2026 in the amount of 1,291,326.38. If you have any questions on the checklisting, I would be happy to answer them.

Thank you. Does anybody have questions? Okay. Uh, we will need to approve the checklisting if somebody would like to make a motion. I move to approve checklisting number two dated February 1st, 2026 to February 28th, 2026 totaling 1,291,326.38 as submitted to council and posted on the bulletin board and website. Thank you. We have a motion to move a second. Second. Thank you, Mr. All in favor, please respond with I. I. Any opposed? I abstain. The reason for the comment.

Six in favor, one abstension. So motion carries. Uh, moving forward, we have our communications report for the month of March 2026. Any comments on that, Mr. Swin?

Our backup communications specialists, Diane and Abby, put this report together. Uh you'll note that they highlighted a couple of the uh high performing posts, a few things from our police department uh and including some the new flag retirement bin at town hall. If you saw that when you came in, that's in your packet here too. And a couple of advertisements especially needing board members for our library sanitary authority and industrial development authority. Okay. Thank you. Uh, no, with no further questions, we will move on to our junior cup members report for the month of March and I have to just quickly make a comment. I really enjoyed the show. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Um, how is everyone doing today? Good.

Uh, good evening. Uh, as you can tell, Christian could not be here today, but he still wanted me to talk about a couple things. Um, so from North Alagany, uh, National Honor Society has logged over 7,600 service hours. Um, and a lot of members are signed up to volunteer at the town Easter egg hunt and Macless cleanup day later this spring. Uh, they're preparing for their spring induction of new members that uh, the junior class has applied for. Senior class council is hosting prom soon and student councils of Nash and NI have began their elections for next year. Also, our speech and debate team recently went to states in place first in a variety of events. So, big ups to them. Um, for town issues, uh, perspectives on junior councilman Sparendo's half, he wanted to emphasize the his excitedness of the possibility of hiring a strategic planning consultant for the town. Um he also highlighted that he is he and I are actively advertising the help wanted ad for age eligible eligible students to join McCandless DPW team and we're in contact with the Nash counseling department regarding getting this opportunity on summer job list so on so forth. Um I agree with him on all his town council issues and I also wanted to emphasize yesterday's uh Macandas birthday event was awesome. My parents were very excited about getting that tree and we did. So, that was awesome. Thank you to everyone who's involved in that. Uh the I I also want to emphasize how great it is that we're continuing to introduce these opportunities to the youth. Um extending opportunities like the annual cleanup day. Uh it's great for the youth to be involved and it's it seemed to been uh getting good engagement so far. So, um, also with the season returning soon, I wanted to talk a little bit about, um, the junior town councilman position itself, uh, hopefully this year, uh, I wanted to talk about the possibility of Christian, myself being involved in the interview process, uh, regarding

questions and making sure that the youth voice is heard in that setting as well. um regarding initiatives this month. Christian and I uh we had a publication in the March uh of NextGen McCandless in McMah and we're working to continue this for future months. If you have any suggestions about things that we can include in this, please feel free to give us any recommendations that'd be great. Um finally, the youth town hall. We have had some problems in the past because of the week of weather incidents. Um, but we've rescheduled it to the April the 13th at North Alageney Senior High School. Um, so please reach out to us with any further questions, but we're working on finalizing the little details, but we're we're there. So, yep. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to liaison reports. Uh, we'll start with McCas Industrial Development Authority. Mr. Mcerson, thank you. Um we had a re they had their reorganization meeting. Um Jerry Offman was reelected president of the committee and Bill Kerf was elected vice president of the committee. Um they were very welcoming to me to join their committee as their liaison. We they also approved checks to Northland Library for three picnic chairs and two couches. Great. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Dickerson? Okay. Move on to North Hills Council of Governments. Mr. Georgia,

those meeting minutes from the January meeting were in the packet since they were approved at this past Thursday night's meeting. At that meeting, uh, as no surprise, we talked about salt a lot since this winter was pretty, uh, heavy. Yeah. Got it. Congratulations on your, um, appointment to the as the treasurer position. Look forward to you representing Weller. Absolutely. Um, and moving on to now, Mr. know the Northern Regional Chamber of Commerce. As I said, we're going to have uh our second meeting. Um it's going to be the Mckenless Business Alliance. It'll be on the 30th at St. Alexis at 9:00 a.m.

Great. Looking forward to that. Okay. Do we have any public comment on administration and finance? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move to planning and zoning uh planning director's report for March. Thank you, council. Uh just a little a couple updates on the planning commission and the zoning hearing board. Um there are no current items that were recommended from the March meeting. There was one item that had tabled. Um and then there will be four new uh business items on the agenda for uh April 7th for the zoning hearing board. Uh the March meeting will be this Wednesday. There were two items on that agenda, all included within the director report. As for department updates, uh we have two updates. Number one, uh being a continued update of staff training. Uh we have, you know, continued efforts from our code enforcement officer to continue his courses um on code enforcement, building code updates. Um and then looking into some trainings on zoning and other professional development and growth um training opportunities. Also, uh, in February, I attended a flood plane manager course conducted by the Pennsylvania Construction Code Academy, um, to talk about flood plane management and topography and a number of things. Um, it was a volunteer course and I was the only person that attended, so I got a one-on-one with flood. So, I opened up everything about flooding. It was great. It was actually very, very, very knowledgeable. Um, so that was that was a great opportunity. Um and then we have the word map update that we are um we discussed with our solicitor and you'll see in my director report the um beginning of the the timeline for starting um and reinitiating that process. Um and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer. I'm sure Steve could follow up on that one. Um any other questions? I just want to say thank you for your dedication and

being the only one attending that life over here. So I I had a good time. We appreciate your dedication. Thanks. Thank you. Any further questions from council? We'll move to Leos and reports. Uh Miss Planning Commission.

Um Matt's report in the packet is very thorough, so I don't have a whole lot to add. Just um piggybacking on remarks that I've made in the past though, the planning commission under the guidance of Matt takes its responsibilities very seriously. The last meeting that we had seemed like it would be a very simple issue of a transfer of property from the Sisters of Divine Providence to Lar Ro, but the planning commission had done due diligence in researching the matter and reviewing the the submission and had questions that could not be answered at the meeting and that's why it was tabled. So given the significance of the some of the upcoming items, I feel that the town is in excellent hands with how well they do their research and background and and make sure that all the tees are crossed and the eyes are dotted. So thank you for that.

Thank you. It looks like they have a packed agenda. They do. If there's no questions for Miss Arts, we'll move on to zoning hearing board. Mr. Wall, last month's meeting was postponed until this month. Uh the zoning hearing board meeting is on Wednesday evening and we're fortunate in this town to have not only the planning board but the zoning hearing board is incredible with their due diligence and and their capabilities. So thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh do we have any uh public comment on planning and zoning?

Right. 9635 Oldk Kuma Road, Allison Park, PA15101. I'm glad to hear that uh the planning commission was given a shout out due to their due diligence and specifically in their due diligence uh for resolution uh 20 20 oh my fault 20265 the resolution multiple time references the planning commission when the planning commission approved um the sign ordinance and they're recommending recommendation. They approved it with two amendments. There is no language anywhere in the resolution that says what the two amendments were. From the minutes and February 3rd planning commission, Miss Clark moved to recommend town council approve the sign ordinance with the two amendments. Nowhere in the resolution um specifically in the seventh whereas does there mention that there were two amendments. What were the two amendments the planning commission approved when they approved the um sign ordinance? We don't know. It doesn't say in the minutes. It doesn't say in the resolution. Then in the section one of the resolution 2026-05 section 1, it talks about how the planning commission took a look at it but makes no mention of the two amendments. So that's on the approve on your agenda to to approve tonight and it does not include what the two amendments were and it doesn't say in the minutes but it does say in the minutes that there were two amendments that they approved it but there were two

amendments. And then my other question about resolution 2026-05 is that I had to read it multiple times to figure out what was going on. But in 2025 there was the uh resolution 29 and then resolution 33. And it appears that the difference between them is that the was a change in what parts of the zoning amendment to approve. I mean to deal with the sign ordinance. Thank you. But I would love to know what those two amendments were and it seems like it would be helpful to have that as part of the resolution before it was approved. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Any further public comment on planning and zoning? Okay. Um hearing none, we'll move on now to recreation um for our parks and recreation director's report. Good evening everybody. Uh we had a busy weekend this past weekend. Um North Alageney held their Polar Plunge to benefit the Special Olympics on Friday evening, March 20th. Um they had over 200 students jump during the day during the school day. Um and a good number of jumpers in that four to six public period. So thank you to Nick and to Trish for taking the plunge to benefit the the Special Olympics. Um it was a fun thing to watch. Um yesterday was our 175th anniversary birthday. Uh we gave away 175 trees um from Tree Pittsburgh, all native species raised by Tree Pittsburgh from seed. Um we had 175

cupcakes, a 175 scoops of ice cream from Brewers, a seed planting station, um and a lot of fun yesterday. So, thank you to everyone who came and everyone who planted a tree um in Macandless. This coming Saturday is our Easter egg hunt. Um on Saturday the 28th, it will be held at Lorraine Rogers soccer fields and we have 260 kids signed up so far and we've gotten a couple calls to add some last minute kids. So I expect that to be around probably 275 all told. Um this event will also have the Excel Foundation sensory trailer, Clementine's coffee truck, an Ingamar firet truck, a bounce house, and DJ Dean. So, we're hoping for some good warm weather on Saturday um and no snow. So, keep your fingers crossed. Um another upcoming event I'd like to mention is the shredding event here on April 11th hosted by ARP. Um that will be held uh behind the DPW near the salt shed. Um registration is required for that event because there are limitations on the number of boxes of shredding that they can take. Um, you can register for that by going to our website and following the link to the ARP registration site. Um, and that will be open until it fills up. I think there's 300 spaces available. So, that'll be on April 11th. A busy spring and a busy year.

What did we What was the box number that was allowed? Was it two or three boxes that I can't remember if it's two or three, but Yeah. Somebody's entire attic. That's a zone. Yeah. Yeah. They're bringing, I think, three shredding trucks and it will be shredded on site. Um, and you can leave the staples and the paper clips on. You dump all of your shredding into the machine and then you take your boxes back with you. So, very, very simple. Thank you. Any questions for Abby um with parks?

Just a quick thank you to everybody who participated in the tree event. We had a significant number of volunteers who came out from the community and Abby for all her planning. It was a great time. Good work, Abby. Yeah, it was a very fun event and I I love seeing uh even the very little helping pitching in with carrying things out and everything. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, there was one kid really helpful. He insisted on helping everyone. He actually a little bit knew more than I did about the about the the species of trees. So pretty sure that was Arch's son. He was scientist. This is a white p.

He also knew every single president in what order they were in.

Yeah, he was he was enjoyable. Okay. Uh we'll move on to liaison reports. the um that's about the heritage center miss um in addition to all the public facing events that Abby seems to be able to juggle all at once. Some of the behind the scenes things with the heritage and cultural center is Abby is working with the group to come up with standardization for the volunteers and like an SOP for when visitors come to the heritage and cultural center. They're also looking to increase the number of groups that use the facility. So, they've had some scout groups come through there, which is fantastic. Got rave reviews for the accommodations there and the items that that the kids were able to look at. Also, homeschooling groups have been there to visit. So, it's a great resource for the community in that way. And the next group that we're looking to target is since we have a number of senior citizen residences in the McCandless area, bringing the senior citizens able to come and visit and give them a tour and be able to experience the history that is contained in that small building is simply amazing. The volunteers, the work that they do is is incredible. Organizing things and calling the donations and everything. So, really getting um more and more people in the community to visit the center, which is great. Thank you.

Yeah. And I believe the the nominations for the Shining Star Galler are are due. They're done soon. They actually reviewed them. Okay. Great. So, we'll be hearing about that soon. Great. Okay. Any uh public comment on recreation? Uh now we will move on to Mr. Strand's report.

Thank you. A few highlights in the report. Um, we did find an LGA intern who will be hired this summer to come help work uh not only at the Heritage Center, but with Matt on some planning and zoning items. So, thanks to Matt and Abby who put in a significant amount of time to find a good uh person who's going to come join our team for the summer. Um, we did talk about the police hiring process, uh, hiring two new officers hopefully this year. Uh, the advertisement for that hopefully went out today and if it didn't go out today, it'll go out tomorrow. They set a test date towards the end of April. Uh any information can be found on our website and on the police website. We'll put it out on Facebook also. Um one of the items in the report that was mentioned earlier in public comment were employees who were offered complimentary biometric screenings from our healthcare provider. It was a voluntary situation where anybody who wanted to come and participate was able to. Uh we're lucky that our uh healthcare provider puts that on for us on an annual basis. Nothing new to report in the grants section. Uh we did also talk about the keyless entry and camera installation at town hall. Uh this is a modernization update to security features at town hall where our cameras will now actually be able to see who comes in and out of the building instead of just blurry ghostlike figures. Uh and the keyless entry system will allow us to record who comes into the building at different times. added layer of security for the police department also uh as well as for our offices upstairs um paving program. We'll talk about that a little bit later on, but we do have a a low bidder who's under budget for that project for 2026. And we talked about our Pontiac Park um design through Gateway as well as a grant application process that Katie and Abby will talk about in a little bit.

Thank you. Happy to answer any questions you have about the report. Just one comment. Uh like Miss Wright talked about the orchids found at Pontiac. Um I appreciated that Gateway noted the um presence of the Indiana bat that migrates through the area and it would that'll take into consideration any tree removal for one of the projects. So they should be good. When they do the PNDI, it's indicates that they may be present. It doesn't indicate that they are present, but they have to treat it as if they are. So, we could either do additional research such as a bat study or we could just be careful and uh treat it as if they're there. That that that migration period I think makes sense. Any further questions from Mr. Schwen?

Yeah, I wanted to compliment Mr. Schwend on on the work to put security back into this facility. you know, we had gone on with cameras that were almost 20 years old and they were not up to snuff. And as far as the the uh access control system, what most people fail to realize, it's important to know who's coming and going, but would there should there be a catastrophic event, it also keeps track of who's in the facility at any one given time. So, it makes a huge difference as far as, you know, just public safety in general. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Any further comments from council or questions? Okay, hearing none. We'll move on to our town attorney's report. Mr. Corb, my uh report was in the packets. If you have any questions, we can talk offline or have an executive session. That's the end of my report. Thank you. Moving on to old business. Uh we will begin with action concerning proposed ordinance 1565. Um would someone like to make a motion and uh then we can discuss?

I'll make it. Motion to approve an ordinance of the town of McCandless authorizing execution of a cable franchise agreement between the town and Verizon Pennsylvania LLC. Okay. The motion to leave a second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Okay. Uh we we talked a lot about this at our last meeting. Any further questions or comments from council before we take a vote? me personally and

I want to make sure that we are at least open to running a sort of study on the density of houses. So if there are neighborhoods this Verizon isn't serving and things are contractually should be based on the density of houses is are we in agreement to reach back upon that? Um I did my own personal study of my street. Yeah. And we are definitely in that density. So um I I think it's something we could bring. I'm not sure if that's something as council we need to make a any a motion to do before we pass this or is this something that we would hope to do?

Uh we heard the needs of the residents at the last meeting and we can enforce that through our current franchise agreement or through the new one. So either way that language is in there and we can make sure that we look into that and see what we can do to move anything along that's possible.

Thank you. Mr. W. And my thing is is it shouldn't be upon us to do the the feasibility study for somebody that wants to come in and do business here. The feasibility study should be done by Verizon or OCAST or Dish. I I don't care who it is that's coming in here and and getting these franchise agreements. It's not our job to do their job for them. Okay. Any further discussion? Um, okay. We have a motion and a second um um involving ordinance 1565. Uh all in favor, please vote respond by saying I.

Any opposed? No. Okay. Motion carries. Okay. Next would be action concerning proposed resolution 2026-05 the sign ordinance. Uh again would someone please make a motion and a second and we can discuss. I'd like to ask for an executive it's very quick executive session on this.

I make a motion. I will make a motion to have an executive session for this. Um, okay. I'm not sure how this will you adise, please. We have So, I asked Mr. Wall, he would make a motion to see if council wanted to go into an executive session. Um, so that that's where we are. Okay. So, we would need to have a second. Yep. An affirmative vote. If Mr. Wall has made a motion. Uh would anyone like to second the motion? I'll second it.

Um motion is second. All in favor of going into executive session. Is this before we vote uh is this something we would get up from the table and do at this point or table this and then come back to it? We would get up go in and discuss and come back this agenda. Should we move and you need advice of the solicitor? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. We have a a motion and a second. All in favor of a a brief executive session to consult with the solicitor uh please respond by saying I I.

Any opposed? Okay. Uh this time 7:41 council will move into executive session definitely on that and Matthew. Okay.

Thank you for your patience everyone. Uh after a brief executive session, we are now ready. Um so we we will need a motion to approve uh ordinance 2026-05. I will make a motion to approve a resolution of town council the town of McCandless Alageney County, Pennsylvania resolving that at a future meeting of town council, the town council will hold a public hearing on and thereafter consider an amendment to the town zoning ordinance to amend article 1305 signs as amended of the town code of ordinances to revise the regulations for on premise signs, off- premise signs, temporary signs, and digital display sign message duration.

Second. Thank you, Miss Al. Thank you, Mr. Wall. Um, Mr. Corbal. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify for um the folks that are watching and and here in the room that that council is not adopting the ordinance this evening. It still must go through the regular um process through public hearing, etc. Um this is just in invoking the pending ordinance doctrine so that the changes that are being recommended are um effective for anyone that would uh make application under the sign uh provisions of our ordinance. Um so all these all questions etc will be answered and discussed at a future date.

Thank you. Any further questions or comments from council? Okay. Uh, all in favor of approving resolution 2026-05, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to new business. Mr. Henderson, like to make a motion to approve the resignation of Dale Moss from the Environmental Advisory Committee. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

Thank you, Mr. Georgetti. Um, Mr. Moss turned in his rec uh resignation in the past week. Um we are sorry to see him go. We appreciate his time serve with our environmental action advisory committee and um as we mentioned earlier we will be looking to fill his place as quickly as possible. It's a very active group that needs good hardworking people. Um so do we have um we have a motion in a second. All in favor accepting the resignation of Mr. Dale Moss, please resign by saying I.

I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Uh, next is action concerning the DCNR resolution. Would someone like to make a motion? Please make a motion to approve tenatively identified resolution 202606, a resolution of the town council autonomous to request grant funds from the department of community and natural resource community conservation partnerships program to undertake u the Pontiac Park development project. Mr. Wall uh motion do we have a second? Second.

Okay, Mr. Ferguson. Any uh comments or questions from council regarding this motion? Hearing none. All in favor, please respond by saying I.

Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Next is action concerning field usage agreement with the North Alagany Soccer Club known as NASC. Someone please make a motion. I will make a motion to approve the maintenance previewing contract that will be effective April 1st, 2026 between NAF and Palis regarding the Lorraine G. Rogers soccer fields located on Bman Lane, Westford, PA 15090. Thank you. A motion second.

Okay, result. Okay, any questions? Um I think we Mr. talked about these agreements previously. Does council have any further question or comment? What are they going to do, John? They they talk about maintaining it for us. We take back some of the maintenance on this actually because we added a field usage charge in and Abby can fill in any of the gaps I'm missing here, but we'll take care of the line striping. We made sure the fields are in good condition. So,

it'll be a similar arrangement to the one that they have had in the past. um they actually are going to maintain the line striping because um that is a technical we want to make sure that their lines are straight when they play soccer. Um so uh it this is just a formality of saying that they are to be allowed to use our our fields um and we are asking for a um a fee this year. Is that the first time that we've asked for a fee? Yes. Is it an overall fee or is it a fee by hour? It's a fee per field per season.

I mean, my understanding correctly that other communities have charged these fees, but MCAS has been lagging behind. That is correct. Yes. Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of a maintenance agreement with North Alageney Soccer Club, please respond by saying I. I I

Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Uh motion approved. Now we have action concerning field usage agreement with Ingamore Franklin Park Little League. Would someone make the motion? I'll make a motion to approve the maintenance agreement contract that will be effective April 1, 2026 between IFPLL and town of McCandless regarding Vestal Park located at Vestal Park Lane, Wexford, PA15090 and Wall Park located on Sloop Road, Pittsburgh, PA5237. Thank you. Motion. Do we have a second? Second, Mr. Wall. Thank you. Any further questions or concern?

Okay. Um, all in favor of accepting the maintenance agreement contract with uh Ingamar Franklin Park Little League, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Some zero. Motion carries. Uh, action to award the 2026 pavement maintenance program. Can we have a motion, please? I'll make a motion to award the base bid and alternate bid for the 2026 uh paving maintenance program to Shields Paving in the amount of 1,362,12522.

Thank you. We have a motion with a second. Thank you, Mr. Ola. Uh any questions or concerns from council regarding this? Um, and just just for explanation, the alternate bids, that's what So, we have the paving and then we had the extra concrete built bids for a couple of areas. And I think that um, shields came in lowest, even including all the extra work. That's correct. Okay. Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please respond by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Uh now we would like to uh have a brief discussion regarding the VP application regarding block and lot number 714- C-160. Um this is if you would like to Mr. Schwen explain a little bit about what this is please.

Absolutely. Uh memo in your packet uh from planning director Matt Inennis. Uh this is for a piece of property that we discussed near uh the Pontiac Park uh parcel that we're going to have improvements to this year. This was a vacant piece of land about 045 acres uh adjacent to that park. It's been vacant and we are permitted to participate in the Alageney County vacant property recovery program to purchase that land through their program. You can see the breakdown of value. uh we would be responsible for everything that you see there, the appraised value, parcel fee, the deposit, and any estimated closing costs. That would be $34,400. Uh we wanted to bring this to your attention. This is probably a 9 or 10 monthth process for us to go through and I don't want to undertake it if the uh will of council is to not spend that much money on that piece of land. uh within our purchasing threshold. We can't approve this through administration, but I want to make sure that everybody's on board and um you know thinks that this is going to add value. Uh the staff thinks it will add value. This is going to be an area where we can expand that park and possibly put a parking space or two in addition to a few ADA improvements right there. And it I think it would be of value added to that neighborhood. Open to any questions you have or concerns about uh acquiring that parcel later in the year.

I'm all in. Yeah, I'm I'm all in too. What was the What's the acreage? It's a little under half an acre. Okay. Yeah, that was 047, I think.

And that would add the current site's what? 2.5 acres. So, it would make it approximately three total acres. And just to review this vacant property program, um these are essentially abandoned pieces of land that haven't been collecting any taxes for our town or providing any other benefit toward the town. So, um the county allows adjacent property owners to purchase the land at a at a significant, you know, typically a little bit lower than market rate um in my experience. But it but then that new owner then takes ownership and starts to, you know, pay taxes on it if it's a private property or else like create a a good space for our community is what we hope to do here.

Okay. Do we need to take any action on this this evening or just We don't need to. I was looking for your blessing here tonight. Uh like I said, this is within the uh purchasing ability administratively, but wanted to make sure everybody was happy with that. We do have to put a deposit down. So, $200 or how much do we put down? $200 or is it 10%? I think it's down 10% now. Yeah. And uh then we'll start the process. Matt will be able to carry it through and we should see this completed hopefully in 9 or 10 months. Is there a structure on the It's vacant. Yeah. Okay.

Is there any other interest that we're aware of in the property that would change that perspective cost? No, that cost is the cost. Okay, any further questions? I think uh I think we have a non. I have no problem with it.

You have five now to public comment on non-aggenda items. uh remind you to please move come forward and state your name. Uh no need to state your address if you don't want to. Um name is all we need here.

Yeah, my name is Larry Steckle um on Patricia Drive. Uh I have two issues with Macandas Crossing. Uh the first one is the retention pond on Babcock Boulevard. Uh when that was established to be the holding pond for measing uh the agreement was that the mechanis crossing corporate was responsible for maintenance and that included the valve that they uh installed at Duncan Avenue to hold the the amount of water to a certain level of discharge. They obviously haven't been maintenancing it because there has been a lake there since the fall and uh I live downstream from there. So whenever you get a significant amount of water sitting there as that has been since the fall, we get another significant rain and something happens. My entire neighborhood is underwater. Um the crossing should be down there fixing that valve. It obviously is not working because four or 5 days after a rain that valve should have put the water through enough so that there was just a small pond, a little puddle in that in that facility and that has not been the case. So that needs to be looked into before um you know my neighborhood suffers from it. The second issue with McCain's Crossing is that I've seen the the promotional material that they want to build a um a Hampton in Uh I'm assuming that that's probably on that piece of property where um uh TGI Fridays was at. Is is that correct? Anyhow, they said it was up in the office park that they wanted to put a Hampton in. Um I'll we've gone through this before a long time ago. Somebody wanted to put three buildings up there

and uh the engineer said that they were going to put a subb that would hold water and meter it out just like the the office building that sits up in the far back of that um uh facility. I asked him to go with me and make sure that that thing actually worked. He refused to do it. So I have a problem with a development there of that size if mechanis crossing can't service a valve in the retention pond. So I that's that is uh my you know that is an issue that I've been fighting ever since I moved into Mechantless is the is the water issue downstream from where we're at and the load keeps getting bigger and bigger and it I understand that they try to hold it back but that is something that needs to be attended to immediately.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. I can address something with that if you'd like me to. Um they are aware and we've made them aware for about two months now of the issue. There's a clog. Uh they've had a camera in there and a jeter truck came to look at removing that clog and our planning director is working with the property manager to get that truck in there to get it done. So the orifice uh has a certain size that it'll only allow so much water through. The portion that will allow the water through is clogged. Once they unclog it, it will drain through at a proper rate. uh it won't just be a waterfall coming down there. So, uh actually as recently as today, he Matt met with uh property manager Todd on site and was able to discuss this. Matt, if you want to add any comments.

Yeah, I can just add they they wanted to confirm that clearing that because of because the the original issue was the there was a blockage and then it was frozen with the winter. And so whenever they once it dethawed, they wanted to make sure that if they went and jetted that uh basin out that it wasn't going to cause like a pipe burst or an issue down there. So they were taking time to try to get someone out there to, you know, rectify the issue, but they wanted to make sure that rectifying the issue now wouldn't cause further issues down the line. So we they had gotten engineers involved and so they're working through their process. I was actually at on site today looking at issue. Um it's something that will be resolved shortly. They're just doing their due diligence to make sure that creating or fixing what's perceived as a problem doesn't create a bigger problem moving forward.

It's just a potential that could get worse in order 100%. Yeah, I I 100%. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dennis. Okay. Any further public comment on non-aggenda items? So, I'm going to talk about the personnel, Ellen, right? I'm going to talk about the personnel boarding on January 27th. I stood here and spoke in front of you and said that it was in violation of the sunshine law. Nothing happened. I filed suit and the March 24th personnel board meeting is now in alignment with Sunshine Law. So, I want to thank uh thank everyone for making that happen that it is now in align meant with the Sunshine Act. I'm so sad that I had to file lawsuit though for the personnel board meeting to be in alignment with the Sunshine Act. So, thank you so much for making that happen. Thank you for your comments. Any further public comments on non-aggenda items this evening? Okay, hearing none. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? So move.

Mr. Wall, we have a second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Babage. All in favor of adjournment, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Yes. And we are adjourned. Thank you very much. Anyone?