Commissioners Meeting - Regular Meeting

call to order this regular meeting of the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners. Today is uh Tuesday, March 31st of 2026. We appreciate everybody joining us. I will note that the meeting is being recorded and livereamed and we would request if you be you have your cell phone with you could be kind enough to put it on vibrate or silent. We we would appreciate that courtesy. Uh we always begin the meeting with the pledge of allegiance and then we would have a moment of silence. I would hope you would keep in your prayers and thoughts the family of uh Jim Barry. Jim was a former Elwood City Burough Council member and I believe he served for 12 years and uh very very nice gentleman. He passed away within the last week or so. So if you please keep his family in your thoughts. So let's do the pledge and we'll remain standing for a moment of silence. Mr. Kennedy, could you lead us in the pledge?

I aliance 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. Have a moment of silence, please. Thank you all. Vanessa, could you call the role, please? Commissioner Sonado here. Commissioner Kennedy here. Commissioner Ro

here. We do have a quorum. Uh right now, uh we have no visitors in the audience, but in the event that we get any visitors, uh we'll note that we do give two opportunities for public comment and uh would ask if you do have comments that they be related to county government matters. We drop down two. I will open it for public comment. Rebecca Schaefer is with us because she has an agenda item, but you're also a member of the public. So, anything for public comment? Thank you.

In our packet, uh we have uh four sets of warrant registers from the uh county, excuse me, county controllers office. They they are dated March 20, 24, 25, and 27. They're a listing of all of the checks that have been cut by the controllers's office during that time frame. And Dan and Chris, whatever time you might need to look them over, or if you've done so already, I be glad to take a motion for us to accept these documents. I'll make that motion.

And I'll second the motion. Thank you, gentlemen. Do either of you have any questions? Thank you both. We'll ask Vanessa to call the role. Commissioner Sanado, yes. Commissioner Kennedy, yes. Commissioner Vogler, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. The minutes of the March 24 commissioners meeting, which was held a week ago today. Those minutes are in our packet. Once again, uh Chris and Dan, please look them over. And once you've done so, I'd be happy to take a motion for us to adopt the minutes. I'll make a motion to adopt this and I'll second. Thank you, gentlemen. If there are no questions, we'll ask for a roll call. Commissioner Sado, yes. Commissioner Kennedy,

yes. Commissioner Goldler, yes. Motion carries. Thanks, Vanessa.

Written communications. We've received two documents over the course of the last week. The first comes from Gateway Engineers out of Butler, Pennsylvania, giving uh the county notification of a planned application for u an NPDES uh chapter 105 permit. Uh this is on behalf of Premier Development Partners LLC as well as Bruce and Marilles. And this is for a parcel in Chenango Township again notifying us that they have applied to the defense to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Clean Water for this uh for this permit. The second document comes from the uh Susuana Economic Development Association Council of Governments and they're based out in the central part of the state. This is an interesting document in that u and it's based on a federal rule. What we have here is a letter stating as follows. In closed, please find the environmental review record relative to the Lawrence County Housing Authority 2025 annual plan and five-year uh capital fund plan. Uh the environmental review was leveled as a CEST per 24 CFR 58.35 and was cleared on March 4, 2026 and it is signed by Hanora Lucas who is a program analyst under the uh with the community development program of the Susplan Economic Development Association's Council of Governments. I I I checked on this as to why it comes to us. The housing authority

is not a county agency. It's a federal agency. However, this particular rule stipulates that we have to receive notification of this environmental review record, which is why we have to enter it into our meeting record today. So that all being said, uh Dan, do you have any concerns with either of these documents? Thank you, Mr. Sona. No. Okay. May I have a motion then for us to uh accept uh both these documents? I'll make I'll second the motion. Thank you both. And if there are no other questions, we'll ask for a roll call, please. Commissioner Sagato, yes. Commissioner Kennedy, yes. Commissioner Vogler, yes.

Motion carries.

Thank you. takes us down to commissioner reports and comments and today uh Mr. Sonata, you get to go first. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. support. Um, I had an opportunity to represent the county last Thursday at the uh, Realer One uh, grand opening downtown uh, in Washington Center and uh, I thought it went really well. Uh, that I was very encouraged because uh, this is the group that's uh, buying more Lanigans property on the main street of Newcastle. Um, and this is a temporary facility that they're going to be in uh at uh Washington Center for up to a year as they conclude what they're doing uh at the Lanigans building. And what they've told me they've invested over a million dollars in the land building and so they are to Lawrence County. It was nice to see there was a lot of uh realtors from different reality companies that showed up for the for the opening. So, uh, with my conversations, they're very encouraged about the reality market in Lawrence County going forward. Uh, they see a lot of potential within the county. I know that we have housing shortages right now. They're hoping that, uh, you know, there will be growth. Uh, so just that was encouraging because the realers have their ear to the ground, especially when it comes to the pulse of that market. Real dealers, they know that. And, uh, so I was encouraged by that. And uh the second thing I had the opportunity to do along with Commissioner Kennedy uh to attend the uh hope banquet last Saturday night. It was actually at the right cathedral. Uh an organization is based out of Elwood City. And uh you know we had an opportunity last year to meet the head of that organization when we went to the courage center for communitywide. they honored uh Miss Miss Atinson and uh she

put this together and it assists uh cancer patients and uh they had close to if not over 900 people at the event. I'll let Commissioner Kennedy comment as well on that and it's just it was an impressive event. That was the first time I had the opportunity to go to that and uh to see many young people there. To my understanding, a lot of those young people helped raise money through this club and it all goes to assist those uh suffering from cancer or survivors that recovered from it. So just like I said, that was the first opportunity to participate to do that. I was just impressed. So that's pretty much all I have. Mr. Chair, thank you Mr. Sonat. I appreciate it. I will note uh two things. Uh tomorrow uh at noon, the uh Lawrence County Conservation District Board of Directors will hold their monthly public meeting out at uh Sony's Restaurant on Wilmington Road in Shannik Township. And then I'll also note that the courthouse will be closed this coming Friday, April 3, in observance of Good Friday. And with that, I will turn the meeting over to Commissioner Kennedy.

Will be out with Chris Saturday night to the Club Hope. And that young lady has really worked hard to do what she's been doing with that. 900 people showed up. That that's the most I've seen at the Cathedral in years. Um place pack. So really nice job. Besides that, that's all I really know. Okay. Thank you, Dan, very much. We'll move on to new business and uh our planning office has a proposed resolution. Rebecca Schaefer is joining us today and Rebecca, it's always good to have you here. Uh Vanessa, the number of this one 48

48. And this is a uh I guess we're entering into a contract with a quote that we we received from Countryside Fence uh company. Uh there has been some damage to the vinyl fence at the Quaker Falls uh park in Mahoning Township. Um the quote we received from Countryside Defense is $1,684 which falls below the threshold for sealed bids. It also falls actually below the threshold for telephone quotes based on state law. resolution notes that this quote has been uh reviewed by the county solicitor and the uh county engineering company, Frank B. Taylor Engineering. And um what this resolution would do would be allow for the county to enter into this contract with Countryside Fence so that the uh fence out at Quaker Falls can be repaired. But uh Rebecca, do you do you have more to add? Probably not.

You covered it well. Well, I mean, it's still your thumb. No, that's okay. It is the fence going in, like the entrance fence. I know there's a couple of fences in the in the park. It's the one going in. I'm glad you said that because I would have made the assumption that it's the one that runs right along 224. So, I'm glad you pointed that out. So there's some trees along that edge that when we had high winds, it kind of came crashing down. It's not completely destroyed. So I mean it can't really be too much, right? You know, I mean for this Thanks for clarifying, but yeah, it is the entrance fence. Okay.

So, and we've worked with um countryside. I think we've had damage there before. Um so they've done well. Good job. Thank you for that. I'll turn it over to Mr. Kennedy to see if he has any questions or comments. The other one I was going to say is just the one on the road, but she answered it. So, thank you, Mr. Sonata. This this wasn't vandalism. This was active nature active. Yeah, it was that that whole weekend that we had that high winds. Yeah. Friday, Saturday, Sunday on my way out to Boardman, there was a tree. Yeah. Stopped. Something we can't control, I guess. We own parks and uh trails and stuff.

Yeah. Administrator Vanasco tells us uh it costs us lots of money. Joe cost money. One thing that should be noted with this is it falls well under our deductible. So yeah. Um you know it's not adage insurance claim. Thank you all. This is proposed resolution 48. Could I please have a motion? I'll make a motion we approve. I'll second. Thank you, gentlemen. And if there are no other concerns, we'll ask for a roll call. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner Kennedy, yes. Commissioner Regler, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. You take care. Happy Easter.

Yes. You too. Thank you. We have some transfer requests. Two of them come from the sheriff's office. Uh he's asking for a transfer. Both of these transfers are coming out of his contingency line item. The first is for $3500, moving it into his travel and training line item, and then $4,000 going into his uniform line item. And then the controllers's office is requesting a $700 transfer from their contingency into their minor equipment uh line item. Chris, any questions on these matters? No. Dan, anything?

Would would you gentlemen be willing to have a motion cover all three of them? Sure. Would one of you care to make that motion? I'll make I'll second the motion. Thank you very much. And we'll ask Vanessa to call the role. Commissioner Hinado, yes. Commissioner Kennedy, yes. Commissioner, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. actually drops us down to announcements. And uh this board, the commissioners will meet again a week from today, Tuesday, April 7 at 10:00 a.m. in this room. And it is open to the uh public. Um, and I'll note that uh this Friday, I think I've mentioned it earlier, but this Friday, April 3, that courthouse will be closed in observance of of Good Friday. This mean, and I'm sure on behalf of everybody up front here, we wish everybody a very happy and a very peaceful Easter. Uh, public comment. Uh, Debbie Locker has come in from the Newcastle News. Debbie,

the only thing I talked to Chris about this last week when I tried to listen to the recording of the prison board, I couldn't get any sound. Oh, but I never had that problem with any of the other recordings. I don't know if it was off or if it was we're we're aware of that. Um, we we spoke with Bill, our team director, and um I think it's just that meeting for some reason because there's access to the other recordings. Um, so he's he's gonna see what happens the next time. We may have to update our recording equipment, but we're not sure because that was the only one that wasn't working.

Understand that though because these meetings seem to be fine. Just I know that's why and I know that Bill was contacting Deb on that and it may have even been we use those SD cards in this machine. and it may have been a bad SD card. So that's why we're kind of waiting and just seeing what happens. Was the online still recording though or was that silent as well? It was okay. I went on YouTube to watch it and there was no sound. Okay. I'll talk to them again today if you guys are okay with that.

Yes, please. Yeah. Well, thank you. We apologize for any inconvenience. Just wanted to let you know because I didn't know if anybody was aware. Sounds like a few people were. I wasn't. We got a call from Rhonda at the jail. She was trying to listen to the meeting to do the minutes. Yes. And she had this she had the same issues. Okay. Technical. Yes. Technical difficulties. Debbie, anything else? No, thanks. I have your packet here for you. There might be a packet upstairs from some meeting that we may have had. I can't read. I think there's something in your last week and you handed me one.

We had an election board meeting. Maybe that's what you got upstairs. That might be it. When was that? It was um Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning. No, I can tell you. Oh, it was retirement board. It was retirement board on Tuesday afternoon. Listen to that one.

Okay. Packets upstairs if you need to. That's right. It was retirement board last Tuesday. Uh Debbie, thank you very much. Closing comments from my fellow commissioners, Mr. Sonata, Mr. Kennedy, U. Vanessa, Joe, anything that you need to bring up? Well, we thank everybody and once again, uh, very happy Easter to everyone. Ask for an adjournment motion. I'll make I'll second. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, all those in favor of journeying, please say I. I oppose. Same sign. The motion carries. The meeting. Thank you, everybody.

Is it still pretty nice out? was nice.