City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's Williamsport City city council meeting. Please rise for the invocation by Councilman Dr. Adam Yoder. Lord, we come before you tonight grateful for the privilege of service and the trust placed in us by the people of the city. As we gather to do the work of the community, grant us wisdom that surpasses our own understanding, patience with one another in moments of debate, and clarity of purpose when the path forward is uncertain. Guide our deliberations this evening. May our words be measured, our decisions just, and our hearts filled not with what is expedient, but what is right and good for every person in the city. Amen. 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.

Item number three, approval of city council meeting minutes dated 4226. Could I have a motion, please? So move second. Are there any questions or comments related to the minutes? Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Ms. Millie. Mr. Pizzy. Yes. Mr. Ryder.

Yes. Motion passes 6. Um, what I am going to do right now is jump a little bit out of order and and reference items number 12 and 13. We do have a lot of folks here tonight and we are going to postpone the interview and appointment tonight and I do apologize for the candidates that are here this evening. Uh, we are going to hold a special meeting for that next week. I will personally reach out to every candidate that applied and have the conversation with them about when that will be. It will be advertised in the Sun Gazette as well. Uh however, applications have been closed. No one new can apply for the vacancy that is on city council.

We'll move to item number four. Mrs. Frank, have we had any requests tonight for limited courtesy of the floor? None. Item number five, we have a public hearing for a uh liquor license transfer. I would open the public hearing. Anyone speaking for

please just introduce yourself as well.

Good evening. My name is Scott Williams. I'm the one that uh asked that the re resolution be put before you tonight. I represent the parties involved in this. Uh the background is that this is a liquor license that's currently exists in the burrow of Montoursville. The liquor code uh as you probably know uh permits only a limited number of licenses per county. And in order to transfer a license interount between one municipality and another, the receiving municipality must pass a resolution approving the transfer. So, uh, this particular license we are requesting your approval of. It is going to be, uh, located up at the new baseball facility up by Pen College. That's the location we're seeking to transfer it to. uh the license will be used by the management company there to facilitate their operations to accommodate their needs and to fit into the the the use of that particular premises. The the resolution has been advertised obviously for this evening and I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Are there any questions for members of council? Liz Millie,

is this the time for that though or should we Is this just a public hearing? It's just a public hearing, but Okay. Um, no, just uh so the the LLC requesting transfer is the owner of the ball fields or is No, the uh the entity that is requesting the transfer will be the LE. They have the management contract for the facility. Okay, understood. And the proposal is to serve um all types of alcohol at the facility. Will there be a restaurant or Sorry, I'm just thinking that our that the other ball field in town does pretty much beer only. I'm kind of wondering

I suspect that's what will happen primarily. Uh this isn't our license. Yeah, exactly. And you do need seating and food for 30 people for an hour license, right? And but I suspect that you will see the use um as you've suggested what you typically see at these kinds of facilities. Now I have Mr. McCann here. He is with ESM uh the management company and he may be able to uh answer that more fully as to just what their intent is is what they'll be filling. Yeah, for the record, this is more for curiosity than any sort of concern, but mainly beer. Okay. Yeah,

got it. Um, yeah, it just seemed maybe a little out of keeping with the spirit of the facility. Um, but but um, excellent. Good. Well, I'm uh, as a holder of an R license, I'm always excited to see more liquor licenses moving into the city. Makes it fun. But but good. Uh, thank you very much, Scott. Sure. Mr. Mackey, sorry. Not uh I have a question for you, but first just to be clear, this is just the hearing. We actually then have to pass the resolution resolution number nine on the Oh, there we go. Okay. Yeah, perfect. So, we're having the hearing about the resolution that's already on the agenda.

We required to have a public hearing. No, I understand that transfer. Yeah, I get that. But we're having a hearing and the resolution's already on the agenda. So, I say

Yep. Um, so is it is it fair to then say that um if they're selling alcohol on the premise that people will not be allowed to bring their own alcohol onto the property as well or is that going to be allowed? Can you if you're going to answer questions have you come up to the front? Yeah, it said no outside food and beverage complex even now without the license. I wasn't aware of that but Okay, great.

All right, if that's all those speaking for, I will ask are there any that are speaking against? Seeing hearing nothing then I will close the public hearing and we will then move to item number nine please Mrs. Frank resolution of the city of Williamsport Lake coming county approving the transfer of a restaurant liquor license K1 19853 into the city of Williamsport. Can I have a motion please? So move second. Mr. Right.

Guess I should have looked at the agenda more closely to see that my name was attached to this. It does just say solicit. You you have in front of you a resolution for um approving the transfer of the Rick liquor license which was just subject to the public hearing. And as you know, there are members here available um to talk about anything if the uh council has any questions. Are there any questions for members of council? Liz Millie, actually the one question I have is somewhat procedural. Um I'm assuming that the municipality losing a liquor license doesn't have to approve the loss of it. It'll you only have to approve it coming into I mean

yeah I I mean this this isn't my area but I've only ever seen these being approved by the municipality that's incoming for the license unless Scott knows otherwise know the answer the other municipality does not have Okay, got it. Thank you. Any other questions for members of council? Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Ms. Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes.

Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll move to item number six, an ordinance approving the editing and inclusion of certain ordinances as part of the various component codes of the codified ordinances of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Can I have a motion, please? So move second. Okay. So this one has my name attached, Mr. White. So what it is is something that we do every year. It just simply allows our city clerk to be able to file the ordinances correctly and if we need to do any paperwork uh associated with that um she's able to do so. Um it is something that has been done every year that I've been on council and every year prior to that.

Are there any questions from members of council related to that? Seeing and hearing none. Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Miss Mey, yes. Mr. Mr. Pizzy. Yes. Mr. Ber. Yes. Motion passes 6. Move to item number seven, please. An ordinance transfer ordinance number eight and first reading. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second, Miss Livermore. Hello. This one has my name attached to it. So this is a transfer ordinance.

Transfer ordinance number eight, and it's for the 2025 budget. And this is the annual ordinance that we do to transfer any tax revenue above the budgeted tax revenue into the emergency fund. So, uh, for 2025, um, the revenue was $1,489,234 above the budgeted revenue. It's a little bit higher than it was last year because we um acred the municipal income or the I'm sorry, earned income tax a little bit differently because we have a new company that's handling the earned income tax than we did at the end of 2024. So, the school district stopped handling the um earned income tax and now Keystone does it. So we receive it in a little bit of a different manner. We only used to receive it monthly and we didn't used to acrue all the way through March and this year we did per the advice of the auditor. So um it's a little bit higher than last year.

Um but consequently we'll be lower at some point because yes it was just the auditor's advice because of the way we were receiving it that we should acrew it that way. Got it. Um if you don't mind uh by all means what is our total just because I don't remember our total earned income tax amount um on an annual you mean the total act the actual for 2025 or the budget actual for 2025 uh the earned actual sorry the budgeted was 2.8 million the actual was uh 3.6 six. Okay. A little bit above that, but once again because Yeah, we we took in about $800,000 extra in the uh for three months because of the Yes. because of the way that we acrewed it.

Okay. So then my second question was going to be we took um a million dollars out of the emergency reserve fund at the end of last year to fund the 26 budget. Correct. M um so theoretically that means Adam that we only reduced your emergency and sorry it's not yours but the emergency and reserve fund that you established by $300,000 last year in total. So the funds that we moved into the 2026 budget were from the 2024 abundance. So this is the 2025. So it's just a little but yeah

I understand. No, I'm just trying I'm trying to figure I was when I saw that number I was like we took less than that out. So we're actually slightly to the good like we put a little bit more money on then brought up the $800,000 discrepancy in the EIT. So we're actually at the end will be a little bit different just because of the collection and in the way they're collecting. They seem to be collecting on a much more regular basis. So yeah, we'll see. I guess that's good. Okay. Well, thank you Jamie. Any other questions for members of council? Seeing and hearing none. Mr. Frank, Mr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes.

Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you very much, Miss Livermore. Move to item number eight, please. Resolution authorizing the termination of a community contribution agreement. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Mr. Pizzy. So, it has my name attached to it. Sorry, I am just totally getting So, uh, no, what we have before us here is a resolution just in in order for us to renegotiate a new community contribution agreement, uh, we have to formally terminate uh, the current resol uh, the current agreement by resolution. So, pretty simple.

Thank you very much for all your hard work on this. Are there any questions for members of council? Liz Millie, just to point out, Vince, I want to say um that the uh that the termination of this agreement results in the termination of the actual agreement in 2028. Correct. The termination of this agreement Yeah. It um the termination of this agreement will allow us to renegotiate for a new agreement that would begin 2028. Right. Correct. Okay, great. So, it's it's a it's a lead time thing. That's I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. gives us plenty of time to work. Are there any other questions for members of council? Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder,

yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Item number 10, please. Resolution awarding construction services for pump station roof replacement project to weatherproofing technologies. Can I have a motion, please? So move. Second. Mr. Scott, how are you this evening?

Good evening. Uh, Council President Ber, members of council have resolution to award construction services uh for the pump station roof replacement project to weatherproofing technologies, Inc. This project is uh through the Keystone purchasing network which is similar to co-stars though it's pre- bid. Um it's pre- bid work. It saves a lot of time. We don't have to public bid it and uh award it and all that. Um their base bid is $537,248.30 30 plus ordinate 1 $55,126.92 plus ordinate 2 $25,46321 for a total uh project cost of $797,83843. Um the base proposal is to actually replace the pump house roofs. Um we're doing all of them except Mccclures because Mccclor was done not too long ago. Alternate one is for the uh also for the roof restoration at the Heeper and garage and alternate two is for a wall restorations at the pump houses. Um also mentioned this project is funded by the $8 million earmark that we recently got. That is a LPDM grant that stands for legislative predesaster mitigation. This is the first of five projects that we'll be doing as far um the part of the earmark. Uh, we want to do this one first because there's electrical upgrades coming to five pump stations and we want to put the new roofs on before we go and put new electrical panels and so forth inside the pump stations.

I also have Dan Benner from uh Weather Proofing Technologies online tonight if um you have any questions. Good evening. How are you this tonight? Good. How are you? Very well, thank you. Are there any questions from me council? Uh the question that I have is the money for this project, is that coming from our federal uh earmark? Yes, that this is the $8 million. Okay. FEMA um federal earmark. Yes. And like I said, it's the first of uh five projects that part of that. Liz Millie.

And this is more or less within the amount that we had assumed that it would come in at. I saw that we're authorizing that you add alternates, which it seemed like we wouldn't have if we thought that it was Yeah, it's in the ballpark. Um, yes.

Okay. And just to clarify, um, I'm a little confused. I think the document attached to it is related to the crosswalks. Um, if at some point we could I mean I I think that this is we we we all know that this is something that we are um interested in moving on that we will be delighted to get some of the actual work on the levy completed. Um but if you could send along the the the specs for this appreciate it. Thought I sent the proposal for the work I can send that to you.

Yeah, that's Yeah. Um yeah, it's it's no big thing, but if you'd send it to me at some point, I'd appreciate it, Bill. Um but uh but I think I'm excited as anybody would be to see us um getting some actual work done on the levy. That's that's terrific. Getting shuffled from the ground. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not usually a when's the dirt going to fly sort of girl, but um but in this case, it's been 10 years of dirt not flying on the levies, so I'm excited that you're making it happen. Thanks, Bill. Seeing hearing nothing else, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes.

Mr. Ber, yes. Passes 60. Thank you very much, Mr. Scott. We'll move to item number 11, please. A resolution authorizing professional service agreement between the city of Williamsport and Butch Horum. Can I have a motion, please? So move. Second. Mr. Williams, how are you this evening?

Good evening, council. Uh podium is being graced by lots of Scots and Williams's tonight. So uh this resolution authorizes us to uh move to contract with the firm Bukart Horn of York, Pennsylvania for design and engineering services related to our old city project. So this is paid for out of another federal earmark that we received $2.6 million. Um we worked closely with Lycoming College, our selection team. Uh when we were reviewing proposals on this, it was myself, Bill Scott, Mayor Slaughter, and uh President Edmonds Lycom College. We received five proposals. They were all very strong. Uh Buarts was extremely good. Had a good interview with them, and we're really excited to get started on the project.

Other questions for members of council regarding this project? Liz Millie. Um funding sources for this. Uh obviously we've got a federal grant. Um I guess what I'm wondering is Yeah. Um yes. Uh is there any city funding, any match, anything like that involved? No, there's no match to this. This was part there was a large group of grants that were all matched to each other. So there were other grants who were received that provided the match for this ear mark.

Okay. And will we be doing and I apologize Scott for not having looked at this um further but will we be doing work in the Willow Street area as well as part. So that's one of the things we have a separate TASA grant for a million dollars for Willow Street. Right. Um as part of this earmark um we've been talking to some of the property owners, business owners in that area as we're going to do Willow Street. you know, Willow Street is currently scoped as just a surface project.

Um, one of the things that jumped out as we were talking to like women college and some of the business owners, um, they would really like to see us bury the utilities. If we could take the utility poles down and bury the utilities. So, this gives us the ability to go in first, actually bury the utilities, and then use the TASA grant to repave Willow over it and make it the multi-use corridor that we've talked about for years. Great. So it's really that the two are going to complement each other very well.

And then the other uh two components that we have. So there's a little more utility work we're going to do to make sure that all of the currently uh unimproved parcels in Old City have proper utilities to be developed in the future. So that's part of this as well. Um we're also going to complete the uh connection to the Riverwalk at Basin Street with this. Yeah, that's terrific. Um, yeah, I think that will make that whole corridor much uh, yeah, just a much much more functional part of the city. I'm excited to see this move on. Thanks, Kevin. Yep. Seeing and hearing nothing else. Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoda,

yes. Mr. Milligan, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you very much. Thank you, M. While I'm at the podium, can I say one more thing? So, the last two items that we had were both paid for with federal earmarks. So, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge our federal leg legislators for all the work they put in to get us this funding so we can do these projects. So, thank you. Absolutely well said and thank you very much for acknowledging your help.

Uh item 12 and 13 were addressed. Again, I do apologize sincerely to the candidates that are here tonight. Um and we're expecting uh something different. Uh however we will be in I will be in contact with you directly within the next 24 to 48 hours. Item number 14 please is except for filing Veterans Memorial Park minutes from November 25th. Do I have a motion? So move second. Any questions, concerns, comments about the minutes. Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Milligan. Yes. Mr. Mackey. Yes. Ms. Millie. Mr. Yes. Sorry. Yes, Mr. Ber. Yes. Motion passes 6.

Announcements. The next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held here in Trade and Transit 2 on Thursday, April 30th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Um third floor of the Trade and Transit Center, as I already mentioned. Um Tuesday, April 21st, 6 p.m. is HARB. Tuesday, April 28th, 11 uh30 a.m. is the redevelopment authority. At 100 p.m. is the committee of the whole meeting. And Thursday, April 30th, again, the at 7 p.m. is the next city council meeting. Uh, do we have any comments then from members of the public this evening? Saw Bruce back there. No, Bruce. Okay, Eric, I think one person mentioned to me that they wanted to speak.

Oh, okay. Um, introduce yourself. Name and address, please. Uh, Giovana Danieli, 1250 High Street, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. My question was the special meeting next week. Will that be open to the public? Yes. Okay. And will that be announced on the city council page? Yes. And it will be advertised in the Sun Gazette as well.

Okay. Thank you. Any comments from members of the uh city council? Any comments from the administration? And I don't believe we have anybody here from the news media. So, we would have no comments from them. Sorry. Yep. And after this meeting, we'll be having executive session to discuss timing and whatnot and legal matters for the um special session for the council appointment. So, could I motion for a German, please? So, moved.

Second. All in favor? I I