City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's Wingsport City Council meeting. Please rise for the invocation and flag salute. Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening asking for your guidance, your wisdom, and support as we begin this meeting. Help us to engage in meaningful discussion. Allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the bonds of the community. Fill us with your grace as we make decisions that might affect the residents of Williamsport. And continue to remind us that all that we do here this evening, all that we accomplish is for the pursuit of truth, for the greater glory of you, and for the service of humanity. We ask these things in your name. Amen.

Amen. 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 on the agenda is approval of city council meeting minutes dated 41626 and the special meeting from 42126. Do I have a motion, please? So move. Second. Any questions about the minutes from those two meetings? Seeing hearing nothing, Mrs. Frank? Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Mackey, yes.

Mr. Dinger, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ber,

yes. Motion passes 6. Item number four, limited courtesy of the floor. I believe we've had one request this evening. Good evening, city council. Scott Miller, 822 Tucker Street, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Uh about four weeks ago, I submitted right to know requests about how come I'm not being uh uh given community development funding and help. and I received a thing back from them stating that Austin Dailyaly uh notified me verbally that I didn't qualify for the emergency home program. Well, there's a lot more programs than just the emergency program. Y'all accepted American Rescue Plan Act money. This Commonwealth legislature actually had to pass a bill back in 2021 to accept the money. And people think I'm going to be taking money from the city. No. There's one program I will focus on. The HUD American Rescue Plan COVID 19 homeowner repair and improvement loans at 1% interest. I qualified for that. But the city didn't feel the need to help residents achieve that. Y'all took y'all American Rescue Plan money and used it however, but y'all didn't help the people. And I want to know why. I think it's fair and reasonable to go, y'all are supposed to be here to help the city and the residents therein, and I'm not being helped. And I keep getting brushed around and and nonsense. It's just plain

nonsense because there are a lot more programs than just emergency programs and I can't be the only poor person in the uh in the city of Williamsport. So, you know, I I also the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to help you God. And short of that, I don't know how to go about to get the city council and the mayor to be here for the benefit of its citizens. And that's about all I have to say. I'm just thoroughly thoroughly disgusted with y'all because y'all had the power to install somebody that all they had to do was fill out a stupid form and I could have gotten $50,000 at 1% interest. Or if you had told me we're not doing those programs, I could have gone out and got a 3% mortgage on my own without any city help. But because I assumed the city was here to help people, I waited and waited and waited. And if I hadn't even known last year, as of December 31st, the HUD program was closed off. And I needed something from the city saying, "We ain't doing that." And then I could at least gone to them and said, "Hey, they ain't doing that." you know, but a 3% mortgage on $50,000 would have saved me $1,250. That's more than my city and county taxes combined. Y'all cost me $1,250. And if I'd have gotten HUD $50,000 1% interest, that would have been $2,250. That's more than my city, county, school taxes, and my homeowners insurance combined. What are you doing for me? Please prove to me that you're here to help me.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Miller. Item number five, Mrs. Frank, an ordinance approving the editing and inclusion of certain ordinances and parts of the various component codes of the codified ordinances of Williamsport, Pennsylvania in final reading. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. So what this is is um something that we do every year. It just allows Mrs. Frank to file everything that she needs to uh that we pass on a bi-weekly basis. Um, we talked about this at our city council meeting two weeks ago. Are there any questions that have come up since then?

Seeing and hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoda, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Mr. Jessingo, yes. Miss Meley, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Item number six, please. An ordinance transfer ordinance number eight and final reading. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second Livermore, how are you? Good. How are you? [clears throat] Very well, thank you. Um, this is the second reading of transfer ordinance number eight, which is the annual transfer of overbudget tax revenue into the um emergency fund. We went over this in the last city council meeting.

Did there any questions uh for the second reading? Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Mr. Dinger, yes. Ms. Mey, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ver, yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you very much. Item number seven, please. An ordinance amending article 521 and article 522 of the codified ordinances of the city of Williamsport in first reading. Can I have a motion, please? So moved.

Second. I believe we've got a we have a representative from the uh parking authority here this evening. If you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself so everybody knows who you are. Good evening city council members. My name is Nikki Wter. I am manager of the Williamsport Parking Authority.

Good evening. Jared Kinley, chairman. So, we were looking to get the ordinances amended for increasing ticket violation fines. Um, the first one would be for blocking a fire hydrant or parking within 15 ft of the hydrant. It's currently at $10. We were looking to increase that to 25. The same would be for a loading zone violation. that is currently at 10 and that would be increasing to 25. Um there is also no parking here to corner starting at 10 continuing up to $25. And then for the trucks only loading zones they are currently at 10 and would be going to 25. Uh the resident permits we were looking to see about getting those increased. They're currently at a dollar for students and renters. We wanted to increase those to 25. It is still going to continue to be free for homeowners because currently at the $1, it's not even covering the production cost for those permit tags. And blocking a crosswalk is currently at $10. That would be going to 25. And parking in a reserve spot in the garage or the off streetet lots currently at 10 going to 20. And then on street fines for the meters, it's currently $10 and only five if you pay within 24 hours. We wanted to increase that to 20 and have the discount at $10 if paid within 24 hours. We were looking to get these increases made because we had not actually increased the fines in around 15 years and just with operations costs um aging equipment and repairs necessary.

We also have not been receiving any federal grants. We run entirely on the revenue that we take in. Are there any questions for members of council regarding this item? Liz Millie, is there any sort of period of notification before this takes effect other than the 20 days from the second reading? Austin, we can do a period of notification. um we have discussed about advertising in the paper between the two readings and then we can also do another article with them.

Is there I guess what I'm wondering is like some sort of a grace system as in maybe the first you know like you give people a violation that says moving forward this will be $10 but if you bring this in right now it can be five or something like that. You know what I mean? Now,

uh, for instance, when I was speeding during the construction zone on 220 a couple of years ago, uh, with the first time we got a notice that we were that we had been tagged going faster than the limit, it said, "This is a notification that you were going over the speed limit. This one's on us." And then next time we tag you going over the speed limit, you'll get a massive traffic fine. You know, um, it might be a nice way to introduce something like that given how people feel about parking authorities in general. [laughter] And um and at least it would it would give people a little bit of grace to figure out that now their violations were going to be more expensive than they had been. Yeah, we do have our exoneration system in place that we could utilize that for that purpose because we do have what we call a first-time courtesy that we could do for those individuals that weren't aware of it yet or, you know,

I think that might be I I I I don't disagree that especially things, you know, permit fees should equal the amount of money that we're putting into issuing them, things like that. But I do feel like it's a it's a nice thing to give someone a little bit of notice before, you know, so that we don't blindside them. Thanks. Question. What are the current enforcement hours?

Currently, they are 9 to 6:00. We only have one enforcement officer on currently because we had lost our previous senior enforcement officer last year. So, I am looking to have one of our new maintenance staff crossrained for evenings. That could extend the time a little further, like till 6:30, possibly 7 o'clock. Okay. And that's still Monday through Friday. Correct. Okay. And with with the proposed increase, you're not looking to are you looking to change the hours other than bringing on the additional person or? No, we weren't looking to change the hours.

Okay. That's it. Thanks, Mr. Mackey. Uh, couple questions. I'm going to follow up on Councilman Pizzy's first question. Um, so we're currently at like 9 to 6:00 is enforcement and that's downtown only. It's downtown and it's also for the college areas. Okay.

What we consider zone one and zone two for Lake Huming College and Pen College. Um, I mean, I I [clears throat] spend a decent amount of time downtown and I see people putting money in meters 7 8:00 at night when there's nobody down there enforcing it. [clears throat] I don't know. It just it doesn't feel right to me. So, could there could we uh is there any any way we could change the signage to reflect the actual time that it's being enforced? would be my question um on that specific topic.

Yes, we could do that because we coordinated with River Valley Transit for them to repost in the Midtown lot when they adjusted their rate for that parking lot and they had already increased their tickets to $20 for that. So, we could absolutely whether it's like a sticker on the meters or signing to be placed. I'm thinking of the nice way to say this, but it feels like if we're going to charge people to to park until 9:00 at night, but not enforce only enforce it until 6:30. I don't know. It just doesn't feel right to me. Um, so yeah, I don't know if that's something that that we can look at or you can look at. Um,

all the street meters do say till six o'clock. I feel like there's a lot of signage though that says nine o'clock. every individual meter, right, is till 6:00. Okay. The pay stations, yeah, they the Midtown one sets till 7, right? And we have the ability to do that because we have another enforcement officer. Okay. Do we want to do that? No. But we have a lot of people who park there all day and we take a $10 ticket instead of paying the $9 to actually feed the meter and gamble if they're going to get a ticket. And then that takes up part of people who are actually trying to come down here and park and do business because some people will park there all day for $9, right?

When they can buy a pass in the Pine Street lot for $25 that they're just not willing to park over there yet because it hasn't become too expensive to do that. Okay. Um and then as far as the these parking decals for the college zones, is that still is that still an issue? I just I feel like and I could speak more to Pen College, but Pen College seems to have really increased the amount of parking they have for students. Um, do do you find that a lot of college students are buying these $1 decals? We actually do because there's a lot of off-campus housing for both campuses,

right? And you're getting a lot of complaints from residents that they don't have anywhere to park. Yeah. the homeowners, especially people that have lived in their houses for 20 to 30 years. Okay.

Um, and then, uh, I mean, I I hate to bring this up, but, uh, probably the most difficult question is, can you can you all talk to me about the debt [clears throat] that's not being paid that the city is covering for the parking authority right now? And when is that going to be rectified? How is that going to be rectified? And and if if you need to get me an answer to that after, I mean, I didn't want to put you on the spot, but you know, this is to me the biggest the biggest thing for me is we're talking about raising fines for our citizens when they're essentially paying your debt. I would have to actually talk to our solicitor about that because I know there's been a lot of conversation back and forth concerning it.

Okay. And I did not have a resolution for that. That's all. It's fair. What I would ask of you in regards to that, if you could get us an answer sometime between now and the second reading of this um of this item, so that way we can have a little more conversation amongst ourselves about it. Um, but to be clear, these are increases on the fines for violating parking, not paying properly, so on, parking in the wrong spot. This is not an increase in the rate when you go to feed the meter.

No, it's just for the violation cost for the tickets that are written because we actually there's a misconception with some of the citizens in town that we do get funding from the city directly, like from people paying property taxes and it does not go right into our accounts. like we actually are running right on the revenue that we take in.

My my only, you know, between this reading and next, my only ask would be, you know, like, look, if we're increasing fines, can we make sure we have all of our meters working and that kind of thing? Um, I I suspect this is in the minority in the outlier, but I mean I I parked on Third Street here on Tuesday for a meeting and like the meter was dead, right? So I could I like literally couldn't pay. Um, so some kind of, you know, thought detail into what your current outage inventory maybe looks like and what's the plan to get those rectified. um it's probably not good for us to increase fines when people literally can't pay uh even if it's in an isolated incident. So any kind of feedback for second reading you have on that um would be very much appreciated.

Yeah, because our enforcement officer has been notifying maintenance so that we can get work orders placed for those. A lot of it's just a simple battery swap because they are rechargeable batteries and it's also a trickle charge from the solar panel on the top. So he's assisting us with that. clearly don't get tickets if they're down. We can't kick that. So, we're losing revenue there. But everything we're doing, we are spending a lot of money and our bank account is dwindling. So, either we have to start putting some things in there and being able to make these changes or we're going to have a problem here somewhere.

Sure. I I mean I might going to make a motion to table this so we have more time to talk about it as opposed to voting on it tonight. But that's fine if nobody wants to second that. I'll be okay with voting to pass this in first reading and that if we didn't get the answers we were looking for to table it before the second reading. Okay. At least I don't know how you guys feel about it, but Millie,

I mean, I I I think that I'm fine with moving it forward from the second reading because we've asked some questions and asked for answers next time, and I think that's not a bad idea. Um uh that said, I think the other if if we're airing all the kind of looming questions that um or conversations the city's had about parking authority um items. The other the other question was what you just touched on, Mr. ificantly which is um I know that the parking authority is well behind on audits but we haven't had a financial update on where the parking authority stands in a long time and we would certainly appreciate getting some sort of a heads up about that um uh because that is um I don't think any of us doubt that the parking authority probably needs revenue because all of us can see the the condition of some of the parking authorities lots. Um but uh understanding how the money is being spent and and what we're doing I think would be would be crucial in that sense. Anything else from other members? So right now we are voting to pass this in the first reading. Hoping to get some answers from you two uh before the second reading and see where it goes then from there. Mrs. Frank.

Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Mackey. No. Mr. Dustinger. Yes. Ms. Mey. Yes. Mr. Pizzy. Yes. Mr. Ber. Yes. Motion passes. 51. Thank you both very much. Move to item number eight. Please. A resolution awarding construction services for CDBG Street reconstruction project to M&J Excavation. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Mr. Scott, how are you this evening?

Great. Good evening, Council President Ber, members of council. Have a resolution to award construction services for the CDBG Street uh reconstruction project to M&J Excavation. Uh their low bid amount was $595,590. Um this is to pave seven streets throughout the city. I'll go over them. It's Center Street, High Street to Memorial Avenue, Memorial Avenue, Walnut Street to Center Street, Elmmyra Street, Park Avenue to Kramer Court, West Third Street, Art Street to Popular Street, Popular Street, West Third to Federal Avenue, and then we're going to do all downtown on uh Fourth Street. We're going from Malbury all the way to Heburn. Uh we'll jump over Market Street because that's a pen dot highway. Uh we received four bids. Um this is a low responsible bid. Um it was a good bid. I was surprised actually with the asphalt prices, you know, being a little unsteady. So we're very happy with it. Um MJ is from over in uh western Lazarin County. They do a lot of work over that way. I checked their references, checked with our consultant engineer. They've worked with them. uh they say they do good work so I don't have any concerns there. And last you just mentioned this is funded uh by CDBG community development block grant funds.

Are there any questions for members? Liz me you say that without even looking down I was looking so sorry I did know. [laughter] Uh so this is do we not we don't have any liquid fuels or any other money involved in our paving project this year. That'll be a separate paving contract coming out uh real soon. So what other what additional funding did we budget toward um paving in this year's budget? I'm trying to remember. Seems to me that there was less than usual.

We this this is additional this year um the CDBG. We usually don't do that. Um so that's new. So, we're going to have a big It's going to be over a million dollars total paving 1.2 million with this combined with the liquid fuels. It's going to be a lot of money. About $600,000 yet another street for liquid fuels. Yes. Good. Yeah. Y um Well, that's good. Thanks for doing your uh your leg work on the on the company, especially since we haven't seen it before, Bill. We appreciate

Dr. Yod. Um really happy to see a few streets of Newberry on here. Um, I say that because I was over there a couple weekends ago for like their cleanup. Um, and we were on some side streets and I I I I recognize that there's a number of pockets in the city where side streets are not caught up to where we want them to be, but I especially found some of those in Newberry to be um notable within that category. So, happy to see that. Um, I hope to see more on the next paving contract. Anything we can kind of do to maybe make some headway on the west end of town. on I think would be very much appreciated and good for that community.

So noted. Yeah, we try to uh you know jump around. We don't suck it all in one. I I know you do. That's not a criticism by of you by any means. I that's just uh it stuck out to me when I was over there and so this just seemed like a good opportunity to relay a little bit of that um for whatever that's worth. So again, not a criticism of of of anybody or you. I we try to spread it out um and we try to keep up as best as we can. And I think we generally do a pretty good job. But yeah, just some reflective feedback. Thanks for what you're doing, Bill. So an ignorance question from myself, if I may. Um, with the paving on Fourth Street from Heer to Market, you'd mentioned that that's a Pendot Road. Market Street is

Market Street is okay. Fourth Street is our street. We're skipping over Market Street, but we're doing all four street from Malbury all the way down to Heburn. Okay. Yeah. I thought fourth street was a state road. Yeah. Not not fourth street. Third street is Third Street is Third Street is not Fourth Street. Got it. So it's not Scenic Route 214 downtown. It's Third Street. Oh, okay. Well, that that's if you look at it. Yeah. Yeah. West of Campbell on Fourth Street is Pandot. Okay. East of Campbell on Third Street is Pendot. That's how it works. So it switches over at Campbell Street. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,

I was sitting here wondering how Pendot was able to rip out the trees along Fourth Street up in Newberry. That's Pendot. Okay. West of Campbell on fourth. Yeah. Um, thank you. And we want to get this all done before the Lily Parade, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Downtown. That's another Yeah, just going. Yeah. Anything else from members of council? Seeing and hearing nothing, Mr. Frank, yes. Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Mr. Dinger, yes. Miss Millie, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ryder,

yes. Motion passes 60. Thank you very much, Mr. Scott. We'll move to item number nine, please. Resolution authorizing agreement between the city of Williamsport and step for the home funded owner developer homeownership project. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. We have guest speaker tonight, Mr. Austin Dailyaly, stepping in for Valerie Fest.

Good evening, council. So, tonight um we're also joined by Michelle Abbott from STEP um through the Zoom. Um so, the resolution is seeking to enter the city of Williamsport into an owner development agreement with STEPPP to help um implement our um owner or our homeowner uh rehab acquisition rehab um program. So, the project here would be um step would be working with the city to acquire homes um on the open market and then rehabilitate them and help get them into the hands of prospective homeowners throughout the city um at an affordable rate. Um this is a program that we have not run before, but we um through a consultation with our um consultants, we were able to um get great feedback from other thirdass cities throughout Pennsylvania who run similar programs. Um, it's a thing that addresses two issues that I know are key to what we're trying to accomplish here, which is remediate blight. This allows us to be proactive in addressing blight by getting these homes before they fall into an area where we would have to um run them through blighted properties or the redevelopment authority or things like that. But also, it helps us increase home ownership in um throughout the city and allow us to be a little more particular in the neighborhoods that we target these homes in for. So, if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer or um I guess uh Michelle um if you would like to, you know, just do a brief um summary of of what you guys will be doing on your end, that would be wonderful as well.

Yes. Uh hello, Council. Uh Michelle Abbott, president and CEO at STEP. Uh thank you for having me today. So this is a a project that has been kind of on the books at step for quite a while and we're really excited to work with the city on um this project which will really kind of uh showcase. We've been doing a lot of work um with rehab for the last actually over 20 years within Lycom and Clinton County. Uh and uh this is actually the first major project that we're looking at in the city of Williamsport. So, we're really appreciating the partnership to do more rehabilitation work within the city uh and see this as just the beginning of a great relationship to really kind of continue what we have on and we're doing within many of the communities throughout the by county area. This particular program, like Austin said, will look at uh kind of moving houses back to that um habitability and really kind of focusing on uh home ownership uh affordable home ownership for uh individuals who purchase the the home. So, really excited about uh partnering with the planning and community development um department and the city council to move this forward. Happy to take any questions. Are there any questions for members of council?

It's not not a question, but go right ahead. This is uh this is very exciting. We thank you guys for putting this together. Um I'm glad that it will take um a certain amount of leg work off the city, but also I think enable our citizens here in the city to take advantage of steps expertise. So thank you Michelle and thanks Austin for putting it together. Thank you. We are also very excited. So thank you. It's great to see us partnering with organizations that are located within the city that are specialists in this kind of stuff. So,

yes, we agree. Um, I've been at STEP for [laughter] 15 years. Uh, and we always did so much work within all the other bureaus, uh, within the city of Lock Haven, within the greater county areas. And so really excited to uh really be doing some work directly within within the community that um we are a major employer in uh that we have a lot of properties in and uh yeah so it's it's really exciting and like I said I think this is just the beginning uh of a great relationship. So thank you very much. Wonderful. Thank you as well. Seeing and hearing nothing else then from members of council. Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Mackey. Yes, Mr. Dingus.

Yes, Ms. Mey. Yes, Mr. Pizzy. Yes, Mr. Ber. Yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you very much, Mr. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. 10, please. Resolution approving anou between the city and Astri Council 13, Loco 2674, the public works, and Aspri Council 13 loco 2674, A1, City Hall. Right. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Mayor Slaughter. How are you this evening?

Good evening, President Ber, uh, Vice President Pizzy, members of council and administration. Uh, what you have before you is the ask me public works and city hall uh, union agreements. uh Vice President Pizzy uh was part of the was the council rep on the negotiating team as he's been uh for the other contracts. We negotiated uh back and forth with ASME and came to the agreement that is in front of you this evening. Um, it's a four-year um agreement ending uh in I believe 20 31. I don't have it in front of me. It's a four-year agreement. Um, and it was good. We had a number of uh conversations back and forth with AFME and um we feel that uh both sides, you know, negotiated in good faith and we both ended uh with this agreement uh and felt good about it. So I just want to also thank ASME uh for their work negotiating with us as well. And I'll turn it back over to you, President Ber.

Thank you very much, Mayor Slaughter. Uh, and I'm just going to turn it directly over to Vice President Pelzi. He did the bulk of the work, uh, obviously from the council side as the council representative in the negotiation. So, if there's anything he'd like to add. [clears throat]

No, thank you. Um, the mayor pretty much hit the nail on the head. You know, we we had quite a bit of back and forth. Um, it wasn't easy. I'd say at times it was tense and arduous, but anything worth doing has never really been easy. Um, and it was definitely necessary. So I'm I'm happy with the contract that we have. Um and u I also wanted to um extend a thank you to the representatives have asked me but also to the members of the union itself and to Mr. Livermore with streets and parks for making sure that this got done in a timely manner. So I think it's going to be the best thing.

Are there any questions then from other members of council regarding the contract? Seeing and hearing none. Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes. Mr. Dinger, yes. Miss Mey, yes. Mr. Bizzy, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Mayor Slaughter. Yep. Thank you. We'll move to item number 11, please. Resolution approving an agreement between the city of Williamsport and Musco Lighting. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Mr. Livermore, how are you this evening?

Well, not too bad. Uh, good evening. Uh, what you have before you is resolution awarding construction services for Bowmanfield Lighting Replacement Project to Musco Sports Lighting um in the amount of 1.1,724,200 um to replace the lights at Bowman Field. a little bit of back why we're ended up in this situation. So about three weeks ago, I had a call from an individual over there that found some bolts on the ground. Upon further investigation, the western side of the on the third base side on the western side, the lights sheared off bolts and, you know, pretty much deemed that to be unsafe. So I had an inspector come in, look at that pole. They have further upon investigation. We looked at the other pole that was ended up being rusted as well. So that was on the brink of coming down. So myself, the mayor made a decision to remove all the poles for safety issues. Um so this is where we're at with this. Um Musco is willing to work with us to get up new lights as quickly as possible. They gave us uh two different options of payment methods. Um one option at $500,000 of starting the project as I give them potential go-ahhead tomorrow. Uh the next is a $500,000 payment in November and a remaining balance due January 1st. Payment two option would be a half million due upon start half million again in November. 377,600 in July of next year and 377-600 in the July of 28. By choosing option two though, that will increase to $31,000 more because of how long we're going to take to pay it back. Um, this company is

Co-Star's contract, so they fit all of our bidding thresholds. Um, there any questions? Are there questions from members of council? I can think of one. How is this going to be paid for? Or one. It's It's a very It's a very big expense. There's the one there, right? One that's not in the budget is I get all the good ones, don't I? You do.

So, um, a couple things to note. Um, Representative Flick has pursued $500,000 um in state funding for this project that um we expect to be awarded any day now. Um we're just waiting for the official paperwork on that. Um the city received a $750,000 sports marketing and tourism grant um to do improvements at Bowman Field and there were significant improvements made but there's $293,000 remaining in that grant. So rather than pursue the last few items on the list that we plan to do, um our plan is to reallocate those funds to cover this project because of the urgency. And then um as far as the funds that would remain, so that's um $893,000 committed to the $1.7 million project. So it's my understanding that there's some additional conversations going on with Representative Flick and potentially um as far as you know all the way up to the governor's office that are going very positive. I haven't heard of any commitments from those conversations, but as a backup to those conversations, um the Department of Community and Economic Development has some program income from an old um housing and redevelopment assistance program grant that we received in the '9s. And um that program income has very specific eligibility guidelines um of which I have here. Um and this project would be eligible. So, if the funding from the legislators that's being discussed right now um or future sports marketing and tourism grant funding um is not available, which we expect it to be, um we would be able to tap into this

um program income in order to make sure that we can meet the expectations of the contract that's in front of you, Liz Millie. And and this program income, I presume, Val, was what we had all been hoping to use to cons um construct like a home loan program through it is not. No,

no, it is not our HUD home program income. It is from a DCD project in the '9s that was a redevelopment assistance program. Um actually there were affordable housing apartments built in the city and as part of that the city attached a mortgage to that project. So that developer has been paying the city back um since then. Okay. Um we have other plans for this funding. We were working on other plans for this funding. There are other things we could absolutely do with this funding. Yes. Wanted to make sure when you said that it was very limited in potential that it wasn't something where we literally couldn't spend it elsewhere. But

no, we we are able to spend it elsewhere and that's why we're seeking this um other, you know, legislative funding um in hopes that we'll be able to to use that instead of tapping into this um this program income, but it is eligible. It is an eligible expense. We did check um all the program guidelines um and check with our consultant about that. So, it is available. Um but we're we're certainly using it as our our last option. Um we've been successful with other sports marketing and tourism grants and other earmarks for this field. It seems to be you know a priority to keep the cross cutters up and running. So um we're willing to offer it as um an option for this project

and I'm assuming that the light this is not a question for you sorry but thank you for the clarification on that. Um, I'm assuming that the lighting that we're installing is the caliber of lighting required by Major League Baseball. Uh, it's not it's it's up to Major League Baseball standards. Uh, yes. It's not so much required. I guess I guess uh they've been bringing in their own lighting for the last several years. They they've been bringing in their own lighting. Correct. They won't have to anymore. No, they won't have to.

Um, Got it. I think that's worthy of note. Um uh and final question, do we need to make the decision about how we are paying for these when we sign the contract tomorrow or can we make that decision um down the road? I I don't think it's we don't have to have our funding sources for November set tomorrow. Like is like Valerie already said, we have a half million to get going and a potential and the 293,000 left in that grant to get us going, right? And then we have till November to get our next funding source of half million. Okay, got it. And we do have that funding lined up so that we if we need it.

Right. If we need it, and we hope we don't. Um, all right. Thank you, Scott. I'll yield to somebody else start asking some questions. Dr. Yer.

Yeah. Yeah, Liz. I mean I mean I I appreciate you asking the question and and kind of bringing that up. I mean to be candid it's in the back of my mind. I mean as uncomfortable as I am approving this without everything lined up. Um I I I don't know that we've got much choice. I don't want to put the cross cutters in a bind. Um I really appreciate what they bring to the community. Um when you think about just having a location for people to gather to build community, that kind of thing. They do a lot in that regard and we're fortunate for it. Um, so I think this is one of those exceptions that we can probably stick our necks out here and yeah,

and and think through it. Um, I'll make a note about co-stars. I I've been a a little critical of it in the past. Um, and I still remain, but this is a good example of where it works. Right. Right. Um, in three weeks we figured out a solution and we did it in a fairly fiscally responsible way through that co-stars program. Right. Um, I don't think that we would ever do this, but in the future when we can competitively bid, we absolutely should. Notably at this value, but um I I have full confidence you will, Scott, or um but but anyway, just a a note on that. Um and just appreciate you jumping in here, Scott. I know you you grind, you work hard. Um this is a big one. Yeah. I mean, obviously

appreciate you getting your hands dirty and figuring something out here. Yeah, we don't this ain't the perfect scenario and anything, but you know, we ended up handing an emergency three weeks ago in our hands and the cutters season's right around the corner in order to try to get them up and running. This Yeah, and Musco, you know, for them, you know, once I made the phone call, they were here within 3 days checking things out and then the poles were down. They had a crane here and everything that they brought in Virginia. They they moved real quick to get this safety issue taken care of right away. now they're helping to try like here here's our options to help the city out the best way we can.

And I would also say you know like look I mean you know when you look at just partners in the in the community and in in the in the region and trying to figure something out and support this field the cross cutters I mean we clearly have our hands dirty and trying to figure something out in collaboration with the cross cutters. Um our state legislators have really come to the table in support of that. Um, you know, when we start thinking of funding, um, I mean, I'll be I'll be the one to say it. I think there's an easy ask of MLB to help out here, right? Um, they benefit from this, um, you know, they have been at the table in the past and have publicly told me in prior meetings when I was in your chair, Eric, um, you know, about they how much they value the partnership. This is a really great opportunity to deepen that and I hope that they do.

Yeah. and and talking to the mayor, he has reached out to MLB. I don't know the conversations back and forth, but I know they're aware of the situation. I think they're seeing what they're able to help with. So, I don't know what that is though right now. Hopefully, they can help and they can help sooner than later. And if there's never been any kind of ask, then hey, this one of seven MLB, we really hope you can help us here. Mr. Mackey,

obviously, I'll second that. Uh, and I will also second Councilman Yod's thoughts about the cross cutters. Obviously, this is something that needs to be done because of what the cross cutters brings to the community. Um, couple things. Um, this is major league level lighting. This is lighting that at some point here in the very near future, Major League Baseball was going to come to us and say we needed to do this anyway if we wanted this MLB classic to continue, right? So, yes, should Major League Baseball be helping us pay for this? Absolutely. I would also ask the administration to reach out to the little little league international, right? Who else benefits from this game? Little League does. This game is a three-hour commercial for Little League Baseball, right?

Believe talking to he has he has reach did that part, but I don't know the conversation. I I would I would publicly ask Little League Baseball to reach out, talk to somebody. Let's figure out how they may be able to help financially with these lights. Um I think there's there's one other thing that we're not talking about. It is the cross cutters schedule specifically. They start June second.

Right. Those games there's it it's my understanding that this lighting will definitely not be done by June 2nd. So we are going to have to bring in temporary lighting for those three games because they cannot play whether it's a day game or not. They cannot play without lights. That's just how it is, right? You you can't have baseball players out there if it gets overcast, whatever it is. So, there's a cost to that. So, where's that money coming from? Um, and do what kind of guarantee do we have that the lights will be ready by I believe June 12th is their next home.

I'm not getting I haven't got a guarantee. I've had discussions with Musco and the contractors that they're going to do everything they can to make it happen by the first pitch. Um they're but until we give them the go-ahhead and they start getting things ordered and seeing how fastly things come in, they won't tell me. But they are they are more prone to going on the 12th versus the 2nd, right? Because of the time constraints, but um they're not giving me a time other than the 12th right now. So, but they're they're not throwing the second out until we get going.

Sure. So, but we do need temporary lighting for those first three games. So, so how how are we figuring that out? I mean, Major League Baseball is saving money now because they don't have to bring in lights. I mean, is that something in the in the interim they could help help us out with that that $140,000 that they would be spending on temporary lights for the Mo Classic that there won't be spending now. They could help us out with this with this cost. I have not looked in. I know we have some representatives from cross cutters here. Doug, I think um he's you've had some discussions on potential ideas on if this doesn't happen.

Uh good evening, members of council. Uh yeah, we've had um discussions with Musco to bring in temporary lights. Um it's kind of basically all have to do is sign an agreement. Um it's 120k for those three games. Um we are in the same position that I think the city is and trying to figure out how to pay for that. Um our goal ultimately is to have a discussion with the mayor regarding that uh as soon as this project is given the get-go. Obviously if this project does not get the get-go uh we are in uh basically violation. We can't play our season. So, um, according to our lease, I think it's, uh, important that these lights get in as soon as possible. Um, but again, we we we we're trying to figure it out. We have some ideas and I' I'd like to, you know, have a meeting with the mayor to discuss them further before bringing it uh to council.

And and thank you for all the behind thescenes work you guys have been doing to try and figure this out as well. Um, and this kind of goes Liz, and stop me if I'm speaking out of turn here. When you were asking Scott about the You're saying if we approve this tonight, do we also need to decide which of the two options we need? That was what I was asking. Right. So, do we need to decide option A or B tonight? In terms of payment plans, we don't need to isolate which payment plan we're using. I don't think it really matters if we decide one or option A, one or two. I mean, ultimately, if we choose two, it's just more money. But we just add a year. The upfront cost of starting this half million up front is stays the same. Right. Right. That's the important part. Yeah.

Okay. And and to that point too, I just would like to publicly say thank you to Musco Lighting for working with us like that. That's I think I think they also understand the importance of this. So that uh I don't know if there's anybody here from Musco Lighting or not, but thank you

uh for that. Um so great. Okay. Yeah, that's all I got. If Austin, if I can ask you a procedural procedural question regarding option one or two, if we don't decide tonight, are we going to have to go back and amend that contract at some point to figure out how that money is going to be spent, when it's going to be spent? And that's that's fine. It's it's not that big of a deal to go back and do it, but I just

Yeah. I I mean, it's the way I would approach it is you can you can always have a discussion about it at a at a upcoming council meeting. And if at that time the administration says, "Yeah, we really should go with option two." and you all want to go with option two, you can you can make a motion to approve it as amended. So, I I think it's something we could cover pretty quickly. The way it reads to me, I mean, we're electing option one. Yeah. Because of how it's written, I mean, I think if if you all think option two after the fact is better, then then we can change it. But I think if it's if option one's what you want to do, I think you're good to go with how this is written.

Yeah, that's why I said, yeah, you right now it's option one. So if you decided that you wanted to pursue option two, you could just have it at at a future council meeting and just discuss it. Again, just wanted to make sure. So if it if it came back up, understood why. And Mr. Dinger, may I ask one question? I'm assuming these lights are going to be a lot more energy efficient than what was ripped out. Have we looked into any type of programs for rebates? I haven't got that far.

Okay. Um, [laughter] they are they are more energy efficient. I don't know the savings. I know in the month of August I think the cross cutters bills usually right around the 5,5500 mark per month. I ain't going to throw numbers out there, but I'm probably about 40% savings by using these solit. Um, but once I find out those info, I can I can let everybody because I didn't know if PPNL would have any rebates or incentives for this. Maybe. I'll have to look into it for you. Either way, the baseline debate, I think, is we need the freaking lights and the

Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. I mean, that's all I'm going to point. And if I may, just a a curiosity question now because I don't think that any of us are objectively against this for the needs that it provides to all parties involved. But the lights, I'm assum LED lights. Um, all the new styles of lights are downward um kind of a projection. So you don't get a lot you don't get a lot of light pollution off of them as you do the older lights. Um, are you going to have ability to do uh like Little League does during their kind of seventh inning stretch, so to speak, where you can do it does come with some preset light shows, I think, the ability that's in the

So, that's going to be a benefit to the cross cutters to have more of an attraction as guests come to the ballpark, maybe instead of a firework night, things like that. But ultimately what we have here in Williamsport is a Major League Baseball caliber facility or a minor league team that you can go to and not pay Major League prices at. Um so please I encourage everybody in the community to get out there as much as you can and support the great organization that they are. Yeah, the timing is unfortunate. It needed to happen. It just had to happen right now. I guess is the bad part. But rather happened this way than some catastrophic way. Right. Yeah. Is there anything else then for members of council?

Seeing hearing nothing, Mr. Frank. Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Mackey. Go-kutters. Yes. Is that a yes? Yes. Mr. Dinger? Yes. Miss Millie? Yes. Mr. Pizzy? Yes. Mr. Ber? Yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you all very much. We'll move to item number 12, please. Resolution awarding the aggregate bids for the city of Williamsport. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second, Mr. Livermore. Again,

good evening. What you have before you is resolution awarding the aggregate bids of the city of Williamsport. This is something we do every year. Um, we have some material we get into the city, which is anti-skid, 2A subbase that we use throughout the city to fix up our roadways. Um, going off of last year's to this year's, um, the anti-skid were up 25 cents. Um, 2A we're up about 30 cents. So, really not a major increase on from last year to this year. This is just something we put out every year to for resolution. Is there any questions? Members of council have any questions? Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank, Dr. Yoder, yes. Mr. Mackey, yes.

Mr. Dressing. Yes. Miss me? Yes. Mr. Pizzy? Yes. Mr. Ber? Yes. Motion passes 6. Item number 13, except for filing the Veterans Memorial Park minutes from November 25th and the controllers report from February of 2026. So I have a motion. So moved. Second. Are there any questions on the two for accept filing? Seeing hearing none, Mrs. Frank. Dr. Yoder. Yes. Mr. Mackey. Yes. Mr. Dustinger. Yes. Miss Mey, yes. Mr. Pizzy, yes. Mr. Ber,

yes. Motion passes 6. Announcements. The next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. here in Trade Transit 2 at 144 West 3rd Street on the third on the third floor. Upcoming meetings, uh, Monday, May 4th at 12:00 p.m. Planning Commission. Tuesday, May 12th at 1 p.m., committee of the whole. Wednesday, May 13th at 3:30 p.m. Owen Pension. Thursday, May 14th at 7 p.m. the city council meeting. Do we have any comments from members of the public this evening? By all means, sir, you have three minutes. Please state your name and address.

Scott Miller, 822 Tucker Street, Williamsport. Y'all have money for buying and repairing dilapitated houses, but you don't have money and the funding, the s resources, the staff to keep my house from becoming dilapitated. Interesting. Very interesting. I guess I should have just let my house fall down into a pile of crap. And uh Chief Abano, I really wish we were having the fireworks this year. Uh uh I don't know all the stuff, you know, going on about it because I don't get the paper anymore, but I really always enjoy seeing the fireworks. Have a great evening.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. Are there any other comments from members of the public? Are there comments from members of council? Mr. Mackey, just welcome aboard to Councilman Dinger. Nice job tonight. First meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Are there comments from anyone in the minist in the administration and news media? Right. I'll make a motion for adjournment. Second. Oh, did you say who said first? So moved. You said you didn't make a motion.

Sorry, I didn't hear you call. That's okay. All in favor? [laughter]