WEIRTON CITY COUNCIL
COUNCIL MEETING - REGULAR
July 10, 2006 7:00 P. M.
A regular meeting of the Common Council of the City of Weirton, Hancock and Brooke Counties, West Virginia was held on July 10, 2006 at 7:00 P.M. in Council Chambers of the City of Weirton Municipal Building.
Mayor Miller called the meeting to order.
Councilmembers in Attendance: Henry DeMasis Councilmember Ward 4 Dale Moore Councilmember Ward 3 Jerry Miller Councilmember Ward 1 David Dalrymple Councilmember Ward 6 Frank Veltri Councilmember Ward 7
Councilmembers Absent: Harold Miller Councilmember Ward 2 George Kondik Councilmember Ward 5
City Officials in Attendance: Brae Bryant Public Works Director Kessler Cole Fire Chief Gary DuFour City Manager Bruce Lamp Code Official Thomas J. Maher, Jr. City Clerk A. D. Mastrantoni Utilities Director Jim McHenry UDO Administrator Valerie Means Finance Director Rik Rekowski Mary H. Weir Public Library Lance Scott Police Chief Terry Weigel Parks and Recreation Director John Yeager City Attorney
Others in Attendance: Jason Howard Weirton Daily Times Citizens
Mayor Miller led the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A motion was made by Councilmember J. Miller and second by Councilmember DeMasis to approve the minutes of the: June 12, 2006 – Regular Council MeetingThe motion carried, 5/0.
MAYOR’S AWARDS AND PROCLAMATIONS
NONE
COMMUNICATIONS
Mayor Miller commented, “At 11:00 A.M. on Friday, July 14th, we will have the swearing in of a new probationary patrolman, Ryan Kuzma. I’d like to let everybody know and Councilmen and members are invited to attend.
The Mayor would like to personally thank all City departments and employees for their help in our 4th of July celebrations that we had very well put together. Everybody had done their share and due diligence, and I think we had an exceptional year. I am very proud of those that participated, and I’d like to thank also the citizens and those that showed up for the events.
Additionally, for everybody’s edification, the street sweeper is up and running. It’s still alive and well. I just wanted to bring that up. That covered our last meeting. We had a knock down, drag out fight on who had what, who was on first and how many lemons we had. Right now, what we’ve got…it’s up and running and we’re on schedule.
Also, I would like to thank Public Works and initially the people that worked on Greenbrier Road. I don’t know if any of you have traveled it in the past, but right now it’s taken care of. It’s paved, and we do have the gutters and that secured. We’re hoping for a long extent of time now with the road.
July 13th through 15th will be the Greek Festival on West Street. You all should attend that. It’s very enjoyable and pleasurable time.”
Councilmember DeMasis commented, “I’d like to…is Brae Bryant out there? He’s probably in the hall. I’ll tell you what boy; he sure put his boys together and fixed the streets up. It looks great. I’ll tell you, it’s quite a difference. I’d like to thank him. I’ll tell you, it’s really…boy, I’ll tell you, he went at it, and he did a fine job. I’m telling you, it’s a different downtown area.”
Mayor Miller commented, “From the last meeting that we had, right Councilman? Thank you.”
Councilmember DeMasis commented, “The last meeting.”
(Laugher)
Mayor Miller commented, “Hey Brae. We’re throwing accolades at you. Where were you?”
Councilmember DeMasis commented, “Hey Brae. Thank you, man. I’ll tell you, you guys did a heck of a job. You put your crew out there. It almost looked like a bunch of Marines out there. Almost.”
(Laugher)
Councilmember DeMasis commented, “Hey. Thanks Brae. Believe me.”
Councilmember J. Miller commented, “I’d like to add something to that too, Brae. Your guys…I want to thank your crews for the work you did up on Inez and Oak Street and Wall Street and 10th Street for me. That was real good. They did good with the patching, as well as the regular paving that’s, I guess, on schedule there. I don’t have a whole lot of streets this year, but that’s OK. But, you’ve been doing good with the patching.
And, I also want to thank Bruce Lamp. He’s done a good job with inspections. Every time I call him, he goes like this. But, he does get the work done. He does get the job done. Thank you.”
CITIZEN COMMENTS
NONE
OLD BUSINESSOrdinance: Second Reading No. 1488: RE-DESIGNATING THE “WEIRTON HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION” AS THE “WEIRTON HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION” BY AMENDING, MODIFYING, AND RE-ENACTING EXISTING ORDINANCE NO. 1010 AND AN EXISTING RESOLUTION PASSED ON JUNE 26, 1964. Motion was made by Councilmember Veltri, second by Councilmember DeMasis. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Ordinance: Second Reading No. 1489: UPDATING AND AMENDING THE BUILDING CODE FOR THE CITY OF WEIRTON. Motion was made by Councilmember J. Miller, second by Councilmember Dalrymple. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Ordinance: Second Reading No. 1490: AMENDING THE TEXT OF THE UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE (UDO) AS RECOMMENDED BY THE WEIRTON PLANNING COMMISSION. Motion was made by Councilmember Veltri, second by Councilmember Moore. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
NEW BUSINESS
Resolution: AUTHORIZING CITY OF WEIRTON’S 2007 PER CAPITA CONTRIBUTION TO THE BROOKE-HANCOCK-JEFFERSON METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION. Motion was made by Councilmember DeMasis, second by Councilmember Veltri. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Resolution: AUTHORIZING PAYMENT OF CITY OF WEIRTON’S 2006-2007 WEST VIRGINIA MUNICIPAL LEAGUE DUES. Motion was made by Councilmember J. Miller, second by Councilmember Veltri. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Resolution: TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT TO UPDATE THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF WEIRTON. Motion was made by Councilmember Dalrymple, second by Councilmember Moore.
Councilmember Moore commented, “About 2 ½ years ago, we paid for the first one. These ordinances hadn’t been updated in quite some time. This company put them on the web, provided us with a CD, and we now pay for this on a yearly basis. We maintain the current ordinance so it’s accessible. This Council has endeavored to upgrade numerous systems in the City. Financial systems; we have upgraded those that had been left behind. Honestly, it’s a miracle how the Finance Department worked with the system they had had. Unfortunately, we were not able to upgrade the Police system in time. We purchased software and we paid for training and it’s ongoing right now. But, we were not able to upgrade the systems that had been somewhat ignored for a number of years, and we got caught on it. And, we lost our program for our middle school PRO officer. Now, I’m certain that none of us here will allow that PRO officer to go unfunded, and that PRO officer will stay in place. But, the point is, by ignoring the regular maintenance that needs to occur like the updating of the codified ordinances, updating your software, you’re going to get caught. And, this City, honestly, for quite some time, ignored their maintenance, and we almost made it. Finance made it through. The ordinances made it. But, we almost made it. But, we didn’t quite. So, I just want the people to know, it was not anyone in the Police Department’s fault that we lost that program. It was the fault of, and I guess you could even say current administration, because we didn’t address it quickly enough. But, we have got to provide them, not with the, not only the best fleet on the street, we have to back it up by doing the maintenance and providing them with the tools internally to provide the reams of documents and reports that need filed. So, I want, you know, this Council is dedicated to upgrading and getting our systems back on track. But, that one, we just didn’t quite get it done in time. Would that be your correct reflection in your opinion Chief?”
Chief Scott commented, “That would be correct. The system we are working off now is a DOS Verminex driven system that is between 13 and 14 years old. We’ve had numerous and repeated breakdowns on it the last year and a half. Council has made no objection. We’ve spent a ton of money trying to keep that system up and running while we go to the CAD system.”
Councilmember J. Miller commented, “How far away are we from getting the CAD system up and running now?”
Chief Scott commented, “We should begin, if everything is hooked up, as I understand it is at this point in time, there’s one little glitch left between hooking up between the county system and ours which we have had in place for about 6 months. We should start administrative and records training tomorrow.”
Councilmember J. Miller commented, “OK.”
Mayor Miller commented, “Thank you Chief.”
The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Resolution: AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF WEIRTON TO SERVE AS CO-SPONSOR OF THE 2006 HARVEST FESTIVAL. Motion was made by Councilmember Veltri, second by Councilmember J. Miller.
Councilmember Moore commented, “Jim, you want to tell a little about the festival. I think, and the only thing that I’m going to bring up, there’s a lot of, it’s $10,000. That’s more than we normally appropriate. But, it’s not just $10,000 for this particular event. This is to wire and to make the area in the auxiliary parking lot accessible for numerous events, not just this event. So, this is a start up cost. Is that correct?”
Mr. McHenry commented, “That’s correct. A lot of initial costs, as you know, when you start something new in a different area, require some of the infrastructure and some of the services. Those services are not available in that area, and with the help of Public Works, Brae, I’ll get in more detail with him about it. But, as you know, we sort of put this together so we could have something this fall. With this infrastructure, you’ll be able to do other things in that area back there and utilize it more for the city, for economics, for organizations to use.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “Like, if you wanted to have a summer concert series, you’d have power, you’d have availability, you’d have, you know, they talk about a winter festival. This is, most of this 10,000, or a good part of this 10,000 dollars which is committed, which is not just 10,000 cash, it is some cash, some in-kind. But, it will allow that area to be then available for use for numerous different attractions.”
Mr. McHenry commented, “That’s correct.”
Mayor Miller commented, “Aren’t we doing this in conjunction with the CVB? Is this not part of the venue that we want to try to…”
Mr. McHenry commented, “Well, the CVB is coming on stream with us to help set up this fall festival. In that conjunction they’re going to be doing some advertising outside plus cash contributions, and that’ll be determined on…”
Councilmember Veltri commented, “We also want to make this clear to the public that this money is not actually going to come from our budget. It’s going to come from the hotel/motel taxes. Right? Some of the money?”
Mayor Miller commented, “That is correct.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “That would be up to us. That will take a budget revision, and that will be up to us. But, that is where we intend to finance this project.”
Councilmember Veltri commented, “That’s why we passed it last month. It was with that intention.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “Right.”
The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
Resolution: TO PLACE LIENS AGAINST REAL PROPERTIES FOR COSTS INCURRED IN DEMOLITION OF UNSAFE PROPERTIES PRSUANT TO ORDINANCE NO. 250 (WARGACKI). Motion was made by Councilmember J. Miller, second by Councilmember Veltri. The motion passed by majority, 5/0.
APPOINTMENTS TO VARIOUS BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
NONE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
Chief Scott commented, “I don’t have anything additional, sir.”
Mr. Bryant commented, “Nothing additional, sir.”
Mr. Lamp commented, “Nothing.”
Chief Cole commented, “Nothing additional Mayor.”
Mr. Mastrantoni commented, “Nothing additional.”
Mr. Rekowski commented, “Our preliminary…we’re working on the preliminary report for the State of the activities of the library users, and I will tell you, I think you will be astonished and impressed. I’m not going to give the, all the figures out here, because I can’t. But, I will tell you that the library usage during this last 12 months has gone up 17 percent, and that…some of the areas…We’ve had over 15,000 people just using the internet center during the last 12 months at this library. We’re up in quite a few categories. This is…I think you’re going to be impressed.”
Mayor Miller commented, “And that report will be put up?”
Mr. Rekowski commented, “Yes. It’s due by mid August. We should have the report completed beforehand, but we’re already looking at 3 activities for the…especially the citizens of Weirton. It’s been really busy at the library. Yes.”
Mayor Miller commented, “Well, Rick, I applaud you, and I applaud your board for the dedication and the effort put forth to educate the public about this great facility. And, keep up the good work.”
Mr. Weigel commented, “I just wanted to make note that the basketball camp that concluded over at the Community Center was very successful. We had 52 campers there, and that will make it one of the biggest basketball camps in the area this summer. So, we’re real pleased with those coaches that did that. In addition, we just completed a wrestling camp, a two day wrestling camp and a wrestling tournament over at the Center. So, that’s the second tournament that we’ve had this year, and we hope get up to about 3 or 4 tournaments per year to continue this camp on a regular basis. We had about 90 wrestlers over there, so it was very good.”
Mayor Miller commented, “Good. Continue the (unintelligible) aspect and utilization of the Community Center and surrounding facilities. So, if you can, keep that up. And, Starvaggi Pool is still holding water. Right?”
Mr. Weigel commented, “Yes. Knock on wood.”
TREASURER’S REPORT
Valarie Means gave the treasurer’s report for June 2006, stating:
Beginning Cash Balance: 686,865.50 Interest: 346.60 Deposits: 971,253.96 Disbursements: 1,323,531.19 Ending Cash Balance: 334,934.87 Investment Balance: 1,746,656.83 Petty Cash Fund: 700.00 Total Cash and Investments Available: 2,082,291.70
Ms. Means commented, “There are a few bills in the packet to be approved.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “I see in the packet that there are 4 bills. But, I see another sheet with notes on it, and on the bottom of it, it has Mariannie & Richards, 86,112.80.”
Mr. DuFour commented, “City Building.”
Mayor Miller commented, “City Building.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “I know there was a question about that bill. Has that been resolved?”
Mr. DuFour commented, “Yes. We received a credit.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “OK. All right.”
Ms. Means commented, “What’s the note?”
Mr. DuFour commented, “I sent that out…”
Ms. Means commented, “Oh. OK.”
Mr. DuFour commented, “…from finance committee. I’m sorry.”
Ms. Means commented, “See. I’m gone for one week and…”
Mayor Miller commented, “See what happens. No more vacation for you.”
Ms. Means commented, “Oh. OK. So there were just additional bills put on there. OK.”
Councilmember Moore commented, “One. It was the City Building, and I knew there had been some question about holding on that until the adjustments…”
Ms. Means commented, “OK. OK. All right. Thank you.”
Motion was made by Councilmember Veltri to approve the payment of the bills, second by Councilmember J. Miller. Motion was carried by majority, 5/0.
Motion was made by Councilmember J. Miller to accept the administrative reports from the various departments, second by Councilmember Moore. Motion was carried by majority, 5/0.
ADJOURNMENT
With no further business before this July 10, 2006 regular session of the Weirton City Council the meeting was adjourned after the closing prayer.
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