AUG. 7

MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
AUGUST 2, 2021

The regular meeting of the Martinsburg Borough Council was held on Monday, August 2, 2021 in the municipal building. The meeting started at 7:00 p. m. with prayer by Richard Brantner, Jr. and the Pledge of Allegiance. ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT: Mayor Richard A. Brantner, Sr. , President P. Robert Dickson, Vice-Pres. Durban D. Metzler, Pro-tem Ed Bennett, Councilman Neil E. Gartland, Councilman Charles E. Kensinger, Councilman Darin B. Meck and Councilwoman Linda K. Smith In addition to council, present were Manager Richard Brantner, Jr. , Secretary/Treasurer Jane Staily, Chief Kerry Hoover, Lt. Justin Davis, Attorney Matt Gieg, James Dell, and Anna Baughman of the Morrisons Cove Herald The MINUTES of the regular meeting of July 12, 2021 were approved with the correction that Sandy Weyandt was present on a motion by Linda Smith, seconded by Chuck Kensinger. The motion passed unanimously. The FINANCIAL AND TREASURER’S REPORTS for July 2021 were prepared and presented by Secretary/Treasurer Jane Staily. The LIST OF BILLS for July 2021, check nos. 10403-10444 in the amount of $82,170. 53 was approved on a motion by Durban Metzler, seconded by Neil Gartland. The motion passed unanimously. MAYOR RICHARD BRANTNER (Sr. ) presented his report as written. He mentioned that Todd Bookhammer’s initial two-year term of a normally six-year term position on the Civil Service Commission expired this year. Council on a motion by Chuck Kensinger, seconded by Linda Smith, reappointed TODD BOOKHAMMER to the Civil Service Commission for a six-year term expiring June 3, 2027. The motion passed unanimously. Mayor Brantner mentioned the idea of putting up borough signs at each end of town. Chief Hoover presented the POLICE REPORT as written. He checked into some pricing of the ELECTRONIC FLASHING SPEED SIGN boards and they will cost about $4,000 each. They come as battery powered or solar powered and the solar powered is the best way to go. PennDOT has rules and regulations about signs on state highway. Chief Hoover will try to obtain a set of their rules and check on permitting. Permits are only good for a certain location and not for a particular sign that can be moved around to various spots. Durban was concerned about placing one in front of someone’s yard. Chief Hoover will be looking into it further. Chief Hoover reported that they have received about twelve complaints so far about FRAUDULENT UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS made on people in their jurisdiction. They also have discussed it at the Chiefs’ meeting recently and they cannot figure out what the perpetrator benefits from making the fraudulent claims other than it creates a lot of work for those identities they steal or they may be testing out social security numbers or trying to jam up the IRS. Chief Hoover put a message together for Face Book to inform the public. Attorney Matt Gieg implied that the perpetrators are hard to track and in some instances the unemployment claim payments are being paid out before the person the stole the identity from finds out. Chief Hoover reported that some kids are still out riding BIKES AT NIGHT with no lights on their bikes. The school district is changing the BUS ROUTING here in town. The buses will be travelling in and out on Spring Street but the parents will be using Dilling Street to drop off their children to relief traffic congestion. BOROUGH MANAGER Rich Brantner reported. JUL 13 – had a WATER LEAK on a service line on Christiana StreetJUL 14 – attended an informative virtual meeting on the AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN along with Rob Dickson, Durb Metzler, Jane Staily, Renee Gunnett

MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
AUGUST 2, 2021 – PAGE 2

JUL 19 – DIEHL CONTRACTING started doing some black topping on Christiana StreetJUL 29 –attended a WATER/WASTEWATER CLASS in State College for continuing education hoursJUL 27 – got a call from a closing company for the liens on the property on E. JULIAN STREETJUL 28 – picked up some PPE MASKS AND GOWNS from the 911 Center for the Martinsburg Borough Police and fire company NEW ENTERPRISE STONE AND LIME COMPANY will be milling the streets to be paved tomorrow and blacktopping on Wednesday. Next year we will plan to pave Christiana Street since the sewer line replacement project giving it time to settle. ATTORNEY MATT GIEG had nothing to report. The municipal authority has some things going on that he has been working on. Durban Metzler reported that the municipal authority is trying to get some grant/loan money to replace some water line with LEAD JOINTS in it. They are also working on 400 feet of SEWER LINE EXTENSION out by Long’s Outpost. Manager Rich Brantner, Jr. reported that he was approached by North Woodbury Township to see if they can be included in our SPRING CLEANUP 2022. Our municipal garage grounds get pretty crowded with just borough residents. Since there does not seem to be any advantage to our town to extend the cleanup invitation it was the consensus of borough council to continue to only include Martinsburg Borough residents in our spring cleanups. Linda Smith inquired about including a shred event sometime. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church use to have one but the cost was about $800 so they discontinued it. Chuck Kensinger reported that he, Bill Replogle and Rich Brantner, Sr. of the W. GENE HENRY MEMORIAL COMMITTEE took a trip to Franklin Bronze Plaques on July 22. Their next trip will be on August 11th, also Gene Henry’s birthday. Chuck was impressed with their plaques. There are a lot of decisions on plaque designs. A fund needs set up for donations. Council on a motion by Chuck Kensinger, seconded by Neil Gartland, authorized to open up a W. GENE HENRY MEMORIAL CHECKING ACCOUNT. The motion passed unanimously. Check signers will remain the usual four with someone from the committee authorizing the expenses. No tax dollars will be used on the memorial. The committee would like for the Morrisons Cove Herald to mention the need for donations to the fund. They also need a good photo of Gene Henry for the plaque. Anna Baughman of the Morrisons Cove Herald said she would check to see if they have any photos of him. Chuck, Darin, Rob and Neil need to take the NIMS and Rob and Neil still need a student ID. NIMS is needed to be eligible for Federal emergency money. A NIMS class will be put together sometime in January. The curb at E. Allegheny Street and S. Walnut Street will be painted yellow for NO PARKING. There are currently no issues with the no parking section near the post office. Only one ticket was issued. The AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN COMMITTEE will bring their expenditure ideas to council for approval when they come up with them. We must have a plan for the expenditures by December 2024 and the money must actually be spent by December 2026. The committee will probably meet during the day. Once again the borough received an INSURANCE DIVIDEND from EMC. This year the amount received was $3827. 38 through The Teeter Group.

MARTINSBURG BOROUGH COUNCIL MINUTES
AUGUST 2, 2021 – PAGE 2

Manager Rich Brantner, Jr. reported that he NEW ADDITION TO THE FIRE COMPANY is going up very well. Natural gas will be coming to the building soon. There is currently oil heat in the original building but they will be converting it to gas also. The roof will be started next week and the brick casing will be time consuming. They are hoping to be done with the building by November. They would like to have an open house ribbon cutting. The meeting ADJOURNED at 7:58 p. m. on a motion by Ed Bennett, seconded by Darin Meck. The motion passed unanimously. Respectfully submitted,

M. Jane Staily
Borough Secretary