Plum Borough Council Notebook: August Work Session

Here's a round up of items covered at the Plum Council Aug. 1 work session.

Televised Zoning Hearing

Officials have decided to televise an Aug. 22 public zoning hearing regarding the borough’s senior housing ordinance, but don’t expect that move to set a precedent for future hearings.

The call for recording and televising the hearing comes on the heels of requests from some borough residents who oppose amendments to the borough’s senior housing ordinance.

“I’d suggest (the hearing be televised) to keep it an open book,” councilman Keith Nowalk said at Monday evening’s work session.

The cost to record the hearing would be $400 for the first two-and-a-half hours and an additional $75 per hour after that.

The only time a zoning hearing was previously televised was in 2004, assistant borough manager Greg Bachy said. That hearing was for overall borough rezoning that affected all borough properties.

Officials also had considered hiring a stenographer. While the cost of the stenographer wouldn’t be as much as the cost of recording and televising the meeting, it would cost more than that for the transcript.

Borough manager Mike Thomas said the transcript could not be made public.

“There would be no public benefit to having the stenographer here,” he said.

While officials expressed concerns over setting a precedent, they agreed that any possibility of televised hearings in the future would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

“We’re all about open government,” council president Mike Doyle said. “We’re not doing anything behind closed doors.”

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the borough building.

Holiday Park East Storm Sewer Project

Council discussed its bids for the Holiday Park East storm sewer project. R & B Contracting was the low bidder with a bid of about $135,000. Council will likely award a contract at the Monday, Aug. 9, regular meeting.

Soccer Association Lighting 

Council will consider options for financing new lighting at Plum Borough’s soccer field at its upcoming regular meeting. It will cost nearly $80,000 to purchase the lights from Musco Lighting. The Plum Borough Soccer Association will be able to provide a $12,000 down payment.

Because Musco won’t fund an association—it will fund a municipality—officials said the borough will provide support to the Soccer Association, which will repay the costs. The borough would enter a lease agreement with the association.

Center New Texas Truck Traffic

Officials will look into the possibility of enforcing a measure to limit large truck traffic on Center New Texas Road. Councilman Skip Taylor expressed his own concerns over residents’ complaints over trucks with use the road to cut down from New Texas Road.

Small Games of Chance

Council will investigate whether the borough already has a small games of chance ordinance on the books, or whether it will need to be added to borough code.

To do so, the issue would have to be placed on the ballot during the November election as a referendum question, and residents would have to vote.