Meeting Minutes

Mercer County Regional Planning Commission
TUESDAY, April 26, 2005
7:30pm, MCRPC Office, Hermitage

MUNICIPALITY	PRESENT	ABSENT
FARRELL CITY	William Morocco	Jerry Miller
HERMITAGE CITY	Rita Ferringer
	James Pat White
	James A. Rollinson
SHARON CITY	Stephen Theiss	Darin Flower
	Vic Heutsche
CLARK BOROUGH	Richard Dunlap	James Carucci, Sr.
FREDONIA BOROUGH	Patricia McAdams
	Ron Boyd
GREENVILLE BOROUGH	Burroughs Price	Robin Douglas
GROVE CITY BOROUGH	Clifford McCandless	Thomas D. Shaffer, Jr.
JACKSON CENTER BOROUGH		Debbi Stevenson
		Marvin R. McAfoose
JAMESTOWN BOROUGH	Doug McElhaney	Darryl Pinney
MERCER BOROUGH	Jerry Johnson
	Jim Carnes
NEW LEBANON BOROUGH		Janice Good
		Mary A. Ziegler
SANDY LAKE BOROUGH		Robert W. Kaltenbaugh
		Brad Martin
SHARPSVILLE BOROUGH	Bob Piccirilli
	Alex Kovach
STONEBORO BOROUGH	Samuel A. Scott
WEST MIDDLESEX BOROUGH	Tracy Thompson	Mark David
WHEATLAND BOROUGH	Thomas R. Stanton
	Bob Davis
COOLSPRING TOWNSHIP	Robert L. McGhee
	Robert M. Addison
DELAWARE TOWNSHIP		Donald Kremm
		Caroline Stoyer
EAST LACKAWANNOCK TOWNSHIP		Nancy Givens
FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP		Jane Clark
		Mont Clark
FINDLEY TOWNSHIP	John B. Courtney	Elliott Lengel
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP		Pamela Brown
		Russell L. Dawes
JACKSON TOWNSHIP		Linda L. Baun
		Mary Gealy
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP	Richard H. McCullough	Bert Weston
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP	Dave Beatty
	Ron Faull
NEW VERNON TOWNSHIP		John Martin
OTTER CREEK TOWNSHIP	Paulette Young
	Richard Straub
PERRY TOWNSHIP	Richard Marshall
PINE TOWNSHIP	H. Thomas Paxton
	Fred Brenner
PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP		Walter L. Weir, Jr.
		Richard Witten
SHENANGO TOWNSHIP	Charles Gilliland
	James Eakin
S. PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP	Mike Nashtock	David Lapikas
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP	Larry T. Gruntz	Judy L. Hassler
WILMINGTON TOWNSHIP	Jeff Hoy	Charles Garrett
WOLF CREEK TOWNSHIP	Mark Smith	Ray Penland
MERCER COUNTY	Larry McAdams	Julie Widel
	Jean Hodge
	James Hughes
	Patty McClusky
	Jeff Fiedler
	James L. Hogan
BOROUGHS ASSOCIATION		David George
SUPERVISORS ASSOCIATION		Robert Birtciel
COUNTY COMMISSIONER		Michele Brooks

 

STAFF	OTHERS PRESENT
Dan Gracenin, Executive Director Jeremy Coxe, Senior Planner Andrew Dash, Planner Carmen Reichard, Sr. Program Admin. Jill Boozer, Program Administrator Don Blakesley, Senior Program Administrator Margaret Heldorfer, Associate Planner	Robert Kochems, Solicitor

CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Tom Stanton, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

PRAYER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Mr. Mark Smith, Vice-Chairman, led the Commission in the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.

ATTENDANCE SIGN-IN

An attendance sign-in sheet was passed around and representatives present were asked to mark their attendance. A quorum was present.

PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ANY AGENDA ITEM

There were no public comments.

RATIFICATION OF ACTIONS TAKEN WITHOUT A QUORUM AT AND MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 22, 2005 MEETING AND MARCH 22, 2005 MEETING

Mr. Gracenin, Executive Director, briefly explained the agenda items and motions that were made at the February and March meetings. A motion was made by Mr. Hughes and seconded by Mr. Hoy to ratify the actions taken without a quorum at and Minutes of the February 22, 2005 meeting and March 22, 2005 meeting with no additions, corrections or deletions. The motion passed.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

A motion was made by Mr. Beatty and seconded by Mr. Johnson to approve the March 2005 Financial Statement as presented. The motion passed.

STAFF REPORTS

Mr. Dash, Planner, updated everyone on the Draft County Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance noting that he is planning on holding a meeting with the County Commissioners sometime in May regarding this and hopefully schedule a public hearing in June, and get the draft ordinance adopted.

Mr. Coxe, Senior Planner, explained that the County Comprehensive Plan is in draft format with a public meeting and planning advisory committee meeting to follow. Hopefully this summer we should be able to go to public comment and finalize the adoption of the County Comprehensive Plan. He noted that many Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plans are going on throughout the County, as well. The Greenville/Hempfield Comprehensive Plan has been adopted and is ready to go into the implementation phase of the plan. They will be looking at getting an advisory committee together to look at how to implement the goals and objectives of the plan and actually get some things done that were recommended in the plan. The Grove City Region Comprehensive Plan is in draft format. A public meeting was held in March with a public comment period and adoption to follow soon. The Sharpsville/Clark/South Pymatuning Region Comprehensive Plan is in draft format with the public comment period to begin soon. A public meeting was held on March 29^th for the Mercer Area Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan. There were some good recommendations as well as goals and objectives presented that will be considered for the draft plan. Mr. Gracenin noted that we were funded through DCED for the Shenango Valley Multi-Municipal Plan. Six communities are involved under the Multi-Municipal Plan which would create two separate comprehensive plans (Shenango & West Middlesex) and (Farrell, Sharon, Wheatland & Hermitage). He noted that a consultant will be hired soon with work to start possibly by early summer.

Mr. Blakesley, Senior Program Administrator, explained that the construction started on the consolidation center out at Jackson Commerce Industrial Park in Jackson Township. He noted that the consolidation center will serve as a collection of magazines, cardboard, newspaper, etc., which are weighed, then put in large containers for delivery to the recycling facility in Meadville. Construction of the $1.8 million center is estimated to be completed by June 2005.

FINANCE-PERSONNEL COMMITTEE REPORT

Dr. Brenner, Committee Chairman, noted that the Committee met on Monday, a quorum was present, and took action on the following items:

1. Health care buyout option(s) – The Committee recommended to the Commission that we offer 30% buyouts for employees of the Commission whose spouse has health insurance in order to save the Commission dollars overall. A motion was made by Dr. Brenner and seconded by Ms. Ferringer to approve the Committee’s recommendation. The motion passed.

2. Planner/Senior Planner positions – Dr. Brenner noted that the Commission advertised for the vacant positions, reviewed eleven resumes and selected four candidates to be interviewed. The Committee recommended that we give the Finance-Personnel Committee authorization to move forward after the interviews, and offer employment to one or two of the four individuals as long as everything works out after their interviews. A motion was made by Dr. Brenner and seconded by Mr. Hoy to approve the Committee’s recommendation. The motion passed.

3. Assistant Director Position – Dr. Brenner explained that when we hired Dan Gracenin as Executive Director, we kept the Assistant Director position open for several months for a variety of reasons, budgetary being one of them. The Committee recommended to the Commission that we hire the Assistant Director within staff and not to advertise for the position, unless the group as a hole feels that we need to do that. A motion was made by Dr. Brenner and seconded by Mr. Beatty to approve the Committee’s recommendation. The motion passed.

4. Executive Director Interim Period – Dr. Brenner noted that when we hired Dan Gracenin as Executive Director, he asked that it would be for a 6 month trial period. After the 6 month period, Dr. Brenner noted that the Committee recommended to the Commission that we retain Dan Gracenin as the permanent Executive Director and Mr. Gracenin accepted the permanent position as Executive Director. A motion was made by Dr. Brenner and seconded by Ms. McAdams to approve the Committee’s recommendation. The motion passed.

GREENER VISIONS – SMART GROWTH OPTIONS PRESENTATION

Mr. Dash explained that MCRPC received a grant for $10,000 from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to develop conservation development regulations for Mercer County municipalities in order to have some model regulations for communities, as well as, educational materials for builders, developers, and municipalities. He noted that we contracted with Graney, Grossman, Colosimo and Associates to help develop these materials. A rough draft of the presentation has been completed by the Consultant as well as a rough draft of some of the model ordinances. A power point presentation was given to show the work that has been completed to date. He also noted that Rick Grossman will be here next month to give a more detailed presentation. Mr. Dash opened the floor for comments basically to find if the presentation appeals to the builder/developer community and to try and see what types of things municipalities want to know. Mr. Stanton asked if we are doing any New Town Concepts around here like Willingboro, New Jersey. Mr. Dash stated that would be a much larger concept, but is basically the same type of traditional neighborhood development concept that we are looking for in Mercer County.

ADJOURNMENT

With no further business or discussion, the meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.

Submitted and Certified By:

Patricia McAdams, Secretary - MCRPC

 

Mercer County Regional Planning Commission
2491 Highland Road, Hermitage, PA 16148
mail@mcrpc.com    www.mcrpc.com

 

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