Town of Woodland Board
Special Called Meeting Minutes
Date: July 21, 2020
7:00 PM

Board/Staff Present:                                            Guests via Zoom:

Randy Beale – Mayor                                            Andrew DeIonno - UCPCOG
David Cooper – Commissioner                             Blaine Humphrey – Rivers and Associates
Barbara Outland – Commissioner
Brian Christison – Commissioner
Ricky Morris - Commissioner
Donielle McDermott – Town Clerk
Raymond Eaton – ORC
Eddie Hoggard – Police Chief

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by a moment of silent reflection.

Call to Order: Mayor Beale called the meeting to order at 7pm.

Approval of Agenda: The first item of business was the approval or amendment of the agenda. Commissioner Christison made a motion to approve the agenda as is. Commissioner Outland seconded and the motion carried.

Public Comments: There were no public comments.

CDBG Engineer: Andrew DeIonno said the COG reviewed the two engineer proposals, one from Rivers and Associates and the other from McDavid Associates, Inc., and the COG recommends Rivers and Associates. He stated they are both great firms, but it boiled down to Rivers’ familiarity with the town. Mayor Beale thanked Mr. DeIonno for their work and let him know the town would be relying on him and the COG during this project.

Commissioner Christison made a motion to approve the resolution selecting Rivers and Associates as the 2019 CDBG-I Sewer Collection System Improvements Project Engineer for the Town of Woodland. Commissioner Morris seconded and the motion carried.

Clean Water State Revolving Fund: The town of Woodland received notice that the State’s Division of Water Infrastructure has approved funding for our project. The town applied for a $2,000,000 grant/loan with the hopes of receiving majority in the form of a grant. The town was approved to receive $500,000 in principal loan forgiveness and $1.5 million in a loan. The town asked Andrew DeIonno and Blaine Humphrey our options, so we do not have to borrow such a high amount. Mr. DeIonno suggested working with Blaine Humphrey, our engineer, to scale down the project which will in turn bring down the cost. It is important to not deviate from the project when scaling it down. Mr. DeIonno also highly recommended not turning down the $500,000 principal forgiveness. It is unclear yet whether or not there is a minimum the town would need to borrow to receive the $500,000 in principal forgiveness. Mr. Humphrey believes it may be a 50/50 where we would need to borrow at least $500,000 and suggests we not get the project down so small that we don’t get our “bang for our buck”. Mr. DeIonno said he’s not sure if we would need to borrow that much, the amount may be smaller. Mr. Humphrey will speak with someone from the state to find out the specifics. Commissioner Christison stated that he felt our biggest issue is rerouting the pipes under the Linden Street house.

After more discussion, it was determined that Mr. DeIonno and Mr. Humphrey will meet to come up with a project estimate with an amended plan, and then Mr. Humphrey will meet with the board the beginning of next week to go over the different options. They both agree the town needs to have at least a basic plan before we go to the state asking for our project to be amended. The board agreed something needs to be done for several reasons. We have had several spills and the state may begin fining us if they do not see the town trying to resolve the issue. Also, the town raised the water and sewer rates (sewer rates twice) in the last couple of years in order for us to receive this grant.

Steve Tsadwa, our project manager for this project is requesting the town to pick a date from his list to have an orientation teleconference. The board asked for Mrs. McDermott to check on August 11, making it the latest time possible.

Coronavirus Relief Fund: The county will be receiving money from the state for the Coronavirus Relief Fund, and the county is distributing a percentage of this money to the municipalities. The Town of Woodland will be receiving $30,078.76. The town must have a written plan in place on how we will spend the money and send it to the county by August 14, 2020. The money must be spent on eligible COVID related expenses the town has or will incur between March 1, 2020 through December 30, 2020. Eligible items include medical expenses and testing, public health expenses, payroll expenses, expenses to facilitate compliance with COVID-19 public health measures, and economic business support. Mrs. McDermott stated that a special fund may need to be used for this. The town will expend the money and then turn in the receipts once a month to the county for reimbursement.

The board asked if we could use this money to pay for arrear water bills. Mrs. McDermott will find out. Another suggestion was to fill a box for each water paying customer with supplies such as masks, hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, etc. The board said to make sure the town employees have all the supplies they need first.

Commissioner Cooper made a motion to approve the Sub-Grant Agreement of the Coronavirus Relief Fund Contract between the Town of Woodland and Northampton County. Commissioner Christison seconded and the motion carried.

Public Comments: There were not public comments, however Commissioner Christison told the board that the employee evaluations need to be filled out and we need to have a meeting with the employees before our next board meeting in order to approve their raises. It was decided to meet with the employees an hour before our next board meeting scheduled for August 6, 2020.

Adjourn: At 8:23 pm, Commissioner Cooper made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Outland seconded and the motion carried.