DALTON — During August’s Council meeting, Councilwoman Elizabeth Bonczar proposed a new title called president pro-tem.
“For some reason, if the president couldn’t be here, the mayor can’t be here, the vice president takes on, but there should be a third person,” she said. “The third person should be president pro-tem.”
Council nominated Bonczar for this position and voted to appoint her.
In his grants report, Councilman Brian Malamud mentioned that the grants committee applied for two grants at the end of April – one for the watershed restoration improvement and the other, for Greenways Trails. He said that they are both for building the infrastructure at Streamside Park.
“Two grants were written using recommendation from DCED (Department of Community and Economic Development) as well as DCNR (Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) to use the equity of the Novak property as our match,” he said.
Malamud said that the Novak property can’t be used for both grants. He said that the committee chose to use the grant of the watershed restoration instead.
“That has been done, submitted, with a letter committing that property and that equity for that without any major changes to the grant iteslf,” he said.
Malamud said that the other grant left the committee with no match, so Mayor Aaron Holzman met someone from the finance commiteee to obtain a 15% match. He said that the original ask for the grant was $250,000 and a 15% match is roughly $42,000, which needs to be committed using bank statements or cash on hand.
“The finance commitee is recommending that we have that available,” he said.
Malamud said that the “big picture” is if the committee obtains both awards as a match to work with DCNR. He said that this project can’t begin until 2025 if not later.
“Any of the $42,000 that we’re promising is deferred until then,” he said.
Solicitor Frank Bolock explained that the letter provides official notification that the borough would commit up to $50,000 in matching funds.
Council voted to approve the letter.
In his solicitor’s report, Bolock said that he prepared a written approval of documentation from the new owner of the Weeks property on 318 Main St.
“It’s been a long, drawn-out issue involving installation of the drainage facility,” he said. “The borough property was essentially in a three-foot strip between the due properties.”
Bolock said that borough engineer John Seamans has been developing a ditch that runs down the creek in the back of the property. He said that he needs Council to devise a plan to present the property owner.
In her secretary’s report, Laura Kinney said that the second part of the website training has been complete.
“It’s up to us in order to input all of the information,” she said. “I’m looking for council members to assist with that.”
Also, Kinney announced an electronic recycling event on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
