Changes regarding the Tyrone Fire Department continue into the New Year with decisions made at the last night’s borough council meeting.
In the last year, the department has seen the closing of Citizen’s Fire Company and the resignation of long-time Fire Chief Jim Beckwith. Council decided to eliminate the fire chief’s position last week.
Instead, it established a new fire committee headed by three members including the chiefs of the two remaining fire companies along with a third member who is not part of the fire department.
The third member was designated to be a current member of council. On Monday, the borough voted to appoint councilman James Grazier to serve on the committee after he had agreed to accept the responsibility.
Other changes regarding the fire department included council accepting the resignation of Jeffrey Watson as the borough’s fire marshall. Watson resigned since he has accepted a position as the assistant fire chief of the Blazing Arrow Hook and Ladder Fire Company. According to policy, he is not permitted to hold both positions at the same time.
In his resignation letter to council, Watson recommended former Fire Chief Jim Beckwith for the fire marshal position. Councilman Bill Fink suggested council should look at Beckwith’s qualifications for the position. He questioned if Beckwith was able to handle certain aspects of the fire marshal’s job.
Councilman Watson pointed out he had served in the position and believed Beckwith had even more qualifications and expertise to handle the position than he did. He did say Beckwith would be required to verify certain education and training background which is customary.
Council voted on the matter with Fink casting a “no” vote since other members wouldn’t agree to checking on Mr. Beckwith qualifications any further.
The former fire chief held that position for 28 years and has been a member of the department for more than 40 years.
Tyrone Borough revisited another issue when solicitor Larry Clapper announced council needed to re-establish a board of health. Clapper noted the board once existed, but since it had never been actively used a previous council had eliminated it in 1994.
The need for a board of health came up last year when council adopted a tattoo parlor ordinance which placed certain restrictions on those wanting to operate such establishments in the borough. Once the ordinance was adopted, council named four appointees (all council members) to the board and tabled a decision on a fifth member who was supposed to have a medical background.
Last night, council voted unanimously to re-establish a board of health with the adoption of an ordinance. They also named the four council members and the fifth person to the board.
The borough agreed to name Christel Grazier, a registered nurse in the trauma unit of Altoona Hospital to the board. The council members named were Jennifer Bryan, Sharon Danaway, William Latchford and J.R. Watson.
In other business, council took the following actions:
•agreed to make final payment to Kreiger Contracting in the amount of $12,859. The company had honored the borough’s request to re-paint the in-line hockey rink after being requested to do so before the borough would release the final payment. The work has since been completed;
•through resolution, designated borough officials authorized to sign PENNDOT documents on behalf of Tyrone;
•designated new Borough Manager Nathan George to be authorized to sign EPA documents;
•heard an update from engineer Ray Myers on the status of Schell Run improvements;
•agreed to grant handicap and pastor parking to those making recent requests to the borough;
•agreed to close out a project at the wastewater treatment plant by by deducting recent costs the borough had incurred and forwarding the remaining amount of money the borough had held for the project back to the Howard Robson Company; and
•discussed problems with dog waste in borough parks and on the street and problems with disabled or abandoned vehicles in Tyrone.
The council also acted on a matter tabled from a previous meeting.
Last week, councilwoman Jennifer Byran asked for a cost assessment on legal advertising in a newspaper other than The Daily Herald. Last night, council was presented with a cost sheet and Byran agreed the price of advertising in another paper would not be cost effective. Other council members also reviewed the price list.
Bryan then revealed she wanted the borough to consider changing papers for its legal advertising for reasons unrelated to cost.
“I don’t like their reporting, the inaccuracies, the way they have treated council,” said Bryan regarding The Daily Herald.
Solicitor Larry Clapper revealed a memo he drafted had been distributed to council. It described a meeting which occurred last involving Mayor Patricia Stoner, Clapper and Daily Herald General Manager Chris Lash. Issues between the council and the newspaper were discussed and council indicated certain stipulations had been agreed to by both parties.
At first Bryan said she would still vote no to retaining The Daily Herald as the newspaper for legal notice publication. When the vote was actually taken she voted “yes” adding only if the paper honored what was agreed to in the memo.
The internal memo was not distributed to the public nor this newspaper.
“I would like to simply review the memo” said Lash when contacted at his office this morning.
The council voted unanimously to retain The Daily Herald for its legal advertising.
