Meeting called to order at 6:30pm.

1. Moment of Silence & Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll Call done by Nina Mulnix

Council present: Councilmember Bayko, Councilmember Cardiff, Councilmember Corrales, Councilmember Perovich, Councilmember Shoub

Council not present: Councilmember Batzel, Councilmember Cole

Other staff present: Mayor Llewellyn, Borough Manager Peticca, Borough Secretary Nina Mulnix

3. Duquesne Light Representative- arrived late. This part of the discussion was a little later on the agenda.

4. Discussion

a. Clean Up Days updates.

There are a few volunteers who offered to help during clean up days and would gladly welcome more. On Saturday May 6^th in the morning there will be a crew cleaning up garbage along the streets and sidewalks throughout the town, supplies will be provided.

At the conclusion of clean up days there will be pizza ordered. During the discussion the following list of items were mentioned as acceptable items during clean up days.

Items accepted on clean up days.

- TV’s, Refrigerators, Tires, Fiberglass, Wood,

b. WHT Days updates

There was a meeting that took place regarding the heritage trail days with the WHT representative, Councilmember Perovich and Manger Peticca. It was discussed that there is still a need for and availability for any local businesses that would like to have a tent or table during trail days. There will be a variety of vendors at BY Park: Helltown Brewery, local food trucks, a DJ, along with activities for kids. This will be a nice community event to showcase our beautiful park at BY.

c. Sewage Online Bill Payments

The borough spoke about the bill payment options that are changing during the next billing cycle. There will be two payment options, one payment option will be to pay with your bank account as a free transaction and the other payment option would be with your credit card and a fee attached.

Councilmember Bayko explained the borough is absorbing these costs and it is going to cost approximately $15,000.00. An example was given to show how the charge for a credit card payment is calculated. A minimum sewage bill is $138.34, multiply that by 2.65% that equals $3.66 + 0.50$ transaction fee the total calculated fee charged is $4.16, in addition to the $138.34.

Duquesne Light Discussion:

The borough introduced Paul Svoboda from Duquesne Light to those in attendance.

Several residents and business owners were in attendance for this discussion meeting to ask questions about the frequent and numerous power outages experienced throughout the borough and raise concerns and complaints.

Points of concern brought up at the meeting were:

When the power is out, will residents still be billed for services not used.

How can you report an outage when Duquesne Light’s system is difficult to maneuver.

The needed repair work on the unfinished poles throughout the borough.

The need for a phone number for a live person.

Paul Svoboda- provided a brief overview of what has been done with Duquesne Light’s investigation into recent power outages. Questions and answers were given throughout the discussion.

Information below are results from a field study that was conducted:

From the 20 incidents that were reviewed occurring on the Wilmerding and Trafford circuit from 2022 to present day. Of those incidents 10 were scheduled outages, 7 of those 10 were planned and scheduled by customers, 3 of those 10 were planned but not scheduled by customers- those were for maintenance repairs. 1 incident was to repair a crossarm, 1 incident was tree related. The other number of outages were forced outages. While performing the review of said outages there is not one concurring factor. There has been weather, accidents, tree related incidents, and equipment failure.

Anytime there is a momentary outage our system tries to re-start itself. Only after several attempts to re-energize the line will it lock out causing longer outages of five minutes or more.

In 2021 there were 15 disruptions. In 2022 there were 18 disruptions. In 2023 to date there have been 11 disruptions.

Operations is currently looking into why there have been 11 disruptions thus far. There has been no determination of momentary outages at this point.

Answers to questions/concerns brought up during the discussion.

There would be no kilowatts billed to the resident as there are no kilowatts going through the line.

There are three ways to report an outage, 1. To report online. 2. Download the DL app. 3. Placing a phone call to DL. The website is the most ideal way to report outages. For the resident having trouble manipulating the website a demonstration can be given after the discussion.

It was advised when residents notice tripping hazards around dangerous poles to write down the pole number, location of the pole and call Duquesne Light’s Trouble ticket number.

The borough has the best number to reach me (Mr. Svoboda), however there is a strong need to call any of the numbers to Duquesne Light that are publicly available to report any issues.

Further discussion uncovered that many residents feel that 11 outages reported to date is low in comparison to what they have experienced.

Mr. Svoboda conveyed to residents the importance of calling in an outage and to report to operations, this way a ticket number can be generated for follow up.

Vegetation management has been out in the area assessing/removing tree limbs and debris, that is going to alleviate some of the momentary outages.

d. Any other borough business for discussion

A resident (Anthony Holland Cavitt Ave) asked if there is a safer way to get to the school for someone who doesn’t have a car and head start doesn’t offer transportation.

Mayor replied and mentioned there is a walkway to the right of the public works building that leads to the school.

Brandon Lacina (430 Brinton Ave) addressed the room and stated he felt the discussion with DL was a very corporate response and felt that we still need to apply pressure about the outages.

Manager Peticca suggested all residents report all problems with their power directly to Duquesne Light and follow up with the ticket number to the borough so the problems can be tracked.

Resident Lynwood Leeman (334 4^th Street) is asking about the apartment building on 5^th and 301 Brinton Ave, is that a condemned building? The empty lot at 501 Cavitt when will a sidewalk be installed? Is it the property owner’s responsibility to repair and maintain the sidewalk? The house that was torn down on Duquesne is a mess with nothing but mud.

Manager Peticca replied it is condemned and we are going through the process. The hopes are to have an interested buyer. The empty lot at 501 Cavitt is owned by the fire company- you will have to pose that question to them- we have taken them to court about that matter. It is the property owner’s responsibility.

5. Adjournment

a. Announce the next regular meeting for Tuesday, May 2nd at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers

b. Move to adjourn.

c. Motion: Councilmember Shoub

d. Second: Councilmember Bayko

e. Vote: 5, 0, 2 (Absent)

Respectfully submitted,

Nina Mulnix

Borough Secretary