John H. Urbanski, Weissport’s new Officer in Charge, reported to borough council issues he is working on to make the police department more efficient.

Urbanski said the department is now in compliance with the Pennsylvnaia Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

“Prior to my arrival,” Urbanski said, “there was no paperwork sent to them to ensure compliance with federal and state mandates on holding juveniles within the police station.”

Urbanski requested the borough allow him to spend up to $500 for a new computer tower.

“The current tower was built in 2009 and is operating on Windows 7,” Urbanski said. “Windows 7 is not supported any longer, and that could pose a security issue.”

Council approved a motion to purchase a new tower. The cost would include the transfer of information from the current tower to the new one.

Urbanski is also creating a Facebook page for the police department.

Urbanski also asked about joining the Pa Chiefs of Police Association at a cost of $300.

“I believe that this would be money well spent due to the resources that the association has to offer,” Urbanski said.

No action was taken on that application.

During September, the department issued 4 parking tickets, 1 disorderly conduct, 1 public nuisance, and 1 welfare check. Urbanski is also looking into several other issues including a homeless camp in town, and a possible illegal vehicle repair charge, as well as abandoned vehicles around town.

Property has code issues

Weissport resident Rusty Fordyce addressed Council about a neighboring property at 112 Franklin Street that has had sewage and other problems for more than a year.

“Last month, there was human waste in the backyard again,” Fordyce said. “They don’t cut their grass; it’s a foot and a half high. There’s a swimming pool that’s been there for over a year with black and green muck in it.”

Fordyce said he called the Environment Protection Agency and was told it is the borough’s responsibility to take care of the problem.

Fordyce said that the borough should have a code that requires inspection of a property before people move in.

“We do have that code, we did adopt it,” Councilman Tom Ketchledge said. “The problem that we’re having is that we’ve been going through code enforcement officers because we can’t find one that will do their job. It’s hard to find anybody to come into this little town because they don’t make any money.”

Weissport uses Barry Isett & Associates; however, council members said that Isett does not provide reports and does not do the job they were hired to do. Council did receive a letter of interest from a person who would do code enforcement, and council members said they planned to discuss that during an executive session following the general meeting.

Urbanski agreed to meet with Fordyce about the problem.

Sewer system repairs

Borough solicitor Greg Mousseau made the request to approve an ordinance for the issuance of a General Obligation Note for up to $250,000 on a line of credit for the Weissport Municipal Authority for repairs to the sewer system in town.

“We would not use it unless we have to,” councilman Tom Ketchledge said. “There have been a lot of problems where we had to spend a lot of money to replace a lot of things. Just a few months ago, we had to replace six tanks within a month. The tanks cost about $25,000 each. In case we need more funds, we wanted to do the line of credit.”

Last November, the borough refinanced several loans to lower payments, which included extra funds that would be used to purchase grinder pumps to finish upgrading the borough properties. The municipal authority will make the loan payments; the borough council is the guarantor.

On behalf of the municipal authority, Ketchledge made a motion to approve the line of credit, seconded by James Osborne. Then council President Arland Moyer made a motion, seconded by Joseph Foster.