The Bradford City Police Department is receiving a JAG Grant that allowed it to purchase thousands of dollars in supplies.
Bradford City Council approved multiple purchases for the police department at Tuesday’s meeting, all of which the city is to be reimbursed for through the grant.
Those purchases included $659.98 for supplies from Eaton Office Supply, $775 for supplies from Provantage LLC, $979.99 for a safe from Tractor Supply Co., $890.34 for crime scene supplies from GOPRO and $9,655 for police equipment from Intoximeter Inc.
Also at the meeting, council passed on first reading an amendment to an ordinance that set the salaries of some city officials. They will have to vote on it one more time before it is finalized.
Riel explained that the change was not a mid-year salary increase for anyone, but rather a change that needed to be made because Terry Lopus took over as councilman for Fred Proper, who stepped down in July because he plans to move closer to family.
“Nobody’s being paid any more or any less,” Riel said.
The amendment is retroactive to July 25, the day Lopus was sworn in as councilman.
Council considered the sales of three tax parcels from the McKean County Tax Claim Repository, one that was approved and two that were not.
They gave consent for William J. Hodgdon to purchase a property at 90 School St.; representatives of the other taxing entities — Bradford Area School District and McKean County Commissioners — must approve the sale before it is final.
Offers for 17 N. Bennett St. and 1 Leigh St. were declined because the Board of Health deemed them beyond the scope of renovations.
Jonathan Pingie, doing business as Pinciaro Inc., was granted a $10,000 loan through the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund program to help with facade repairs and window replacement at 3-5 Main St. The loan has an interest rate of 3 percent and is for a term not to exceed five years. Pingie was further granted a building permit to replace second floor windows, install cement board to the lower front facade, replace the signboard, paint the doors a medium “basketweave” color and paint the cement board and signboard area a light tan “head for the hills” color.
Michael Fitzpatrick, owner of a building at 101 Main St./8 Kennedy St., was granted a building permit to replace four third-floor windows in the structure and paint the storefront at 8 Kennedy St. “naval” and white.
Also at the meeting, three Bradford residents had questions for council.
Gordon Howell, who is on a fixed income, attended to ask council about the new stormwater fee that property owners now pay for stormwater management services. Council members explained what the fee is for and told him the Bradford Sanitary Authority is managing the service.
Councilman Brad Mangel advised Howell to bring up issues at the next meeting of the Bradford Sanitary Authority, which will be held at 4 p.m. Aug. 15. Mangel is also a member of the sanitary authority board.
Riel noted there is “tens of millions worth of work that needs to be done” for the stormwater collection system and explained the fee is “designed to be on the property owners” — rather than on the taxpayers. “I do like that everybody has to pay their fair share.”
Regarding recent theft charges filed against the former city payroll clerk, resident James McDonald asked, “Are there any sort of safeguards that are going to be put in place?”
Riel said he couldn’t say a lot because it is an ongoing criminal matter but noted, “We have been putting measures in place so this does not happen again.” He said there will be “more than double” the checks in place.
Officials also answered questions that Brandon Baney had about the water fountains in Callahan Park, beverages for city workers and long hedges on East Main Street.
