Commission meeting canceled

From:	LeboALERT <noreply@mtlebanon.org>
To:	EGillen476 <EGillen476@aol.com>
Subject:	LeboALERT: The Mt. Lebanon Comm...
Date:	Thu, Jul 6, 2017 10:39 am

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This is an important notice from LeboALERT.


The Mt. Lebanon Commission Discussion and Regular meetings scheduled for Tues., July 11 are canceled. For the complete meeting schedule, view our website.

New Sidewalk Policy Draft

Latest LeboALERT announced that the Commission will be reviewing the draft sidewalk expansion policy at the Discussion Session on Monday, August 26, 2013. Starting time is usually around 6:30 PM. The actual starting time will be listed on the Discussion Session Agenda, which should be available this Friday.

The draft is available here. Send questions or comments to the commission. It looks rather complex to me, but I am not an attorney. I hope it is what people have been asking for. I guess the big question is, "At whose expense?"

Pay As You Throw

I missed Monday's Commission Discussion Session about a program that is being considered by the Commission.  It is called, "Pay As You Throw" (PAYT).  I asked Matt Kluck and Kelly Fraasch about this back in January, after stumbling across this document Recycling Technical Assistance Project #509. I was concerned about another fee being issued.  My question was, "Will we have to pay for garbage pick up?"

Matt replied with:

Elaine,
Only if the municipality decides to increase the frequency of recyclables collection or the state mandates it.
MK

Kelly replied with:

I will say after living in 6 states, we are behind in our collection systems.  Part of our program is very broken and we are paying out the nose for it.  If we can trim back some of these costs, I think it’s worth investigating...Remember we pay per pound for all our garbage. We pay a flat fee for recycling. It could help us to enhance and find incentives for recycling (residential and commercial).

From Lebomag.com

Michele Nestor, president of Nestor Resources, a solid waste consulting and project management company, talked to the commission last night about the feasibility of introducing a pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) trash collection system here.

PAYT programs charge residents for trash collection based on how much trash they generate. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 213 municipalities in the state have some kind of PAYT program. The benefits of this kind of system are an increase in recycling, and residents are only charged for the amount of trash they generate.

Some of the challenges are, the need for creating a new billing system to accommodate the change, and residents could perceive it as a new tax. Also, “Disposal is already cheap here,” says Nestor. “About 75 percent of the cost of disposal is fuel and labor, and those trucks are going to roll down the street every day anyway.”

Some other possibilities to promote recycling are a program called Recycle Bank, where people receive grocery coupons and other incentives for decreasing their trash footprint. A drawback, says Nestor, is that there is a cost associated with the program, approximately $15 per household per year, and in one survey, about 50 percent of residents registered, and of those, only about 10 percent used the service on a regular basis. Some communities have had success with a “secret shopper” approach, where a trash-day inspection will reward one or a few residents each week for showing good recycling practices.

“Or, you could just give out bigger bins for recycling,” says Nestor, something that could be done as part of a campaign to educate residents more about the advantages of the single-stream recycling Mt. Lebanon currently employs. Public Works Director Tom Kelley mentioned that his department often received positive feedback following stories in mtl Magazine about various aspects of recycling.

Despite the potential resistance to the program (or anything new), Nestor believes that PAYT is the way of the future.

Commissioners were open to exploring the possibilities of increasing Mt. Lebanon’s recycling output while decreasing its landfill footprint. Both Kelly Fraasch and Kristen Linfante moved here from PAYT communities, and both expressed a desire to see it work here.

Mt. Lebanon and the rest of the communities in the South Hills Council of Governments will be negotiating a new trash and recycling contract this year.

For more information about pay as you throw options, check out the EPA’s website, http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/payt/index.htm.

Since I missed the meeting, I was hoping to learn more about the PAYT  discussion here. 

Sports Advisory, JMA, and other goodies

Mt. Lebanon is looking for residents to fill two vacancies on Dave Brumfield's new Sports Advisory Board. There are two at-large positions available. For more information visit Sports Advisory Board vacancies

According to the Monday, January 28, 2013 Discussion Session Agenda, the Joint Maintenance Agreement is up for discussion. The JMA extension expired last month. The big question is "Did the YSA pay up?" The starting time for the Commission Discussion Session is 6:30 PM.

Additionally, a Skateboard Ordinance and a Residential electricity broker will be discussed.

Skateboarding is illegal everywhere in Mt. Lebanon. There is no 21 Club for kids cited for skateboarding.

I have been asking the Commission for two years now if residents could get a group rate from an electricity broker. It can be done, but turf and deer management have been higher priorities. We could save money on our electric bills instead of constantly shopping for electricity suppliers.

Also planned is a review of the President/Vice President selection process. A heads up. There is no rotation, except Vice President to President. See Something is up UPDATED

Don't leave at the end of the Discussion Session. More fun is planned at the Commission meeting. The agenda includes a proposal to direct the proper municipal officials to solicit proposals and conduct two deer surveys in 2013; the first to be conducted in February, or as early as possible, and the second to be conducted in November. See Something is up UPDATED concerning deer.

Public Hearing for Sports Advisory Board

The agenda for Monday's Commission meeting has been posted.  We finally get to see the ordinance written for Bill No. 20-12,  The Ordinance Amending the Code of Ordinances to Establish a Sports Advisory Board. This bill was introduced on November 13, 2012 by Kristen Linfante, but was never posted since the link was incorrect. The public hearing for this new Sports Advisory Board, or as Josephine Posti likes to call it an ad-hoc committee, will be held on Monday evening.  It is number five on the agenda. Kristen will be moving to enact the ordinance after the meeting. Perhaps, this is how Dave suddenly changed his mind on shooting deer. The commission meeting starts at 8:00 PM.

In case you were wondering, the Joint Maintenance Agreement will be item number five on the Commission Discussion Session agenda.  That meeting starts at 6:40 PM.

I uploaded the podcast to the November Parks Advisory Board meeting.  I apologize for the quality of the recording.  The Director of Recreation recorded it for the purpose of writing the minutes of the meeting. Around the eighteen minute mark is when the voices start to get a little louder.  Dave Franklin is pretty easy to understand. I am reasonably sure he will be appointed as the Parks Advisory Board representative, don't you?

Houston, we have a problem UPDATED

It seems as though President Brumfield is only allowing Matt Kluck five minutes to speak about turf. Here is the agenda for Monday's Discussion Session. Yet when the deadbeat YSA gave its presentation, they were allowed three times that. June 25, 2012 Discussion Session Agenda Mr. Brumfield, care to explain the difference? Or are you going to continue the discussion after the regular meeting is over? I hope whatever Mr. Kluck is presenting will be posted on the municipal website, just as the YSA was able to have its proposal published.

Update July 21, 2012 PM 1:19 PM
The link to the YSA Proposal podcast is here.  It starts at 13:00 minutes and ends at 43:37 minutes.  In my pea brain and never one for math, it appears that the YSA spoke for 30:37 minutes. Why does Matt only get five minutes?  This place is so corrupt.

Three meetings...all on the same night

Mt. Lebanon needs to schedule more meetings for Monday evening.

1. In a Lebo Alert:

Free Seminar on the Allegheny Co. property tax assessment appeal process, 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, at Mt Lebanon Public Library.

2. The School Board will be holding a special budget meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the Jefferson Middle School Auditorium. Agenda is here.

Laurels & Lances On the “Watch List”: The Mt. Lebanon School Board. It's going to spend more than $41,000 on a study to predict the success of a prospective $30 million capital fundraising campaign. Good grief. We'll bet most residents of already tax-strapped Mt. Lebanon don't appreciate the implications of picking their pockets one way to see how amenable they might be to having their pockets picked another way. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_787814.html#ixzz1pxyn5gl0 

3. And finally, the regularly scheduled Mt. Lebanon Commission Discussion Session, 6:25 p.m., and the Mt. Lebanon Adjourned Commission Meeting, 8 p.m., will be held in the Commission Chambers in the Municipal Building.

Update March 23, 2012 7:00 p.m. From Center Court Blog

Time / Location Changes


There are a few location and time changes to some upcoming events. One is a recent change due to anticipated high attendance, one an error by the Post-Gazette and one an error on this blog.


Monday, March 26, 7PM: Due to anticipated attendance, we've moved Monday night's budget meeting to the Jefferson Middle School Auditorium.

Upcoming Community Coffees: The first one will be Saturday, March 31 from 9-11AM at Uptown Coffee on Washington Road. The second will be Wednesday, April 25 from 7-9AM at Orbis Caffe on Washington Road. [So those who were betting on Coffee Tree on Beverly Road lost. It is on Washington Road after all. Uptown Coffee.]

These are all opportunities to share your thoughts on the budget that we will take action on in May. We hope to see you there.

Commission says to let voters decide

There was quite a discussion tonight during the Commission Discussion Session held before the regular meeting concerning arrests and convictions of candidates.  The Commission has no say when it comes to candidates, but they do when it comes to boards and committees.  Solicitor Phil Weis, Marcia Taylor, Susan Morgans, and Chief McDonough all participated in the discussion with the Commissioners and Steve Feller.

Commissioner Bonnie VanKirk said that the political parties are to vet their candidates. I don't know who is responsible for the Democratic Committee, but Commissioner Joe DeIuliis does that for the Republican Committee here in Mt. Lebanon.  He was unable to attend tonight's meeting.

President Dan Miller stressed how important it is to know the candidates. We all need to do our homework before we vote.

Update September 14, 2011 6:52 p.m. Dan Miller contacted me to say that he "asked the solicitor to check into a couple of things to flesh out the discussion last night."  To be continued...

Revised Commission Discussion Session Agenda and Start Time

I just received a Lebo Alert for tonight's Commission Discussion Session.  The new start time is 6:15 p.m. The new agenda is here.