Parking spots could be lined downtown next spring
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Cars are parked on North Main Street in Shenandoah on August 22, 2023. These spaces may be lined in the spring.
SHENANDOAH – At Monday’s meeting, Borough Council discussed painting lines to denote parking spaces on Main Street downtown.
Council considered hiring a contractor to paint lines along Main Street from Coal Street to Poplar Street at a cost of $6,000.
Borough Manager Tony Sajone said that the contractor, though, is booked through the end of September and such activities aren’t recommended from October onward.
“He recommended that we wait until Spring,” Sajone said. “We’d be his first job.”
Parking spaces in downtown Shenandoah for decades have been denoted by the presence of a parking meter, though such meters are in disrepair, if not completely gone in some cases.
Painting lines downtown, like in Mahanoy City or Mount Carmel, would help bring consistency to the spaces downtown, which can often vary.
Council approved a motion to hold off on line painting until the spring.
MABS Pensions
In other business, council approved a motion to hire the firm Conrad Siegel to seek bids for annuities for the pension plan for the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah.
With the sale of the authority’s water system assets to Aqua Pennsylvania, the borough is now responsible for the existing pension plan, which Solicitor James Amato said is not fully-funded.
“It hadn’t been adequately funded for many, many years,” Amato said.
He said that, with the proceeds from the sale, the borough had planned to fully-fund the pension plan.
“There are basically two options that we can do for the MABS pension plan. One of which is to fund the pension plan fully, and then the borough would be responsible for a minimum municipal obligation in perpetuity until all the people that are vested and retired no longer receive a pension,” Amato said. “The second option is to secure an annuity — essentially an insurance policy — for the pension fund and that will guarantee that the people that are receiving a pension currently will be funded for the rest of their lives, and it guarantees that with no municipal obligation from the borough.”
Amato said that it would cost about $350,000 to fully-fund the plan now and a municipal obligation would be paid yearly.
The upfront cost of an annuity would be higher, he said, but there would be no continuing obligation.
Hiring Conrad Siegel would find out exactly how much that upfront cost would be.
In other business, borough council approved:
- a fair housing resolution;
- off-street parking in a vacant lot at 115 West Lloyd Street for use by Oravitz Funeral Home;
- the Polish American Fire Company’s Rock the Block fundraiser on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, closing the unit block of North West Street;
- a can collection for the Shenandoah Valley Girls Soccer at Main and Centre on August 26 from 9am to 1pm;
- a handicapped parking application for 216 West Coal Street;
- a request by Shenandoah Valley Boys Basketball Boosters for a can collection at Main and Centre on Sept. 15 from 4pm to 6pm.
About Author
