DUBOIS – A subcommittee will be formed to begin working on the budget, utility rates, and taxation for the consolidated City of DuBois and Sandy Township.
At Wednesday night’s Consolidation Joint Board meeting, DuBois and Sandy Manager Shawn Arbaugh noted that all three of those financial-related items must be worked out and established by February 2025.
The meeting also included discussion regarding the ballfields and tournaments in DuBois. Sandy Supervisor Barry Abbott said that although there is a cost to the city in hosting tournaments, an estimated half-a million dollars is pumped into the DuBois area economy.
Notes from the May 15th meeting:
Finance Subcommittee
·The Consolidation Joint Board voted seven to three to form a subcommittee to begin work on the consolidated city’s budget, utility rates, and taxation.
·According to DuBois/Sandy Manager Shawn Arbaugh, consolidation is legally required to have the taxes worked out by February 2025. To know what taxes need to be levied a budget needs to be formed.
·The initial proposed committee membership was City Engineer Chris Nasuti, Shawn Arbaugh, City Councilmember Elliot Gelfand, Sandy Township Supervisor Barry Anderson, and area resident Ed Andrulonis. The Joint Board eventually accepted these five and to accept letters of interest for two more citizen slots. There was debate on whether to split these two evenly between DuBois and Sandy Township or not.
·This led to pushback by Supervisors Sam Mollica and Bill Beers. Both stated the were not told about the details of what they would be voted on until they saw the packets. The pair motion to instead table accepting anyone to the subcommittee until receiving letters of interest to fill two more positions.
·Their motion died in a tied 5-5 vote before passing the above version. The 5-5 vote was:
oYes: Councilmember Jim Aughenbaugh, Bill Beers, Councilmember Shane Dietz, Sam Mollica, and Councilmember Jennifer Jackson.
oNo: Barry Abbott, Councilmember Elliot Gelfand, Supervisor Mark Sullivan, City Mayor Pat Reasinger, Supervisor Dick Whitaker.
·The passing vote was:
oYes: Abbott, Dietz, Gelfand, Whitaker, Reasinger, and Sullivan
oNo: Beers, Jackson, and Mollica.
KTH Architects Bit
·The Joint Board gave answers to some questions they received about why they didn’t go with the strictly lowest bid. The cost wasn’t directly apples and oranges with KTH providing a percentage of construction costs bid while the lowest was a flat rate.
·KTH was given the bid for the municipal building previously and had done some work already. That work was ended because it included work to be done on some of the fire halls and just the building was rebid out of caution.
·KTH has historical knowledge and experience with the building.
Ballfields
· Abbott sang the praise of the ball fields and tournaments that they bring to DuBois. This was in response to the City’s discussion at Monday’s meeting and the revelation the currently ongoing baseball event cost the city $25 thousand to host.
· Abbott brought up estimates that $500 thousand enters the community’s hotels, restaurants, and other businesses with the influx of tourists. The visitors go back and praise DuBois, PA.
· Abbott proposed hiring a “Parks and Recreations” employee to manage the fields and advertise events to the public.
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