DUBOIS – The City of DuBois has a new engineer.

With the retirement of Chris Nasuti looming next week, DuBois City Council voted to hire Mike Haynes as City Engineer. Haynes previously served as Sandy Township Engineer.

Also at Monday’s meeting, council voted in favor of hiring a special legal counsel to investigate the DuBois pension program, and how it operated for past officials in certain positions.

 

Following are notes from the June 24, 2024 DuBois City Council meeting:

Notes

• Shawn Arbaugh and Elliot Gelfrand were absent from the meeting.
• Jennifer Jackson attended by phone.

Pension Investigation

• The City Council voted to hire a special legal counsel to look into the City’s pension program related to past officials.
• City Solicitor Thomas Breth explained that procedurally previous City Councils changed parts of how the pension plan works for certain elected and appointed positions improperly.
• This included retroactive changes and the former City Manager John “Herm” Suplizio.
• As Breth has a conflict of interest with the pension plan, he recommended the City Council appoint a special counsel to investigate the City’s pension plan.  Then suggest legal resolutions to what was found if needed.
• When asked by a member of the public, trying recouping any improperly allocated funds was a stated to be something for the special counsel to decide on.

Wards

• The City Council voted to have a specific elected official represent one of the wards within the City of DuBois.

o   First Ward: Jennifer Jackson

o   Second Ward: Elliot Gelfand

o   Third Ward: Pat Reasinger

o   Fourth Ward: Shane Dietz

o   Fifth Ward: Jim Aughenbaugh

Timber Cut

• The Council voted to award the latest timber sale to “Gutchess Lumber Co., Inc”.
• Gutchess’ bid was $965,258.00, the highest of the six bids.
• The second highest bid came in at $793,304.  The lowest was $477,870.97.

Street Paving

• The City Council announced eight streets for planned paving this fall.

o   West Long Avenue from Chestnut to Simmons.

o   West Long Avenue from S. State to Bell Lane.

o   Grant Street from N. Main to W. Long.

o   South Church from E. Weber to Olive.

o   Knarr Street from Olive to Shaffner.

o   Lily Alley from Luther to Fairview.

o   Luther Avenue from S. Church to 200 feet from there.

o   Olive Avenue from S. Brady to S. Church.