CHAMBERSBURG – Chambersburg Borough Council met Monday night for a pretty long while with a meaty agenda.
One big topic of discussion was electric bicycles.
E-bikes have been seen all over town, on the roadways and sidewalks.
Borough council took a hard look at what could be done.
Austin Rosenbaum, borough council member, said, “There’s so many different classification of bikes and e-bikes, and then you’ve got scooters and all the other things. So it was really an education session, and basically we haven’t made a final decision yet. It has to go to committees now to get looked at, and then it’s going to come back to council for a vote.”
Discussion focused on e-bikes being banned from the sidewalks and a person has to be at least 16 years old to ride them.
Rosenbaum said, “12 years and younger are allowed to be on regular bicycles on the sidewalks, just because kids, maybe a young child’s on a tricycle or something like that. A parent walking with them, they’re going to be much slower than an adult. I think it was pretty well received.”
Whatever decision is made, it has to fit with state regulations.
Rosenbaum said, “We can’t just go completely blank and do whatever we want. We also have to fit within what the state does and how they classify things. So streets is where you’d have to ride them. It cannot be on sidewalks, and really you shouldn’t be doing that with bicycles anyway.”
Pat Ryan of News Talk 103.7FM pointed out, “It could be winter time by the time it jumps out of committees, and you’ve already gone through extensive months of conversations between borough manager, between the police, and I think that gets lost on some of the business owners and some of the people going, you guys should do something about it. Well, we’re working on it.”
Rosenbaum said, “I don’t know why they wanted to go back to committees. I feel like normally we start in committees and then come out. Seems a little backward process, but it’s what was mentioned and that we should do by the borough president. But we will probably be able to have this back in about three months, so it’s going to be fall and close to winter, sadly. So this will probably take more effect next year.”
There will also be an implementation phase.
Rosenbaum said, “I liked the idea of going into the schools, maybe the police department, you guys, or whoever can do that, and educate, or wherever community events are, educate people. Maybe put out some videos on our social media feeds for the public to understand as well.”
There will be fines if the rules aren’t followed.
Rosenbaum said, “There are serious fines and penalties if you violate this. So this makes sure you want to follow this rule.”
Michele Jansen of News Talk 103.7FM said, “The technology has come up relatively quickly. All I think of is like here’s a family. They see this. Their child’s oh, this is so cool, mom. I really want this. They get it for them. The kids just looking at, wow, this is a cool, fun thing. I’m going to go out. They don’t know about all the stuff that we’ve just been talking about, and the family’s not really thinking. I don’t think about it either. We’ve had a couple tragedies in Pennsylvania, sadly. Education I think is going to be a key part of this and very fair to the families and the kids when you’re going to apply penalties. Well, listen, we have given you this information. I like the idea, give them some stuff to take home to mom and dad and understand the consequences.”
The fines could be anywhere from $50 to $1,000, so it’s important for parents and kids to know that.
Another item on last night’s agenda was public works campus.
Rosenbaum said, “I go to all those meetings. We meet every other week, and the staff has been working really hard. I’ve been trying to get them to work really hard, and they are doing a fantastic job of trying to find ways we can be more efficient, maybe where we can save money on that project, and it’s not a huge amount, but we were able on this last agenda, we were able to cut some things, and we were able to save $23,000. So that’s 23,000 less in taxes and utilities we’re going to have to take in to pay for this campus, which I think we’re going in the right direction. So that’s I think a very good thing that we’re doing.”
What’s going on with the budget?
Rosenbaum said, “Overall in most categories, especially utilities, we’re doing very well financially. There are a couple categories that we are struggling with, mainly the general fund that we’re struggling to fund because that is where we pay out of our police and EMS and fire departments. Not that we’re not paying our bills, we absolutely are. It’s just that if we would need to keep raising it as inflation goes up, as wages go up, and if we want to grow those departments, we are almost at a cap, so we can’t do it anymore because of the artificial county cap rate – we can’t raise it past a certain number, but overall it’s we’re in great health. I’m hoping that we can be diligent and not raise taxes this fall for next year. I was told when I came in that they probably are going to raise them, but I’m going to do everything I can in this budget season to find ways that we can save money and cut back. I don’t think that has been a priority of many people in the past. It was more like, oh, it’s easy just to raise taxes, so let’s raise them instead of finding ways where we can be more efficient and cut. So we’ll see if I’m successful in that.”
The mayor had to be the tie-breaking vote about a one-time waiver of approximately $6,600 in fees associated with Fountain Fest for Downtown Chambersburg, Inc.
Mayor Ken Hock broke the tie in favor of granting the $6,600 waiver.
Rosenbaum said, “It was a hard decision. I think people should know that we already give that organization over $30,000 a year to help our downtown. They do a lot of grants and things like that, and we appreciate them. But we don’t want this to become a habit of people coming in and asking us to forgive their fees. We have a lot of events that go on downtown, and if everyone did that, that could add a lot. When we get back to trying to be efficient in planning, sometimes you have to say no to things because every little bit raises the cost of taxes. Taxpayers have to pay. This isn’t the borough’s money. This is the people’s money. And every little thing we do, we have to be very stringent with what we give out. And I feel like the over $30,000 we already give them is plenty, but I do wish them well in their future events.”
Jansen said, “Anybody can make an emotional appeal, and I don’t like that a decision might be made based on emotions of that individual thing rather than an establishment. There’s a reason we have the rules.”
Ryan said, “And she made a good argument saying I won’t be back again and we got that on tape. There also could have been the offer going, you know what? How about we do a payment plan on this, or maybe you tack it onto a couple more years? But the thing’s already done here.”
The Parking, Traffic, Streetlight Committee had a report last night, too.
Rosenbaum said, “One thing that I’ve been getting a lot of calls about is Stouffer, Walker and Route 30 intersection. They put on some no turn on reds at that intersection, and it’s been back in traffic a little bit. So we’re going to relook at that. That was implemented by a PennDOT study that they asked us to do because it’s a PennDOT Route 30 road, but we’re going to relook at that and maybe because it seems to be potentially backing up traffic a good bit there, and so we’re going to reevaluate that. So I think some people would be happy to know about that.”