June 28 – In Pennsylvania, advertising requirements to meet the PA Borough Code mean councils have to put announcements in newspapers of general circulation for when meetings will be held.
They are not allowed to advertise electronically.
Jason Stains, borough manager for Waynesboro, explained, “All these local newspapers keep getting bought up and the state still requires boroughs to advertise. The timeline keeps changing for when things need to be in the newspaper. So all that being said, we submitted things to the newspaper and it wasn’t in time for our last council meeting. So the borough council decided to hold a special meeting to pass some of the things that we couldn’t get into the paper.”
Tomorrow’s meeting at 10 a.m. will discuss an ordinance to update Chapter 19 of the borough code for Waynesboro.
Stains said, “It is updating our fire ordinance. That’s what Chapter 19 covers. There’s no major changes to the fire ordinance. It’s just bringing things more up to date. It is still recognizing the command structure that we have in place. We have both a career and a volunteer fire department here in Waynesboro. So whenever the last ordinance was updated several years ago, that command structure with the volunteers, with the career staff, was memorialized at that time. We’re not changing that.”
Some positions on the career side will be made available.
Stains said, “Down the road if we decide that we want positions for our career staff, that’s already in place so that people can be promoted from within for those positions. But currently, we’re still recognizing the captains and the lieutenants of the volunteer company. There wasn’t language really inclusive of the fire police in the old ordinance. So that’s being included in this ordinance as well. It’s a cleanup of an old document to bring things to the present.”
Council will also discuss a street light project on Walnut Street.
Stains explained, “We have a design to put nine new LED lights that match what we have through our downtown on Walnut Street. That project is going to be before the Borough Council, just the design work for that.”
There are also a few resolutions to be discussed.
Stains said, “One is to change the language for applicants for police officers that they live within 50 air miles of the center square of the borough. Currently the language states that they have to live within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and with us being right on the Maryland line, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and not allowing people to apply to be a police officer who are right over the border who may be interested in working in Waynesboro.”
The Waynesboro Summer Jubilee will be held on July 4th.
Stains said, “We have a great event and a great day planned in Waynesboro on July 4. You can still register for some of the events I’m about to mention. The day starts on July 4 at 7:30 in the morning, with the kid’s one-mile fun run. That is followed with the annual Firecracker 5K race through town. We’re one of the only 5Ks that we’re aware of in the area on July 4. We usually get several hundred runners. The last time I heard we are closing on 300 runners for the event on July 4. If you’re a runner or even if you want to walk, you can still sign up for that. Following that, we’re going to have our annual July 4 parade down Main Street. Going on all day across from the Waynesboro hospital at 502 East Main Street is the Summer Jubilee.”
The event includes bands, activities, food vendors and all kinds of fun for kids.
Stains continued, “Everything gets wrapped up at the end of the day with the fireworks that are set off behind the high school. That’ll happen after it gets dark on the fourth. With the rain that we had last week, we’re still in good shape. Some of these storms that are rolling through, they’re helping the efforts. We were really concerned that it was getting too dry, but right now, fingers crossed, we’re still moving forward with all the events as planned on July 4.”
Stains will not be in the dunk tank at the Summer Jubilee.
He recalled, “I did that at Northside Pool the other year and people were just walking up and smacking the button to put me in the water. So I spent more time underwater than I did on the platform. But I’ll be out at the Jubilee. I’m helping to flag for the races and for the parade. I’ll be helping with some traffic control with the team of volunteers that we have assembled that pull off these events. So I’m looking forward to a great day here in Waynesboro.”
