ST. MARYS — In an attempt to make council meetings look more professional and meet his own visions, St. Marys City Manager Tim Pearson made changes to the layout during city council meetings.
The biggest change was to the seating arrangement of council.
Mayor Bob Howard has been made the center of the meeting and is flanked on the right and left by the six councilmen; solicitor Tom Wagner and Pearson now sit on the outside of the table.
Pearson said the focus should be on the mayor and the councilmen as they are the ones making the decisions.
Pearson added that he and Wagner are advisors to council but hold no voting power.
In addition to the changes at the actual meeting, Pearson said he is working with Zito Media to get a channel for the city to allow it to have more flexibility in what it offers.
Pearson added the recorded meeting has been having issues playing on modern televisions, adding he is also working on this issue and hoped that it would be better during Monday’s session.
Pearson said residents using analog televisions have not been having issues.
In other news, council provided updates on its efforts to address noise pollution in the city.
Residents and city officials have expressed concern over some of the major roadways in the city, specifically state roadways owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Wagner said the city cannot enact a noise ordinance unless it can clearly define what the violation is.
He said individuals have the right to due process and due process requires that there is a clear definition of what is a violation. This means the city could not enact an ordinance based upon “unreasonable” levels.
City officials have tried to pursue signs that would prohibit engine brakes — “jake brakes” — in certain areas of the city, but PennDOT did not approve the use of signs in the key areas of town.
Further, the city would have issues enforcing any engine brake prohibitions as officers would still have to witness the violation, and assigning officers to noisy areas would take away from their ability to patrol other areas of the city.
Additionally, city officials have looked into erecting courtesy signs that would ask truckers to avoid using engine brakes if possible.
Pearson said the project stalled as PennDOT only allows certified signs to be placed in its right-of-way. Pearson added the city would have to look into asking citizens for use of private property to erect such signs.
In a related note, in hopes of addressing speed issues on South St. Marys Street, council allocated money in its 2017 budget for an electronic speed sign.
The sign can help warn motorists that the speed zone on South St. Marys Street is 25 mph, and it can record data that the police can use to determine when speeding is worst on the street.
Finally, Pearson said troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police have been doing random stops of trucks to check for mechanical issues.
Pearson added this isn’t anything that he can control but is a favor that the state police are doing for the city.
