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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Only two residents spoke during a special meeting Thursday to hear what community members think regarding a Second Amendment sanctuary referendum.
Borough Council is debating the wording that should be part of a resolution to enact the sanctuary.
Neither speaker was in favor of the draft agreement the county passed Thursday.
Tea Party member Richard Latker called the draft useless to those who voted in favor of the sanctuary.
"A group of unelected solicitors have mis-influenced the county and many municipalities into believing that only a minimalist sort of intergovernmental agreement, only a minimalist sort of ordinance is allowed -- that somehow you will be breaking the law if you enact anything stronger," Latker said. "This is false."
Rosalind Merritts, who is a member of both the Tea Party and Second Amendment Coalition, said that during petitioning to have the referendum put on the ballot, borough residents were "wholeheartedly in agreement" with it.
"What the Tea Party had drafted was in good faith," Merritts said. "I think it would suffice for the 17,000 voters in this county that agreed they wanted it passed, and I hope you'll support that."
Council members didn't provide a time frame for voting on the measure.
During the public comment of the council's regular meeting, Laura Zeek addressed the council to discuss how hard it can be for people with disabilities to navigate borough roads and sidewalks.
An ambassador for Ms. Wheelchair Pennsylvania, part of Zeek's platform involves improving the ease of mobility around Hollidaysburg.
"Unless you're in a wheelchair, you don't take notice of it," Zeek said.
Among the problems are uneven curb cuts and sidewalks, she said.
"Even people walking, if you don't know the area and you're walking, you're going to fall," Zeek said, noting that there is funding available so council can make changes.
Discussion on the borough's sidewalks is a subject that has been tabled for several months, but Councilman Brady Leahey resumed the subject after Zeek spoke.
Now that much of the snow had melted, Leahey said that he and Borough Manager James Gehret have been able to take a walk to survey the sidewalks. Leahey agreed with Zeek that it would be hard for children, the elderly and the handicapped to get around, noting that some sidewalk portions are lifted up to 5 inches off the ground.
"My concern was the trees that we planted years ago that caused a lot of sidewalk issues," Leahey said. "I thought the borough should be responsible in some way to try to help homeowners to repair their sidewalks or to at least help them repair the few blocks that might have lifted, causing tripping hazards."
Gehret said one idea he has is to possibly set up "some kind of $25,000 grant" a resident could apply to and "maybe reimburse them 20 to 25 percent" of the repair costs.
"There are a lot of sidewalks out there that need to be repaired," he said.
However, there would be some downfalls of even addressing the issue, he said. Those include residents of the 7th Ward -- an area with a small amount of sidewalks -- not wanting their taxes going to repair someone else's sidewalks and what to do if someone repaired a sidewalk before the grant was announced.
"There's a lot of semantics that you have to work through," Gehret said.
He suggested it might be worthwhile to put together a committee of three people to discuss the issue. However, a decision was postponed until April's meeting as Leahey wanted the opportunity to meet with Gehret one more time.
Mark Slonaker, a Phoenix Volunteer Fire Department representative, made a report to council on the first quarter of 2022. The department responded to 17 fire calls, of which three were major structure fires; 14 vehicle accidents, one of which required the jaws of life; 12 medical assists; one brush fire; and 17 other service calls such as wires down, trees on roadways and false alarms, he reported.
In other matters, council unanimously passed an ordinance to change parking and traffic flow on some streets and a location agreement with Tupelo Entertainment LLC, a group that represents the Travel Channel. According to Gehret, the group will use Chimney Rocks as a debriefing area on Sunday to discuss a show that is in the planning stages.
"It's not actually being filmed at Chimney Rocks, but they want to do the debriefing there," Gehret said.
"We don't know what the show is and they're not looking for people to be up there to be filmed," he said.
Mirror staff writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.