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Council OKs land purchase for new police station

By Steve Ferris 3 min read

In a busy meeting Wednesday, Uniontown City Council approved purchasing a building for a new police station, adopted an ordinance that changes on-street parking and traffic flow and borrowed a tax anticipation loan. Council unanimously agreed to buy a vacant building at 45 E. Penn St. for $165,000 from the estate of Dorothy K. Trusio for the police station.

Police Chief Kyle Sneddon thanked council for acquiring the building and said the existing station is too small.

“We’re up against a wall,” Sneddon said.

The police department occupies a small part of the Public Safety Building while the fire department takes up most of the space.

Sneddon said the building was not designed to house a police station.

In unrelated business, council approved the second and final reading of several ordinance amendments that reverses some of the parking and traffic changes made last year when the right lane of Main Street was converted into two-hour free parking spaces.

One amendment prohibits parking on the right side of the state road in front of buildings at 97, 99 and 107 E. Main St. Violations will carry $100 fines.

Another amendment establishes two-hour free parking on the right side of Main Street from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, but prohibits parking on Main Street from Church Street to Corporate Crossing Road from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Fines for violations are $50.

Two amendments prohibit all parking on both sides of Court Street and make it a two-way street between Penn and Main streets.

The last amendment changes the direction of travel on Peter Street from westbound only to eastbound only between Gallatin Avenue and Court Street.

In another traffic matter, Sneddon said he would place a roadblock at the top of Jacquette Place to stop traffic from coming down the steep road into Bailey Park.

Parks and recreation director Harold Bell said he is worried about children playing at the park being struck by vehicles coming down the hill.

The tax anticipation loan council accepted from PNC Bank is for $165,000.

In other business, council:

– Appointed police officers Jennifer Pounds, the city’s first female officer, and John Kauer as full-time patrolmen after they completed their six-month probationary periods. Their annual salaries will be $30,227.

– Reappointed Brian Ludy to a five-year term on the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority board.

– Accepted a $49,816 bid from State Pipe Service for cleaning and internal inspection of trunk and interceptor sewer lines. Two other bids were submitted and the next lowest was $89,372.

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