Sep 14, 2011 By Steve Ferrisheraldstandard.Com 3 min read

The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday tabled a proposed public comment policy after board members said the five minutes it would have provided for people to comment on topics that are not on meeting agendas would be too much time if a lot of people wanted to speak.

The policy would have given people five minutes to comment on non-agenda topics if they submitted the topic in writing at least three business days before the meeting.

People who didn’t provide advanced notice would have been given three minutes to comment on agenda or non-agenda items.

During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting, resident Delinda Young of Uniontown said the board should be flexible in allowing time for public comment on agenda and non-agenda items.

Initially, board President John Oris said he didn’t believe three minutes was enough time to speak and most board members agreed with him.

Responding to a question from board member John Ptak, solicitor Melinda Dellarose said the intent of the policy was to give every person five minutes to comment on non-agenda items.

Oris said he didn’t think the policy would have given five minutes to each person if a larger number of people came to a meeting to comment on the same topic. Allowing a dozen or more people to speak for five minutes each would make the board meetings too long, he said, acknowledging that only one or two people occasionally attend the authority’s monthly meetings.

All board members then agreed that the policy should be revised to limit all public comment to three minutes. The board voted to table action on the policy until the next meeting on Oct. 11.

In other business, authority executive director Mark Yauger said a sales agreement is in place for one of the newly constructed houses on Maple Street and the city won an award for the design and construction of the development.

The sale price was $136,500, but a $30,000 grant will be incrementally forgiven over 15 years and a $10,000 deferred loan isn’t payable until the house is sold or the mortgage is paid off, Yauger said.

The award is from 10thousand Friends of Pennsylvania, an organization that supports urban redevelopment in small towns.

Yauger said two homes, including the one under agreement, have been completed, a third home is almost finished and construction just got started on two more houses.

The grant money the authority is using to build the houses allows buyers earning up to 120 percent of the area’s median income to buy the homes.