Uniontown upgrading Bailey Park playground equipment
City Council also OKs police contract
A Uniontown park will be getting an upgrade in playground equipment.
Uniontown City Council approved buying $171,409 in equipment for Bailey Park at its monthly meeting Thursday.
The purchase passed 3-2, with council members Angela Brown, Trace Thomas and John Schoener voting for it and Vincent Winfrey and Mayor Bill Gerke opposed.
The item had been tabled at council’s June meeting after a member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Board said the proposal had not come before that panel for discussion.
Brown, the council’s representative on the park board, said the proposal was an attempt at improving the “atrocious” state of city amenities, from dated parks to crumbling roads.
“We’ve neglected our parks, our public spaces for decades, and now all of a sudden you have council members at our table who want to give back in some type of way,” she said. “…We’ve got to beg, because if you really wanted to do it, it would’ve been done long before I got here.”
Gerke and Winfrey said they backed the project, but wanted to see it funded instead through grants.
“I’m all for the playground, and that’s the way council voted,” Gerke said after the meeting. “I can speak for Pastor Winfrey and myself that we support that playground 100%.”
At the start of the meeting, Gerke circulated a list of upcoming grant projects, for which the city would need to spend another $262,000 for matching funds. Several grants, including one for more than $1.3 million in Sheepskin Trail improvements, also required the city to provide funds up front before being reimbursed.
In public comments, former council member Jared Billy attacked the purchase, saying unplanned spending would have consequences for city residents later.
“This is the warning: You’ve got your city taxes that’ll be getting raised,” he said.
After Billy spoke, Schoener said the equipment purchase was in line with the council’s job of providing social and material benefits that make people want to live in the city. He supported the project “without reservations and no apologies.”
“As council members, if we’re not providing material benefit to our residents to improve the quality of life in the city, so that people want to live here, then why are we here?” he said. “There is no point in us being here if you’re just going to come here and hoard money for a future date that’s never going to come.”
Also Thursday, council approved a three-year contract with the police department Teamsters union, retroactive to Jan. 1.
Patrolman Terry Robatin said the terms included reworking the city’s wage scale to make it more comparable to other third-class cities in surrounding areas.
Police Chief Alexis Metros said the increases amounted to about a 1% wage increase for 2027 and 2028. Rather than a straight percentage increase, it gave higher raises to people further down the wage scale, including up to 7% for the people furthest down the scale, Metros said.
In a subsequent resolution, council voted to authorize lateral hiring for new hires to the department, taking into account prior experience and training. The resolution said lateral hiring would enhance the city’s ability to recruit experienced law enforcement personnel, cutting training costs and improving operational readiness.
Thursday’s meeting also including the hire of Michael Parlak to the department at a starting wage of $35.89 per hour.
Metros said the city is looking to attract new officers. Down several officers through attrition, the department has had to rely on Pennsylvania State Police in recent months to handle the eight-hour overnight shift.
“We’d like to get back up to three shifts, because I don’t think half of this town has any idea that we’re running on two,” she said. “I think they have no clue that we don’t have a midnight shift, and the state police are coming in, while they’re still paying taxes.”