LEWISTOWN - Mayor Deborah Bargo publicly thanked all of those involved with the 10th annual National Night Out, during the Lewistown Borough Council meeting Monday evening.
Bargo said the event was a wonderful experience, and thanked the council and Recreation Board for allowing the event to occur at Rec Park. National Night Out was held Aug. 7, and was designed to help foster safe neighborhoods and promote positive relationships between the community and local law enforcement.
Bargo reported high attendance at the event, and said that "everybody really enjoyed it." Three of the local block watches volunteered time to help with the night out, making for a successful event, Bargo said.
"We couldn't have done it without them," Lewistown Police Department Chief William Herkert said.
Herkert followed this information by giving a police report of the current happenings in the Lewistown Area. Herkert stated that the "suspicious death" case, which involved a Juniata Terrace man found dead in a car July 30, in the parking lot of the Giant Food store in Lewistown, remains under investigation but that more information will be available as early as next week.
Herkert also voiced a need to look into an issue regarding overnight parking tickets, stating that the parking fine had been changed to $5 in 1996. After some discussion over the ticketing costs of the past and what they should currently be, the council made a motion to have the issue taken care of by the Law and Ordinance Board. Councilman Larry Searer made a motion to add $15 non-meter parking to the agenda for the next meeting of the board.
Searer then questioned Herkert on police reporting in Lewistown. Searer stated that he was aware of several cases occurring in the Lewistown area that were never reported in The Sentinel. Searer said he felt the public needed to be aware of what was going on, and questioned whether or not police reports were being received by local papers, and if they were, why he was not seeing them.
Herkert responded that press releases were sent when possible. Herkert said that of the 404 cases responded to by the Lewistown Police Department in the month of July, a significant number involved domestic disputes, assaults or mental health issues, which can not be forwarded to the press.
Other confidentiality issues also prevented many of the cases from being released, Herkert said. Herkert assured Searer and the public that releases would be sent when they could be, and would be done so as "generically" as possible.
The board also made a motion to approve subdivision and lot consolidation, as well as land development plans, for the Nittany Minit Mart on Fourth Street in Lewistown. Nittany Oil has purchased land and will be constructing a larger building at the location where the current market stands. The project will proceed as planned.
In other business the board:
Made a motion to approve resolution 2012-26, which appointed Brittany Kern to the recreation board in order to replace a member who was no longer serving.
Made a motion to approve resolution 2012-27, which appointed Connie Lucas as borough secretary.
Appointed Connie Lucas as authorized signer for any titles and legal documents for the borough's fleet of vehicles.
Approved park use requests for the soccer and football facilities at Rec Park to be used by local teams.
The board regularly meets at 5:30 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the borough building on Third Street.
