Vandergrift Council moves meetings online via Zoom, cancels Artfest

Vandergrift Council’s meeting Monday began with several council members shouting “Hello?” and a few curse words as they learned to turn on their webcams.

The council held a meeting via Zoom on Monday, its first public meeting since the covid-19 pandemic began nearly two months ago.

Once things got rolling, though, council members were able to move forward on some business.

The meeting included a renewal of the municipality’s emergency declaration and the reinstatement of farmer’s markets and the care of community gardens within Vandergrift’s parks, which have been closed to the public.

Plans for the annual Vandergrift Artfest, scheduled for July, were scrapped in compliance with the emergency declaration.

Steve DelleDonne, borough secretary, said the council’s meeting via Zoom is a “work in progress.” The borough will continue to evaluate the best way to meet until pandemic restrictions are lifted.

“It was fine,” DelleDonne said. “It’s something I’ll have to get used to.”

After canceling April’s monthly meeting, it appeared for most of the month as though May would be canceled, too. Multiple council members told the Tribune-Review in April that there had been little communication about using the platform, or meeting at all.

Residents were finally informed of the May 4 meeting April 29, five days ahead of time.

Councilman John Uskuraitis said at one point council had considered gathering inside Vandergrift’s borough building and projecting the discussion to residents outside using a speaker system.

Council members said they had received few inquiries from Vandergrift residents about borough business in the interim.

“Nobody has seemed to ask many questions or anything,” Uskuraitis said.

Vandergrift resident Paul Levy said he thought people weren’t as interested in borough business, given everything else happening during the covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s not the priority,” Levy said leading up to the meeting. “I haven’t been thinking about it maybe as much as I should.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Levy said his main concern was how council would approach the segment of the evening traditionally dedicated to hearing public comments. When the time came Monday during the Zoom call, no residents came forward.

Councilwoman Karen McClarnon expressed relief that council was moving forward with virtual meetings, especially because neighboring municipalities had made the move much earlier.

“It’s the year 2020,” she told the Tribune-Review. “There is no reason why we can’t have Zoom or some other alternative ways to communicate, as other municipalities (have).”

The borough’s communication channels have received scrutiny in the past. At March’s meeting, council members were criticized for using personal emails to conduct borough business. Solicitor Larry Loperfito recommended the practice stop immediately.

McClarnon also pointed out in March that the borough’s website was being maintained by Council President Kathy Chvala’s daughter instead of a licensed web designer. As a result, the site has not been insured and, she said, presents a legal concern to the borough. The site has not been updated since, and McClarnon said council has not yet made moves to invest in the production of a professional site.

With no email system or up-to-date website, residents have spent the past two months largely in the dark, Levy said.

“You don’t have a direct route to (council members) right now,” he said. “There are a lot of issues, and it all just hit right at the same time with this covid-19 pandemic. We’re finding out that we may be a bit behind.”