Punxsy council approves community yard sale

PUNXSUTAWNEY — Punxsutawney Borough Council approved an allcommunity yard sale that will be scheduled this year for Friday, July 22, and Saturday, July 23.

Jim Bianco, council president, said the idea was brought up at the June’s council meeting by Bev Lishinsky.

After talking about it for a month, it was finally decided to hold the first yard sale.

Bianco said that there’s nothing you have to do to obtain permission, and you can put a sign up in your yard.

He said that you cannot put up signs in other people’s yards at the corner of a street to advertise the sale.

“You won’t need additional signs, as the sale will be going on throughout the entire borough of Punxsutawney on every street,” Bianco said, adding that the sale will become a tradition and will be held every year from here on out on the last weekend in July. In other business:

• Mayor’s report: Rich Alexander said that he’s planning on having another First Responders Club training center meeting in late July or early August.

“I’ll have a firm date and time as I have to get in contact with other officials,” Alexander said.

• Fire chief: Chris Smith said that he still has two trucks out of service.

“Engine-30 is still out and the tower is still out, and there’s no word when either one of those should be fixed,” he said. “The part is being made for the tower and Elk Run’s truck is being fixed; we still don’t know what the problem is.”

Smith said their call volume is way up from previous years.

“Central is at 100 calls, Elk Run is at 104, Lindsey is at 82 and we’re only halfway through the year,” Smith said. “We’re probably going to hit the 200

mark, I would say. Our total is 144 calls, and our call volume is way up and our membership is down. We need more volunteers.”

Bianco said people need to step up not only for the fire department but for volunteer work across the board.

“We have committees that have vacancies; we need people to join these organizations to help Punxsutawney,” Bianco said.

• Probation: Toby Santik, borough manager, said that Ron Deet, public works employee, has completed his probationary period and was approved by council to work full time.

Council also discussed the multi-modal grant, which was going to be returned, scaled back and rebid.