1 1 ASTON TOWNSHIP BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 2 SPECIAL MEETING February 10, 2021 3 4 5 6 7 Transcript of the ASTON TOWNSHIP BOARD OF 8 COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING, taken before Lorraine 9 Evans, Court Reporter-Notary Public, on Wednesday, 10 February 10, 2021, commencing approximately at 1:30 11 p.m. 12 13 BOARD MEMBERS 14 JAMES M. STIGALE, PRESIDENT MICHAEL J. HIGGINS, VICE-PRESIDENT 15 JOHN DOUGHERTY FREDERICK PRENDERGAST 16 LESTER F. BERRY, JR. NANCY E. BOWDEN 17 18 19 JOSEPH DeVUONO, Township Manager ELIZABETH NAUGHTON-BECK, ESQUIRE, Solicitor 20 JOSEPH VISCUSO, Engineer 21 22 LORRAINE EVANS COURT REPORTER-NOTARY PUBLIC 23 530 Paxon Hollow Road Broomall, Pennsylvania 19008 24 (610)203-7715 7evanslorraine@comcast.net 2 1 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Good afternoon, 2 everybody. I would like to call this Aston 3 Township Board of Commissioners special meeting 4 for Wednesday, February 10, 2021 to order. 5 Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (Pledge of Allegiance) 7 PRESIDENT STIGALE: I would like to start 8 this meeting first by opening up to the public. 9 Anyone have anything to say? Like a marriage, 10 speak now or forever hold thy peace. 11 I'd like to move onto New Business and the 12 reason we are here today. Line Item A, 13 consider a motion to appoint a candidate to 14 fulfill the vacant Second Ward Commissioner's 15 position. I'd like to call on Commissioner 16 Higgins please. 17 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Thank you. I make 18 a motion to appoint Joseph McGinn, Jr. to 19 fulfill the vacant Second Ward Commissioner 20 position, in the form of a motion. 21 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Second. 22 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? 23 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. 24 (Whereupon, all Commissioners LORRAINE EVANS 3 1 present vote "aye.") 2 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Line Item B, consider 3 a resolution to fill the vacancy of the Second 4 Ward Commissioner, Carol A. Graham. 5 Commissioner Dougherty. 6 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: Township of 7 Aston, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Resolution 8 2021-03. 9 Whereas, the Board of Commissioners of the 10 Township of Aston, has sustained a loss to its 11 Board by the sudden death of Commissioner Carol 12 A. Graham, Second Ward Commissioner, and as a 13 result is required to fill the vacancy created 14 by her passing. 15 Whereas, the First Class Township Code 16 provides that when a vacancy occurs in the 17 office of Township Commissioner by reason of 18 death, the Commissioners of the Township shall 19 fill the vacancy by appointing by resolution a 20 registered voter of the ward in which the 21 vacancy has occurred. 22 Whereas, the Board of Commissioners of the 23 Township of Aston has requested resumes from 24 qualified individuals from the Second Ward, as LORRAINE EVANS 4 1 a result of which resumes were reviewed and 2 interviews were conducted of the interested 3 candidates; and 4 Whereas, the Board of Commissioners of the 5 Township of Aston believe that appointing 6 Joseph McGinn Jr. would best serve the needs of 7 the Second Ward and that his involvement with 8 the Board of Commissioners would be in the best 9 interest of the health, safety and welfare of 10 the citizens of Aston Township. 11 Now, therefore, be it resolved and adopted 12 this 10th day of February, 2021 that the Board 13 of Commissioners of Aston Township hereby 14 appoint Joseph McGinn Jr. to the office of 15 Second Ward Township Commissioner for a term to 16 expire January 1, 2022. 17 Board of Commissioners, Aston Township, 18 James M. Stigale, President, attested to by 19 Joseph E. DeVuono, township manager secretary, 20 form of a motion. 21 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Second. 22 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Any questions or 23 comments? All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" 24 have it. LORRAINE EVANS 5 1 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 2 present vote "aye.") 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Congratulations, Joe. 4 (Applause) 5 PRESIDENT STIGALE: At this time the next 6 step is to have the candidate sworn in. We are 7 going to ask the newly appointed Commissioner 8 and Honorable Judge Holefelder to step forward 9 for the swearing in. Any family members 10 wanting to hold the Bible, come up. You can 11 get the family involved in this. 12 (Whereupon, Joseph McGinn, Jr. 13 is sworn in as the newly 14 appointed Second Ward 15 Commissioner.) 16 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Congratulations. 17 Family pictures. 18 (Applause) 19 PRESIDENT STIGALE: At this time I want to 20 thank Judge Holefelder for taking the time to 21 come over and do the swearing in. Commissioner 22 McGinn, please take your seat. Commissioner 23 McGinn, that's easy to remember. 24 Moving on, any other comments from the LORRAINE EVANS 6 1 public which is open at this time? Seeing 2 none, any other business? Commissioner 3 Dougherty. 4 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: Joe, welcome 5 aboard. 6 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner 7 Prendergast. 8 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Same here, 9 welcome aboard. 10 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner Berry. 11 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Welcome, Joe. 12 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner Higgins. 13 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Welcome, Joe. 14 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner Bowden. 15 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Condolences. 16 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Mr. DeVuono. 17 MR. DeVUONO: Welcome aboard. 18 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Mr. McGinn, would you 19 like to say anything? 20 COMMISSIONER McGINN: I will be brief. I 21 wanted to thank the Commissioners for the 22 appointment, thank my family for coming here 23 and for all the smiles in the pictures. I know 24 that was tough for you five. I appreciate it. LORRAINE EVANS 7 1 Thank my dad for coming out of retirement to 2 take the pictures. Being a big guy, I have 3 very big shoes to fill in Carol Graham. So we 4 miss her along with everybody here, but I will 5 do my best to uphold the Second Ward. Main 6 reason I am here, I believe in Aston. It's a 7 good town. I raised my family here, look 8 forward to continuing to raise them here. 9 Nothing wrong with -- it's a good town, and 10 trying to make it better. Thanks and look 11 forward to working with everybody here to try 12 to do that. 13 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. I want to 14 say it's spooky that only his microphone 15 worked. Congratulations. I look forward to 16 working with you. With that, I need a motion 17 to adjourn. 18 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: So move. 19 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second. 20 (Whereupon, the hearing is 21 concluded at 1:40 p.m.) 22 23 24 LORRAINE EVANS 8 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATION 2 I HEREBY CERTIFY that I was present upon the 3 hearing of the above-entitled matter and there 4 reported stenographically the proceedings had and the 5 testimony produced; and I further certify that the 6 foregoing is a true and correct transcript of my said 7 stenographic notes. 8 9 _______________________ Lorraine Evans 10 Reporter-Notary Public My Commission Expires 11 October 25, 2022 12 13 14 15 16 (The foregoing certification of this transcript does 17 not apply to any reproduction of the same by any 18 means, unless under the direct control and/or 19 supervision of the certifying reporter.) 20 21 22 23 24 LORRAINE EVANS