Mayor Jeff Cogley and Council members Mary Alice Bryant, Carol Fenyes, and Tyson Klukan listened last night to various comments from an audience of approximately 40 people that discussed use of the Ford City Memorial Park. Council was not able to take any action last night because there was not a quorum. Council members Beth Bowser, Ray Klukan, and Marc Mantini were absent.
The Summerfest committee that holds the annual public event over Independence Day in the Ford City Memorial Park came under fire last night from one of Ford City’s governing committees.
Council President Carol Fenyes publicly disclosed an email dated July 5, 2019 by Shade Tree Committee Chairwoman Stacy Klukan calling for the elimination of Summerfest’s use of park, stating they are ruining trees and creating ruts by parking vehicles within the park. The content of the email follows:
“Carol,
We have stated no vehicles in the park and the Summerfest group apparently does not understand why. Therefore, I do not want this group to have their festival inside this borough park since they are compacting the soil with these heavy vehicles, which, in turn, makes the roots of the trees girdle (complete removal of a strip of bark from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a tree) and it kills the trees from this compaction. They also have been told not to pound anything into the trees in any park or in any borough tree too. And I have found insulators pounded into these borough trees again. I am researching right now their violations and they will have consequences for their blatant disregard and disrespect to all the hard work we do yearly and weekly keeping this beautiful park with healthy trees.
Very concerned and very upset,
Stacy Gladysiewski Klukan
Chairperson of the Ford City Shade Tree Commission, Ford City Borough”
“For the record, the Shade Tree Commission does not have legal authority to dictate events in the park,” Fenyes said. “All of this falls in Borough Council’s authority. If Borough Council wants to regulate issues identified, it should do so by ordinance or resolution.”
Summerfest committee representative Karen Buccieri responded publicly at last night’s meeting to the accusations.
“As we have told Stacy in the past, and are stating at present, Summerfest has never pounded insulators into the Borough’s trees. We would never do this to a tree. We have cabled trees, which does no harm and use existing insulators to run tension wire. Using existing insulators is a method of running tension wire and it is also used by Kittanning’s Folk Festival. After speaking with a Penn State arborist and the Folk Festival personnel, the feeling is that using existing insulators does no harm to the trees, The insulators in the borough trees pre-date Summerfest. Trees are growing around them.
“To address the vehicles compacting the soil, the arborist we consulted said that for as short of a time as the vehicles are there, as long as they’re not against the trunk of the tree, it should not do harm. But, if worry is still present, you could aerate the soil to open the compaction and allow oxygen to get to the roots. We direct vehicles entering the park for set up for the festival to stay on the walkway offload and drive straight out. Granted, some do not listen, but most do. There are some exceptions to parking in the park. Dave, the Leatherman, parks his truck with a cap on the bed behind his tent and always has. He does this in case of rain, to save his leather from splash marks, and has stated that he will not attend if he cannot do this. Another is Life Choices – the Little Blue House. They also pre-date Summerfest. They have always occupied the same spot. They set up on blocks, which the arborist said is a good way to set up near a tree. We also had a surprise parker, with our Thai food vendor. We were not aware that he had his refrigeration in his van which was parked behind his tent. This was a new development this year; however, he was nowhere near the trees. Each vendor is allotted a parking space and we will better enforce this where we can.”
Ordinance 478 was signed into law in 1972 prohibiting erecting tents, open flames or grills, playing cards, playing any type of ball games, bicycles, or any athletic sporting games. Buccieri said that if this ordinance was used against Summerfest, then the other provisions must also be carried out.
“If the council intends to enforce the no-vehicles-in-the-park rule as stated in the 1972 ordinance, then all the rules stated in the ordinance should be enforced. This would include no pets in the park. Our electrician stepped in dog excrement before he started handing any wire. And a bag of excrement was found in the middle of the park. We disposed of it. We observed a myriad of dogs being walked at all hours in the park, also a rabbit. No tobacco products. There is a coffee can on the picnic table by 9th Street full of butts. Skateboards and bicycles were an everyday sighting.”
Buccieri pointed out other concerns that she has about the Park.
“A real problem that needs to be addressed is the ponding of water in the existing holes. These are old compressions where water cannot drain off allowing no oxygen to get to the roots of trees. We have pointed out these depressions in the past and they still exist. We found new lawn mower damage to a small tree’s roots and there is a one-and-a half-ton cannon sitting on top of three root systems and there seems to be no worry about the compression in that area. The worry seems to be about band members parking for three hours in the park while they perform for the people of Ford City.”
Buccieri said a meeting was called by Fenyes prior to the wiring being removed in the Park on July 9. She said Stacy Klukan did not attend.
“Nor did a member of the committee appear all week during wire removal. Therefore, we request a meeting with the Shade Tree Committee to discuss this situation and solve any problems in a realistic manner,” Buccieri said.
Fenyes asked for each committee, including the fire department, to appoint a representative that can develop a special events policy that can be used to replace old out-dated ordinances. However, since there were not sufficient council members to have a quorum, no vote could be taken on the matter.
Former councilman Lou Vergari encouraged cooperation.
“We know that the town evolves. We have to evolve with it,” he said.
“A park is a park to be used for families and children,” said Summerfest supporter Paula Matus. “This town gets enough bad rap without kicking out families and children and church groups that use this park. Nobody’s out there to destroy it.”
Matus’s husband, Dan Matus, did much of the wiring for Summerfest this year.
“My husband did not put one insulator, one screw, one-nothing in a tree. He did this all voluntarily, at the last minute. He worked 48 hours straight. He’s to be retired. He’s to be enjoying life, but you know what? He saw a lot of people. He was real proud of what he did. And to have somebody blatantly state that he put something in a tree, that offends me. I’m sorry, but it does.”
Former councilwoman Vicki Schaub called the ordinances “antiquated” and agreed with Fenyes on creating a special events policy.
“I would think that should be the first step of getting people’s opinions of what they think the ordinance should say and get the ordinance redone,” Schaub said.
Councilman Tyson Klukan agreed with Schaub and said the ordinances need re-written.
“The bike ordinance… it needs to go. You want to bring people in. You have a trail – you’re a trail town. Why are you going to have anti-ordinances against bikes? It’s nonsense…knock it off,” he said.
Klukan said he was in favor of not having vehicles in the Park.
“One of my solutions would be, shutting 3rd Avenue down completely and park cars on both sides for vendor parking. For people who wanted to have car cruises in the Park, put them on the outside of the Park.
“Let’s spend the money and put some underground electric in that park,” Klukan continued. “Redo the boxes and spend the money that we have – foot the upfront costs and it’s a long-term solution. There’s money out there Act 13 Oil and Gas money that’s out there as well. The borough receives it, the county receives it. Grants don’t always get you everything. So, we know we need to update the lighting in the park as well for safety.”
Klukan praised the Shade Tree Commission for their work, but also encouraged them to reach a compromise.
“People don’t want to see bickering. We’re going to try to come up with solutions with both groups. Maybe we can put in a new ordinance that says you can use an ATV or a smaller golf cart to transport (materials into the park to avoid vehicles).”
Steve Heffner, who works with Movies in the Park and the Ford City Renaissance, appealed to everyone.
“We have a beautiful park. Let’s keep it that way by discussing and working it out, not taking it as an (as an insult). We have to go at it the way we should do it so that Ford City can be a proud place to have nice events in this town.”
Stacy Klukan was in the audience last night and listened to the comments, but did not make any statements.
Members and supporters of the Summerfest committee sat listening to comments and accusations that their event is creating issues with trees at Ford City Park.