The Erie to Pittsburgh Trail effort to tackle the "simpler part" of the Hydetown to Titusville connection first in order to move the project along. 
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"It could be done in the near future," Ron Steffey told Titusville City Council Monday night during a trail update presentation. The proposed plan, created by Steffey Trail Connections on behalf of the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail Alliance, would build a trail from Garden Street to Kerr Mill Road by way of the O'Rourke Field area. ​

To move that section from theory to reality, Steffey suggested turning their attention first toward what he called the "simpler part" - the O'Rourke Field Connections. The trail would connect from Kerr Mill Road to Garden Street predominantly along a section of unused railroad property. Steffey and Titusville City Manager Neil Fratus have already begun talks with the railroad to gauge their interest in the project. 
"It is going to take an agreement with the railroad," Steffey said Monday night. 

The city's role would be to continue participating in those conversations and serve as a manager or owner of the future trail as needed. This will help secure use of the land from the railroad and money from grants and other sources. It will also make it easier to recruit and engage volunteers for the project, according to Steffey.

"Let's show the different funders that we're doing something," he said. 

Tackling the "simpler" section between Titusville and Hydetown may also provide the momentum needed to solve the overall issue of creating the full connection, which is something people continue to wonder about. "How are you going to get from there (Hydetown) to Titusville?" councilman William McCrillis asked. 

Steffey gave no definitive answer. The presentation he provided council prior to the meeting suggested that once the O'Rourke Field Connection is complete, the remainder of the distance between the city and the borough would be done as "two smaller and more manageable projects" - Kerr Mill Road to Hydetown and Garden Street to the Queen City Trail across town. 

"The success of one project will elevate the other, but the obstacles in one project will not slow down the other project," the presentation said. 

This could also address the need to connect the trail to the downtown businesses, pubs and other amenities, according to Mayor Jon Crouch. He was joined by the other council members in giving verbal support to the proposal.

Steffey said he plans to talk with Oil Creek Township officials in January and hopes to return to the Titusville council with another update that month as well. 

"It is going to take a lot of cooperation to get up to Hydetown," Steffey said. 

A Titusville resident with the remains of a Manchester, England accent was ringing the Salvation Army bell outside the Northwest Savings Bank on the corner of W. Spring and South Franklin streets Friday afternoon. Gary Barnes and the Knights of Columbus have been volunteering on the weekends to ring bells in eight locations around the area. Barnes thanked folks as they dropped cash in the kettle. One man stopped and dropped in a wad of folding money and said he volunteered one year to be a bell ringer. "I couldn't even get my friends to look at me," he said, indicating donations were hard to come by. But Barnes, located outside the bank, seemed to be having pretty good success.

Titusville Council approved the 2023 budget with no changes to the tax rates. The $10,578,439 spending plan provides funding for the first year of the new part-time ambulance service at the fire department, renovations at the city hall building, updates to the parking meters and upgrades to a municipal parking lot.

City Manager Neil Fratus read a brief breakdown of the fixed tax rate proposal before city council Monday night in the conference room on the second floor of the Town Square building. The tax rate will remain at 26.713 mils for buildings and 71.25 mills on land. The 2023 garbage, water and sweage rates were set during the December 5 meeting.

"In a nutshell: No tax increase," Fratus told council Monday night.

The spending plan was developed through a series of meetings among city officials and employees and was open to the public throughout the process. 

“It’s been a pleasure working with council, with Neil and with the department heads (and with our) financial supervisor to have a balanced budget. We had some raucous discussions at times but they were all public meetings. I think this year, we had seven and here we are at our second reading and we have a great budget," said Mayor Jon Crouch.

In other council news

• ​Fratus explained the police use of social media to learn the identity of an individual caught on camera defacating in a city grate near an elementary school. He explained it was not meant to embarrass anyone, rather obtain the identity of an individual who broke the law, which it did. The post appears to have been taken down after the identity of the person was determined. Fratus said police are dealing with the matter at this point.
• Work is starting to wrap up on the Diamond Park project. Fratus said most of the construction equipment is gone and sod is on its way. The project is expected to be completed in the spring. The city plans to apply for a Crawford Heritage Grant  for things like benches and trash cans, according to Fratus.
• He also mentioned a need to revisit the city's dumpster ordinance in the coming year to address new concerns and the recent change in refuse haulers. The city also issued a reminder to residents via social media on how and when to put out and take cans back from the curb.
• Under new business, Fratus mentioned updates to employee policies which create a written dress code for city staff and brings safety policies up-to-date. It also mandates that city drivers must update their CDL licenses every three years unless an accident precipitates sooner action.​​

​The next council meeting was scheduled for January 2, but has been moved to January 3 at 6:30 p.m. because the 2nd is New Years Day observed.

Titusville High School music director Kevin Vinson showcased his concert band Thursday night at the school's Colestock Auditorium.  The concert band performed Robert Smith's "Encanto" followed by "Brighton Beach" by William P. Latham. Then the flautists Grace Hamilton, Olivia Hironimus, Emma Slouch and Elizabeth Watkins performed Updownsky's "Russian Dance." They tried to evoke summer warmth with "As Summer Was Just Beginning" and a selection from "West Side Story." Then Vinson grabbed his sax to join students Alex Reynolds, Leo Clementi and fellow teacher Patrick Vetter on "The Banana Boat Song." They then closed out the show with "Good King Wenceslas" and "Deck The Halls With Old Composers."

​Titusville City Council recognized the work of Canon Martha Ishman at Monday’s meeting. Mayor Jon Crouch read a proclamation listing many of the accomplishments of the Reverend of the St. James Memorial Episcopal Church who is stepping down at the end of the year.

“Martha Ishman exemplified what it means to serve courageously and live faithfully. She will be missed,” Crouch said.

Ishman, who gave the prayer at the start of Monday's meeting, has served in Titusville since 2011. During that time she is credited with the restoration projects at St. James, including the stonework, renovating the stained glass windows and saving the pipe organ.

​Crouch also praised her work with the soup kitchen and shelter. “She really cares for those in need whether they are parishioners or not.”

A 1998 graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, Ishman says she has always been passionate about small churches, according to an article on the church’s website. “Small churches are embedded in their communities and in many ways are too resilient to fail. But with well-formed clergy leadership, these congregations can be a powerful voice for change.” 

There will be a reception for her following an organ recital on Saturday at the church. Logan Hamilton will perform at 2 p.m. The event is free.
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Her last sermon will be January 8.

"As a city, we are happy to see a vacant property change into something that is going to look a lot better than what's there," said mayor Jon Crouch.

"Skip, thank you very much for the work you put in on this project," councilperson William McCrillis said following the council's unanimous vote of approval. "It means a lot to us up here (council table) and it means a lot to the city... It gives us a foothold of where we need to be in the town."  

(Watch the entire hearing through the Stream TV recording posted on Facebook.)

During Tuesday's meeting, Titusville City Council is likely to discuss and possibly approve the 2023 budget, which includes some major items meant to improve city operations and services without raising taxes. 

Renovations to Titusville City Hall, including work on the air quality and ventilation, new flooring and painting the outside, are part of the proposed 2023 budget. Titusville city manager Neil Fratus said it's long overdue. This was reinforced recently, Fratus said, when he was scolded by a visitor who complained about the poor shape of the historic building.

The municipal parking lot beside city hall is also expected to have an overhaul of either major crack sealing or repaving next year. The city also plans to replace the old and broken parking meters with a new parking kiosk like ones found in several other cities, including Franklin. Fratus said the old-style parking meters are costly to replace and many are in need of immediate replacement.

He said to come up with this year's budget, the city departments and council worked closely together to determine the "needs" of the city and not just the "wants." The result is a budget with not much money left over to spare, but with no tax hike for residents.

One of the "needs" they determined was bringing an ambulance to the fire department. Fratus explained the city has relied on local ambulance services for its emergency transport needs, but has seen a steady increase in recent years where those companies weren't available if needed often because they were on other calls or transporting patients between facilities.

Fratus said that in 2020 the City of Titusville did not have an ambulance available 617 times. That jumped to 966 in 2021 and is well over 1.000 so far this year. Those are times that if someone in the city had an emergency and needed an ambulance they would have to wait for one from another community to arrive. Fratus said that sometimes could take 20 or 40 more minutes than usual.

Council and the city emergency responders agreed that purchasing and manning an ambulance is in the best interest of the city. They will use American Recovery Plan Act funds to seed the program that includes buying a used ambulance and hiring part-time staff.

They are going to try it for the year and continue to look for funding to keep this going, Fratus said.

“You can call it a Band-Aid to the problem,” he said, emphasizing that the local ambulance companies are strapped and trying their best to keep providing services themselves. He also said the city's ambulance is not going to take away work from those other companies and will only be used when they are not available. “It’s not going to make money, but it is a step forward in taking care of the people in Titusville,” Fratus said. "And we're doing for below $200,000. It’s a huge deal."
Fratus said he is hoping to get this up and running as soon as they can in the new year.
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To read the proposed budget click here.

The next meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday, December 12.

For the thousands of folks who made the trek to Titusville's Grace Fellowship Church (a.k.a. Bethlehem) over the past Friday and Saturday, they got a chance to see over 160 actors recreate a little Roman-ruled town set at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

​And, of course, at end was the little manger scene with the light of the newborn rising up from the crib.