Borough Council Roundup - 1/4/2009

Well - the first Council meeting of 2010 was held this evening. Mayor Duignam opened the meeting, and swore in our newly elected officials, Hazel DeReamus (new to council), and Bob Hayes, who was re-elected to another four-year term. Unfortunately, due to illness, Mike Racz was unable to join us tonight, but Mayor Duignam will make sure Mike is sworn in properly in the next day or so.

The first order of business was to elect a council president. After much deliberation (well, there really wasn't that much deliberation - hell, there was hardly any discussion) I was nominated by Stuart Albert and elected by my fellow colleagues on council as your new Tatamy Borough Council President this evening. It's an honor that I do not take lightly, and I will do my best to make sure that, at the end of the day, we do what's right for the citizens of the Borough of Tatamy. Stuart Albert was once again re-nominated as Council Vice President.

Once that was completed, we had an executive session to discuss some personnel issues.

Coming out of that executive session, the following personnel changes were approved, effective as of January 1, 2010: The hours of the borough secretary and treasurer will be set at 30 / week, making these positions part-time. They will no longer participate in the full-time benefits program (e.g. vacation, sick, personal time). If they are scheduled to work on a holiday and the office is closed, we will pay them the hours for holiday pay. This will result in a significant cost savings to the borough. I have asked the finance committee (now headed by Hazel DeReamus and Bob Hayes) to report back to council next month with the amount that this change will save us moving forward.

Other appointments confirmed tonight include those of the Solicitor (Elviria LaBarre), Engineer (Hanover Engineering; Bob Mack and/or Brien Koecher); Building Code Inspector (Keystone Engineering); Zoning Officer (John Soloe). The only outstanding appointment remaining is that of the auditor. We have tabled that until next month at the earliest.

Other than that - it was pretty much business as usual. Some other highlights:

1. Dale Fern presented an update to the Residential Rental Property Inspection Program, to include announcing a public meeting to review the new program on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 7:30PM. This meeting will be advertised. If this program affects you, as a landlord OR as a tenant, I highly recommend you attend.

2. We approved an ordinance increasing the mayor's salary. For the life of me I can't remember how much it was, but trust me - for what he does, it's not enough.

3. The mayor reported that the police department handled a total of 1,233 incidents last year. A special "Thank you" to the police department for taking care of us and making sure that we're safe.

4. Speaking of the police department, they had a great turnout this past Christmas with the "Visit from Santa" program. Collaborating with the Fire Department (we had two trucks on this year) - Santa was able to visit quite a few homes and put smiles on the faces of a lot of children.

That about sums things up. As always, please email me or drop a comment here if there's something that you need help with, or if there's anything that you have questions on.

Stay warm - according to the weather folks, it's looking to be quite cold for the foreseeable future. It is winter, after all.