Caryl Nypaver, mother of Myron Nypaver, assistant Uniontown fire chief, makes a point about the layoffs of seven Uniontown firefighters, including her son, Tuesday at Uniontown City Hall before council voted to cut fire department staffing by more than half. Ed Cope/Herald-Standard

Uniontown City Council on Tuesday voted to lay off seven of the city's 13 full-time firemen before the end of the year.

Council voted 4-1 to lay off David Ross, Brian Vansickle and Robert Leiberger Jr. on Dec. 11 and Richard Lint, Todd Fullem, Scott Conn and assistant chief Myron Nypaver, on Dec. 31. Their health benefits will expire on Jan. 1, 2010.

They are the same firemen who were previously laid off and recalled in March.

The resolution council approved said the city and the firemen's union, the International Association of Firefighters Local 955, reached an agreement on March 12 to meet to discuss the layoffs and that meeting was held on Oct. 13.

The meeting did not result in an agreement regarding the financial conditions that necessitate the layoffs, according to the resolution.

Before council voted on the resolution, Fire Chief Charles Coldren said the layoffs would affect the safety of the remaining fire fighters in the department and city residents.

Coldren said applications for a federal grant for retaining firemen will be accepted on Nov. 16 and he has been in regular contact with U.S. Rep. John Murtha's office about the grant.

"Let's move forward and work to resolve the manpower problem in my department," Coldren said.

The Rev. Peter Malik said council agreed to meet with the firemen to create a survey asking residents for their opinions about the layoffs at last month's meeting, but the meeting wasn't held and a survey was not conducted.

He asked why council was proceeding without hearing the "voice of the people?"

Solicitor Charles Gentile said Coldren is the best person to speak on behalf of the fire department and it would have been virtually impossible to reach an agreement on the survey questions.

Chris Jones, president of the Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens Association, asked who would be responsible for code enforcement after the firemen were laid off?

Nypaver has served as the city's primary code enforcement official for many years and several other firemen assisted him.

Mayor Ed Fike said the city's engineering firm McMillen Engineering or K2 Engineering would assume the code enforcement duties and permit fees and code violation fines would pay for their services.

Before voting against the layoffs, city Councilman Gary Crozier asked why firefighters were being laid off before employees that don't protect public safety such as street department workers and City Hall staff?

"This city needs a fire department. It needs public safety," Crozier said.

Fike said there would "probably" be more layoffs.

Crozier said money is available in the budget and funds could be "flipped flopped around" to keep the firemen on the job.

Fike said he is working on hiring contractors to replace other city departments and other employees could be made part-time.

Councilman Francis "Joby" Palumbo said he hopes the layoffs don't last a long time, but they are necessary to keep the city out of debt.

Councilman Curtis Sproul said the fire department is ready to apply for the federal grant and he hopes the city obtains a grant so the firemen can be recalled. He said other employee layoffs are needed.

The layoffs ordered Tuesday mark the second time those seven firemen have been laid off.

Three were among the 41 employees council laid off in October 2008 and four were among the 10 employees who were laid off in February this year.

The agreement cited in the layoff resolution resulted in all seven firemen returning to work. The city agreed to keep the three laid off in October on the job at least until Sept. 18 and the other four at least until Dec. 31.

In addition to the layoffs last year, council laid off the 10-man sanitation department and hired an outside garbage collection contractor, which pays the city an $8,000 monthly franchise fee.

However, an arbitrator ordered the city to pay the sanitation workers $83,225 for violating its contract with the employees' union.

Council also enacted a 4.5-mill increase in the real estate tax rate to balance a $1.3 million deficit for this year.

Last month, Fike said that 25 employees had to be laid off to avoid ending the year with a $220,700 deficit.

After the meeting, City Clerk Kim Marshall said the city would most likely end the year without a deficit if council does not pay off the balance of a $650,000 tax anticipation loan the previous administration borrowed near the end of 2007.

She said the city has $682,900 in outstanding bills including the balance of the tax anticipation loan and the general fund, from which those bills would be paid, contains $869,291.

Council approved paying bills totaling $139,632 on Tuesday, reducing the outstanding bills total to $543,268.

Payroll through the end of the year is $297,488, Marshall said, noting that savings from the layoffs were not calculated into that figure.

She said health benefits for firemen cost the city $1,700 a month for each fire fighter.

In other business, council:

n Approved a 30-day extension of the temporary employment of police officers Matthew Painter and Jamie Holland while the civil service commission completes applicant testing.

n Agreed to amend civil service regulations to reduce the passing score for the written and oral police tests to 70 percent from 75 percent retroactively to Aug. 6.

n Adopted a resolution allowing the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority to apply to the state to designate the city, Connellsville, South Connellsville, Point Marion, Masontown and Republic as Enterprise Zones, which would qualify them for tax-credit financing for commercial building renovations.

n Approved an agreement in which the Fayette County Commissioners would pay $3,741 as a first installment followed by 12 $1,000 monthly payments to cover a past due $15,741 sewage bill.