Perryopolis councilman questions office renovations
PERRYOPOLIS — Officials on Wednesday voted to rent office space in the borough building to a state representative, causing some concerns that officials won’t re-establish an emergency medical service station in the near future.
The borough has been without a station since the March 7 pullout of Fayette Emergency Medical Services due to financial constraints. Rostraver/West Newton Emergency Services Inc. is the new primary ambulance service provider for the borough, but is not stationed there.
Officials said they planned to make the area previously rented to Fayette EMS available to the new provider at no charge in the hope that they would one day establish another station within the borough.
On Wednesday, however, council by unanimous vote agreed to rent the space to state Rep. Ryan Warner, R-Perry Township, for $500 monthly, effective June 1 through Nov. 30, 2016.
“Those offices were supposed to be set aside (for use by the new ambulance service provider), but instead our borough employees have been painting them and the secretary has been sent out shopping for carpet, and nobody knows where this came from,” said Councilman Garrett Hoose following the meeting, adding that no vote was taken to approve the remodeling expenditures prior to approving the lease agreement with Warner.
“It’s shady at best — and illegal at worst,” Hoose said. “Residents need to start attending council meetings so they can see what’s going on.”
Hoose also said the response times of the new provider were unacceptable.
Reading a detailed report from the new provider, Councilman Bud Petrosky said that Rostraver had responded to 38 calls since entering an agreement with the borough, effective April 7.
The new provider operates stations in Belle Vernon, Sweeny and Smithton, but primarily responds to Perryopolis calls from a mobile unit set up near the intersection of Routes 51 and 70, about four miles north of the borough.
Response times from the hub averaged eight minutes, he said, with response from Sweeny and Smithton averaging 12 minutes, and 18 minutes from Belle Vernon.
“If you’re having a heart attack or bleeding out from a car wreck, you could be dead with an eight-minute response time. And it’s not the provider’s fault; it’s ours,” said Hoose, noting that Perry Township has an ordinance requiring that an emergency medical provider be located within three minutes of the township.
Petrosky said the new provider appears to be more financially stable than its predecessor.
Also at the meeting, council voted to hire Adam Russell as a part-time police officer at a starting rate of $13 an hour. That pay will increase to $14 an hour once a six-month probationary period is completed, Black said.
“Everybody from the police committee was there for the interview process. I wanted council to be aware of that,” said Black added that the borough will be hiring one more part-time officer to bring the total number of part-time officers to five. The department employs two full-time officers.
Currently, three applicants have responded to an advertisement, and officials will continue to accept and review applications through May 22.
In other business, council:
n Agreed to change the date of next month’s council meeting from June 3 to June 17.
n Approved the purchase of a 100-watt generator from Northern Tools for $780 to power a traffic signal at the intersection of Route 51 and Independence Street in event of a power outage.
n Accepted a bid from AC Moyer for $72,828 to complete partial paving projects on Knox, Church, Fayette and Braddock streets and Straum Road. The company, which has completed projects for the borough in the past, is charging $85 for each ton of blacktop, and was the lowest bidder of the five received, officials said.
n Announced that North Fayette Municipal Authority agreed to replace a waterline from 584 Liberty Street to Ash Street — a line that has been patched 47 times — at the end of the summer.