Perryopolis looks control spending
PERRYOPOLIS – With an eye on the budget, council members are examining the borough’s finances, including how money is being spent. During the board’s meeting last week, councilman Ron Lombard asked that something be done about a lack of compliance with the borough’s amusement-tax ordinance. He said this year’s budget projected about $10,000 in income from the tax, but less than $3,000 has been collected so far.
“I don’t know how many are honest enough to pay (the amusement tax). We need someone to check on this,” Lombard said.
Solicitor Sam Davis suggested that, since the borough doesn’t have a code-enforcement officer, borough police could enforce the ordinance. After the council noted that the borough has called and written to area businesses about complying with the ordinance, Davis said police are able to enforce borough code.
Lombard also asked his fellow councilmen to watch how and where money is being spent, saying the borough does not need to continue paying more than $5,000 monthly for phones. In addition to the phones located in the municipal building, the borough pays for 10 cellular phones for use by the police and workers.
President Ron Dreucci agreed with Lombard, noting that a representative of the borough’s contracted phone company has been contacted and is reviewing the bills to see where expenses can be cut.
“We need to look at where we are spending money. The price of nothing is going to go down,” Lombard said.
He explained that the money that comes to the borough from the Mary Fuller Frazier Fund might be affected by the current stock market fluctuations.
“They keep telling me, ‘Stay the course,’ in terms of investment,” Lombard said, indicating that the financial belt may tighten next year.
He then asked that the police department also look at keeping costs down by trying to limit times when two officers work a day shift. Lombard said that while he hadn’t seen officers on duty together during the day, he had a number of calls regarding two officers riding in the police car together.
Trying to keep on eye on expenses, the board agreed to table hiring a company to codify all of the borough ordinances onto a computer CD for greater ease of use by workers and police and opted to seek more estimates.
The council also conducted the following business:
– Advised Pam Newmeyer of the Perryopolis Area Heritage Society to contact PennDOT for information on street sign size and locations for the Washington Grist Mill. Newmeyer explained that visitors to the borough are having difficulty locating the mill complex.
– Announced that the work on North Liberty Street is almost done after a water line replacement. Three more alleys must be paved, and a 2-foot-wide strip of North Liberty must be resurfaced.
– Voted to rename Jefferson Circle to Roosevelt Circle to avoid confusion with Jefferson Street.
– Decided to hold off on buying a new computer for the secretary.
– Voted to advertise stop sign ordinances for the intersections of Constitution and Hancock, Navy and Lingan, and King and Gallatin streets for adoption at the next regular meeting.
– Heard that Police Chief Roger Beadling is trying to bring the Identify a Kid program to the borough once school starts. The program includes taking a picture and fingerprints of kids to help in identification in case of an emergency. He said he was waiting for the school year to begin so that forms could be sent home with students, so more parents will be aware of the program.