LH to hire attorney for collection of taxes
Laurel Highlands School Board has agreed to hire a Pittsburgh attorney to help in the collection of delinquent mercantile taxes. However, the motion Wednesday was narrowly approved with just enough directors saying yes to engage the services of the Law Offices of Ira Weiss as special counsel, at a cost of $110 an hour.
The plan is to share the cost of the attorney as well as the amount of collected taxes with North Union and South Union townships. The split would be a proportionate amount according to the level of taxes owed the entities.
Solicitor Gary Frankhouser said the township supervisors would be asked to take similar action the next time they meet.
He said Central Tax Bureau of Pennsylvania Inc. requested that special counsel be hired to collect the mercantile taxes still outstanding from the last fiscal year, which Frankhouser said could total as much as about $400,000.
Board President Edward S. George voted no.
“It seems like double dipping. You hire a tax agency to collect; then they hire legal counsel and we have to pay,” George said.
Frankhouser said the contract with Central Tax Bureau provides for legal counsel.
“When we have that much money at stake, we have to collect it,” director Judy Browell said.
Browell voted yes along with directors Beverly Beal, Mary Conway, Palmer Sabatine and Shirley Kefover. Directors Tom Vernon and Angelo Giachetti passed on voting, and Julia Ciarocchi was absent.
Among other matters, the directors voted in favor of entering into a five-year agreement with the other Fayette County school districts for the Intermediate Unit 1 to operate their alternative school.
Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba said the contract is a means to guarantee the continued operation for the set time of the school, which is located at Brownsville Area School District’s former Colonial School.
Each school district has a specified number of slots for its students to attend the school, and they are charged according to the number of students who attend and the amount of the annual budget, while they may secure additional slots if another district does not use all of its allowance. Alternative education refers to students who, for some reason such as disruptive behavior, are not attending the regular school.
Further, the school board accepted the resignation of Mario Maniconi as custodian at the junior high school, effective Feb. 23, after 33 years of service to the school district.
They agreed to post a position to collect data and submit billing for securing access funds.
They also agreed to post for a teacher/literacy coordinator/trainer.
Sheba said this position is in response to a literacy grant the district recently received from the state Department of Education. He said this person would work in Hutchinson Elementary School. The grant, meant to promote early literacy skills, was for five years at $111,000 each of the first three years, with an increasing contribution from the school district in the final years.
The board accepted the resignation of Donald Santore Jr. as head seventh- and eighth-grade boys’ basketball coach and awarded the post to Robert Hogan.
Meanwhile, the directors removed from the agenda the use of R.W. Clark Elementary gym by outside groups and the installation of a privacy fence as a courtesy at the junior high during the middle school conversion project.
Browell announced that the school district was awarded several transition mini grants from the state Department of Education in the amounts of $5,125.80, self-advocacy; $5,000, social skills in the workplace; and $7,500, reading.
She also said the district still needs volunteers to serve on various action teams in preparing the strategic plan, and anyone interested may call Sheba or the administration office. The next steering committee meeting will be held Oct. 23.