Dec 19, 2003 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

Uniontown Mayor Jim Sileo made an unexpected return to City Hall on Thursday and attended a special city council meeting in which the board adopted the final 2004 budget. Although he didn’t talk much during the brief meeting, he vowed to have plenty to say during the Jan. 5 swearing-in ceremony for him and the other councilmen who won re-election.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to have you sitting at the head of the table,” said Councilman Bob Cerjanec, who has served as acting mayor since Sileo was hospitalized in September, as he handed Sileo the gavel to open the meeting.

The $6,173,516 budget, which holds real estate taxes at the current rate of 6.735 mills, was the first order of business. It passed 4-0 and with little discussion. Councilman Gary Crozier was absent.

Councilman Joe Giachetti said he thought a tax increase was inevitable, and he commended Cerjanec, the director of accounts and finance, for finding a way to avoid a tax hike.

“I don’t know what Bob does with that pencil,” Giachetti said.

Cerjanec said the budget includes 3 percent wage increases for employees and an increase in health insurance of 19 percent, or $8,118.32 per month.

Liability insurance also increased, while workers’ compensation insurance decreased slightly by $25,000, or 8 percent.

He said the city’s insurance costs total more than $500,000.

The 2004 budget is a little less than this year’s $6,285,438 budget, due to two circumstances that arose this year, Cerjanec said. One was that the Greater Uniontown Joint Sewer Authority took over $376,000 in debt service payments from two old Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) loans. The second was the refinancing of 1972 sewer bonds, which resulted in a $96,865 cost savings.

Cerjanec said if the old PENNVEST loans and the sewer bonds were subtracted from the 2003 budget, it would show that the 2004 budget increased by $158,213.

He said the city saw a $100,000 increase in delinquent tax collections this year, increases in sewage and garbage fee collections and an increase in parking violation fines.

However, due to the increased costs, Cerjanec said he used $98,142 from the $200,000 fund balance to balance the budget.

The city will finish this year and 2004 in the black, Cerjanec said.

The city employs 90 full-time and part-time employees, including 11 paid firefighters and 16 police officers. It also has sewage, street and sanitation departments.

In unrelated business, a health board meeting that was scheduled before the city council meeting was canceled.

City Councilman Blair Jones Sr., a member of the health board, said the board was deferring action on an Oct. 24 order from the board pending negotiations with property owner Carma Jean Lloyd for the demolition of the old Revco building at 9 W. Main St.

Jones said the board and Lloyd will meet to resolve the matter. The Oct. 24 order was not disclosed.

The council also conducted the following business:

– Appointed Robert C. Cahn to the Uniontown Public Library’s board of directors for a term that ends Jan. 1, 2007.

– Hired Donna Hobes as a full-time license/sewage clerk in the sewage department, at $8 per hour with a 90-day probationary period, effective Dec. 22.