Police officer leaves force for full-time position
FAIRCHANCE – Part-time police officer Josh Mrosko left the force as of last night, leaving the borough with one part-time officer for a few days until another part-time officer returns from medical leave, Mayor Samuel K. Glisan said at Wednesday’s council meeting. Mrosko, Glisan said, was hired as a full-time officer at Redstone Township. In a letter to the council, Mrosko said he enjoyed working with the borough.
Officer Brian Miller will return from a medical leave for surgery on Saturday, Glisan said.
Glisan said since it’s the cold months, there shouldn’t be a problem with one part-time patrolman. If it were the summer, then he would worry.
In other business, council continued a discussion from the last meeting on selling the borough building housing the council’s chambers, the police station and office space for the secretary and another employee and dating from the 1930s.
Council Vice President Dora Miller said the cost-effective approach would be to sell the building and build an addition on the borough garage located on DeForest Avenue. It is not cost-effective to continue to spend the expense to maintain a building that houses only two employees, she said.
Councilman Neal Christopher said the building is located on prime property and the council should further explore the option to lease it before deciding to sell.
“It is a sound structure and you don’t know when you’ll want to use it,” Christopher said. “We haven’t done any legwork on where we’re going to house the police, the water department and the secretary. This only came up last month. We need to investigate more. …This is a historical building for everybody. We just have to be careful.”
Miller said she originally felt the same way and disagreed that the actual reason the borough wants to sell the building is for the $172,000 it was appraised at.
“The expense to maintain the building overrides the occupancy,” she said. “We’d be foolish not to utilize that property (on DeForest Avenue).”
The council voted for the borough’s solicitor Simon B. John to research the borough building’s deed for restrictions and stipulations regarding occupancy. The council also voted to re-advertise the sell of the building without noting the appraisal price.
The council also conducted the following business:
– Voted to send a 60-day notice to the borough’s engineer Bruce Chambers directing him to turn in an emergency action plan.
– Voted for solicitor John to review the current garbage collection ordinance to see if it includes any information on the requirement of businesses’ to put their garbage in dumpsters. If it does not, the council may soon vote to buy and lease dumpsters to 16 borough businesses because of health reasons.
– Retained Floyd Laubhaum for a three-year term to the Fairchance-Georges Joint Municipal Sewage Authority and voted unanimously to appoint George Null Jr. for a two-year term to the board. Null will replace Charles Roskovensky, who the council decided to not reappoint. Miller, who made the motion, said she wanted to give someone else the opportunity to serve.
– Voted to continue the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, in order to finalize work on the water plant.