Uniontown council hands out raises, hires summer workers
Uniontown City Council Wednesday voted to increase both the salary and the number of employees in the city’s code enforcement office.
Council voted 4-1 to increase the salary for code enforcement officer Scott Chapple from $10 per hour to $12 per hour, for a maximum of 30 hours per week.
In the same motion, council voted to create a part-time summer position for property maintenance dealing specifically with high grass and weeds. The position will pay $9 an hour and will run through the end of October.
“Before we had two people to do code enforcement. We’re concerned that he’ll get swamped with that (grass complaints), and other things he’s working on could get pushed aside,” Councilman Phil Michael said of Chapple. “He’s been here about a year. $10 was the assistant’s salary, but he’s not the assistant anymore.”
Councilman Jared Billy voted against the motion, with all other members of council voting in favor.
Police Chief Jason Cox said a police officer has been working with Chapple on building code violations, with more than 70 citations written in the past year.
Council also voted to increase the wages for David Jobes in the recycling department from $9.92 an hour to $13 an hour, with half of the cost of the increase covered by South Union Township. Jobes runs the composting machine and other equipment at the city’s composting site. Public Works director Phil Mahoney said Jobes has worked for the city for 12 years and is deserving of the raise.
Council authorized payment to Beverly Correal for accounting/consulting services to the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority at a rate of $30 an hour. Redevelopment Authority executive director Mark Rafail explained that Correal is helping to get the authority’s books ready for the 2013 audit.
At Rafail’s request, the city also voted to exonerate the taxes on property at 135 S. Mt. Vernon Ave., which is owned by the city Redevelopment Authority, a total of $321. The city will also ask the county to forgive the back taxes from 2012, when it took control of the property.
Mike Romeo was appointed to the Uniontown Downtown Business District Authority for a term expiring Dec. 31, 2018.
New carpeting and wood plank flooring will be installed in the council chambers at a cost of $3,450 from Faris Carpet as approved Wednesday. It was noted that the new flooring is in preparation of the receipt of a council table and other furniture being donated to the city by Uniontown Hospital.
In other matters, council hired the following individuals for part-time seasonal work with the Recreation Department: Eric Sampson, parks and recreation director, $7,500 for the season; Damita Jones, site coordinator, $9 an hour. Hired at minimum wage to work at various sites were Giavanna Polito, Bridget Boyd, Robin Murray and Greg Pikulsky.
Also hired at minimum wage for maintenance work were Zach Rapp and Joe Suprick, with Nate Nesser hired at $8 an hour. Ken Musko and Dante O’Connell were hired to work one to two days a week at minimum wage to maintain the ball fields.
Hired at minimum wage for part-time seasonal work with the Sanitation Department were Harlin Hanes, D’lavel Eilam, Anthony Giachetti and Anthony Molchan.