Aug 24, 2018 By Mark Soroka for The 3 min read

Officials in Belle Vernon said the borough could lose wage tax revenues if changes to its U.S. Postal Service designation stand.

Mayor Gerald Jackson said several residents recently received bills from Berkheimer Tax Innovations and discovered that their home addresses had been changed.

“This is affecting residents who live on all of Wood Street, half of Main Street and part of Brown Street,” said Jackson, during the council’s monthly meeting.

“The tax documents listed their home addresses in North Belle Vernon or Rostraver Township. That’s a problem because we won’t get money if they aren’t listed in our borough,” he said.

Councilman Cliff Gorski, who is one of the residents affected by this change, said the new designation listed him as a resident of Westmoreland County, instead of Fayette County.

“We will still pay taxes to the Belle Vernon school district,” said Gorski. “But it’s an issue when you get to the local taxes. Something has to be done about this.”

Jackson said this issue is also affecting several other local communities, including Brownsville and West Brownsville.

He isn’t sure if the problem started when the state designated Berkheimer as its exclusive local tax collector or if it happened when the U.S. Postal Service changed Belle Vernon’s designation.

“The local tax collectors were doing a good job before this change was made,” said Jackson. “Berkheimer will never know who moved in or out of the communities. This is going to be very detrimental to the local communities. There will be total chaos because the boroughs and townships will lose out on tax revenues.”

Council members voted to authorize the borough’s solicitor to send a letter to Berkheimer, asking the local tax collector for clarification about these changes.

“We want to know where our per capita tax is going and where our local wage tax is going. And we want to know who is going to collect it,” said Jackson.

Also, during the meeting, Councilman Richard Saxberg said a series of power surges have caused disruptions throughout the borough.

“During one surge, the television at the Naomi Club were blown out and other surge knocked out the freezers at the fire department,” said Saxberg. “The curfew (whistle) is blowing at 5 p.m. It jumps time every time we get a power surge. And the boilers were on full tilt this side (of the municipal) building yesterday. We had to shut it off.”

Councilman Frank Monack said he contacted West Penn Power and was told that periodic power surges will continue to occur until work on the power lines is completed.

In other business, Jackson said Belle Vernon received a grant to develop a borough website. Jackson also said that the next canoe/kayak race will be held on July 20, 2019, and he announced that Belle Vernon’s firefighters will be honored during a ceremony at the high rise on Sept. 11, 2018.

Jackson also noted that he will be visiting Thomas More College, along with a representative from California University of Pennsylvania, to tour the Biology Field Station near California, Kentucky, and bring back ideas for starting a similar station on the Monongahela River.

According to Jackson, Cal U has approached borough officials with a plan for turning its water treatment plant into a satellite for environmental and aquatic studies. This facility will also be used as a fish hatchery.