Borough and Police Said to be Close to New Contract

There were not a lot of headlines to come out of last night's borough council meeting.

The meeting was less than 30-minutes long and the big item on the agenda, the possible approval of a new police contract, passed without any action.

Given that the police department is the single largest item in the general fund; and that its pension fund and post-retirement are together underfunded by more than $30 million make this item of critical import to the borough's finances.

In September, council approved a new three-year contract with the borough's other major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Beyond the 4 percent raises, perhaps the most impart aspect was the implementation of a new kind of pension plan. Rather than guaranteeing benefits, making the borough responsible for producing them, it guarantees contributions.

Those contributions are deposited in a plan much like a 401K and whatever returns it produces at an employee's retirement is what they get. That new methodology will apply to all new employees hired after Jan. 1.

In fact, last night council approved the advertising of the ordinance that will put it into place.

But whether a similar system will be put in place for new police officers and finally stem the red ink bleeding from the budget won't be known until next month.

Borough Manager Justin Keller said the borough and the police union are not done negotiating.

"We're making great progress. We're very close. Just smoothing over some language. We'll be in good shape a couple weeks," he said.

Speaking of the budget, council approved the advertisement of a $45.3 million 2020 budget that would raise taxes by 4.26 percent.

By law, the budget must be advertised 10 days before its adopted. Keller said he is still awaiting some numbers which may allow the tax hike to be lowered before it is adopted next month.

In the meantime, council approved two new business ventures last night. A massage therapy shop will move into the Nagle Center off Moser Road and a new auto body repair shop will be built on West High Street if the conditions set out in the approvals are met.

The borough may also make headway on the hidden problem of 100-year-old stormwater arches that have begun to collapse.

Two funding programs offered by the Commonwealth Financing Agency previously restricted to sanitary sewers and drinking water have been expanded to include stormwater facilities.

Council approve applying for $1.5 million from two grants to repair those collapsing, conduct maintenance on those that might, and survey those whose conditions are unknown.

And with that here are the Tweets from the meeting, what few there are:

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