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Monessen to create new Civic Center board

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MONESSEN – Monessen Council will create a new authority to operate the city’s Civic Center after the solicitor discovered the existing board’s charter expired in 2013.

The authority’s status at the Pennsylvania State Department automatically dissolved that year, meaning the current board can no longer vote on business or spend money, solicitor Krisha A. DiMascio said at a city council meeting Monday.

“We can’t dissolve something that does not exist,” DiMascio said.

She said the city had until 2018 to reauthorize the Monessen Civic Recreation Authority, but it would have to be in partnership with the Monessen School District under the terms of its 1963 charter. The Civic Center since moved away from the school district partnership, and a charter updated in the past was never filed with the state department. As a result, the city would have needed to consult with the school district to renew the 1963 filing.

Council, instead, in a 3-2 vote authorized DiMascio to create new documents for the November council meeting to create a new authority, with council members John Scott Nestor and Patricia Bukowski dissenting.

She said the old authority automatically dissolved under city records that created it, even though the authority is still listed as active on the State Department website.

Several members of the former authority attended the meeting. None of them came forward when they were asked to appoint a person from that group to guide the city as it oversees the center’s operation.

“Our concern is we can’t continue to run the center,” former authority board member Michael Blainefield said. “Everything was going smooth.”

“You cannot continue business as usual,” DiMascio said.

She said the missing files at the State Department were discovered after she was asked to look into the nonprofit status of the Civic Center.

She said the decision to stop the authority from doing business was not a “reflection of the attitudes of the authority.”

“They were trying to do the right thing,” DiMascio said.

The center at 861 Donner Ave. in a former armory sponsors children’s activities.

DiMascio said the city also wants to reach out to the local library to improve the flow of its reporting to City Hall.

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