North Strabane furloughs 12 employees, faces Meadows-related revenue hit
Township manager Andy Walz speaks from his office during Wednesday’s online community update.
Fire Chief Mark Grimm joined Wednesday’s discussion.
For the latter half of March, North Strabane Township kept all employees on the payroll, even those who were unable to work remotely in observance of stay-at-home directives.
“Unfortunately, given the slowdown in the construction business, given the temporary closure of the casino and some other things, we just don’t have as much work being done here,” township manager Andy Walz said, referencing the normally heavily patronized Meadows Racetrack and Casino.
“So this past Monday, we did furlough 12 employees,” he said. “The plan is to bring them back here once we get through all of this.”
Walz participated Wednesday in an online community update hosted by the Peters Township Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Washington Financial Bank.
As home to the Meadows complex, North Strabane receives a substantial amount of money through the state’s Local Share Account program.
“We are taking a really hard look at our capital budget,” Walz said. “Our capital budget is primarily funded via the revenue that we receive from the casino, and obviously, the casino has been closed now for going on about a month.”
Township officials have been working with state Rep. Tim O’Neal, R-South Strabane, to ascertain relevant information.
“They’re trying to help us determine what type of revenue we might see coming into the beginning of the year, since the casino was open for the first two-and-a-half months,” Walz explained.
Whatever the case, the township is preparing for a financial hit.
“We’re talking about scaling our road-paving program back,” Walz said. “We were going to try to put a dekhockey rink in our park. We’re scaling that back. Our public works department needed some renovations, just to kind of bring it into the 21st century. Unfortunately, those look like they’re going to get cut, at least at the moment.”
He expressed some optimism, though.
“I believe that the ‘bones’ of the economy in North Strabane are still strong. My understanding is that basically landscapers everywhere are going crazy busy, so people obviously have some disposable income at this point to spend on that,” he said.
“People, I can tell you, are calling about buying homes when this is over. We’re still getting positive feedback from our builders that they’re going to continue to build homes.”
Also participating in Wednesday’s update was North Strabane police Chief Brian Hughes, who spoke about local efforts to obey coronavirus-related restrictions.
“There seems to be a lot of cooperation from people. We’ve only had to check on four or five businesses when the nonessential order came in for businesses,” he said, referring to what is allowed to remain open in Pennsylvania. “And out of them, we only had to give one warning.”
Regarding police business, as much as possible is being conducted by phone or email. The lobby at the station remains closed, but officers are on hand during weekdays to speak with visitors outside the building.
“When they go outside, they keep the six-foot rule of social distance in mind and obtain whatever information they have to get,” Hughes explained.
For police calls, officers have been issued gloves and N95 respirator masks
“We actually have enough right now to issue three to every officer,” Hughes said.
The North Strabane Fire Department also has the heavy-duty pieces of personal protective equipment for members’ use. The department continues to function with its normal retinue of 15 full-time staff members, according to Chief Mark Grimm.
“We did limit our part time, because our call volume is down, and we’re working with our volunteers that we only want them responding on major incidents,” he said. “The idea is to keep social distance.”