Jan 13, 2022 3 min read

CHARLEROI – Council voted not to reopen its 2022 budget.

A $2.6 million spending plan was approved in December that did not include a tax increase and keeps the millage at 6.85 mills.

The vote was defeated by a 4-3 vote with Council President Paul Pivovarnik and council members Jerry Jericho, Nancy Ellis and Jeanne Motycki voting against the motion and council members Larry Celaschi, Joe Smith and Cathy Diess voting in favor of the motion.

Pivovarnik questioned the need to reopen the budget.

“We are in the black for next year,” he said. “I know there are some items that we can adjust around to make more money, but my only concern was the purpose of reopening.”

Celaschi cited structural changes, such as allotting money for an additional code enforcement officer.

“We cannot go with one code enforcement officer,” he said. “We need to be very proactive with code in order to clean this town up.” 

Jericho said there was no need to reopen the budget. Funds can be relocated.

“We’ve got COVID money sitting there waiting for us to take it,” he explained, adding that, that money is about $200,000. “We haven’t used any of it. It’s going to go into the general fund. That’s the money we can use for that.”

Council also voted to advertise to seek appraisal for all borough assets and the Authority of the Borough of Charleroi.

“I’m getting a tremendous amount of questions regarding this,” Ellis said. “People are worried about what this is going to cost, why is this being done. They don’t see a reason for it. I can truthfully say, my opinion is I do not see a reason for this.”

Pivovarnik explained that Wednesday’s motion is just to advertise to seek appraisals.

“We don’t have to follow through with it,” he said. “We can look at what the costs are. If we feel at that time that the costs are something we’re not happy with, we don’t have to approve it. This is only to advertise for appraisals. It’s not to vote anybody in. With everything that has been brought as far as grants and everything else, the borough should (know) what is the actual amount that the borough owns. I think we need to look at everything in the borough – what we own and actually find out what we have.”

The motion was approved by a 5-2 count with Jericho and Motycki voting against it. 

The Charleroi authority provides water and sewer services to the boroughs of Charleroi, North Charleroi, Speers, Twilight and Dunlevy, as well as Fallowfield Township. The authority also provides water service to the boroughs of Donora and Cokeburg, the city of Monessen and portions of Somerset and Rostraver townships.

Also, former mayor and councilman Ed Bryner was approved to retain his seat on the water authority board.