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North Charleroi

4 min read

Less than 24 hours after two council seats and the mayor’s office became officially vacated in North Charleroi, all openings have been filled. Three council members, the mayor and borough solicitor resigned from their positions Jan. 16.

Former Councilman Davie Diess resigned because of his relocation from the borough to Fallowfield Township. His spot was vacated immediately and he was replaced last week during a special meeting by Mary Altemara. Other vacancies left by Solicitor Chrissy Cardinale, Mayor Steve Hega and Councilwomen Cynthia Randall and Carrie Zeletski, who stepped away for various reasons, took effect Tuesday. During a special meeting Wednesday, two new councilmen, Mark Boyle and Russ Pen-do, were appointed to fill two of the vacancies. Steve Sergi, a former North Charleroi councilman, was selected as the borough’s new mayor. All appointments were made unanimously by council members Fred Schwalb, Joe Duche and Altemara. Following their appointments, each of the men were sworn in by Magisterial District Judge Eric Porter. The new officials agreed they stepped up to help their town and have different ideas and plans to help their community. Pendo said he is not sure where he plans to start in his capacity as a councilman. “I don’t know yet,” he said. “We have to wait and see what we need to do.” Boyle has a more clear idea of some things he would like to focus on. “I want to work on getting drugs out of our community,” he said. “That is big. I also want to work on getting things spruced up.” Finances are also on his list. “I also want to be sure to keep our taxes low,” he added. For the newly appointed mayor, Sergi said he felt compelled to step in to help his community. “I served on council many years ago and a lot of people came up to me to ask me to step in,” Sergi said. “I figured I would take over as

NORTH CHARLEROI • A2 FROM A1 mayor and give it my best shot. That’s what I plan to do.”

Schwalb and Duche, who are the only two sitting members of the previous council, were confident they would have a full board before their regular meeting this month, and they stuck to their word. In addition to the two open council seats and mayor’s position, Steve Toprani was selected as the borough’s new solicitor.

Toprani also currently represents Donora Borough.

Janice Jacobs was unanimously hired as the borough’s new part-time secretary.

“We did not have the interest we thought we would, but we did not have to leave anything open,” Schwalb said. “We received four letters of interest for council, two for the secretary and three for the solicitor. We’re just happy to have everything filled and plan to get back to work and do the best we can.”

Duche agreed.

“We’re just excited to get back to business as usual,” Duche said. “We all want to make North Charleroi the best community it can be. That’s why we are all here.” North Charleroi Council will have its first official meeting with all new sitting members 6 p.m. Feb. 20.

Meetings were previously held at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month but will be moved up to 6 p.m. to accommodate the new member

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