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Mary Altemara is the newest member of North Charleroi Council.
During a special meeting Tuesday, Altemara was unanimously appointed to fill the council vacancy left by Dave Diess on Jan. 16.
While Diess wasn’t the only person to resign that night, his vacancy was the only one to take effect immediately because he is relocating out of the borough.
Other vacancies left by Solicitor Chrissy Cardinale, Mayor Steve Hega and Councilwomen Cynthia Randall and Carrie Zeletski are expected to be filled next month when council also hopes to hire a part-time borough secretary.
Cardinale, Hega, Randall and Zeletski will remain in their positions until Jan. 31. Randall and Zeletski voted Tuesday with Councilmen Fred Schwalb and Joe Duche to appoint Altemara to the position.
It’s her first time serving in public office.
“There was a need and I love our town,” she said. “I think we all have a common interest in moving North Charleroi forward, and I hope to do that.”
During her time in office, Altemara has a few things at the top of her priority list. The first is getting youths of the borough more involved. “I’d like to get the kids back in the community, working in the community in the summer time,” she said. “It was a really great program before, but it unfortunately stopped.” She is also on board with cleaning up the borough.
With code enforcement back on the job, other members of council are also interested in cleaning up the borough and holding property owners responsible for upkeep.
“We need to get town cleaned up and I want to help make that happen,” Altemara said. “I also want to make sure that we are holding landlords and property owners responsible for maintaining the properties they have and what is going on.”
Altemara was sworn in by Zeletski, who is a certified notary, after the meeting was adjourned.
Letters of interest to fill any of the three council vacancies, the mayor’s seat or to serve as borough solicitor can be mailed to P.O. Box 80, Charleroi, PA 15022.
Applications for a part-time secretary can also be mailed to the borough.
Schwalb and Duche have previously told the Mon Valley Independent they don’t expect to have any problems filling the remaining vacancies.
Letters of interest for those seats will start to be reviewed next month, and the positions could be filled at a special meeting or at the borough’s next regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21.