No changes to 2016 budget

Deadline to amend budget was Feb. 15

SOUTH COATESVILLE >> Although borough council had reopened the 2016 budget and discussed making changes to it, the deadline to amend the budget has passed, so the original budget will remain in place.

The 2016 budget was adopted on Dec. 22, 2015, but council held a special meeting on Feb. 4 to look at the budget again, and Councilman Joe Frisco presented an alternative budget he had put together.

Frisco served a term on council from 2009 to 2013. He was again elected to council in November 2015, and he was sworn in again in January. Frisco was not on council when the current budget was adopted.

Frisco’s budget would have made some changes, such as eliminating the trash fee, outsourcing snow removal and grass cutting services, decreasing the amount of a sewer fund transfer, eliminating an administrative position, changing the public works positions from full-time to part-time, hiring additional part-time police officers, and allocating money for street lighting improvements and building maintenance and repairs.

Council was set to further discuss the budget during a meeting on Feb. 9, but the meeting was canceled due to inclement weather.

The deadline for council to make changes to the budget was Feb. 15, but that date has come and gone without any changes being made.

The borough’s solicitor, Helen Esbenshade, said that even though the 2016 budget had been reopened by council, the budget that was originally approved would remain in place by default since the deadline passed without council making any amendments, and there was no further action needed on the budget.

The total amount of the 2016 budget is $423,000, and there is no property tax increase, so the borough’s millage rate will remain at 7.6 mils.

Frisco served a term on council from 2009 to 2013. He was again elected to council in November 2015, and he was sworn in again in January.