Coaldale approves police contract

By Chris Reber

creber@tnonline.com

Coaldale Borough Council has approved a tentative four-year contract with its police officers.

The deal should help the borough to add an additional full-time officer in 2018, according to borough officials.

Council voted 5-0 to approve the contract at its meeting Tuesday night. Michael Doerr and Thomas Keerans were absent.

The contract takes effect in January, and runs through December 2021.

It covers the borough’s two full-time officers, not including Chief Keith Krapf, who has his own contract.

Council President Angela Krapf is the chief’s wife.

Keith Krapf has throughout 2017 repeatedly asked council to add an additional full-time police officer.

In his monthly report to the board in July, Krapf said, “As times of our society are changing, call volumes, case loads and day-to-day operations of the police department have increased.”

Council members agreed to that request in September, but they wanted to approve the new contract before making the hire.

“We didn’t hire yet, because we were waiting on the contract,” said Yvonne Stoffey, who leads council’s police committee.

Council can now finalize its 2018 budget knowing exactly how much it will be paying for police coverage. Council has a budget meeting Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m.

The contract includes salary increases for the existing officers, as well as increased contributions for health care.

“We were asking for a little more from them, but we came to an agreement and we’re all good,” Stoffey said.

Other business

Council also discussed or acted on the following items:

• Announced the borough Christmas tree lighting will take place at 5 p.m. on Nov. 26 at Borough Hall.

• Announced that Portnoff Law Associates has collected more than $14,000 in delinquent trash bills for the borough since they were given collection powers in May.

• Wrote a letter thanking Thomas Macenka for 35 years representing the borough on the Coaldale Lansford Summit Hill Sewer Authority board. Council will accept applications for a new representative.

• Approved payment to Francis Hutta for repairs to the borough garage roof. The total cost was $4,074. Hutta, who is also a councilman, abstained from the vote.

• Appointed Jim FIler, Ed Flyzik, John Unitis to the borough’s Uniform Construction Code Appeals Board. Eric Filer was appointed as an alternate.