Former councilman questions Slatington board

Former Slatington councilman Melvin Gildner used his three minutes at the podium to ask newly elected Councilman Jared Kern two pointed questions.

“You voted out our last borough manager and you didn’t know anything about her. All you had was hearsay,” he said.

At the reorganizational meeting last week, the board voted not to renew Judith Danko’s contract as borough manager.

Gildner followed up his statement with a question about Kern’s legal residency, stating that he lives in Washington Township even though he owns a property in the borough.

“I’m redoing my house on Chestnut Street and will move back before March,” Kern said.

Gildner had previously served on the board for less than a year but was not re-elected to the position in November.

Before the close of the meeting, board President Daniel Stevens was voted temporary Right To Know officer.

“It makes sense to have someone in the office do it,” Councilman Jason Ruff said.

“We hired part-time office staff, maybe we should consider adding that to their duties,” he said.

Stevens already has experience serving as the RTK officer from his previous terms on council.

“I did it for 18 months,” he said.

“We were getting to the point where we were getting 15 requests a month. That’s why I stopped doing it,” he said.

The nomination passed 6 to 1, with only Stevens voting against himself.

“We will see how it goes,” he said.