Slatington council discusses tax collector position

Dec. 31 is Reta Stein’s last day as the tax collector for Slatington Borough, after five years in the position.

At Monday night’s meeting, the Slatington Borough Council approved to hire Gwyneth Jones as tax collector from Jan. 1 to 5, 2020.

“We’re not able to hire her past that because of the reorganization,” said Daniel Stevens, the president of the council.

The annual reorganization meeting will take place on Jan. 6. Once the new officers are selected, the council will vote on who they want to hire as the tax collector. At this time, Jones is the only person who has applied for the job.

Jones told the council that she is qualified for the position, because her career has been in title insurance and real estate, and she is very familiar with handling school taxes and municipal taxes. She is also a notary.

Jones will spend the next couple weeks with the Stein learning the job, but will not be paid for the hours. She is a former president of the borough council and a resident of the borough for 58 years.

In other business, the council discussed whether or not to sign an agreement involving the Northern Lehigh Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan between the six municipalities in Northern Lehigh County (Slatington, Heidelberg, Lowhill, and Lynn boroughs, and Washington and Weisenberg townships) and the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. LVPC was hired to update the comprehensive plan, which was last reviewed in 2004.

Stevens said the agreement lays out responsibilities and expectations. The council had planned to discuss it in executive session on Monday night, but didn’t get to it due to working on the budget.

During the council meeting, Jason Ruff, vice president of the council, said the total cost for the work by LVPC would be $126,000. Slatington’s contribution is $10,227.

Stevens said each municipality pays based on its population size. Slatington is in the middle of the six municipalities in size.

The total cost was reduced, because the municipalities received a $49,140 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development and a $15,000 grant from LVPC.

This agreement will be discussed at a special meeting to be held on Dec. 23 to go over the borough’s final budget and other agenda items.

Council member Dave Schnaars also noted at the meeting on Monday that the electronics recycling event in November was very successful. Council decided to once again offer the recycling event twice next year. Dates are yet to be determined.