Slatington proposes resolution to fill vacant seats

The Slatington Borough Council is two members short as they begin 2020. They are supposed to have seven members, so they approved creating a resolution to appoint former members Dave Schnaars and Ronald Kratz to fill the vacancies. The resolution will be up for vote at the next meeting on Monday.

The vacancies occurred due to a couple reasons.

Originally, five incumbents were up for re-election. Former council President Daniel Stevens initially ran, but withdrew from the ballot in July. Thomas Bartholomew, Joseph Wechsler, Bryon Reed and David Schnaars ran for four-year terms, along with newcomer Kevin Steckel.

Voters were instructed to select four of the five candidates for the four-year terms, and Schnaars was voted out. Bartholomew and Wechsler also ran for and won the two available two-year seats. Since they were elected to both four-year and two-year terms, they had to choose which to serve, and both are serving four-year terms, leaving the two-year terms vacant.

Council member Jason Ruff was not up for re-election.

Kratz was appointed to his seat in 2019, following the death of Russell Hallman in December 2018. To stay on council, Kratz would have had to run for election in 2019, but he didn’t. Hallman would not have been up for re-election in 2019.

Reed, who was appointed president of the council at the reorganization meeting, said both Schnaars and Kratz said they still want to serve on council. That is why the council opted to have a resolution created to appoint them to fill the vacant two-year seats.

In order for the resolution to be passed at the next council meeting, the mayor has to sign it.

“He’s not going to sign it,” Reed said.

Reed said Mayor Walter Niedermeyer thinks the council should discuss this further and possibly opt to open it up to the community for candidates. The council could bypass the mayor and still pass the resolution with a majority approving it.

The council has rarely appointed council members to fill vacancies following elections, said Reed, who has been involved with council for 18 years.

As part of a reorganization meeting, several other appointments were approved. Bartholomew was appointed vice president of the council. Wechsler was appointed president pro tem, which means he would serve as president if both the president and vice president were not available to do so.

Wechsler will also serve as the chairman of the sewer and solid waste committee. Bartholomew will chair the finance, planning and zoning committee. Ruff will be the chairman for the human community services committee. Steckel will head up the public safety committee. Water and highway committees will be finalized after the council is complete.

In other appointments, the council reappointed Edmund Healy as solicitor at a rate of $88 per hour. The borough engineer is Lehigh Engineering; engineer for special sewer projects, ARRO; fire chief, Jason Nicholas; health inspector/officer and OEO for grease traps, David Hay; zoning hearing board solicitor, Broughal and DeVito LLP; zoning officer and BCO, Duane Dellecker; ordinance enforcement officer, Anthony Lopsonzski; emergency management director, Ronald Hausman; chief of police, David Rachman; assistant secretary/treasurer, Colleen Bresnack; and sewer enforcement officer, ARRO.

Lee Andreas and Jerry Healey were appointed to the zoning hearing board. Edward Bechtel and Thomas Bartholomew were appointed to the Civil Service Commission. Taylor Jones will serve a five-year term on the Northern Lehigh Recreation Authority. Gwyneth A. Jones was approved through resolution as the new tax collector.