donora
Kelli Kelly was approved for the position, which has been open since December.
By MAX ROBINETTE mrobinette@yourmvi.com
Donora council hired a bookkeeper Thursday, continuing to fill borough building positions after months of being short staffed.
Council members approved Kelli Kelly, who replaces previous bookkeeper Louis Morrison after council promoted him to borough administrator in December.
With the bookkeeper position filled — and the recent hiring of code enforcement officer Joe Volpe — the borough building is nearly staffed.
Council continues to look for a sanitation officer and fill positions in the street and police departments.
Former borough employees resigned en masse last summer, leaving the borough building virtually vacant. Council members, the mayor, remaining borough staff and temporary outside hires have stepped in to take on multiple responsibilities to keep the borough afloat.
The lack of personnel has frustrated residents, who have found it hard to pay bills or communicate concerns with the borough.
Council members said they’re happy about finally having a staffed administrative office.
“We’re looking forward to the borough running smoothly,” Councilwoman Cindy Brice said. “We’ll have some people starting part-time and hopefully in the future we can bring them on full-time.”
Kelly will work as bookkeeper for a 90-day probationary period, after which she’ll receive a $3.42-per-hour pay increase.
DEC committee
Council announced that it will start accepting interest letters from the public to form a committee that would manage selling the former Donora Elementary Center building.
Councilman Gib Szakal chairs the committee, and council members said they’ll look for two residents to join. “We’re really gonna start pushing to sell DEC,” Szakal said. “It’s starting to get in rougher shape and we’re going to contact some people to see if anyone is interested in working for us, and helping us get to word out, because we just want to get rid of it. “So if anybody’s interested, we need two people to put in letters.”
Ringgold School District sold the property on Wad-dell Avenue at auction in 2014 after the district closed it permanently in 2011. The borough bought the 74,000-square-foot facility on 34 acres for $20,000.
The district auctioned the DEC at the same time as the former Monongahela Elementary Center, which was bought by Antoinette Paliotta of Carmen Paliotta Contracting for $65,000.
Both buildings have sat vacant since 2011, though Commonwealth Charter Academy purchased the MEC in October for $525,000 — a 700% markup from the 2014 sale. “We’re just trying to get the word out,” Szakal said. “It could be good for the borough.”
Donora police
Council approved readvertising for police hires in the borough.
With four full-time and two part-time officers, council and residents have raised concerns about the understaffed force over the past year. To attract more officers FROM A3 council increased part-time police pay to $22 per hour and full-time pay to $25.75 an hour. Council originally advertised pay increases in December, but the effort drew fewer applications than the borough hoped. Police Chief Neal Rands recommended council reduce the application fee for civil service testing as an additional incentive.
“I’d like to see the fee for the application be lowered,” Rands said. “Ours is one of the highest at $50. Other places have theirs at $15.”
The borough scheduled its civil service test for Feb. 21, but if it receives no applications, the borough may have to wait months before scheduling another. State law limits the number of civil service tests a municipality can administer annually.
Rands said if application numbers continue to dwindle, he’d like to figure out a way the borough could emergency hire officers, circumventing civil service testing requirements.
“If it doesn’t work out, I’d like to look with (Solicitor) Steve (Toprani) and see if we could do an emergency hire,” Rands said. “Maybe get people who are part-time in other places.
“We gotta do something. We’re pretty well strapped down here.”
Council seemed open to the suggestion if the borough continues to receive too few applications.
Mayor’s report
Mayor Don Pavelko gave a short speech about continuing to improve the borough and spoke about recent progress removing blight.
“I know there’s been a lot of tension here in Donora for quite some time,” Pavelko said. “I think it’s about time to start working toward making Donora a better place. That’s why I decided to get back on council and become mayor.
“With the absence of a borough administrator, I took it upon myself to reach out for help, and thanks to Jamie Colecchi at the Mon Valley Alliance, Nathan Voytek of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, Sen. Camera Bartolotta and many others, Donora has been awarded two grants for blight removal.”
With money from Washington County’s Local Share Account and the Department of Community and Economic Development, plus matching funds provided by the borough, Donora has $455,000 set to go toward blight removal for upcoming months.
Pavelko said he hopes to continue making professional relationships that promote borough progress and thanked council members for their help with the project.
“I’d like to thank President (Mike) McDowell, Mrs. Brice and Mr. Szakal for their help and support,” Pavelko said. “This is what working together does. It sounds like a lot of money, but it’s only a drop in the bucket for what needs to be done here in Donora.”
Pavelko said as his next step, he’s reached out to nonprofit Scenic Pittsburgh to work with the borough. The organization “protects, enhances, and promotes the scenic beauty — both natural and built — of southwestern Pennsylvania,” according to its website.
“I’m proposing that the borough hold a community summit,” Pavelko said. “I talked to Kate Angell of Scenic Pittsburgh. … I asked her if they would come to Donora and see some of our needs. She said absolutely.
“So then I took it a step further and asked if I could invite other organizations so we can pull more information and resources to see who can help with what. She said that would be great.” Pavelko said he’s contacted the Mon Valley Alliance, which gave its support, adding that he plans to continue bringing more organizations into the fold.
“I will do the footwork to get this thing going,” Pavelko said. “What I’m asking for tonight is a commitment from council and the people of the community to work with me for the betterment of our town.
“You have to network. You have to get out there and meet people and see who can help.” Members supported the mayor’s initiative, requested continuing communication between the mayor and council and backed community member involvement.
“Everybody has ideas and sometimes, if you get two good ideas together, you’ll get a great idea,” McDowell said.