Jul 25, 2016 2 min read

MONESSEN – The mayor of Monessen called an emergency finance meeting last week on the heels of the resignation of a councilwoman who oversaw the business office in the cash-strapped city.

The Friday meeting called by Mayor Lou Mavrakis will result in a policy change requiring all of the city’s department heads to participate in drafting next year’s budget, he said at a council meeting Monday.

“We’re in bad shape,” Mavrakis said about a Mon Valley city that ended last year with a deficit that was reduced from more than $700,000 to about $630,000.

Monessen solicitor Krisha A. DiMascio said the meeting revealed some money, including state reimbursements for pensions, were incorrectly earmarked as general fund revenues.

“We now have a realistic outlook for the future,” DiMascio said.

“Some of the numbers were wrong and that put us in a bad position,” she said.

With the city now spending as little as possible, it’s expected to end 2016 with a small deficit, she added.

Lucille D’Alfonso, who began serving on council in 2012, gave no reason for her July 18 resignation in a letter to Mavrakis and council. She has not been accused of wrongdoing.

In other business, council agreed to have the solicitor review a proposal to sell the Monessen Municipal Building at 1 Wendell Ramey Lane and another building across the street in the Eastgate section of the city, to On Site Rep of Pittsburgh for $650,000. On Site representative David Lamb told council Monday his company does have concerns about the 4-story building needing $1.5 million in mechanical upgrades and whether or not the current leases would be profitable.

“The building is structurally sound, and the roof is in good shape,” Lamb said.

Mavrakis said the building, the former Mon Valley Community Health Center, created another financial burden on the city.

Meanwhile, councilman John Scott Nestor gave the first reading of an ordinance regulating the keeping of chickens in residential neighborhoods.