Jun 10, 2016 3 min read

CHARLEROI – Charleroi Council is asking for a review of the borough’s contribution to the Charleroi Regional Police Department for services. Council President Paul Pivovarnik said at Thursday’s meeting that the make-up of the borough has changed since the implementation of the regional force more than four years ago.

“Our demographics have changed, our population has changed and our tax base has changed. I think this should be revisited,” he said.

Charleroi Regional Police Department serves Charleroi, Twilight, North Charleroi and Speers. Charleroi’s annual contribution is the most at $506,655., Speers contributes $155,894, North Charleroi contributes $116,920 and Twilight contributes $9,000. The annual contribution is based on each borough’s population and square mileage. A board made up of representatives from Charleroi, North Charleroi and Speers oversees operation.

Councilman Frank Paterra said the cost-sharing should be revaluated. “Things have changed in the borough. We pay half of the appropriation. Our population has decreased from 4,800 to ,4000,” he said. “We need to think about the budget for 2017 and look at what we are paying. We don’t want to raise taxes. We need to go back and see if this what we should be paying.”

Councilman Larry Celaschi agreed that the contribution should be revisited, but he likes the fact that the police are based in the borough.

“As part of the agreement, we house them, pay the utilities and clean the building,” he said. “We had more than 200 calls this month. I want this department here in the borough.”

In other news, council approved a motion to purchase 50 vacant lots from the Washington County repository for a total of $5,000 and to remarket the lots. Pivovarnik said the goal is to put these lots back on the tax rolls. Solicitor Alan Benyak said that many of the properties have absentee owners in Korea and Russia and no taxes were paid on them for years, leading to the county taking them.

“The borough takes care of these lots now. The borough cuts the grass and cleans the snow off of the sidewalks. The borough is thinking outside of the box by purchasing them,” Benyak said.

He added that if the borough would try to lien the properties, it would be expensive and most often, little or no money is recouped.

Paterra was concerned that the money had not been budgeted for the purchase. Celaschi said that there is money in the general fund for the purchase of the properties.

“We are hoping that these lots will be sold to residents of adjoining properties and other lots may be used for community gardens,” Pivovarnik said. “It will help the community move forward by putting the lots back on the tax rolls and doing something positive with them. Right now, these lots are just sitting there as vacant lots in our community.”

In other news, the borough will advertize a hearingon the updated zoning ordinance. Pivovarnik said that the ordinance hadn’t been updated for several decades and many things have changed in the borough. The ordinance has been updated to reflect those changes.

“We are moving from a heavy industrial to a commercial and residential area. The river has changed from industrial to more recreational,” he explained. “We had steel mills and heavy industry. That is gone here. We had to make those changes in our ordinance to reflect that and to move forward.”