SHAMOKIN - A dearth of manpower for daytime emergency dispatches has city firemen at least listening to the contentious idea of consolidation.
Councilman William Milbrand, head of council's public safety department, said during a city council workshop on Wednesday that preliminary discussions have been held with state Department of Community and Economic Development regarding the potential to consolidate the six firehouses that make up Shamokin Fire Bureau.
Milbrand said a number of proposals have been discussed among members of a steering committee, but he believes it's highly unlikely a proposal to consolidate would be ready for presentation by 2013, as DCED has requested.
The topic of consolidation is just that, a topic. DCED is not mandating the fire bureau to trim the fat, so to speak, and the proposal would simply be up for further discussion.
Consolidation is being considered to ensure enough manpower and resources are available during the daytime. Daytime hours are tough on the fire bureau as a great many of its members work out of town at varying distances, Milbrand said.
What could hold back any plan are assets held by the individual firehouses,
as four of the six run private clubs. Then there's the idea of how to house equipment and apparatus of six firehouses under one roof.
Milbrand and R. Craig Rhoades, former head of public safety and, like Milbrand, former chief of the fire bureau, each said they were "open minded" about the idea.
For his part, Rhoades said that, for now anyway, the pros of consolidating the six firehouses outweigh the cons.
Milbrand isn't so sure, adding that he thought consolidation could actually be avoided altogether by designating one firehouse for daytime assignments, with personnel from all six firehouses responding to one place to gear up and head out to an emergency dispatch.
Talks are ongoing.
Mock council
A partnership between the city and Shamokin Area School District could lead to the creation of a mock city council.
Council members will vote Monday on whether to move forward on a plan to set aside up to $10,000 in its recreation funding to be managed by a mock city council consisting of five Shamokin Area high school students - four students as council members and one student as mayor.
Steve Bartos, city clerk, said middle-high school principal Chris Venna is on board with the idea, as is David Kopitsky Jr., a economics teacher who would oversee the program.
Bartos said students must submit resumes to be considered for the mock council. Once it's established, they'll be required to hold monthly workshops and voting sessions. They must also attend at least one city council meeting and are allowed just one absence while serving on the mock governing body.
The mock council must research a project and present its findings to city council for approval, define a project time line, execute the project and follow through to its completion.
Bartos said as an example that the students could be tasked with is pursuing the repair of a monument in a public park. He said they also could decide to do fundraising toward matching the city's allotment for a larger project.
The idea seemed well-received by city council members, with Milbrand saying the project could entice students to become civically active.
COLA going up
Council is expected to approve Monday a 3.4 percent increase in the Cost-of-Living Adjustment for 16 of the city's retirees.
The highest adjustment for a retiree will be about $174 and the lowest $51 per year. The total cost of the increase will be $1,044.36.
The anticipated approval will likely be retroactive to today.
Council also will consider the lease of a new copier for the police department.
With its current copier on the fritz, Chief Edward Griffiths asked council on Wednesday to consider leasing a new copier. The terms he presented are $111 a month for five years, which he said is $1 more a month than its previous lease.
The chief also asked council to consider revising city ordinance regarding parking tickets. The ordinance calls for police to send courtesy reminders to people who have been ticketed but hadn't paid up in the allotted amount of time. Those reminders are in the form of a post card and cost $0.47 each. Griffiths said the reminders are a redundancy of what's printed on the ticket and asked that council do away with them.
Vacancy
Bartos said about 40 applications were received for a lone vacancy in the street department. Council members are expected to interview up to eight candidates on Dec. 19 for the laborer position.
Treasurer's office
Treasurer Brenda Scandle was told she could be moved out of city hall and into a neighboring building as early as Jan. 1, 2012, if not sooner.
A motion was approved by council in September to relocate the treasurer's office, allowing code enforcement its own space in city hall but also incurring additional utility costs for operating another building.
Additional costs so far included minor renovations and touch-ups and replacement of a toilet.
According to the city's 2012 budget, estimated utility expenses for the new treasurer's office are $600 for heating, $1,200 for electric service and $120 for water.
Purchase orders
A change in the way purchase orders are submitted could soon be put to vote, but likely not without more debate.
Council members went back and forth Wednesday over the merits of changing from a hand-written system to an electronic system.
As it's done now, Bartos said it's impossible to track where the city's cash flown stands on a day-to-day basis since purchase orders are "floating in the wind" and generally not accounted for until month's end.
He is pushing for department heads to have limited access to the city's existing electronic accounting software to allow for them to submit purchase orders electronically. This would allow him to track in real time how much money is being spent on purchases, he said, and would provide a way to keep track daily of exact account balances.
Councilman Michael Snyder seems to be on the fence, not so much regarding the method but in how much time the city's street foreman, Kevin Richardson, is spending on submitting purchase orders not only for the street department but for other departments as well.
Snyder, head of council's public works department, said Richardson writes purchase orders for everyone and that it's keeping him from spending more time in the field. He wasn't convinced this new method would change that.
Bartos said his proposal would greatly reduce time spent in creating purchase orders, but it seems Snyder isn't so sure.
The issue of switching from hand-written to electronic purchase order submissions could be discussed further Monday. If it's pursued, the system may be implemented on a six-month trial basis.