In yesterday’s Daily Herald, Tyrone Mayor Pat Stoner responded to comments made by Tyrone residents Jim Ray and Bill Fink in Letters to the Editor. During Monday’s meeting, Tyrone Borough Manager Al Drayovich also took time to respond to the comments made by Fink and Ray.
“I would like to start by clarifying some things that were reported in the paper that ought to be clarified and these were in letters by Mr. Fink and Mr. Ray in The Daily Herald on Saturday,” said Drayovich. “The first thing I would note is that the health insurance coverage. That applies to all the full-time borough employees who are covered in all the various departments. It also includes the health insurance for four retired police officers who are also covered under that at a cost of about $25,000 a year. Those are the only retired employees who receive it are those retired police officers.
“The other comment is there is a comment that the borough didn’t shop around for health insurance,” said Drayovich. “We secured the coverage through the Geisinger Health Plan back in 1994 as a result of shopping around and looking for the lowest health care cost available, and on a regular basis since that time we have shopped around. This year alone I think we contacted six alternate companies that provide health care coverage and GHP was still the lowest cost in terms of providing a managed care plan all the others were substantially higher in cost than that. So we have shopped on a regular basis and that was an eronious comment.”
Drayovich continued, “the other thing that was noted was a comment that all this in the budget was without the police budget and clearly that is not the case,” said the borough manager. “The borough budget that was presented clearly includes all the budget for the police department and continuation of all the services at current levels, the only thing that was not included, which was specifically noted, was a provision for any wage or benefit increases or changes that might occur or costs associated with them since the borough is in collective bargaining with the police department and the police department has requested arbitration.
“The other comment that was in the paper that related to the fire department or the borough’s sharing in a portion of the funds for the agreements we have with Snyder Township and the other municipalities,” said Drayovich. “There is a statement that this is for administrative costs. Clearly that is not the case. The borough receives from Snyder Township, Birmingham and Grier School aproximately $20,000 collectively from those entities. Those monies are allocated 25 percent to each of the fire companies for three quarters and one quarter, which totals aproximately $4,800 is retained by the borough. That money is not used to any administrative costs as what was erroniously reported. That money is used to help defer the cost of the insurance that the borough pays. We pay all the costfor the insurance on the fire aparatus, all the costs for the firefighters liability insurance coverages, all the costs of the workers compensation coverages, and those costs total well over $19,000 a year. The portion we keep, $4,800 is simply applied to help defray some of that insurance costs. So clearly all that money is clearly expended for fire services directly for insurance costs related to the fire services. Any comment that it is administrative is clearly in error.”
Mayor Stoner asked Drayovich to break down the $52,000 budgeted for the fire coverage.
“We receive aproximately $20,000 from the three entities we contract with. Of that, $15,000 goes to the fire companies in an amount of aproximately $5,000 each and the borough retains the 25 percent share. In addition to that, with the aproximately $20,000 in insurance costs we pay, the borough also contributes other things to the fire companies including allocations, payments of bills and that. Collectively they total in excess of $50,000, so the borough is putting funding to the fire service in excess of $50,000 a year. Clearly we have a history of contributing a substantial amount toward the fire service.”
Mayor Stoner added to Drayovich’s comments by saying, “the borough maintains all the radios, maintain all the equipment, the maintenance costs falls directly onto the borough.” Drayovich added, “We help the fire police, the borough acts as a conduit for money from the state that comes in through the volunteer fire relief. It gets paid to us which we in turn pay to the volunteer relief association made up of representatives from the three companies who collectively use that money primarily for safety of the firefighters.”
Council Member Jeffrey Watson added a comment.
“I have recently read in the paper and I was appauled that Hollidaysburg borough council voted to balance their budget by discontinuing all contributions to fire services,” said Watson. “I want to make it publically known that as a firefighter, I found that appauling that Hollidaysburg would get rid of that. The amount of $59,000 is what they will not be giving to the fire companies this year.”
Drayovich also addressed the four-percent raise given to AFCSME workers for the 2003 year.
“If you recall, all full-time borough employees, with the exception of the full time police officers did not receive a pay increase in 2002. That was part of council’s overall consideration as part of its contract review with AFCSME as part of the consideration for non-uniformed employees outside the AFSCME unit. Council had approached the police department but the full and part time police officers did not indicate that they would forgo a wage increase in 2002. All other full-time and part-time borough employees did forgo such an increase except the police officers.”
Mayor Stoner added, “And one borough council member.”
Drayovich also addressed Ray’s letter where he says, “the borough has wage and payroll spread through the three seperate funds.as they like to call them so you have to go here and there to get the totals, it isn’t the simplest way to show wages and benefits,” Drayovich quoted from Ray’s letter. “Clearly I think this represents Mr. Ray’s lack of understanding when it comes to municipal accounting and a fund accounting system that is required for boroughs that operate like we do under Pennsylvania law and consistent with the GASBY (Government Accounting Standards Board) in terms of this. We have seperate water funds, we have seperate sewer funds, we have seperate general funds. We don’t pay for police services by raising water rates.”
The only acton taken by council was approval of a fee waver for the Tyrone Chamber of Commerce and the Tyrone Merchant’s Association for individual vendors for future craft shows etc. The motion was made by J.R. Watson and seconded by Virgie Werner and the measure passed 7-0.
Council thanked the many people who helped put together the new playground equipment at Reservoir Park.
“I want to say publicly, that has been one of my dreams to see that park get new equipment up there,” said Council person Jim Beckwith. “We definately needed that. I am not bragging by any means, but I went up there on Saturday morning and the group of people who were there including one of the reverands from in town and a lot of people who I don’t know their names, but they all pitched together and they did a tremendous amount of work on Friday and Saturday and it wasn’t under the best of weather conditions either. No one complained, everybody worked hard and we finished Saturday by noon. I personally thank then men who worked beside me up there for doing the job that they did. They brought my dream to a reality there, to have that equipment installed for this coming year.”
At the next meeting on Monday night, approval of the 2003 Budget will be on the agenda. The Borough Council meets at 7 p.m.
In tomorrow’s Daily Herald, Bill Fink and Jim Ray have their say.
