Point Boro Council Tentatively Schedules Next Thursday for Budget Introduction

Point Borough Council is tentatively scheduling next Thursday for budget introduction.

The council is also advertising for meetings at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, in addition to 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

The council may not need to meet all of those days, but is advertising in case they are needed, said Borough Business Administrator David Maffei at Thursday night's meeting.

The council has to reduce $1.125 million from its expenses to meet a state-mandated spending cap, while also meeting a state-mandated 2 percent cap on tax increases.

The borough is facing a shortfall of $2.6 million in the worst budget year in decades.

Thursday night's meeting was held mostly in closed session, when the mayor and council discussed ongoing negotiations with various local unions.

In response to a question from Board of Education member Sue Byington, Councilman Chris Leitner said the council is considering using school deferred taxes, which essentially means borrowing from school tax revenue.

"It's something we won't use lightly and, if we use it, we'll try to do it in a way that we don't have to do it again next year," he said.

Furlough days and possible layoffs are also under consideration.

For the third consecutive meeting, a small group of parents of children registered for the Recreation Center's preschool program attended the meeting and expressed concerns about having a reduced schedule.

The council is, at this point, planning to have most employees take 33 furlough days, which would mean the Recreation Center would be closed on Fridays from now through the end of December.

The Recreation Center has four, full-time, salaried employees who would be furloughed. Those include the director, secretary, maintenance employee and head teacher, all of whom are paid by borough funds.

Other teachers and staff are hourly employees, with most of their salaries paid from tuition paid by parents.

The Recreation Department posted on its website that the summer camp program will not be offered on Fridays, but will run for seven weeks instead of the usual six.

Jennifer Fisahn, who has a four-year-old son scheduled to attend the preschool in September, told the council that if furlough Fridays continue through the end of December, the children registered to attend on days that include Fridays will lose 16 days of instruction.

"That's a lot when the kids only go three days a week," she said. "What about after December? Are the furlough days going to continue after that?"

"Hopefully not," Mayor William Schroeder replied.