West View Council Keeps Tax Rate Steady, Approves 2012 Budget

West View Borough Council kept its tax rate at 6.68 mills for 2012, and approved a $4,756,815 overall budget for the upcoming year during their monthly meeting Wednesday.

The vote on both items was 7-0. 

The budget includes a $3,175,000 general fund budget, the main operating account. That amount is an overall 1.6 percent decrease in spending compared to 2011's approved general fund budget of $3,228,600 and is slightly less than what was spent out of that account in 2010 and 2009. 

It includes a 3 percent increase in salaries for uniformed employees in the  and a 2.5 percent increase in salaries for non-uniformed borough employees. 

It also includes a salary of $35,000 to add a position for a bookkeeper, a new position officials are still considering adding after laying off  Fromlak also serves as West View's Police Chief. 

Fromlak has said that the bookkeeper position would add to the borough a skill set he doesn't have. 

Some savings in the 2012 budget are coming from the pay off this year of a 1996 bond. 

Mayor John R. Henry and the other members of the council have said that the financial restructuring that included the lay off of Wolf is still a work in progress as they juggle numbers to account for increasing fuel and capital expenses for the borough's infrastructure, as well as committments made to providing services, such as emergency medical services, and to providing the pay increases for employees, negotiated with their unions. 

Also Wednesday, Henry swore in three new West View Fire Police officers who help fire and police agencies with traffic control as needed. 

They are Ken Kerner, a West View Fire Department firefighter with 20 years of service; Russell Bucklad, a West View firefighter with about 30 years of service, and Dave Grom, a West View firefighter also with about 30 years of service.

The new fire police officers are volunteers.  

The West View Council also set the dates for its 2012 meetings, agreeing to switch meeting nights from the second Wednesday of each month to the second Thursday of each month, at 7 p.m. 

The exception to the schedule will be the January meeting, which will be held Tuesday, Jan. 3, immediately following the organizational meeting at 6:30 p.m.

The West View Planning Commission will meet at 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month, by appointment / notice only. 

The Zoning Hearing Board will meet at 7:3 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month, by appointment / notice only.

All meetings are held in the council chambers in the .