Kittatinny Budget

 

Gustavus G. Petykiewicz, mayor of Kittatinny has proposed a budget for 2016.  The budget has to be approved by December 1 of this year. Before that can happen, the council had a conference with the Mayor and everyone involved with the budget. There happened to be issues with the budget that the people of Kittatinny would like fixed.

Before the conference happened with the city council, the town of Kittatinny has been under a lot of financial stress. It all started when the Susquehanna Steel Corporation had to lay off 600 workers. Since then the town has been making tough decisions and this new balanced budget is an example of that.

The mayor called the meeting to order and stated that he comes to us with a heavy heart and doesn’t take this lightly because the budget has had to cut or raise prices on things such as taxes, police and sanitation.

During the conference, the mayor says for future improvement on the city and budget we could get Kittatinny to be a tourists attraction. The city could also bring in new employment by having an insurance company or a bank.

The biggest cut for the city is the Police Department. The proposed budget is saying we would have to lay off two cops and not have police force between the hours of 4 a.m. to noon. We would have to call Schuylkill County sheriff’s deputies which are about 20 minutes away. Also we would have to give them money for a new police cruiser which costs a lot because of all the equipment the car needs.

Chief of police, Roman Hruska is against the idea of having no cops on duty from 4 a.m. to noon. He says it is a terrible idea because he feels the people of Kittatinny are going to be deprived from police protection for a third of the day. Hruska states that if someone in the town has a domestic violence problem, which to them are the most dangerous, we would have to wait 20 minutes for Schuylkill deputies to arrive and it might be too late. Hruska thinks that police should be the last place to do budget cutting.

“I don’t know what the mayor was smoking. I won’t stand for it,” states Chief of Police Hruska

Bjarne Westhoff, president of Pennsylvania Police Association agrees with everything the Hruska has to say but believes that the mayor is doing this on purpose to get back Hruska. Hruska and Westhoff agree to take a ten percent pay cut if the mayor would do the same which he has agrees to do as well.

“The mayor and the Hruska don’t get along and if this is a personal dispute they need to keep it out of the work environment,” states Westhoff.

Denelda Penoyer, president of Kittatinny council disagrees with the budget of the tax increase from 4 mills to 4.3 mills. That means taxes will be $430 and it could be hard for the people of Kittatinny to pay because of a lot of workers had to be laid off. Since 600 workers were laid off they probably won’t be able to pay taxes at the regular price and if that is true, they sure won’t be able to pay it after it increases.  Also she disagrees with the $30 a month on garbage because for a whole year that is $360. She states that there is a city council meeting every Tuesday night and she encourages people of Kittatinny to come and voice their opinion. Martha Mittengrabben, president of AFSCME says she could help the town by reestablishing the contract the company has but would have to have an election to see if all the worker would agree.

“My workers are scared because they want job security since the work hard and they don’t want to risk it,” states Mittengrabben.

After reviewing the budget the council and everyone involved has a lot to think about. If you don’t like what you see make sure to come to a city council meeting before December 1 to voice your opinion.

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