Whitehall Council Urges Support of Referendum to Raise Bidding Ceiling

Bidding Ceiling

The Council on Wednesday night urged residents to vote “yes” during to a referendum that asks whether or not Whitehall Borough should raise its ceiling on awarding contracts for borough purchases.

Currently, Whitehall is required to seek bids on purchases over $1,000. If approved, the referendum would raise the ceiling to $5,000.

Several council members spoke in support of the proposal, stating that it was put into effect in the 1970s and that it is no longer practical for the borough to conduct business in such a way.

“As the way it stands now, borough employees have to get three bids for almost everything they purchase,” council President Linda J. Book said. “These laws were written years ago when the price of everything was lower. Today, just about everything they (borough employees) are buying for the borough costs so much more that it exceeds $1,000, and it takes up their valuable time having to go out and get three bids.

“They could spend that time doing other things more important to the borough.”

2012 Budget

Borough Manager James E. Leventry announced that the first meeting for preparation of the borough’s 2012 budget will be held on Saturday.

The council is expected to hold at least two budget meetings before presenting a spending plan in December. After the meeting, Leventry said that representatives of the will attend the first budget meeting and that another session will be held to hear requests from .

Leventry stated that he didn’t foresee any major problems in developing a new budget.

Book added that the council is hoping to maintain all existing services.

“We always look at what we can do to keep all the public services going, especially in police and public service,” she said. “We want to maintain that level of service without any layoffs.

“It’s always a challenge, buy we’ve been able to do that all these years without any tax increases.”

New Fire Station Update

During the report portion of the meeting, the council heard an update on the progress of the being built along Route 51.

Architect Mark Edelmann told the council that “good progress” is being made on the construction of the station, that the ground floor will be finished by Friday or Monday and that masonry contractors will be finished at the site by Friday.

Council member Philip Lahr told Edelmann that he has heard nothing but good comments around the community as to how the new building is taking shape.

“There have been a lot of oohs and ahhs about what a beautiful building that is being built there,” Lahr said. “You’ve done a great job.”

The council approved payments that totaled $227,713 to contractors working on the project. Edelmann told the council that 36.9 percent of the total cost of $2.5 million has been paid.