Borough Administrator Gregory Franz said the meetings usually take place with just representatives from the council but he thought it would be more effective at this point to involve the entire governing body.

The operational budgets for the Department of Public Works (DPW), the police department, fire department, and Community Center were discussed. Mayor Nancy Merse said capital projects, like purchasing new vehicles, will be looked at later.

The 2009 budget will be introduced by August, Chief Financial Officer Joe Iannaconi Jr. said.

Tom Quinton, head of the DPW, said his operational budget remained the same. He said that he’ll be putting together a proposed schedule for alternate side parking to help street sweeping in some areas that are too congested. Council President Neda Rose said that is a quality of life issue that some residents definitely want to see improved.

Councilman David Weschler asked Quinton about the process for the Shade Tree Committee getting new trees planted. Quinton said the goal is to replace or plant about 20 trees a year and they’ve been close to that in recent years.

He said the Shade Tree Committee has been working hard and is close to getting its new tree care ordinance in place. He said that to maintain the borough’s Tree City designation, the borough has to budget at least $2 per resident. Councilwoman Beatrice Robbio said that can enable the borough to get matching federal funding.

Police Chief Donald Martin said his budget remained constant with only a few increases, including $3,000 for computer upgrades. He said the Council also has to decide how much they want to budget towards new hires and recommended $7,500 for each one. That would include the costs of training, background screenings, weapons, ammunition, and other expenses.

Martin said the Council previously said it wanted to have about 35 officers and the department is currently short two because one officer is out of duty and one is still going through training.

The paid Emergency Medical Service is also under the police budget. Martin said the borough may need to consider adding a third full-time paid emergency medical technician (EMT) instead of having two full time and several part-timers. While there is a long list of part-time EMTs, there is no consistency or accountability, Martin said. The police are strained when having to cover when workers don’t show up.

"The part-time EMTs were a good idea but it’s just not working out," Martin said.

Fire Chief Joe Chevalier said his operating budget hasn’t really changed. The miscellaneous line item went up $1,500 because the department has made several reimbursements lately because of purchases from companies that don’t take vouchers.

Jill Sullivan from the Community Center said her department hopes to get a computerized registration system. They currently do everything by hand to keep track of registrations. Depending on what they choose, residents could register online and the staff would have an internal database.

The Center doesn’t plan to have a system for paying online with credit cards because it would need to balance the costs of the fees to credit card companies. But people would be able to register online and then bring a check in during the next couple of days, which would still avoid the usual long lines, Sullivan said.

Iannaconi and Franz will review the department heads’ requests. If the borough wants to request extraordinary aid from the State then it will need to introduce the budget by August, Iannacconi Jr. said.

Then it would wait to hear back from the State by November or December to see if it receives aid and it can then adopt the new budget.