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West Easton’s council meeting last night was definitely more cordial than the last one. No yelling, no angry resident, and no excitement. I had all that popcorn, but nobody to sell it to. The chairs were empty except for two residents in attendance and myself.

Joking aside, it was a proper event with most of the hour devoted to the spending of the $165,000 windfall that was obtained by not having to pay Easton for police coverage and the mill rate increase that was originally intended for our own police department, which never came to fruition.

The first requirement was to reallocate that “found” money to other expenditures, which was voted on and accepted by majority after discussion.

The expenditures in the reallocation:

• $70,000 – $90,000 for a public works garage
• $5,000 for new computers
• $32,000 for computer software
• $5,000 for Jeep repairs (including a plow)
• $4000 for 1st lease payment on new dump truck (Payments of $4000/qtr will continue for 21 quarters)
• $29,000 for road resurfacing (Adams and Avona)

While I think some of the items are necessary, I would have liked more information on some of it. My questions will have to wait until the next meeting though, because the public comment time took place before the discussion of the items.

However, I still have an opinion on some of these items.

Councilman Tom Nodoline needs to let the Jeeps go. As one resident pointed out, buying a $700 (or $1000) Jeep Cherokee that wasn’t built for plow work and building upon it to install $5000 worth of plow is not only foolish, but a quick way to destroy a Jeep. Jeeps were made for climbing and rough terrain, not for plowing snow.

Sell both Jeeps and the old dump truck. Take that money and the $5000 to purchase a small, used pickup truck for the road crew. There are plenty of late model ones available for under $10,000. That new $84,000 truck should be able to plow and salt any road or alleyway in the borough.

When the idea for storing salt was first discussed months ago, a salt storage shed was the topic. It has now ballooned into a public works building that will be approximately 30′ wide and 68′ long, possibly costing as much as $90,000.

Maybe it’s my frugal (cheap) mentality, but as I said in the meeting, I have a hard time wrapping my head around a building that will be used to store equipment and salt costing that much money. I was told after the meeting that the building will be unheated and won’t have any amenities. I would hope that Council will put it out for bid to more than just the well-known outfits who might be seeing an opportunity to gouge a borough that is obtaining funding from taxpayers.

Software – When I first heard $32,000 for software I was wondering, why?

According to Kelly Gross, the reason is that they are using a Disk Operating System (DOS) to perform tasks on the computers.

If that information is true, then the borough definitely needs new software. I haven’t seen a computer using DOS since 1987 when I bought a Tandy computer from Radio Shack.

The old DOS required the user to manually type a computer command to perform a simple task. It’s comparable with using two tin cans and string, to using a telephone.

Along with that $32,000 comes support, training and the transfer of existing information on the DOS system now in use.

With the new program will be the availability for residents to pay their borough bill online. A task that Gross stated can not be done with the current system.

The Council Meeting can be viewed below.