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By Jill Brown

On April 27, 2015, at the Monessen City Council meeting, residents voiced their opinions over the total cost of four trucks that the city had financed.

Resident Ron Chiaravelle asked about the total debt over a six-year period for the trucks, which were four Ford F550s obtained by the city using their liquid fuels fund.
Louise D'Alfonso said, "We traded in four ten-year-old vehicles. We got an automatic dealer discount, plus maintenance cost." She later said, "I commend our street crew for taking such excellent care of these [traded-in] trucks. We got $35,000 for them."

Chiaravelle questioned, "What is the cost per vehicle?"
Council answered, "$70,000."
Chiaravelle said, "Why are you buying them all at one time? Any smart business person knows you don't buy all at one time."
Council: "That's what we decided to do."
D'Alfonso said, "We've been discussing this for weeks.
Chiaravelle came back with, "If this has been discussed for weeks, then why haven't we heard about this until last week?"
D'Alfonso and Josh Retos, City Council members, continued to defend the purchase of the vehicles to other residents, too.

In other matters, the Mayor Lou Mavrakis declared April 2015 as Monessen Tobacco-Free Coalition Month. He presented a representative from the organization with a proclamation after he read it first.

Councilwoman Patricia Bukowski, Dept. of Parks & Public Properties, made a motion to approve a request from Hilary Brown to use Monessen City Park Amphitheater on May 26, 2015 at 7 p.m. for the Monessen Middle/High School spring choir concert, at no cost. Motion was gladly approved, as the event is good for the kids.

In the Dept. of Public Affairs, there have been no parking meter violations, since the meters are out of order. The mayor said, "We have to look into that. There have been a lot of complaints about them not working."

Also, it was voted to hire John Milaly as part-time police officer at the pay rate of $14.75 per hour. His salary is to be paid by the Westmoreland County Housing Authority.
The residents then voiced their public comments. Carla Davis said that when the city tore the building down next to her house, the whole wall began moving, and no support was put back. The mayor said he will check into it.

Next, resident Linda Lacey said at her home, the street is a dead-end, and the re-routing has created a giant crater. "We had a bad winter, and it's eroding the hillside," she continued. Council agreed "to check it out."
With that, the meeting was adjourned. It was an evening for the residents to be heard.

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