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Our Opinion: River Common requires more support to reach potential

Letter to the Editor: Drivers nearly cause wrecks with their misguided ‘courteousness’

<p>LARKSVILLE &#8212; Borough council members voted to appoint the borough&#8217;s office manager as its new borough manager at their meeting on Tuesday.</p><p>Councilman Joseph Romanoskey and Solicitor M. John Haley explained that council members had to pass an ordinance to officially name Shelly O&#8217;Malia to the position. Haley added that O&#8217;Malia had essentially served in that capacity for some time.</p><p>Council members also decided against having a forensic audit after Mayor Joseph Zawadski had to break a tie vote by council members.</p><p>Councilmen Romanoskey, John Pekarovsky and Joseph Gimble all voted against the audit, while Leo Adamski, Robert Altavilla and Robert J. Altavilla all voted in favor of the audit.</p><p>Councilwoman Tracy Baird was absent from the meeting, and Zawadski cast the deciding vote to strike the motion down.</p><p>Haley explained that an audit was initially proposed due to the council being &#8220;pleasantly surprised&#8221; to find that the borough had more money than originally thought. A forensic audit, he explained, would have helped to show borough officials where that money came from.</p><p>Altavilla explained to council members after the vote had been taken why he voted in favor of the audit.</p><p>&#8220;We want to know in the last five years what went on financially with this borough,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When we started it, this borough was fighting for money. How come we have a lot of money now? What happened to the money before? That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re asking for an audit.&#8221;</p><p>Adamski added that over $100,000 was found.</p><p>&#8220;We were gonna raise taxes for the people in this town, and then all of a sudden, we found $120,000 that was just laying around,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Romanoskey, who stressed that no wrongdoing was indicated in previous audits done this year, said a new audit would have cost approximately $10,000 and was not needed. He said the money was the result of better bookkeeping and less expenses.</p><p>In other business:</p><p>Trans-Med Ambulance submitted a proposal to borough council members to provide advanced life support ambulance service. David Prohaska, director of community relations for Trans-Med, said that an ambulance would be based in the borough as part of the proposal, as well as some office space. The company would also pay the borough $500 a month for rent.</p><p>Prohaska said Trans-Med&#8217;s service, which is based in Luzerne, would be closer than Larksville&#8217;s current ALS service from Plains Volunteer Ambulance.</p><p>Borough members scheduled a work session at 5:30 p.m. for Oct. 20 to discuss the matter.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Shelly O&#8217;Malia </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_IMG_0290.jpg</photo0><caption0>Shelly O&#8217;Malia </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Travis Kellar</p><p>tkellar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Travis Kellar at 570-991-6389 or on Twitter @TLNews</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Larksville borough council members appoint borough manager, vote against forensic audit