Three Hellertown residents who were elected to borough council in November were sworn into office at Tuesday night’s annual reorganization meeting.
Incumbents Liz Thompson and Mike McKenna along with Lynley Solt were individually administered the oath of office by Mayor David Heintzelman before taking their seats on the council dais.
All Democrats, each of them was elected to a four-year term in November’s election.
In addition to the four-year term, Thompson also won a special election–in which she ran unopposed–to fill a two-year seat on council. (To view 2023 Northampton County election results, click here.)
Since she accepted the four-year term in office, the seat that was to be filled in the special election became vacant once again.
After council formally declared the seat vacant, motions to fill it by appointment were entertained.
Thompson made a motion to appoint former councilman Andrew Hughes to fill the two-year seat, which passed unanimously.
A Republican, Hughes has been appointed to fill an open council seat before.
In the November election, he finished in fourth place behind Thompson, McKenna and Solt for the three open four-year seats.
Council’s makeup now includes four men and three women: Thompson, Solt and Terri Fadem.
Hughes is now the only Republican on council, which isn’t unusual given that Democrats hold a voter registration advantage in the borough, which has historically been a Democratic stronghold.
In other business at the meeting, Tom Rieger was unanimously re-elected borough council president and Matt Marcincin was unanimously elected council vice president.
Council meetings are held in-person at Hellertown Borough Hall and are also livestreamed on Facebook and ZOOM. Recordings of past meetings are available to view via the borough’s Facebook page, where they are archived under the Videos tab.
Council normally meets the first and third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. Due to the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 15, council’s next meeting will be held Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.
Meeting agendas and a calendar may be viewed on the borough’s website.
