Hellertown Borough Council held a regularly scheduled meeting Monday, during which officials discussed several matters of significance to the community.
Community Outreach Program
A program similar to Hellertown’s former Block Watch group led by the Hellertown Police Department will be kicking off in the near future.
“There’s been a lot of interest for a reignition of a similar program. We decided on a Community Outreach Program,” said officer in charge, Det. Michael Dattilio.
Officers Jada Roderick and Jaron Steinmetz will be spearheading the program, Dattilio said.
“They’ve become our de-facto community police officers. They’re currently developing it (the program). The meeting date and location are yet to be determined, but there should be an announcement expected by the first of July,” Dattilio told council.
New Time Management Program Approved
Council approved a motion to implement the “Isolved” employee time management system on a trial basis over the next couple of months.
The new system will help ensure efficient, accurate and quick timekeeping for borough department leaders and their employees. Some neighboring boroughs use the same or similar technology.
“The rules are put in there (the technology), so what we will stop having, is if a person is not entitled to something, they will not be able to get it,” said borough finance manager Tina Krasnansky.
“It will stop them at that point. If they are only allowed 30 hours comp time, it will stop them at 30 hours comp time. It will not even get to the point where the supervisor will deny it… It will eliminate some of those errors going into payroll,” she added.
Former Hellertown Police Chief Robert Shupp III is accused of stealing more than $120,000 from the borough over a period of years, in part by allegedly submitting requests to be paid for more than 1,600 hours of comp time to which he was not entitled. Shupp and his attorney have disputed the charges, which were filed last December and are now before the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas.
Return of a Capital Plan
Andrew Hughes of the borough council finance committee reintroduced a borough capital plan for discussion at the meeting. Calling it a “blueprint for sustaining the community’s public services,” Hughes said there will be several meetings and reports on the topic moving forward.
“We’re trying to build an updated or new capital plan… It’s essentially a multi-year planning document that outlines what our objectives are, how we’re going to pay for those things and the timing of those improvements,” Hughes explained.
The next borough council meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 1 at 7 p.m. at Hellertown Borough Hall. Meetings are open to the public and livestreamed online.