Department of Finance and Taxation
continued
Emergency Services
• Staff believes that if the collection efforts by the actual tax collector are
appropriate, then the issue could be the population is aging and residents’ earnings
are declining.
• Expenses remained consistent with prior years and there were no unusual
costs incurred during the year. There were personnel changes that account
for some of the salary and benefit variances in 2019. The Police Department
had two long-time officers retire and two new officers were hired at lower
salary and benefit costs. One officer on long-term disability returned to work
full-time and the School Resource Officer returned to the squad full-time. Both
of these personnel changes contributed to lowering the police overtime costs.
Retirements and personnel changes also occurred in the Public Works Department,
which had a positive effect on salary and benefit costs, but resulted in a slight
increase in overtime costs. Minor building repairs and renovations occurred at
the Administration and Public Works buildings which accounts for the increased
building maintenance costs during the year. Lastly, legal costs associated with
the validity challenge for the Oil and Gas Ordinance were extremely high when
compared to prior years. These costs are expected to continue into 2020 until the
case is settled with the higher court.
• In total, $300,000 was transferred into the Capital Reserve Fund to be used
to fund 2019 capital projects such as road maintenance, park improvement and
equipment purchases.
• The 2019 Minimum Municipal Pension Obligation (MMO) for the Non-Uniform
and Uniform Pension plans was calculated using the 2017 Valuation. This valuation
included changes in various assumptions which had the overall effect of increasing
the MMO for these plans by $157,300.
• Many municipalities in PA struggle with unfunded pension liabilities. Overall,
the Municipality does not have this concern. Even though the assumption changes
in the 2017 Valuation increased the overall costs for both plans, each plan is still
nearly 90% funded due to good investment decisions, fiscal controls and a Pension
Committee that functions extremely well.
• The Director of Finance continues to be an active Board Member of the County-
wide Tax Collection Committee which oversees all earned income tax collections for
Westmoreland County.
• Scanned Planning files are being organized into categories and years so
that development files, such as building plans, stormwater and utilities plans,
occupancy permits, and maps, will be easily accessible. In addition, the scanned
files are linked to the Geoplan software utilized by the Community Development
Department.
• The Administration oversaw the installation of new flooring in the main room
of the Community Center, the Police locker room and the office areas in the Library.
• The 2020-2024 Capital Improvements Program ($17,195,000) and the 2020
Operating Budget ($13,841,016) were both approved with tax millage and service
levels staying constant. A five- year budget plan was completed for all of the funds
and presented along with the 2020 Operating Budget.
46
MURRYSVILLE
Murrysville Volunteer Fire Company:
Brian Synan, Chief
In 2019, the Murrysville Volunteer Fire Company (www.murrysvillefire.
com) responded to 459 alarms for a total of 1,400 volunteer hours of serving
the community. The leading alarms were automatic fire alarms and vehicle
accidents; 319 of the alarms were in the VFC’s district, while 140 alarms were
assists to other fire departments.
The line officers for 2020 are as follows:
Fire Chief:
Brian Synan
Assistant Chief:
Pat O’Mahony
Captain:
Bill Yant, III
Lieutenant:
Tom Ralston
Sergeant:
Christian Dover
The executive officers for 2020 are as follows:
President:
Randy Marts
1st Vice President: Rich LeMaster
2nd Vice President: Carl Pursh
Secretary
Mike Cline
Treasurer
Rick O’Mahony
Trustee
Pat O’ Mahony
Trustee
Jen Ralston
Relief Treasurer:
Russ Cline
The Murrysville VFC is always looking for volunteers age 14 and above,
not only to be firefighters, but anyone who could help with fundraising
events, maintenance of the equipment and/or facility or any other
professional expertise that would help the community. Please contact the
fire company at 724-327-1234 or [email protected].
White Valley Fire
Department: John Bohinc, Chief
In 2020 The White Valley VFD will be marking its 71st year of service to
the community. The firefighters from White Valley responded to 522 alarms
in 2019, which is a slight increase from 2018. The highest response volume
was for vehicle accidents (164), followed by false automatic alarms; actual
structure fires (12) was up slightly from 2018. The total number of staff
hours White Valley volunteered while responding to the alarms was 2,855
man hours. The average time spent on each alarm was an average of 38
minutes.
During 2019, White Valley had 10 firefighters complete just under 200
hours of training each to complete the PA Certified Essentials of Firefighting
course; nine of those continued on with an additional 16 hours of Structural
Burn training and two firemen continued on with additional training and
received their PA Firefighter I Certification. All of these training hours were