Borough reorganization meetings — where the council swears in new members and handles a few appointments — don’t generally draw much of a crowd.
But it was nearly standing-room-only at Delmont’s reorganization meeting Monday night, as a sizable number of residents came out to see what would happen with the mayor’s seat.
Longtime Mayor Alyce Urban, despite winning reelection unopposed in November, resigned by letter at council’s December meeting.
In her absence, new borough solicitor Tim Witt ran the reorganization meeting until new council members Bob Walczer, Julie Walczer and Tina Campbell were sworn in along with incumbent Pam Simpson, who was also reelected in November.
Bob Walczer was appointed council president, and Councilman Chris Bigley was appointed vice president.
The new council voted 5-2 to hold the position of mayor open and take letters of interest from residents. Delmont is about 1.1 square miles, and is home to about 2,600 people.
One person who had already expressed interest in the seat was Councilman David Weber, who received 95 write-in votes in November.
Walczer said he’d hoped the borough could conduct a special election for mayor, but Witt said the law requires council to appoint someone to the office for what would essentially be a two-year term, lasting until the next round of municipal elections.
“I’d really like the citizens of Delmont to have their voices heard,” Walczer said.
Several residents in attendance were there in support of Weber as interim mayor.
“It would seem to me that the community has already made its voice heard at the election,” said resident Bill Grassel. “There was a candidate, (Weber), who came in second.”
“There’s no need to rush at this time,” Walczer said. “I don’t want people saying, ‘Here they go, picking the person they want to go in there.’ I’d say let’s hold off and see if there are other interested candidates who we can interview. And if not, we have a candidate who is very qualified.”
If council does vote to appoint Weber to the mayor’s office, it will then need to appoint an interim council member to fill Weber’s seat. That person would also serve a two-year term until the 2027 municipal elections.
Council voted to advertise the mayoral vacancy and will either appoint someone at its Jan. 14 regular meeting or call a special meeting to appoint a candidate within the required 30 days.
Interested candidates can contact the borough office at 724-468-4422.
Other business
• Council appointed Tim Witt of Connellsville law firm Watson Mundorff as the official borough solicitor. Witt replaces longtime attorney Dan Hewitt, who retired following council’s December meeting.
• The regular monthly council meeting date will change to 6 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month. An agenda is available in advance at DelmontBoro.com.
