Kittanning Mayor Kirk Atwood veto of the garbage rate increase could not be overturned by Council last night. The veto became the last action by the Mayor, who tendered his resignation.
As promised at a previous Kittanning Borough Council meeting, Mayor Kirk Atwood vetoed the $2 monthly garbage fee increase.
Last night, Council unsuccessfully attempted to override the Mayor’s veto.
According to Solicitor Ty Heller, it would require six votes of the eight council members to override the Mayor. Of the seven council members in attendance, both Councilman David Croyle and Council President Kim Fox voted against the increase. Councilman Chris Schiano was absent due to a previous work commitment.
Fox said that she felt confident the budget for next year would not require the increase.
“We’re going to sit down and look at the budget with the Finance Committee. We had a lot of money going out for revitalization. We are hoping we can sit down and find a way to pay for this without doing the increase. If we can save for the residents, then that’s great. If not, then we can revisit it, but we are gonna try.”
The veto became the last piece of legislation that would be enacted upon by the Mayor. In a letter delivered to council members last night, Atwood tendered his official resignation.
According to the letter, Atwood has accepted employment that will require his total time and attention.
He wrote: “It is not fair to my employer, students, or the residents of this borough to split my attention between the two.”
Council did not accept his resignation during last night’s public meeting, but chose instead to put it on the agenda for the September 11th meeting.
Atwood has served as Mayor for the past eight years.
Straightforward, government should not provide a service at a profit - provide it at break even. If you need to fix roads, tax the people for that need. It is not a shell game to divert garbage profits to road repairs or some other need.
This Kittanning garbage collection topic should be fodder for late-night comedians.
Thank you Mayor Atwood, David Croyle and Kim Fox - you ‘get it’.
Sorry to see you go Mr. Atwood Thanks for your service.
Congratulations Taxpayers.. Finally an elected official that stands for the peoples interest in this matter! My hats off to you Mr. Atwood and council members that voted the increase down….