As Trafford Borough continues to be one of the most transparent communities in Pennsylvania, last month I requested that Councilman Shoub and Councilman Corrales provide a current balance report at the monthly council meeting for the PennVest (Sewage) and Debt Service (Borough Building) loans, respectively. The numbers for November were reported at the regular council meeting held on November 4, 2020. This info can be found after next month’s council meeting and monthly henceforth when the November meeting minutes are approved. These reports will be provided monthly per my request unless a majority of council decides otherwise.

In the meantime, here are the current balances:

PennVest Loan (as of 12/1/2020) – $2,500,478.30. The final payment for this loan is scheduled for February 1, 2047. This loan is paid from the Sewage Fund. Monthly expense lists are available to view on the borough website or posted on the official TRAFFORD BOROUGH Facebook page.

Debt Service Loan (as of 12/1/2020) – $3,084,091.67. The final payment for this loan is scheduled for December 1, 2042. This loan is paid from the General Fund. Monthly expense lists are available to view on the borough website or posted on the official TRAFFORD BOROUGH Facebook page.

Please remember that council does have dedicated public comment time during each regular meeting. This is the time to ask questions to the borough in a public setting and meeting minutes are recorded and available to view on the Trafford Borough website at www.traffordborough.com. Borough answers to questions presented will be provided after all public comment is given so to allow everyone a chance to provide uninterrupted public comment. To ensure information goes on public record for all to review, questions will only be answered during the public meetings and not on social media. This holds your elected representatives accountable to the information they provide.

Following each monthly meeting, I post to the website and the OFFICIAL TRAFFORD BOROUGH Facebook page:

1. Approved meeting minutes

2. General Fund Expense List

3. Sewage Fund Expense List

4. Liquid Fuels Expense List

This information is available 24/7 on the Trafford Borough website under the “Trafford Borough > Council Information” Menu.

To continue our goal of transparency, I research hundreds of PA municipalities’ websites annually and Trafford Borough provides more financial information than at least 95% of the other municipalities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I urge the taxpayers and sewage customers to research other communities’ websites as well. Trafford Borough has also held many public meetings solely to discuss and answer any questions regarding sewage. Once we are clear from COVID, I hope to hold another one of these meetings again. At our last public sewage meeting, council had ALCOSAN provide a complete presentation and the borough provided loan balances so to provide as much information as possible. Council also opened the floor for public comment and questions in case any further information was requested. This meeting was long so as to present all information first to answer questions and then public comment was received.Following that meeting, for those that could not attend the meeting, the borough admin staff provided with the sewage bill an in-depth letter detailing the most commonly requested sewage information. That info has also been posted to the borough website as well as official borough social media. I will repost that letter this evening. I will also post the loan balances and payoff dates to the website this evening.

There will be a public council discussion meeting this Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 6:00pm. The main subject is the 2021 borough budget. I will post the draft budget this evening as well. During the meeting, there will be an opportunity for public comments. Members of the Trafford community are encouraged to attend. Please check the borough website prior to the meeting for venue information (whether it will be held in-person or via ZOOM). Once again this year, we are proud to announce that the draft budget includes NO TAX INCREASE from 2020.

Thank you.

Kris Cardiff

Council President

Posted by Kris Cardiff on
Categories: News