by Audrey Levine, Staff Writer
A round of applause from several residents closed out Monday’s Borough Council meeting after Mayor Lillian Zuza ordered a hiring freeze for all borough offices.
Mayor Zuza announced she was issuing the hiring freeze indefinitely in the borough, beginning immediately and affecting all employees, including borough workers and police officers.
”I made the decision to do this procedure,” Mayor Zuza said Tuesday. “We have budget constraints.”
For the time being, Mayor Zuza said, if someone leaves a position in the borough, the job will be evaluated to determine if another employee is needed to fill the spot or if the responsibilities can be divided among other workers.
”There are no open positions yet,” she said. “But if anyone resigns, we will need to look at the position to see if it has to be replaced. We will see if it can be expended.”
Currently, Borough Administrator Gary Garwacke said, there are about 55 full-time borough employees and about 20 part-time workers.
Mayor Zuza said there are no plans yet to downsize and eliminate people already employed.
”We’re bare bones as it is now,” she said. “But we don’t want to add positions or delete them.”
When it is time to look at the 2009 budget, Mayor Zuza said, the borough will evaluate all filled positions to determine if any should be cut as a cost-saving measure.
Mayor Zuza said she also is planning to ask all borough departments to look at decreasing their operating budgets by 5 percent for the 2009 budget.
”We need to get together to pay our bills, but not raise taxes,” she said. “I know what people are going through and I don’t want us to take a hit again next year.”

