Former councilman Bill Bair spoke to a large number of Eldred Borough residents at the Eldred Borough Fire Hall on Sunday to discuss concerns within the community –– including the resignations of two Borough employees, who many residents allege were forced to resign.
Borough residents organized a town-wide meeting for the purpose of talking about their concerns.
Shortly after the meeting kicked off, and throughout the course of the meeting, Bair repeated his intentions were not to speak badly of anybody.
In conjunction with the beliefs and remarks of the audience, Bair alleged that council members forced the two employees to resign outside of a formal meeting, which he said cannot be done. He added that he believes the council wanted the employees gone and said the reason is because “they are stubborn.”
“Wake up people,” he said. “We have got to meet this and beat this because we’re going down hard.”
One resident asked, “Why don’t we just do away with the borough and let the state come in and take it over?”
Bair said, “I don’t want no bigger bureaucrat working on me.”
He explained to the crowd that four seats on the council are up for election but said if residents are serious about working towards changes to the borough, they need to run for council. He also explained that those interested in running will need to be written in, since the deadline has already passed for one to have their name placed on the ballot.
“We’re gonna be hurting in about eight months,” Bair said.
“We lost (Eldred) Township, Ceres (Township), Otto (Township), Lafayette,” saying that the townships are not helping the borough because the borough no longer has manpower to offer to those townships.
One resident spoke up and asked, “Can’t we, as a public, ask (certain council members) to step down in an emergency case here?”
Another resident replied, “No, they don’t have to. The only way you can do that is through the election.”
In response, Bair began to explain recall elections until another resident said that Pennsylvania does not allow recall elections at a local level.
Bair alleged that a raise given to the borough’s secretary was made possible lowering wages of other employees.
One resident asked Bair why cameras were installed in the borough office and in a worker’s office. Bair responded by saying money was stolen.
In 2018, borough secretary Robin Mazurkiewicz was fired after an investigation into allegations she was stealing borough funds.
However, Bair also alleged that the council wanted to catch one of the employees who recently resigned doing something he should not have been doing.
“Who has a job that they don’t screw off at,” Bair rhetorically asked.
Towards the conclusion of the meeting, Bair suggested residents attend more council meetings. He suggested the borough is slowly “going down” and is only being kept running by grants. He also offered praise for Council President Kimberly Weikert and her ability to get grants for the borough.
“Kim is smart, she’s really smart. I think sometimes she just gets overwhelmed with stuff,” he said. “I think she is a very intelligent person.”
The Eldred Borough Council will hold a special meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at the borough office to discuss public works and other concerns brought forth by the community.
