Councilman Tommy Thompson resigns in Donora

He didn’t explain the decision in his resignation letter.

Donora council accepted the resignation of council Vice President Tommy Thompson during Thursday’s meeting.

The vote was 5-1 with President Cindy Brice, Fred Berestecky, James Brice, Michael McDowell, DeAnne Pavelko accepting the resignation and Casey Perrotta voting against it. Thompson didn’t attend the meeting.

“Please accept this letter of official notice of my resignation from the Donora Borough council, effective immediately,” Cindy Brice stated as she read Thompson’s resignation letter. “It’s been my pleasure to serve the community of Donora as its elected official.”

Thompson didn’t provide an explanation for why he decided to resign, but Cindy and James Brice said they weren’t happy about it as they cast their votes.

Perrotta was also upset about the decision, which is why he voted against accepting it.

“I did not want to see him resign,” Perrotta said. “I’m going to miss him, he was one of my dad’s best friends, but I definitely didn’t want to see him resign.”

Mayor Don Pavelko also expressed regret about Thompson’s resignation.

“Tommy would do things for Donora and he’s going to be missed,” the mayor said. “I hope whoever takes his place is at least half as good as Tommy was.”

Donora is accepting letters of intent from anyone interested in filling out the remainder of Thompson’s term. The deadline is Sept. 26 at 4 p.m.

Purchase of new borough vehicles

There was confusion Thursday regarding the purchase of new borough vehicles. The agenda listed a motion to purchase a new Ford F600 Chassis 4×4 with an oversized dump bed that would have totaled $135,000 Perrotta said he didn’t know council would be voting on the purchase. He and Cindy Brice discussed during the meeting why the purchase was part of the agenda.

“I didn’t know anything about it, because apparently something was told to the president yesterday, but it was never relayed to anyone else and we’re on the finance committee,” Perrotta said.

Council ended up amending the motion and pushed the purchase of the vehicle for later discussion.

Council members voted to approve two other vehicle-related purchases in an amended motion — a new steel dump truck bed for an existing borough F350 with a price not exceeding $16,000 and a new police interceptor Ford Explorer with a price not exceeding $61,000. Both purchases are being made with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

In other business, council approved:

• Spending $13,158.70 on purchasing a replacement fire nozzle for 2007 American LaFrance Ladder Truck for the Fire Department • The purchase of a new telephone system from Full Service Network with a monthly service charge of $189.99 plus a one-time activation fee of $549.99.

• The resignation of Code Enforcement Officer Joseph Volpe.

• An ordinance amending the codified ordinances of Donora to regulate portable storage containers in residential areas.