Cheswick Council to hold special meeting to fill council vacancy

Cheswick Council is holding a special meeting Thursday night to address a vacancy on council.

“Pennsylvania law gives us a limited time frame in which we can appoint someone to fill that vacancy and the time period between when the vacancy occurred and our next regularly scheduled meeting was beyond that allotted time frame,” council President Michael Girardi said of the special meeting.

Council is looking to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of former Councilman Brian Testa.

The special meeting, along with all future council meetings, will be held at the borough fire hall at 1411 Spruce St. Thursday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. In-person council meetings had been held at the borough building.

“We reached out to the fire hall because their space is much larger than our space in our (usual) meeting room,” Girardi said.

“It’s not a very large space so for us to have seven council people, the mayor, borough secretary, a solicitor, and potentially people from the community there,” he said. “It just wouldn’t have worked to allow us to have social distancing. The fire hall has tables and chairs and it allows us to spread out easily and meet in a safer way.”

Girardi said the fire company is not charging the borough a fee for using the fire hall, which he said also has adequate parking and is handicapped accessible. He said the meetings won’t interfere with the duties of firefighters.

“It’s a well-known meeting space in town that can accommodate our community,” Girardi said.

Regular council meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month and agenda meetings the Wednesday before that, with both starting at 7 p.m.