ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY - Altoona City Council members met Tuesday night to talk to talk about the Act 47 recommendations they received last week would affect next year's budget. Altoona balanced the budget, but they're not happy about how they had to do it.
Altoona officials are supposed to send their comments on the Act 47 recommendations back to their coordinator by Wednesday. But Tuesday night council decided they couldn't do it.
The City Manager has a list of things he wants to ask the coordinator to reconsider. And the City Council wants to read that list and vote on it before sending it back. Only the coordinator can make changes to the plan, but city council members hope the coordinator will listen to their requests.
A major sticking point was the recommendation to roll AMED services into the city fire department. Mayor Bill Schirff said he supports AMED completely and he doesn't want that in the final plan.
Councilman Marc Geis thinks there are things in the plan that will actually hurt the city, but he knows the city has to agree to whatever coordinator says because they have no other choice.
City Council will meet again Monday to go over the list of grievances.
Altoona officials are supposed to send their comments on the Act 47 recommendations back to their coordinator by Wednesday. But Tuesday night council decided they couldn't do it.
The City Manager has a list of things he wants to ask the coordinator to reconsider. And the City Council wants to read that list and vote on it before sending it back. Only the coordinator can make changes to the plan, but city council members hope the coordinator will listen to their requests.
A major sticking point was the recommendation to roll AMED services into the city fire department. Mayor Bill Schirff said he supports AMED completely and he doesn't want that in the final plan.
Councilman Marc Geis thinks there are things in the plan that will actually hurt the city, but he knows the city has to agree to whatever coordinator says because they have no other choice.
City Council will meet again Monday to go over the list of grievances.
Charlotte Ames is the area's only local Health Reporter and brings you the latest medical health news weeknights. You can catch Healthcast on WTAJ News at 5:00pm and her Health Headlines report on WTAJ News at 5:30pm.