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Towanda's ladder truck back in service; borough ordinances to be updated
TOWANDA, Feb 08, 2009 (The Daily Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
At the most recent meeting of the Towanda Borough Council, the fire chief announced that the Towanda Fire Department's ladder truck is back in service, and the council hired a Rochester, N.Y., company to work on an update and re-formatting of the borough ordinances, which will allow them to be posted on the Internet.
Ordinances
"The book (containing the borough ordinances) has been around since 1966, and there have been 98 modifications since then," said Towanda Borough Manager Tom Fairchild Jr. "Some of the laws go back to the 1800s."
General Code LLC of Rochester, N.Y., the company hired by the council on Monday, will make recommendations to improve the language in the ordinances, suggest changes to the ordinances in light of current state and federal laws and recent court cases, and possibly make recommendations on the fines and penalties that the ordinances should require, according to Fairchild and written information provided by the company.
However, General Code LLC cannot make any changes to the ordinances on its own, Towanda Borough Councilman Paul Sweitzer noted. The company will only make recommendations, which could not go into effect unless they were approved by the borough council, he said. Also, the company's recommendations will have to undergo a review by Towanda Borough Solicitor Leonard Frawley before they could be implemented, Sweitzer said.
"They don't make any changes unless we agree to everything," Sweitzer said.
The code book "is so antiquated, it's almost gotten to be a liability issue now," he said.
The company would not only provide a printed version of the updated code book, but would "make it available on the Internet," Fairchild said. "I think that's a big plus."
The borough will pay the company $7,700 for its work, which is a "very reasonable" fee, Fairchild said.
"They do this work for many other boroughs in the state," Fairchild said. Among the municipalities that have used the company are Eagles Mere, Tunkhannock and Athens, Towanda officials said.
Ladder
Towanda Fire Chief Bill Roof announced that the Towanda Fire Department's ladder truck is back in service and is "working fine."
The truck had been out of service since last summer, and the borough had to lease a ladder truck from the Athens Borough Fire Department while it was repaired.
The truck was made in 1979. Due to its age and the ongoing difficulty of finding spare parts for it, the borough is seeking to replace the truck.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
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