Monessen Mayor Misses Another City Council Meeting, Council Members Say Town In Danger Of Shutting Down
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MONESSEN (KDKA) -- A town in Westmoreland County is in danger of being shut down at the end of the week.
The mayor hasn't been to council meetings in months, and bills haven't been paid.
Chalk up another meeting of the Monessen City Council where they accomplished nothing.
Instead, Thursday night was another night of political bickering over who should replace a councilman who recently died. And, because first-term mayor, Matt Shorraw, was absent again, as was Councilman Gil Coles, there was no quorum to vote on anything. That meant no business as usual, and no bills could be paid.
Rev. William Bass, a local minister, said after the meeting, "Whoever gets elected to office in Monessen should be obligated to show up for the meetings... because that's the big issue. Hopefully, the governor or somebody will help break this logjam."
"My dad spent the last two years of his life spending hours and hours here, trying to make the city better," Nicole Holmes, whose father died in May, said. "Since his passing, they've made a mockery of everything he's done."
If the City Council and the mayor can't come to a new insurance agreement by midnight Saturday, when the current insurance policy expires, police cars and fire apparatus will not have insurance. Also, city employees would have to be laid off.
City Councilman Anthony Orzechowski told KDKA-TV News, "We're working out to have the state police cover for the police, the fire chief is working with cities around the area, like Donora, that they would be covering things of that nature. This city hall gets shut down, people can't come to work."
KDKA reached out to the mayor on Facebook, he said: "A city shutdown would be horrible. Nothing is stopping the insurance from being paid, except for a couple of councilmen who refuse to let it happen."
