HONESDALE, PA — The February 8 meeting of the Honesdale Borough Council started with a bang: six members voted to approve Wayne Memorial Hospital’s conditional-use application for a helipad at 1839 Fair Ave. Councilmember Mike Dux abstained, saying that his participation in helipad fundraising activities represented a clear conflict of interest. But the vote to approve the hospital’s purchase and nonconforming use of property adjacent to its visitor parking lot was unanimous, clearing the way for a planned $35 million expansion of the hospital.

For the remainder of the meeting, the council was confronted with a variety of issues held over from or unfinished by last year’s council, the reopened 2016 borough budget chief among them. The council voted 6-1 to approve a new budget that redistributes funds from the old budget, the dissenting vote cast by Bill Canfield.

That budget now includes funding for the borough manager position, all expenses for which can be viewed at honesdaleborough.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/01-18-16-tentatively-taxes.pdf.

One speaker to address the council during the public comment period was Michael Morris, who has brought a $100 million lawsuit against the council in connection with renovation of the former Sullum’s building. Morris started by saying that he was not allowed to discuss specifics of the pending case, but that he wanted the council to know he hopes to spare taxpayers the burden of a monetary judgment in his favor. Although Morris didn’t say how or when that could be accomplished, he did say that he’s willing to discuss it with the council at any time.

Council president Mike Augello took that opportunity to announce that, as a general rule, the new twice-monthly regular meetings of the council will allow issues to be introduced at the second-Monday meeting and decisions about them to be made at the third-Monday meeting.

Jerry Dooley also addressed the council during the public comment segment, repeating the request he has made for the past two years: that the borough provide a site suitable for use as a training facility for its all-volunteer fire department. The department has been without a training facility since its former training facility was sacrificed to the expansion of the borough’s sewer plant more than two years ago. And that, said Dooley, has cost the department in several respects.

Noting that volunteerism is down in the best of circumstances, Dooley added that the inability to provide proper training to new recruits is making it all but impossible to attract them. He also noted that the department has secured $26,000 in grant money for construction of a training facility and that one grant has already been withdrawn because of the indefinite delay in construction.

One site Dooley identified as suitable, the land occupied by volleyball courts adjacent to the borough’s pool complex, has since been designated as a skate park. But public works director Rich Doney said he thought the parcel, just shy of an acre, could accommodate both a skate park and training facility. Dooley urged the council to investigate that option.

In other business, Augello asked for volunteers to man the various borough committees. Takers were slow to come forward, especially for the grants committee. So Augello said that committee members would not necessarily be expected to write grant applications themselves, and that he was in favor of hiring a grant writer who would be aggressive on the borough’s behalf. In the past, grant writing was done by former council member Anita Pisano. Chris Murray and Troy Johnson eventually accepted the challenge.