Monessen Gets Some Good Financial News

A much more civil tone played out over Tuesday night’s Monessen City Council Meeting. There were disagreements but the overall combative nature that has been the norm for these meetings subsided greatly. Council received great news financially as the annual commercial insurance package realized a decrease in premium. Annual savings on this year’s insurance package will be over $64,000. Most of those savings came from the Workers Compensation Insurance. Financial disagreement did arise as Councilman Anthony Orzechowski questioned the purchase process in which a new website for the city was carried out. Blaming a very contentious council, Mayor Matt Shorraw took it upon himself to contract for the website design and “deal with it later.” Orzechowski was upset because council was not made aware of the pending website design much less the expenditure. Council also authorized the demolition of 5 blighted properties in the city. That brings the total to 10 for the year. The demolitions will be paid for through a Community Development Block Grant. Shorraw hopes to add more properties to the demolition list and hopefully improve lots in the city to be able to sell to prospective buyers.