Slippery Rock Borough Council approved its 2022 balanced budget at its meeting Tuesday night.

According to Shawn Pugh, borough manager, there will be no tax increase for borough residents this year.

“We haven't had an increase for at least four or five years,” Pugh said in a phone interview following the meeting.

The newly approved 2022 budget totals $1,190,364, which is larger than the budget from 2021 that totaled $1,120,531.

Pugh said cost cuts were made to contracted services within the borough because council members think they're not out of the woods regarding the pandemic.

“We weren't using the full amount budgeted before for, for example, our engineers, solicitor and other legal services,” Pugh said. “We expect our revenue to be lower. We want it to be higher, but we budgeted conservatively.”

Pugh added there are no major purchases on the horizon for the borough. He said the last big expense was the purchase of two new police cars and a dump truck last year.

In the coming year, the borough will be looking to hire two part-time police officers, Pugh said. He said these hires will keep overall costs down.

“It keeps the cost of officers down. More part-time officers means we don't have to pay overtime for the full-time ones,” Pugh said.

Council voted in favor of setting the police officers' contribution to their pension plan at zero percent. Pugh said this is because the pension fund is over-funded.

Council also reappointed Barry Harlow to the Municipal Authority Board for a five-year term. Harlow has served on the board since 2007.

Council also appointed Jennifer Ravert to the Planning Commission for a period of four years. Pugh said Ravert has been regularly attending borough meetings in the past few months.

“(Ravert has) been inquisitive about how borough-level business works,” Pugh said. “She'll be able to add energy to the planning commission.”

Lastly, council approved the placing of a donation box at the Gazebo for scarves, hats, gloves and other cold-weather attire. Pugh said the box is for an initiative called Gloves for Love by citizen Sonya Lenz.

“It's like those library boxes where you can take a book and leave a book,” Pugh said. “It's about taking care of people.”

The next meeting is the reorganization meeting Jan. 3.