EVANS CITY — Plans to reduce the number of council members from seven to five will move forward.

The council voted in November to circulate a petition among voters in the borough, and solicitor Mike Gallagher said the petition was successful.

Gallagher explained that 5 percent of the borough’s 1,208 registered voters were required to sign the petition to reduce the number of council members to five.

He said 61 signatures were needed on the petition and 96 voters signed.

Gallagher said he will present the petition and other required documents to county Judge Thomas Doerr, who will schedule a hearing on the matter.

Once the action is finalized, the first two council members whose terms expire will not be replaced.

“It is done by attrition so no one is fired,” Gallagher said.

The council voted unanimously to authorize Gallagher to submit the petition and other documents at county court.

“We’re having a very difficult time finding people to volunteer to do this type of work,” council President Lee Dyer explained.

He said although the council has been a seven-member governing board since anyone can remember, the council no longer oversees sewer and water matters since the authority separated from the borough a few years ago.

Dyer said similarly, the Evans City Police Department became the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department two years ago and is run by a police commission.

Councilwoman Kim Armstrong said it is becoming more and more difficult to get people to sit on the council, especially since they must live within the small borough to be eligible to run.

Five of the seven council seats will be up for re-election in 2017, so it has not been determined which seats will be eliminated.

The council members are Dyer, Armstrong, Karl Kennedy, John McKinney, Paul Foster, Dave Spithaler and Faye Parenti.