With only one week left until State College Borough Council votes on the 2013 budget, council members had one last opportunity to review it at the work session meeting Monday night.
Borough manager Tom Fountaine said he addressed a list of 97 comments and questions raised by council over the past month and compiled the answers into a packet.
“The goal would be to get some general consensus over the budget,” Fountaine said.
He said there was agreement between council members about increasing the budget for support service, and adding about 20 hours to the administration budget for someone to provide Mayor Elizabeth Goreham with more help.
“I need about 10 hours a week, and I think that’s what I asked for,” Goreham said. “I really do need someone who can work with me.”
The staff also discussed withdrawing from two cog programs: the rental housing/property maintenance code program and the regional planning department.
Fountaine said there are four issues with the code agency, including fragmentation, duplication, level of service and governance and accountability.
“We do not believe cost is a factor in this,” he said. “What we do believe is greater efficiency and quality of programs can be achieved by running a local program.”
Fountaine said notice to withdraw had to be given by the end of the calendar year for withdrawal within 12 months.
But, council member Peter Morris said he did not think there was enough time to vote on the issue before the end of the year.
He said he does not plan to vote for this if it comes up during the December 17 meeting.
Parking manager Charles DeBow also provided an update on a project to provide “Zipcar” in State College.
DeBow said it is a car sharing company that provide cars and park them in downtown areas, where customers can rent them by the hour.
“University towns are a new focus of theirs because of the student population and expense of having a car full time,” he said.
DeBow said he expects the company to launch a couple of cars by the first quarter of next year.
