A somber mood hung over Monday's entire Slatington Borough Authority meeting, with Vice Chairman Laurie Dart-Schnaufer starting the meeting by asking for a moment of silence in memory of authority Chairman William "Bill" Stein.

Dart-Schnaufer said Bill had unexpectedly passed away on Saturday. Well-known within the borough, he had held many other volunteers positions within it as well.Later, Dart-Schnaufer said, "I think I can speak for all of the borough sewer authority members when I say we will truly miss Bill. He was a true gentleman, always willing to assist whenever asked, and we have all come to respect him and enjoyed his easygoing attitude and dedication to whatever he was involved in."The authority noted ways it will need to rework itself since Stein's death, including updating paperwork and check writing, and it also discussed how he often represented its members at borough council's monthly highway, sewer and special committee workshop meetings.Solicitor Ed Healy suggested other members may want to attend, especially since discussing things like the authority's budget constraints can make it difficult for himself, as a go-between, to justify its expenses. One such expense is recent notices of violations from the Environmental Protection Agency that are due mainly to this winter's cold weather.Assistant Treasurer David Frederick said the unanticipated NOVs are "starting to throw this budget out of control."Regarding these types of expenses, Healy said, "Anytime you get these NOVs or extraordinary reactions from contractors, projects go off the rails, it's very likely your engineering goes up, it's very likely your legal bills go up. I encourage you to share your concerns with the council any chance you get."Assistant Secretary Scott Schuckert noted the need to keep enough money in the budget for legal expenses."I don't think there's very much that we had (the solicitor) do that would be safely done by one of the members here … like a lot of the responses to the Department of Environmental Protection … (answering those) accurately, reliably, safely," he said. "The downside of having somebody who does not have legal experience respond to some of these things can be severe. … (Those) expenses are what they are."Healy, along with sewer plant operator Stefan Myers, also suggested that for future budgets, the authority budget for three violations per month from November to May.In addition, members noted it would be helpful if at least one council member could attend future authority meetings as well.