A blooming begonia and black ribbon and bow sat next to his name plaque where the late Slatington solicitor Edmund Healy used to sit during the council meetings.

Healy was honored with a memorial Monday night by the Slatington borough council at the beginning of the meeting. He died in an all-terrain vehicle crash on April 6 while on vacation.

The Rev. David Schnaars opened the meeting with a prayer, then council Vice President Bryon Reed spoke about Healy and his service to the borough.

Reed said Healy was an attorney for the law firm of Steckel and Stopp in Slatington for about 25 years. He became the solicitor for the council in the early 1990s, when the then-solicitor William Steckel became ill.

“In his capacity as borough solicitor, he took a real interest in our borough affairs,” Reed said. “Some would say he treated Slatington as his own and expressed his advice to us on matters in a way that he thought was best to protect Slatington’s best interests.”

Reed said that even in times of criticism, which comes with working in the public sector, Healy handled it well.

“Many times, I saw Ed after a meeting was adjourned, go into the audience and try to mend things or at least hear the opposition’s point of view, and listen to them, hearing their concerns. Many times, he would do the same with elected council men and women and the mayor,” he said.

As the council’s legal representative, Healy worked tirelessly, Reed said. For instance with the $7 million sewer collection system rehabilitation project, he was instrumental in preparing multimunicipal agreements and was involved with from the early planning through construction and the years of audits and expenditure verifications.

“Ed was on top of every aspect of the project with great detail and saw it through till the end,” he said.

Reed also said that although Healy was not a resident of Slatington, he attended many of its events. He knew every street in the borough sometimes better than the council members. And he became good friends with his clients and others.

“Ed went above and beyond with his interest in Slatington. His shoes will be hard to fill,” Reed said.