As Nesquehoning continues to look for a borough manager or new borough secretary/treasurer, council made some decisions to help operations in the interim.

On Wednesday, council voted to hire Lacey Gonzalez as a part-time treasurer at a rate of $40 per hour, not to exceed 25 hours per month.

Council President David Hawk said Gonzalez will provide services for payroll, bank records and other functions related to borough business.

He noted that an agreement with the previous secretary/treasurer RoniSue Ahner working part-time to do payroll the last two pay periods has been terminated after Ahner sent in notice to terminate the agreement.

In other matters related to staffing, councilwoman Abbie Guardiani asked council to put a six-month moratorium on the new short-term rental ordinance council previously approved.

She said the reason is because the borough doesn’t have anyone to review the applications that come in at this time.

The new ordinance asks people who wish to do short-term rentals to complete an application and get approved by the borough, but Guardiani said that right now, the current staff doesn’t have the time to review things and issue the permits for the rentals.

“I’m hoping that if we get a borough manager or secretary/treasurer on board that they are going to be much more capable of doing these things,” she said. “I honestly think the two ladies in the office are overwhelmed right now and I don’t think this should be put on them.”

Council agreed and placed a hold on the new ordinance until staffing is resolved.