Lansford Council will hear from the firm it hired for the state’s Strategic Management Planning Program next week.

Benjamin Kafferlin, of Kafferlin Associates, said that the firm expects to present baseline trends to borough council during their regular council meeting next Wednesday.

This will be the first presentation and won’t focus on the borough operations, but examine financial trends, he said.

“It paints the backdrop for the future presentations,” said Kafferlin.

Council selected Kafferlin last year after hearing proposals from several consultants for the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s grant-funded STMP program.

The borough sought Kafferlin to review the borough’s overall operations, including doing a financial condition assessment, a management audit of all departments and operations, a review of investments, employee work agreements, union contracts and health care costs and borough ordinances.

In late May, Kafferlin met with council to go over the program and learn what specific areas they wanted to focus upon.

“There are few areas that we really want to know where you think the problem points are so that we are absolutely sure to get to them,” Kafferlin said.

They included governance and administration, financial sustainability, economic development and tax base, land use and community development, public safety, infrastructure, parks and quality of life, community engagement and communications, and regional relationships. Some of the dialed in responses from council included blight, community development, equipment needs, financial stability, technology and antiquated systems, meeting management, policies and procedures, police staffing, infrastructure, such as roads, stormwater, park, communication and public trust.

Kafferlin will review the information, including a lengthy list of documentation and financials, to generate a list of recommendations for council.

“We’re going to rank them, price them out, and put them on an implementation timeline over five years,” he said. “We’re going to make this actionable as possible.”

The DCED has grants that could help the borough achieve these goals. The borough already received a grant from DCED for the STMP program, which cost $79,550. The borough’s match is 10% or $7,955. The grant is usually a 50% match, but Lansford’s portion was reduced due to financial hardship.