Jan. 9—MERCER — The Mercer borough reorganization meeting introduced a new council member, a new solicitor and a new mayor.
Mayor Travis Schaa made his debut, and his first order of business was finding a council president and vice president.
Aaron Sines, was re-elected president. He narrowly beat out Harlowe Mattocks for the position, who served as vice president last year.
The vice president role went to Nick Scillian. It was another close vote with Scillian barely beating out Bob Perrine for the role, locking him and Sines into the leadership roles for council.
Voting for both Sines and Scillian was the newest member of council, Marc Zickar. Zickar will begin his first four year term on council.
The final new face of the meeting was Ted Isoldi, who will be the borough's new solicitor. This comes as the previous solicitor, Ray Bogaty, announced he would be stepping away last month.
Isoldi is an attorney based right in the borough. He graduated law school in 1987 and has more than 30 years of experience. He has previously served on the council and the Mercer library board.
The final task of the meeting was to discuss some topics for their next meeting. The potential police merger with Jefferson Township was briefly talked about, along with more discussion on the idea of hiring the township's chief, Jeffrey Lockhart, to be the interim chief of a merged department.
The police merger was contentious when the subject was first brought up at a meeting in November. Councilmen Clifford Hughes, Harlowe Mattocks and Robert Perrine stormed out of the meeting causing its abrupt end, saying they felt blindsided by the proposal.