At their second meeting of the year, the Borough of Honesdale Council appointed Juanita Pisano to replace former council member Lee Garing who resigned, and selected Ed Langendoerfer, a former council member, as mayor of Honesdale.

Pisano, a Republican, has lived in the borough since 2001. Langendoerfer, owner of a construction company, served on the council for six years and was its chairman for two years.

Pisano, who garnered 462 votes in last fall’s primary and lost to Mike Slish by eight votes, will serve for two years. Langendoerfer will also serve for two years.

The new council member and the new mayor will take office after they are codified and sworn-in by a notary public. That occurrence will take place apart from the council meeting, said F.J. Monaghan, chairman of the council.

Others who applied for the positions were Jason Ohliger for the council vacancy and Margaret Allen and John Siejk for mayor.

The remainder of the meeting was taken up by councilman Scott Smith, chairman of the finance committee, with changes to the 2012 budget. Questions and comments were encouraged from the audience.

One of the main changes was a decision to reverse the previous council’s decision to lay off two police officers. That move will keep the number of police at seven where previously the number was nine. Two officers who left the force were never replaced.

“In the revenue section of the budget, several increases in revenues occurred because the previous council took the revenues up through October,” Smith said. “We have extended new revenues up to include November.”

In the revenue section on zoning and building permits, three

projects were originally included in this item: the CVS project, the Readiness Project at the Armory and a planned project at the former Salvation Army site. The council decided to remove the Salvation Army project from the revenue side because it was not clear as yet whether the project would happen. The revenue comes as fees are paid to the borough to conduct zoning and building permits.

In the contingency reserve section at the end of the budget, the inclusion of a line for a borough manager’s salary was discussed by Scott. “We are updating the employee manual, re-organizing job descriptions of employees and deciding what duties will be picked up by council members,” Smith said. “We need to define just what the borough manager’s duties would be. With those roles and responsibilities defined, we could decide to advertise for a borough manager.”

Also in the contingency section, the issue of an allocation of $25,000 for the public pool was discussed. “We need to decide on repairs to the site and consider whether we wish to make the pool indoor/outdoor so that many can take advantage of it all year,” he said.

Scott welcomed any questions or concerns from the public before the budget is officially approved by February 15.