HONESDALE, PA — Mayor Derek Williams told the River Reporter that Honesdale’s interim borough manager, Kevin Kundratic, “has been researching potential contractors to perform the various categories of DPW services we typically provide.”

The work includes such vital tasks as snow plowing, park maintenance and debris cleanup, and until April was done by the borough’s Department of Public Works (DPW). But DPW director Joseph Rulis quit. On March 27, the five employees who worked under Rulis—Mark Daniels Sr., Mark Daniels Jr., Roger Kenyon, William Corcoran, Harry Seitz and Douglas Gombert—sent a letter to the borough council stating that their resignation would be effective April 10 unless they had a sit-down with the council about “general working conditions, rescinding the acceptance of Director Rulis’s resignation, and working with Mr. Rulis to resolve lingering concerns, such as compensation and union representation.”

The council will not say why there was no sit-down. Just before their mass resignation, the DPW workers were on the verge of joining International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

Williams told the River Reporter in an update last week that the borough is looking to hire a DPW director “to help manage those operations. Beyond that, contracted services might be one of our more immediate solutions.”

He said “the important work the DPW folks did is being inventoried.”

Is there a chance the former DPW workers will come back?

“I couldn’t say,” Williams said. “That’d be a question to ask them. Working in public service and providing essential services can be difficult and thankless work. I’ve got immense respect for our former DPW crews and sincerely appreciate the work they did for all of us.”