DuBois City Council Meets Council Potentials, Discusses Cats

DUBOIS - At the last full DuBois City Council meeting then City Council member William Boyle's letter of resignation had been read to those present. Having battled illness for quite some time, Boyle had come to the decision it was better to resign and let someone else take the yokes of the position than to often leave an empty seat at the tables.

From that point a thirty day time limit was started for the council to appoint a replacement. If nobody is appointed by the council it would be up to a local court to appoint a person of their choosing. With this in mind the council had asked for resumes and letters of interest.

At Mondays' meeting three step forward with interest for the job.

Molly Guthrie stepped up to the microphone first. Guthrie described herself as a life long resident of area, of DuBois all her adult life, and a mother of five children. She cited her children as a motivating factor into wanting to make DuBois a great place to live.

“I am very interested in politics as a whole, and I think it is a really great process we have here,” said Guthrie.

The second introduced was David Volpe, a resident of DuBois for nearly a decade with his wife and two children. Not planning on leaving any time soon, he too wished to help make DuBois a nice place for them to grow up.

“The next gentleman doesn't need any introduction, but to be fair to everyone,” said Mayor John “Herm” Suplizio introducing the third candidate.

Former council member Gary Gilbert also stepped up to fill the now vacant position.

Voting on who to accept will take place at the next meeting. As interviews have to be conducted in public meetings there won't be any interviews by the council prior to the actual voting.

Other business at the council meeting included a rezoning of two lots of land on along Beaver Drive, both portions in the section between Beaver Drive and East DuBois Avenue. The change switches a LI-1 and H1 zone to transitional zones to better fit the businesses within the zones and the area. The last tracks of land not considered transitional zoning there are a stretch of commercial zoning along Liberty Avenue, a small section of office zoning and a large track of LI-2.

On a similar note the council voted to send a request by Attorney David Hopkins back to the planning commission that involved converting the Best Western Conference Center into dormitories. The intent would be these dorms would house students of Pennsylvania State University students attending the DuBois campus. The main concern about the plan is the dorms would be tax free, and want to go into what is considered valuable property that isn't zoned for that use.

The council also is continuing its efforts to solve the cat problem they keep receiving calls about. The issue was tabled until City Solicitor Toni Cherry could go over the Humane Society's reply on if they would accept the wayward cats. There was also talk of possibly beginning to start licensing felines, but Suplizio indicated that even at $5 per cat some people in the municipality might, in these uncertain economic times, simply choose to set the felines free, turning a possible fix into a worse problem than before.