East Greenville officials don't plan on releasing the transcript from the termination hearing for former police Chief Andrew Skelton. On Monday, Mayor Keith Gerhart stated that it could not be released to the public because Skelton requested a private hearing.

The municipality is not allowed to release the transcript, the mayor said after the borough council meeting. However, an order and finding of fact from the hearing officer, Melissa Fiala, could be acquired from the municipality with a Right to Know Request.

            According to Gerhart, the only person who could release the transcripts is the former employee who requested the hearing. In a June 1 text message, the mayor explained that the hearing decision is available from municipal officials via a Right to Know request. He added that the transcript is not yet available because hundreds of pages need to be reviewed and redacted. "The decision states all key points of law and factual evidence," he wrote.

            Responding to a question from Melissa Leinbach, Solicitor Michael Peters would not say if the borough could release the transcript in the future. "I do not want to say until I think it through," he said during the meeting.

            Skelton's 30-day period to file an appeal has not yet expired, so the matter is not "over, over, over," Peters said during the meeting.

            In other news, council discussed the issue of its flimsy trash bags. Manager Jim Fry told the members he was planning to meet with a representative of Raleigh, NC based WasteZero, the bag producing company, at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Fry recommended that the members look for a new bag-producing company.

            "I'm done with WasteZero," the manager said during the meeting, adding that he would begin the process of getting prices from other vendors. "We need to cut our losses with this company. We've had issues like this before."

            According to Fry, the bags made with recycled plastic are nothing like the ones initially used by the borough in 1990. He said an internal draw tie in each bag is causing most of the problems, and expressed a preference for open ended bags closed by a twist-tie.

            Municipal officials took action on a plan to approve work to the 500 block of Washington Street for this summer. The members voted to advertise a project to mill and overlay the section of the street between 6th Street and North 5th Street. Douglass Criddle, chair of the borough's roads committee, estimated the total cost at $132,885.90. According to Fry, council could approve the work by quantity to control how much the borough spends.

            The Borough of East Greenville Police Department responded to 150 total incidents in May compared to only two by the state police in the borough. The local officers dealt with 26 public service calls, 25 traffic incidents, 10 assists, nine accidents, five animal calls, four domestics, four parking incidents, one alarm one fire and 60 others, according to information provided by the mayor.