By KATHY MELLOTT
PORTAGE — The Portage Township supervisors say they want to hire a professional manager.
In a rare display of unity, the three-member board has agreed to investigate the role a manager could play in the township of nearly 4,000 people and look at ordinances needed to create the post.
“People don’t realize the work that is in-volved,” Supervisor Chairman Elwood Selapack said Thursday from the township office. “I’ve thought about this for a year or more.”
Selapack, a retired steel worker, was spending the morning dealing with township business – work for which he is not compensated.
While a manager has been on Selapack’s mind for some time, the idea was placed on this week’s agenda by Supervisor Kenneth Trimbath.
“Today it seems, more and more, we need someone here to manage things,” said Trimbath, who works full time outside the township. “It’s worked for Portage Borough and it seems to be the trend.”
The borough has had a manager for nearly two decades. Manager Bob Koban dedicates about 20 hours a week to the task, Trimbath said.
The township is part of a regional alliance with the boroughs of Portage and Cassandra. The three, making up the Portage Area School District, are working together on multiple projects.
The new position would be part time with no benefits. The manager would work with full-time secretary Lisa Flynn.
“Several townships in the area have managers and they do a lot of things (the supervisors) can’t do,” Selapack said.
Covering the suggested $12,000 salary should not be a problem for the township, which has a fund reserve of nearly $1 million.
While past and current officials stress they have been frugal, the fund balance is bolstered by the more than $70,000 the township receives annually from the owners of the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm.
Along with Flynn, the township has four full-time employees, all members of the road crew. They include Jim Kovach, an elected supervisor who is also a full-time township worker and is not permitted to act as a supervisor during his working hours, officials said. There also are two on-call hourly workers.
Kovach, who is willing to consider the idea, said: “It might be better for us, but we don’t need someone staring over us like we’re a bunch of kids.”
Meanwhile, township resident John Kissell is pushing to increase the board of supervisors from three to five. He said adding more elected officials would help spread the workload and eliminate the need for a manager.
Kissell said he will work to get a referendum on the ballot for a larger board.
