West Mifflin again is getting national attention, Mayor Chris Kelly said at this week's borough council meeting.
He called attention to the San Francisco-based NerdWallet finance blog which last week listed the best towns in Pennsylvania for job seekers.
West Mifflin was listed in 13th place, behind first-place Chambersburg, then York, Plum, Bethel Park, Monroeville, King of Prussia, Upper St. Clair, Murrysville, Lebanon, Lancaster, State College and Phoenixville.
The blog said West Mifflin has the lowest median monthly homeowner costs of any of the Western Pennsylvania towns on the list, $1,101, topped only by Reading, Lebanon and York.
On the other hand, West Mifflin and Pittsburgh, 16th, were the only towns on the list to see a decrease in the percentage of working-age residents. The blog is available at www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2014/best-towns-job-seekers-pennsylvania/.
The mayor told council that new Century III Mall owner Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC is making progress, seeking “possible contracts for new tenants.”
Borough community development director Walter B. Anthony told council that his office received $130,195 in permit fees during 2013.
Borough public works director James Hess said West Mifflin has had 2,470 tons of salt delivered to deal with what so far have been 10 snow events this season.
He said his crews are “aggressively cold patching potholes, weather permitting.” And he said he is working on making arrangements for recycling television sets and other hard-to-recycle items.
Police Chief Ken Davies said West Mifflin officers responded to 28,143 calls in 2013, including 2,090 in December; made 246 criminal arrests in December to bring the year's total to 3,127; and issued 126 traffic and 20 nontraffic citations to bring the year's total to 1,628 and 471, respectively.
December calls included 102 traffic accidents, 15 assaults, 36 disturbance calls, 21 domestic disturbances, 21 criminal mischiefs, nine burglaries, two stolen vehicles and a robbery.
The year's statistics included borough police needing to spend 796 days in courtrooms, while 530 people spent 1,492 hours in the borough's holding cell.
Baldwin EMS Chief William Plunkett reported that his first responders responded to 296 calls in December, bringing the year's total to 3,509. He said the response time for calls involving life-threatening matters was 7.6 minutes and that his paramedics took patients to 17 hospitals.
Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.
