(8/2011) Fairfield Borough Council President Patricia Smith swore in the newest member of the council during the council’s monthly meeting on July 26. Amelia Rodriquez is filling the council seat held by Ron Shanks who moved to Tennessee earlier in the year and had to resign from the council.

Shanks receive recognition of service

Former Fairfield Councilor Ron Shanks was presented with a plaque from the Fairfield Borough Council on July 26. Shanks, who was visiting in town attended the council meeting and was given a plaque that thanked him for "four decades of civic leadership and service."

Municipalities reach agreement on workers’ compensation

The municipalities that are served by the Fairfield Fire and EMS companies met in July to hash out a new agreement on how much each municipality would pay for the company’s workers’ compensation premiums. Previously, it had been paid based on census counts that are now outdated.

Councilor Carroll Smith, who represented Fairfield in the discussion, said that there would be two agreements, one for the fire company and one for EMS. Also, rather than population, the percentage paid of the workers’ would be based on the number of first response calls the companies responded to in each municipality with a recalculation to be made every three years.

"There were no major disagreements with anything," Smith said.

Also, during the discussion it was discovered that a portion of Franklin Township was part of the first response territory for Fairfield Fire and EMS and yet, the municipality had not contributed anything to the fire company. This is something that will be changing.

Bike Week went well for Fairfield

During his monthly crime report to the Fairfield Borough Council, Corporal Cliff Weikert told the councilors that Bike Week "went pretty smoothly." Only four DUI arrests were made and not all of them were associated with Bike Week and though crowded, the parade through Fairfield had no complications. This included when the Granite Hill Campground had around 7,000 people come out to hear the Charlie Daniels Band one evening.

Council President Pat Smith said, "I don’t think the town sounded exceptionally noisy."

Councilor Carroll Smith noted that there had seemed to be enough parking to handle the additional motorcycles that were parked in town.

Councilor Dean Thomas said his only complaint is that he got a headache from the noise of revving engines near his business on Rt. 116. He explained that although the fire police kept the traffic moving into and out of the campground, the volume of motorcycles moving along the road remained long.