Elizabeth to investigate unauthorized truck loans
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
Elizabeth Borough Council is taking steps to minimize the financial impact of unauthorized loans taken out in 2018 that were then used to purchase police vehicles.
The Dodge Durangos were purchased without council approval and outside of the Pennsylvania CoStars cooperative purchasing program, purchased and equipped out-of-state. Solicitor Krisha DiMascio said the borough had to jump through a number of paperwork hoops in order to get the vehicles properly titled so they could be sold, allowing the borough to recoup some of the money expended on the cars.
“No one up here could have foreseen the mess they’d have to deal with, but everyone has worked together to mitigate the problems so it didn’t hurt the taxpayers,” DiMascio said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Mascio said an investigation into the improper purchases is being conducted and has not yet been completed. Meanwhile, the new titles have made it possible for the borough to sell the three Durangos to the Greene County Police Department for $100,000. DiMascio said that money will go directly toward paying down a $350,000 loan the borough recently took out with Farmers Bank in order to pay off the unauthorized loans.
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