HOLLIDAYSBURG –Bellwood has moved another step toward reducing the size of its Borough Council from seven to five members.

Blair County Judge Daniel J. Milliron said Monday that he will sign off on the recommendation likely to go before borough voters in November 2021.

Borough solicitor David Pertile told Milliron on Monday that based on the state’s Borough Code, as amended in August, the proposed change has to be offered as a referendum during a general election.

Because the upcoming election is just more than a month away, Pertile told Milliron that the matter is expected to remain on hold until the November 2021 election. The amended law does not allow the matter to be put on a primary’s ballot, Pertile said.

“I wouldn’t want to rush it through,” Milliron acknowledged, suggesting that the delay will give the community time for debate.

In December 2019, council authorized a resolution in favor of reducing the number of its members, after petitions drew support from 57 residents — just over 5% of the borough’s 1,078 registered voters — in favor of the reduction.

“We’re having trouble finding people to run for election,” Borough Council President Paul Eckenrod told Milliron during Monday’s hearing.

When a council has more open seats than candidates, council members are elected on the basis of write-in votes or they’re appointed to fill vacant seats.

In the resolution presented to Milliron, Pertile indicated that council pursued the reduction when the state’s Borough Code required a legal notice advertising the pending presentation of petitions for judicial certification.

The amended statute no longer requires the legal notice, Pertile said, but it does require the referendum.

Bellwood is not the only borough that has shown interest in operating a council with fewer members. In recent years, Newry Borough Council reduced its council from three to five members and Duncansville Borough went from seven to five members.

The Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs has noticed a declining interest in council seats for at least the last decade. In a 2011 online story, the association described serving on council as time-consuming, a factor it named as one reason behind the desire to reduce the size of the governing body.

The option of reducing the size of council is open to any borough with fewer than 3,000 residents, Pertile said. As of the 2010 census, Bellwood had 1,828 residents.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.