Jenkintown Town Square welcomed with open arms the borough’s 19th annual Festival of the Arts Sept. 17.
“Artsfest was very successful and well-attended this year,” council member Kieran Farrell said at borough council’s Oct. 23 meeting. “We’ve been discussing multiple ways to put the money raised back into the community.”
Organized and promoted by the Jenkintown Community Alliance, this year’s festival featured more than 70 juried artists, an art crawl, a kid’s court and music.
“We downsized from two performance stages to one,” Farrell said. “We eliminated the beer tent as well because of the overhead costs. Borough Brewhouse, the borough’s new brewery, was happy to take that off of our hands, and we didn’t lose any revenue, which was great.
“We received positive feedback from vendors, artists and the public,” she said.
In other news, Borough Manager George Locke received commendations from the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs for his completion of the Certified Borough Official Designation.
Officials said Locke has been working toward the designation over the past three years and has logged 139 training hours in addition to serving full-time managerial responsibilities with the borough.
“Not a lot of people have the certification,” council Vice President Richard Bunker said. “It was a very long list of training areas. Congratulations to George.”
In other matters, the borough may consider alternatives to Burkheimer Associates, its current business tax collector.
“We’ve been dissatisfied with their service,” council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe said. “They’ve made some mistakes.”
Michael Hill, a representative of eCollect Plus LLC, presented one alternative for borough council to consider Monday evening.
“Our bread and butter is finding lost revenue,” Hill said. “We’ve been tremendously successful.”
The Conshohocken-based firm collects for 20 municipalities in Pennsylvania and offers field audits as part of its package.
“We put boots on the ground,” Hill said. “Field audits really yield results.”
“We’ll probably have our recommendation at the next meeting,” Bunker said.