NEW ALEXANDRIA, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Police are working to find out what happened to nearly $88,000 that has gone missing from the New Alexandria Borough.
“It’s unreal,” said one neighbor who was at Wednesday night’s council meeting, where council announced how much money was missing from the borough.
She didn’t want to give her name.
“When they said how much money, people actually gasped,” she said.
“We were just as stunned,” said Mayor Tim Ruane. “[We] are just as stunned.”
Ruane said the borough started investigating earlier this year and determined they were missing at least $88,000. That money went missing over a period of time, not all at once.
“We just had some issues come up that didn’t seem quite right, and after further investigation, internal investigation, it just didn’t look right,” Ruane told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.
Last month, the borough council voted 5 to 0 to remove the treasurer – Chuck Ferry – from office. He was also the secretary and code enforcement officer.
“Because it’s a financial issue, he was handling the finances, it was just prudent to separate the two for the time being and see where it leads,” Ruane said.
Now, the borough says it is handing the investigation over to Pennsylvania State Police to see if there is any criminal wrongdoing.
They are also working to get a surety bond to try and recoup some, if not all, of the missing money. They’re still working through bank statements to get an exact dollar figure.
Ruane is optimistic and wants to reassure the community no programs will be hurt because of these missing funds.
“Nothing is being impacted at this point,” Ruane said. “We’re not going to go bankrupt, anything like that. But it is an initial shock, and we’ll have to regroup and move forward.”
State Police tell Channel 11 they are just starting their investigation and have a meeting set up with the borough solicitor. We tried to reach out to Chuck Ferry, the former treasurer, for comment, but we were unable to reach him.
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