As 2025 winds down, Gettysburg Borough is looking to the future.
During their recent workshop, the council discussed two-year priorities to tackle when the new board takes office in January.
Borough Manager Charles Gable suggested the council continue to discuss a sidewalk ordinance, a project that was initiated in 2016. Moon said the Borough Shade Tree Commission recently surveyed all street trees and noted sidewalk damage caused by them. Earlier this year, council agreed the borough should pay to repair sidewalks damaged by trees it plants. Moon expressed gratitude for the commission’s work.
“It allows us to prioritize the worst damage and deal with that so we can make some of these sidewalks more passable and walkable,” Moon said.
Moon also hopes to tackle the Subdivision and Land Use Ordinance since he expects the borough zoning ordinance will be finalized soon. He also suggested the borough examine the rules governing the Historic Architectural Review Board, whose decisions and practices have received much criticism in recent years.
Councilwoman Patti Lawson suggested the borough propose the Pennsylvania Legislature change the law that dictates how Adams County’s 5% Lodging Tax is distributed. The funds are collected by Adams County, which receives a 4.5 percent administration fee. Of the remainder, the county gets a further 12.5%, and another 12.5% is divided among municipalities with both lodging businesses and a full-time police department. The remaining 75 percent goes to Destination Gettysburg, the county’s tourism promotion agency.
“It occurred during a back kitchen, back door deal about 15, almost 20 years ago with a former borough council member, the former head of Destination Gettysburg, and a state legislator,” Lawson said.
She believes Gettysburg deserves more and questioned how the county uses the funds it collects. Lawson has been a vocal critic of Destination Gettysburg in the past but added the organization has been a strong partner of the borough’s since Karl Pietrzak became president and CEO in 2021. However, she still believes they receive too much money from the lodging tax.
New Council
Jeff Rioux will replace Lawson to represent Ward 1. Lawson did not seek re-election. William Mooney will begin his four-year term as Ward 3 representative in January after serving a two-month stint following the death of Judie Butterfield. Chris Berger will once again represent Ward 2 after winning re-election. Matthew Moon, Alisha Sanders, and Peter Bales were not up for re-election this year and will continue serving. Council will need to appoint a new at-large member when Councilman Chad-Alan Carr is sworn is as the borough’s mayor in January.
