HARRISVILLE — Before unanimously voting newcomers Kathleen Bray and John McFadden to roles as president and vice president of borough council, members of council and community members lowered their heads as Mayor Gary Hughes opened the meeting with a prayer:

“Heavenly Father, help us see every person as being important and help me and us honor the people that we interact with at this meeting,” he said.

In previous meetings, tensions between council members had escalated to the point of council members leaving the municipal building.

Those tensions were addressed by newly nominated president Bray, who said borough’s adoption of the Robert’s Rules of Order on Monday evening would help meetings run more smoothly.

“I appreciate and I thank you here tonight for putting your faith in me as president and voting me in,” Bray said. “I’m going to do my best to serve the townspeople of Harrisville and I’m not going to let personal things get in the way and I’ll try my best to keep everything calm. All of us up here have been duly elected. The townspeople have spoken.”

After nominating Bray and McFadden, who ran successful write-in campaigns in November, council voted for Mary Ann Hughes to assume a role as president pro tempore.

Resident Sylvia Wray expressed concern about Hughes’ nomination for president pro tempore since she is the mayor’s wife. She asked whether council could table the discussion until councilman Dave Evans could be present for a vote.

“I just think that’s like nepotism, and it’s not a good idea,” Wray said.

“If you’re running a meeting and there’s a tied vote, your husband breaks the tied vote,” she said.

Gary Wray said he was not interested in serving as president pro tempore. In Evans’ absence, and with both Bray and McFadden having taken seats as president and vice president, Mary Ann Hughes was the only nominee at the table.

“I mean, in a borough of 800-900 people, there’s going to be relationships among everybody,” solicitor Ben Orsatti said in response to Wray’s concerns.

Council also voted to rescind the motion to reappoint Will McCoy at a meeting in December.

“We’d like to reconsider the motion because it wasn’t put in the newspaper to let our townspeople know that (council has) two vacancies,” Bray said. “So that’s what we’re waiting for — we’re going to put it in the newspaper.”

Bray told McCoy, who was in the audience, he was “more than welcome” to submit a letter of interest to be reappointed.

Council will discuss the motion made in December to reappoint Evans at a later time, Bray said.

Monday evening, council members also accepted a letter of resignation from councilman Russell Stemmerich, signed Jan. 3.

“I feel that this council has forgotten why they are in this (position),” Stemmerich wrote. “It seems they worry more about personal agendas instead of (what’s) good for the people of Harrisville.”

Stemmerich previously resigned from council in 2018, citing communication issues. His resignation leaves an additional vacant seat on council.

Community members interested in being considered for one of the two vacant seats can submit a letter of interest, Bray said. The deadline to be considered is Feb. 21, she said after the meeting.

Bray also invited community members to serve on council committees.

The committees, which will be discussed and formed at future meetings, will examine parks and recreation, grants, council vacancies, budgets, ordinances and maintenance.

“If we could get townspeople involved in these committees — they don’t have to be on council — if you want to be on a committee, let us know,” Bray said. “That’s going to help a lot.”

Once committees are formed, possible action includes the purchase of cameras for the park.

“The reason we’re asking for cameras is for safety in the park,” Bray said. “Things have been stolen out of the park. The maintenance building itself has thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment in there. And there’s no cameras in there to protect it. There’s no cameras on the outside of the maintenance building and apparently things have gone missing. So if we had had cameras, we would have had proof.”