West Chester treasurer resigns

WEST CHESTER — After more than 22 years in the position, West Chester City Treasurer Carol Hough announced her resignation in June.

While the position was not especially time consuming, coming in around 90 minutes per month, Hough said she looked forward to the new free time.

“I have my family that I wanted to spend a lot of time with and just enjoy life,” she said. “Not that I didn’t enjoy it before, but just a little more to do the things that I really wanted to do even though the treasurer’s job was not very time consuming.”

Hough said she planned to stay involved despite her retirement.

“I just enjoy keeping contact with the goings on in town,” she said. “That was a little hard to give up although I was assured I could come back and sit in on any of the meetings that I wanted to … I care about the people here in town and so does the council.”

While a treasurer position is typical of larger cities, City Clerk Sue Janecek said West Chester, which has a population of 82 according to 2019 Census Bureau estimates, filled it as a precaution.

“The state says we don’t need a city treasurer and a city clerk, but our city feels we need both just for checks and balances,” Janecek said. “Our figures have to match. It has two different people looking at that money. If you’ve seen the news lately, every now and then there’s wrongdoings, and a lot of times it’s small towns. We just feel it is to our advantage to have two people … our numbers have to match.”

Janecek said the vacancy would be filled by City Council appointment, which will be discussed at future meetings on the third Friday of each month.