CHAPMAN, Pa. — Voters in Chapman will decide in November whether to shrink the municipality’s borough council from seven members to three.
The Northampton County Election Commission voted unanimously Monday to add the question to general election ballots in the borough.
In a borough with fewer than 200 voting-age residents in the 2020 census, it has grown increasingly difficult to find people willing to serve on the council and other municipal posts, officials said.
One seat on the body has sat empty since Councilwoman Dorothy Niklos died in August 2023.
“We’re trying to consolidate a little bit and be a little bit more efficient with the people we do have.”Chapman Borough Councilman Christopher Cortright
“We're looking to fill that, and putting feelers out and notices out that we're looking,” Mayor Dana Ackerman said. “Nobody has come forward.”
When Chapman adopted a new zoning ordinance last May, it meant finding still more volunteers to serve as a zoning officer and members of a hearing board.
“That has been difficult," Councilman Christopher Cortright said. "Everybody has a lot of stuff to do. We’re trying to consolidate a little bit and be a little bit more efficient with the people we do have.”
Borough Council voted in October to shrink the body, pending approval from voters.
“I don’t know what they’re going to say about it,” Ackerman said.
Election day is Nov. 5; the deadline to register to vote is Oct. 21.
