A new president has been elected to the Fountain Hill City Council. Council member Norman Blatt was elected unanimously by the council. Blatt is replacing former president Leo Atkinson, who resigned last month due to disagreements over the police department’s budget.

In other news, Anthony Branco, the borough manager, announced that Fountain Hill will be getting a new fire truck. St. Luke’s Health Network will be donating the needed funds to purchase the truck.

Fire Chief Derek Richmond said the fire department was very thankful to St. Luke’s for providing the funds for the new truck. The fire chief said he was incredibly pleased that the department was able to “get a truck that will serve this borough for the foreseeable future. We as a department are very thankful and excited about this prospect and we look forward to moving forward.”

The truck will take a year to build. It has all the options that the fire department wanted.

Council member Helen Hallerman asked Police Chief Edward Bachert if members of the police department wears body cameras. The chief replied that Fountain Hill police officers do not wear body cameras. He explained that the data system that is in place is not capable of holding the amount of data collected by body cameras. Other council members suggested that funding should be acquired through grants to upgrade the current system.

Bachert will further review the inquiry with the DA department and report back.

Former deputy fire chief Rick Rolen asked for reconsideration of his appeal of his dismissal from the Fountain Hill Volunteer Fire Department. Rolen made his original appeal at the last council meeting Nov. 2.

President Blatt responded that the matter will be considered again and the council will have an answer at the next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 7.