The Borough is soliciting proposals from interested public accounting firms.  The firm must have all applicable licenses to perform municipal engineering services in Pennsylvania, have at least seven (7) years of experience in a similarly sized municipality, and have experience with doing engineering studies and recommendations on a myriad of issues. Complete RFP is available here. Proposals must be received by the Borough Manager no later than Wednesday November 1, 2023 at 11 AM (EST) at the Municipal Offices, Borough of Forest Hills, 4400 Greensburg Pike. Any additional information may be obtained from the Office of Mr. Morus by calling 412-351-7330.

The county has launched a new Recycling Drop-Off Finder. The new tool is available online and includes a searchable database, with map, to help residents identify drop-off places for disposal or recycling, including hard-to-recycle items. The collaboration between Health, Sustainability and Information Technology recently went live at https://alleghenycounty.us/recyclingfinder.

The new Recycling Drop-off Finder does not contain information on curbside pickups but provides support to residents searching for what to do with items like batteries, electronics, or tires. These items are typically ones not accepted in curbside programs.

The Forest Hills Farmer’s Market opens this year on Friday, May 19th. The market is located at 4400 Greensburg Pike in the Westinghouse Lodge Parking Lot.  There are many new vendors with exciting products as well as your old favorites!  Please stop by and say hello to the Late Bloomers Garden Club volunteers that manage our Farmers Market.  The Market is open every Friday from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm until October 27, 2023.  We hope to see you there!

The Pennsylvania Resource Council is holding a series of Traveling Glass Recycyling Bin events throughout our area through November 16th. Check out the flyer here for a list of dates and locations including types of glass accepted.

Thank you to all who participated in this survey.  The results are available here.   A subcommittee is reviewing the data and will submit recommendations to council sometime in the new year.  Those recommendations will be posted to the website when they become available.

Forest Hills was named a 2022 Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor its commitment to effective urban forest management. Read the complete Press Release here.

PennDOT has a website for information on Ardmore work including any citizen concerns: https://customercare.penndot.gov or by phone at 1-800-FIX-ROAD.

The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) measures air quality every day using monitors throughout the County, and the readings of those monitors are classified on an Air Quality Index (AQI). If the AQI is forecasted to be over 100 on a given day, ACHD issues an Air Quality Watch. If the AQI is measured at over 100, ACHD issues an Air Quality Warning. This information is then communicated over the Allegheny Alerts system.

If you would like to receive alerts go to www.alleghenycounty.us/alerts and enter your contact information. When an alert is sent on a topic you’ve chosen, you’ll receive it on the devices you’ve selected. Get an email at work, text on your cell and call at home – as many or few as you want. There’s even an app for it. You can add, delete and change your devices and topics any time. It’s all up to you.

To understand more about our air quality and the index check out the brochure here.

Forest Hills is now using Savvy Citizen, a notification system which allows municipalities to easily and effectively communicate with their residents via push notifications, text messages or e-mails. Savvy Citizen is more than a notification system as it allows Forest Hills to keep up to date on community events, helpful information, road closures, alerts and much more.

Available on Android, iPhone/iPad and desktop, residents of Forest Hills can choose to receive notifications with push alerts on their smart phone, or they can browse in-app for a full listing of their notifications, alerts and community events. Those without smartphones can sign up via www.savvycitizenapp.com/signup and select to have text notifications or e-mails sent to them.

Whether it is a road closure, a change in trash or recycling pick up due to a holiday, a fun local event or significant municipal meeting, Savvy Citizen has a complete scheduling system that allows municipalities to communicate with residents of Forest Hills.

Please Take Note To Ensure Your Payments Are Received By The Correct Department

Refuse, sewage, fire payments and local service tax (LST) should be placed in an envelope marked: Borough of Forest Hills.

School and borough real estate tax should be placed in an envelope and marked: Tax Collector.

Please do not put Tax Collector payments in the same envelope as Borough of Forest Hills payments.

Forest Hills Borough office is now open on a limited basis as listed under Office Hours

Those entering the building must use a properly affixed mask and follow restrictions as posted.  Please have your checks and bills prepared in advance before coming into the building.  Staff will continue to work as long as they remain in good health and the borough encourages the public to continue to contact the office during business hours at 412-351-7330 with issues or questions that may arise. The borough continues to provide its usual full services including public safety services and the public works crew will continue its normal duties.

Permits and inspections are also limited and residents should call the Borough Office to get speak to our code enforcement / building / Zoning personnel.

Citizens may continue to contact the police department for both emergency and non-emergency matters by calling 911.  If at the municipal building, a small blue call box is located near the bulletin board at the main entrance than can be used to contact the police for both emergency needs and non-emergency information.  If an officer is not on an emergency call one will meet  you at the building.

A drop box is located at the main entrance to the borough building for payments by check or money order and the borough encourages citizens to continue to use it. Other documents for the borough may be placed there as well. An online payment option is also available through the website.

Obviously as conditions change this information will change as well.  Please contact the office for up to date information.  Forest Hills appreciates your understanding and reminds all to safely check on neighbors and friends.

Adagio Health is dedicated to providing prevention services to hard to reach resident populations – especially crucial cancer screening services such as mammograms via voucher program. For more information on the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program call 1-800-215-7494.

Future council business meetings will be held in person  at 4400 Greensburg Pike with restrictions required by the pandemic.  That may include limited attendance permitted (max of 15 people), masks required, social distancing required and anyone attending should leave the room immediately upon council adjournment.   This is tentative pending any changes in CDC or health department regulations which could return business meetings to Zoom.  This is a constantly changing situation and we will continue to advise via the borough website.  We anticipate that future meetings may be live-streamed on the borough’s YouTube channel (Tree City TV) though that is still a work in progress and will not occur on June 16th.

Note: Council Committees Meetings, Finance, Public Safety, etc., will continue via Zoom but is subject to change.

If you have an issue that you would like council or the Mayor to address but cannot attend a meeting, please submit your concern or idea to council by calling the borough office at 412-351-7330 and speak to staff or leave a detailed message. All messages submitted will be presented to council for review either in committee or at a business meeting or both. You may also submit your concern or idea to council by completing the form found here.

Again, we will keep you updated via the website but you should also feel free to call the office at the above number. And please call the office if you have any questions.

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority has created the Clean Water Assistance Fund to help families pay their sewage treatment bills. This program serves low-income homeowners in the 83 municipalities that ALCOSAN serves. It is administered by Dollar Energy Fund.  Learn more here.

For a limited time only, the Allegheny County Vacant Property Recovery Program will be accepting applications to acquire vacant properties for side yards to an owner-occupied primary residence or blighted structure remediation at a reduced cost to the applicant. Under the 2020 Side Yard and Blighted Structure Program, we will waive our standard parcel fee of $3,000 for applicants for a side yard to their primary residence and applicants proposing to demolish a blighted structure. We will reduce the fee to $1,400 for applicants proposing to rehabilitate a blighted structure. All applicants will also be responsible for the appraised value of the property, a good faith deposit, and closing costs. The application, which contains additional details about the Program guidelines, can be accessed at our website: www.alleghenycounty.us/VPRP. We are excited to announce that we will now be accepting electronic submissions to VPRP@AlleghenyCounty.us, as always, all required materials must be submitted at time of application.