GREENVILLE — Members of Greenville’s Act 47 team on Tuesday presented their proposed revisions for the borough’s debt recovery plan, touching on important areas like finances, record-keeping and parks and recreation.

“We are here tonight to encourage discussion,” Act 47 coordinator Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt told borough council members and the public at a special meeting at Greenville High School.

Dr. Hirt’s team updated the borough’s original recovery plan, which was adopted in 2003, a year after the borough was accepted into the state’s debt recovery plan for financially-distressed communities.

The proposed revisions will require borough officials to make some hard decisions about how Greenville is run, she said.

The original plan included 222 recommendations, 96 of which have been met, Dr. Hirt said. The revised plan includes the original’s unmet recommendations and 101 new ones, Dr. Hirt and Act 47 team member Donna Rupert explained.

The 101 new recommendations cover aspects of general government, records, financial and human resource management, police, fire, pubic works, community planning, land use controls, code enforcement, and parks and recreation.

“We want very much for this community to be viable, short-term and long-term,” Dr. Hirt said.

The Act 47 team assessed the borough’s solvency in four areas: yearly budget, monthly cash flow, debt and pension obligations for borough employees and services Greenville provides.

According to census estimates, the borough’s population is expected to shrink from 6,380 to 5,517 by 2025 after losing more than a quarter of its residents between 1979 and 2000. The median income is $31,250 compared to the county average of $34,666; the median home value is $56,000; and 55 percent of the residents are employed.

“You’re not in a growth situation,” Dr. Hirt said of the town.

Beginning with general government, the borough should consider a home rule form of government for tax and organizational purposes and look at reorganizing its finance function, she said.

The borough meets none of the state’s standards for records management and isn’t using available resources, but that should improve within the next year as the borough organizes its storage facilities and upgrades its computer software, Dr. Hirt said.

Financial management had the most new recommendations with 49 because it’s a very technical area. Accounting practices need improvement and council members need to become more active overseers in scrutinizing finance reports.

New software should help the borough better manage its finances and provide more detailed reports for council members and the public, Dr. Hirt said.

To better manage human resources, the borough should continue to work to meet minimum standards and council should adopt new job descriptions based on borough employees who analyzed and documented their duties.

The borough should assess the feasibility of continuing to contract with West Salem Township, update civil service rules and the police operations manual and develop a strategy to attract and retain part-time patrolmen, Dr. Hirt said.

The borough should continue to ensure it meets fire protection standards, review annual operating costs of the fire department and assess Greenville’s ability to support a full-time fire department.

For the public works department, the borough should provide ongoing training for the personnel, do more recycling, cooperate with neighboring towns and Thiel College and work more on planning, budgeting, assessment and reporting, Ms. Rupert said.

Greenville has an enormous number of parks and recreation facilities to oversee and the borough should complete an organizational structure and do an in-depth study, Ms. Rupert said.

After the presentation, council member David Henderson said he didn’t agree with the team’s recommendation on reorganizing finance function, which includes abolishing the borough treasurer and appointing a resident.

Council vice president Pamela Auchter said she wants the Act 47 team to ensure the borough keeps looking at the “big picture” and what top priorities need addressed. Dr. Hirt agreed it’s a good idea to provide council with progress reports.

Greenville Mayor Richard H. Miller said he wants to be sure the borough doesn’t run into the problem of fiscal mismanagement, which is what put Greenville into debt in the first place.

Miller said more detailed financial reports will help. A lack of them resulted in the financially distressed borough racking up a $1.13 million budget surplus that was revealed last year.

“I don’t want to go there,” Dr. Hirt said of Miller’s mention of the surplus.

The revised Act 47 plan is available for public viewing for the next 30 days at the borough building, Greenville Area Public Library and the office of the Record-Argus newspaper.

Council will hold a public hearing on the revised plan June 2.