GREENVILLE, PA. Borough says mistake caused bounced checks

Precautions are being taken to prevent bounced paychecks from happening again.
By LAURI GALENTINE
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- It wasn't lack of money that caused paychecks to bounce last month, says Bryan D. Langietti, Greenville borough council president.
It was the movement of money between two banks, he explained.
Langietti said borough Treasurer Tracey Vale wrote a check on the borough's general account at Sky Bank on the morning of Nov. 15. She then deposited that money into the payroll account at National City Bank -- "Not realizing that National City was going to hold that check and not deposit it into our account," he said.
Some bounced
Paychecks were handed out that day, but when employees went to cash them, some of them bounced, said Langietti.
According to Langietti, the borough has followed that same procedure on pay days for many years. The only difference, he said, is that all the accounts were at National City Bank until recently.
All but the payroll account were moved to Sky Bank not too long ago, he said.
Langietti said a bank official later told the borough treasurer that there is a time period in which funds deposited are not available for withdrawal, but she hadn't been told that in advance.
Before November the money was moving from one account to another within the same bank and no one realized the process would be different when they were transferring funds from another bank.
To prevent a recurrence of the problem, Langietti said an automatic transfer from the general account into the payroll account will be set up at the beginning of each pay week.
For the employees affected by the November mistake, he said, "we're going to pay any fees charged to people" for the bounced checks, and send letters to any creditors about the mistake.