Tamaqua residents will be seeing a lot of new faces on the borough work crews over the next few weeks.

Council hired three new employees for the street department at Tuesday night's meeting, but the new hirings are not over. Council also voted to post several vacancies in house and advertise for a street worker/assistant mechanic.The new hires are necessary because of the many employees who elected to take advantage of a one-time early retirement package offered earlier this year. The newest retiree is Raymond Woodring, whose letter of intent to retire from the water department was accepted during the meeting.The newest employees are Mark Leiby, Richard Miller and Aaron Coggiano. Coggiano is a Tamaqua resident, while Leiby and Miller live in South Tamaqua. They will be paid $18.75 an hour. Since all three were hired at the same time, seniority will be based on the last four digits of the men's Social Security numbers.The new hires, as well as every other person employed by the borough, will be undergoing diversity/discrimination training thanks to action also taken during the meeting. Council approved a proposal from the Seltzer Group to provide such training at a cost of $200, then voted to make the training mandatory.Tamaqua Mayor Chris Morrison suggested council members also attend the training, an idea that was met with a bit of resistance from some members.Morrison said he would definitely be interested in attending one of the four sessions that will be offered, noting "The demographics of the town are changing. We need to make sure we change with the times. It wouldn't hurt for all of us to learn more by going to one of these sessions."After some discussion, Council President Micah Gursky said the sessions would be available to all council members, but attendance for council wouldn't be mandatory as "council members are not employees of the borough."An earlier proposal to amend sections of the Eastern Schuylkill Joint Zoning and Subdivision Development Ordinances continued to be debated. Council approved the changes during its June meeting, then received a letter from the Tamaqua Planning Commission requested the changes be rejected.Councilman Justin Startzel has scheduled a meeting for 7 p.m. July 22 for all parties involved. Resident Tony Rodriguez asked if it was possible to advertise the meeting to avoid any possible sunshine law violation. "Everyone on the Tamaqua Planning Commission, the Zoning/Hearing Board, council and HARC should be interested in attending such a meeting. If you don't advertise and we all attend, we'll all have quorums." His idea was approved and the meeting will be duly advertised.The public is welcome to attend and learn more about the zoning codes and regulations already in place as well as the suggested changes.