Tamaqua Borough Council intended to use a segment of its regular meeting Tuesday to breeze through a codification cleansing of existing laws and ordinances.

Some of those laws dates back to 1907.The hope was to zip through the process in a jiffy, with President Micah Gursky promising to run through the updates "like a talk-show host."Despite best intentions, however, the laborious process took two hours.For one, the working manuscript is 83 pages of often technical data involving finer points of municipal law and pertinent minutiae.Secondly, council members weren't unanimous in their opinions about what should be done.Still, the two hours devoted to one agenda item might have been time well spent, since codification is a major step.Codification is the act of classifying and systematizing laws and regulations still in effect, and Tuesday's project was a necessary step to make it happen."We would organize ordinances and laws by subject matter," Gursky said.Previously, they were organized chronologically, almost haphazardly.But codification is more than a neat and tidy way to organize.It also brings laws and ordinances up to date with current state or federal law, a major undertaking.The dialogue, at times, became excruciatingly precise and laborious. For example, a seven-minute discussion ensued over the difference between a "board" and a "committee," and what the difference potentially means to application of municipal law.Many times throughout the process, solicitor Michael Greek and Police Chief Rick Weaver were asked to weigh in on recommended enforcement and penalties.In some cases, existing law is simply being repealed and banished from the books.For instance, a 1953 ordinance to financially support the Comfort Station in its role as a public restroom will be deleted. The Victorian building, called the Q and A by the railroad, hasn't been used by the general public in decades. It's owned by the Reading, Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad.Similarly, the outdated and now controversial 1961 curfew laws were discussed. Tamaqua had nightly curfews for decades and they were enforced.Curfew laws prohibit or limit your right to be out in public at certain times and are intended to maintain a certain level of order and safety in public spaces. Most curfew laws apply only to juveniles under the age of 18.However, given today's heightened concern for civil liberties, curfew laws might not be legal or enforceable even though they still exist in the borough code.In other action, council approved a request from Bob Schlorf of Tamaqua Fire Police to conduct a rubber duck race next June 19.Also, council presented Leona Rega of the Tamaqua Community Arts Center with a framed front-page Times News story and featured photo about the Dear Tamaqua project and its overwhelming success.In fact, some on council were hinting for a curtain call next year."You can't do it again," asked Councilman Tom Cara."No," said Rega. "It was once and done."Gursky reflected on the scope of the project."There were literally hundreds involved in it," he said."It really showed what Tamaqua can do."