Legal action against a Lackawanna company that promised big savings to small towns by taking over their street lighting has moved another step forward, Coaldale borough solicitor Michael Greek told council on Tuesday.

Carbon County District Attorney Gary Dobias and Schuylkill County District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon have agreed to ask state Attorney General Linda L. Kelly to investigate the matter, Greek said.He said a letter is being drafted to send to Kelly.Greek in May filed suit on behalf of Tamaqua and Coaldale, both in Schuylkill County, and Lansford in Carbon County, against Municipal Energy Managers, of Moscow, and its officers, Robert J. Kearns and Patrick J. McLaine.The 86-page suits allege breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud, and argue that the company "operates simply as the alter ego" of the two men, who siphoned the company's funds for personal use.Locally, Coaldale, Lansford, Nesquehoning, Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua, paid MEM hundreds of thousands of dollars to help them buy street lights from PPL instead of leasing them. MEM was to broker the deal and maintain the equipment.But the deal never came through, and now the struggling towns are stuck with paying off big bank loans and getting nothing in return. Coaldale borrowed $182,400, and Lansford $306,100.Kearns and McLaine already face up to 16 years in jail and $40,000 fines on third-degree felony charges of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and criminal conspiracy, and misdemeanor charges of misapplication of entrusted property filed in February by Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.Kearns and McLaine allegedly siphoned $832,460 paid them by Bethlehem Township into their own bank accounts instead of following through on the same promise, to save that municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars by leasing street lights from PPL and having MEM upgrade and maintain them.