Tamaqua Borough Council filled several vacant positions at Tuesday night's meeting.

All positions were posted in-house and were filled with current borough employees. Matthew Mateyak was hired as the street maintenance work leader. Jay Stidham was hired as the water distribution work leader. Frank Morris was hired as a water distribution worker, and Steve Naylor was hired as a street maintenance worker and street sweeper operator. The position changes have resulted in openings for two street workers and one water distribution worker.These positions will be advertised in-house before being advertised to the general public. Additionally, Michelle Barron was promoted to utility clerk 2, which will raise her hourly rate to $16.Council approved the placement of two "one hour parking only from 7 a.m.-3 p.m." signs in front of the Stadium Hill Café, 417 Spruce St. Owner Tony Prudenti requested the signs several months ago because high school students are parking in front of the business and leaving their cars there all day. At that time, Prudenti said he was losing business because people were unable to park in the area.Council heard from Harold "Bud" Kunkel, who asked if there had been any follow-up to a request made by several residents in March to review the parking situation for the 400 block of Spruce Street and Race Street. According to Kunkel, both streets are heavily parked on during school hours by students, which leaves no parking for residents in front of their homes. Most of them have off-street parking to the rear of their properties, it is often difficult or impossible to move their vehicles because of heavy student parking on Race Street as well. With school about to start, Kunkel asked, "is there going to be any relief?"Councilman David Mace said members of the parking and traffic committee have met with school district officials and he feels confident the school district is doing everything they can to alleviate the situation. "Our reaction (to Kunkel's request) was to make sure the school district was utilizing the parking facilities for students to the best possible way. We believe they are. All we can do is have a conversation. And we did." Councilman Brian Connely asked if council had considered making the street "no parking."Resident Kathy Kunkel said almost everyone residing in the block signed a petition requesting no parking in that block of Race Street. "Now you've given away two parking spaces to a business. We can't park in front of our houses; we can't get into the parking we have behind our houses. The students park at angles, closer to the middle of the street. Their idea of parallel parking is to back up until they hit the car in back of them and then pull forward till they hit the car in front of them."Mayor Christian Morrison agreed with the Kunkels and expressed doubts the school district is "doing everything they can. The way they allocate their parking spaces is the problem. It creates a problem for the neighbors on every street," he said. "Drive by that school any time, there are plenty of parking spaces. If they're telling us they're doing what they need to do, they're going to do it until we force them to do it differently."In other business, council approved the installation of a handicap parking sign at 316 N. Columbia St. and the removal of such signs at 252 Clay St. and at 36 Market St. Certificates of approval were issued for 253 W. Rowe St., to enclose an existing porch; 330 Arlington St., to construct a detached residential garage; and 422 Hazel St., to remove a retaining wall and install a ground level entrance.Mace thanked community volunteers who participated in the river walk cleanup.Council also heard from resident Tony Rodrigue, who raised concerns about local youth throwing rocks and other items into the Wabash Creek, essentially creating a dam. Rodrigue said they are taking the chinking out of the walls on the sides of the river, which is causing the walls to collapse and putting more debris into the creek."You paid ... to have it dredged and put back to the riverbed that it was, now the wall closest to the library has slid into the river and narrowed the width of the river by at least 2 feet."I'm no hydrologist, but I know what happens when you dam a river," he said. Rodrigue said he has called the police to investigate the activity on numerous occasions.