At their monthly meeting Tuesday, Bowmanstown Borough Council unanimously approved a motion to authorize the borough engineer and solicitor to work cooperatively to draft an ordinance to place weight restrictions on portions of White Street.

Council has been diligently monitoring a serious concern of roadway erosion, collapse and deterioration along sections of White Street where a support wall abuts the roadway and the Norfolk Southern Railroad property.For the past few months, council has been receiving updates on further deterioration to the roadway. In fact, council has been working with Carbon County in bidding out a construction project along this section to have guardrails installed. Currently, the county has advertised for bids on the project twice, most recently in August.Borough engineer Jessica Rehrig pointed out at the meeting that she is awaiting a contact from the county, but no bids have been received.Councilman Darren Thomas said he was informed there were 119 trucks passing this area today. While council has received comments from residents in the past regarding the heavy truck traffic and noise issues, solicitor Lisa Pereira said as long as the trucks are abiding by the current laws, there is nothing that can be done about the truck traffic, presently.Enacting a weight limit to sections of White Street, which will deter some of the truck traffic, was discussed.Pereira said that under the issues of the safety concern, an ordinance could be enacted restricting vehicles over a certain weight from traveling on the road.Councilman Rob Moyer questioned the issue restricting vehicles that could cause inconvenience to residents, such as fuel oil trucks not being permitted to use the roadway.Rehrig said exemptions could be added to the ordinance for vehicles such as fuel trucks, school buses and fire department vehicles. Additionally, Moyer said North Face Development, the firm rehabilitating the West Plant of the former Zinc Company, which is where the truck traffic is traveling to and from, should be contacted to inform them that the Borough is not anti-business or against the development in any way, but simply has concerns about safety of the resident traffic on the troubled roadway.Other businessIn other news, Moyer said the borough's application to open and operate a compost site has been approved. Moyer said the borough will be collecting leaves this year on five dates: Oct. 19 and 20 and Nov. 10, 11 and 12. This is contingent upon approval of the arrangements with the county.When asked about the opening date of the compost facility, which will be located behind the borough garage, Moyer said Oct. 19 would be the opening date. The leaves collected would be placed at the compost site. In addition, Moyer said the borough is working on informational literature that will detail the items that will be accepted at the compost site and hours of operation.Mayor William Ravert announced that trick or treat would be held in the borough on Oct. 28.Councilman Burdell Steigerwalt, chairman of the budget and finance committee, motioned to have a public budget workshop on Oct. 15. Moyer provided a second to this motion, and council approved this request unanimously.