Tamaqua borough council moved ahead with accepting bids for heating oil and the demolition of properties at 13 and 15 S. Lehigh St. at its meeting Tuesday night.

The lowest bid for heating oil was from Fegley Oil Company at a fixed price of $1.75 per gallon. Two other bids were received. The borough received five bids for the demolition project and awarded the bid to Danny Farber of Tamaqua in the amount of $14,720.In other news, the borough went ahead and approved a proposal from Mauch Chunk Trust to get a line of credit to proceed with the initial study of the 483 streetlights in the town, which may ultimately lead to the outright purchase of the lights and upgrades to LED fixtures by the borough.The borough must declare its intent to proceed with the initial study by the end of this month. The streetlight project, which has been championed by Councilman Dan Evans, could ultimately cost the borough an estimated $800,000; however, it has an estimated rate of return on investment of eight to nine years.Acting Borough Manager Rob Jones recommended accepting the line of credit as a means to finance the project as the borough is uncertain of what the ultimate costs could be, and this way, the borough will only be paying interest on the actual amount they borrow, which will start with $48,300 for the initial study.The project was questioned by resident Bob Knepper, who asked about the borough's previous attempts to purchase the streetlights through a third party, MEM, which was a bust and ultimately ended with MEM executives being found guilty of theft in other municipalities. Council President David Mace assured Knepper, and the rest of the community, that the borough is acting on its own behalf in this situation.Jones also brought up a wall behind a property at 524 Washington St. that is collapsing. Jones asked for approval to bring the borough's engineering firm, Alfred Benesch, into the picture to evaluate the best way to repair the wall.The borough received confirmation that the 2016 CDBG allocation will be $108,468. The borough is hoping to proceed with a demolition project that was to be funded by 2014 CDBG funds at 216 Penn St. in the near future.