Tamaqua Council last week discussed a lack of projects in neighboring municipalities for the Eastern Schuylkill Recreation Commission to pursue.

Director of Community Development Mary Linkevich said she met with ESRC director Sarah Connelly to discuss other projects.Councilman Micah Gursky said the cooperative organization could be in jeopardy if projects are not developed in the future.Council President David Mace indicated there has been a lot of turnover in representatives from neighboring communities and that has led to some difficulties in getting the other municipalities engaged.Linkevich also provided an update on the low-interest loans that are available to residents through the borough.The program has recently come under question by some council members, as there are 46 outstanding loans and only 16 of them are currently in payment. Linkevich said she has reached out to all of the debtors and 28 are now making regular payments. Three of the loans have been paid off."One of the worst offenders has paid $2,000, which is huge," she said.Councilman Brian Connely questioned if the program should be continued."What's the advantage? Sure, they put a new sidewalk in. Great, we got a new sidewalk, but we're out of the money," Connely said.Connely also cited the low number of applicants for the program. "If people aren't taking advantage of it, why are we going through this," he asked.During public participation, Knepper grilled council as to whether or not residents will see any savings on their garbage bill due to the recently negotiated garbage contract, which netted the borough an annual savings of approximately $75,000.Knepper also questioned the significant sewer rate increases the borough will see over the next two years.Citing those on a fixed and low income, Knepper said that the borough runs the risk of having more and more people delinquent on their bills due to the increases.Mace said that is one of the reasons the borough has advertised the rate hikes well in advance and stretched them over two years."We don't do this willy-nilly for no reason," Mace said. "We can't make it less painful, but we can give you as much notice as possible."Councilman Micah Gursky requested a resolution reinforcing the borough's property maintenance code, specifically related to property owner responsibility and clarifying renter responsibility. In particular, Gursky singled out "rent to own" situations."We do not go after the renter," he said. "Property owners tell them that utilities, repairs to the property, quality-of-life ordinance issues are the tenant's responsibilities, and they're not."Gursky said all of those things fall to the actual property owner to maintain and address and hoped the resolution would bring some clarity to what tenants' rights are.A temporary handicap parking space was extended for 90 days for 305 Spruce St. It was noted that several items for the parking and traffic committee have not been getting addressed in a timely manner.