Palmerton Borough Council is adopting an ordinance to regulate portable storage units on the borough streets.

“It gives the Chief of Police the power to determine where they are located for obvious safety reasons,” said Borough Manager Donna McGarry.

“They’ve had some concerns with where they’ve been located, safety wise. For the first week, as long as he approves the location, it’s approved for a week with no charge. If it needs to stay there longer than that, it would need to be approved by the chief, there would be a $25 per week fee in order to keep it on our street.”

Mayor William Gallagher asked if there was a maximum limit on how long the units could remain on the street. McGarry said the ordinance would give the chief the latitude to determine whether the unit can be located in a particular place, and could place limits on how long it would stay there.

“He would be willing to work with them but, if they disregard the chief, they can be cited,” McGarry said.

The mayor inquired if they would be able to put a maximum length of time they could have the unit on the street.

He said they could have a permit for that length of time, and if they need go beyond that set time, to have them apply for another permit and have borough council approve that new permit.

Council member Holly Hausman-Sell said that having Council approve the permits could be difficult in that it would depend on when the Council would have its next meeting in order for the permit to be approved.

Council members tabled the ordinance for now until they could work out the details.