The Slatington Borough Council discussed further the loading zone request from St. John’s Church on Kuntz Street during their meeting Monday night.

A couple months ago, the church requested to have a loading zone in front of the church. At the meeting in October, the council decided to grant the request and leave a section on Kuntz Street open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week for truck deliveries. This would involve an amendment to the ordinance.

Council member David Schnaars, chairman of the highway committee, said the church would like the hours to be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The council members approved the request with council member Kevin Steckel abstaining from the vote because his family are members of the church.

Traffic signal

In other business, changes to the original work order for the 2021 Church Street traffic signal improvement project increased the cost by $2,012, because additional conduit is needed.

Borough engineer David Lear, a senior project manager for Lehigh Engineering, said that two traffic lights are now being put on each of the two mast arms, which requires additional conduit. The traffic light work is at the intersection of Main and Church streets and is being installed by Wyoming Electric and Signal Inc. in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

The project also has a change to the existing stormwater grates that were in the intersection, Lear said. The original plan was to use the four existing grates, raise and adjust them to the elevation needed around the ramps. Two were found to be broken and none of them meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

The proposal he brought to the council was for four new tops with bicycle safe grates. This would eliminate a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation requirement. The cost resulting from the change order would be about $15,000, but Lear expects there to be a savings from the PennDOT requirement being eliminated. He didn’t know how much that savings will be at the time of the meeting. Borough manager Dan Stevens said the borough can use federal funds related to COVID relief to help pay for the project.

Council President Bryon Reed asked Lear if the smaller openings of the new grates will let in enough water. He also is concerned about them getting clogged with debris, as well. Lear said that the new grates will be slightly larger than the original and have the same number of openings. It will let in just as much water, but they need to be maintained.

Budget

The budget was also a topic of discussion at the meeting. Schnaars asked Stevens when the budget would be ready, and Stevens said he is working on it. He plans to have it ready for a special council meeting to be held on Nov. 29 with a time yet to be determined. The council can then vote on the budget at their regular meeting in December.

“That’s not much time to work it over though,” Schnaars said.

Other matters

Also in regards to money, Mayor Walter Niedermeyer asked Stevens how much COVID relief money the borough has left. Stevens said about $190,000.

“We have a lot of money,” Niedermeyer said. “The water department needs a new truck.”

The mayor said the truck is running bad and the police department also needs of a new vehicle.

“Start replacing these things that are going bad,” he said.

Police Chief David Rachman agreed that the 2009 police cruiser has more than 120,000 miles from on-the-job usage and a list of items that need to be repaired.

“It’s not a frivolous wish,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be done. If we don’t do it, we’ll kick the can down the road and do it later when we don’t have the money to do it.”

Rachman also said he will be looking for a new part-time police officer. Officer Jason Rosenberg put in his resignation in order to take a full-time job with the Wilson Borough Police Department. His resignation was accepted by the council with regrets during the meeting. His last day with the Slatington police department was Oct. 22.