Volunteers are needed for a boroughwide cleanup planned for April 22 in Tamaqua.

Mayor Nathan Gerace told Tamaqua Borough Council this week that the event will correspond with Earth Day.

“We’re hoping to get as many civic organizations engaged as possible,” Gerace said. “The more groups we get involved, the bigger the cleanup will be.”

Borough Manager Kevin Steigerwalt said he will contact the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which provides trash bags, safety vests and gloves to the Schuylkill Keep It Pretty (SKIP) organization. They’ll then be distributed to volunteers.

Council President Brian Connely thought about taking the cleanup one step further.

“I know in the past for the downtown we did a cleanup. We got the fire companies involved and each one took a block of the downtown. We actually hosed down the pavements through the business district,” Connely recalled.

Gerace said he will talk to fire company officials in hopes of coordinating something similar.

In keeping with cleanup issues, Connely said he has been receiving complaints about illegally parked trailers and recreational vehicles.

“I had an example of a street in particular and it’s pretty rough,” he said.

Trailers that aren’t hooked to a vehicle, and those that aren’t licensed or registered can be considered illegally parked, Connely said.

“I’m just putting that courtesy thought out there to our residents as we get ready for spring cleanup,” he added.

In other business, council:

• Approved repairs to a police department license plate reader at a cost of $3,066. A new reader would cost approximately $20,000, police Chief Michael Hobbs explained.

• Approved a request to send police Sgt. Thomas Rodgers and Patrolman Tony Stanell to a three-day Pennsylvania Narcotic Officers’ Association Conference in Harrisburg.

• Approved the purchases of a new salt spreader from Structural Metal Fabricators Inc. for $3,678, and a 14,000 pound lift for the borough garage at a cost not to exceed $20,000.

• Authorized the filing of an application for a Community Conservation Partnerships Program grant to renovate the H.D. Buehler Memorial Pool.

• Authorized legal counsel to sign the stipulation resolving the Bank on Broad tax assessment appeal. The owner the 35 W. Broad St. building, which contains the Berwick House apartments, recently won a property tax reduction that reduced its assessment to $81,774 from $121,980. The assessment appeal was initiated by the Tamaqua Area School District.