Lansford Borough Council approved the hiring of part-time police officer Callen Rich.

“I recommend him based on the chief/officer in charge, along with the mayor, that the background work, background investigation, and polygraph test were good,” Councilman John Turcmanovich said. “The motion right now is to hire him part time. He is one of the candidates that is interested in full time, which would happen when the testing comes around for full time. Right now, I recommend we hire him part time. He is available seven days a week, if we needed him.”

Rich is from Northampton and is a recent graduate of the police academy. A motion was made by William Chuma, seconded by Jay Doyle, and passed unanimously.

In related news, Council voted to accept the resignation of full-time officer Robert Lilly, effective Aug. 17. Lilly was hired in January 2022.

Council also passed a motion to have the Civil Service Commission reschedule the exam for full-time officers. The original test date had to be changed due to an error when the potential candidates were give the wrong date/time for the test.

With a new date pending, Councilman John Turcmanovich advised that the borough could accept additional applications for full-time officers. Applications for full and part-time officers are available on the borough’s website, BoroughOfLansford.com.

Office lease

A motion was passed to partner with the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation to develop the former Silberline Office Building into a Business Incubator Space.

Council President Bruce Markovich said, “What they want to do is, there are nine offices in that building. They want to rent those offices out to people who are either working from home or have a small business and they need an office, but don’t need to rent an entire building.”

The building would need some cleaning, fresh paint and some small repairs.

“They said they would need to put in high-speed internet,” Chuma said, “and update the telephone system. Plus repair some windows, and check the heating and air conditioning.”

The borough would lease the office space and take care of the maintenance of the building, including snow removal.

Sanitation bills

Borough Secretary Wendy Butrie advised Council that there is a total of $54,448.83 of past-due sanitation bills of customer with balance of $300 or more.

“What you need to decide is, do we send them a 30-day letter first, then send them to Portnoff for collections, or just send them directly to Portnoff?” Butrie asked.

Council voted to submit the entire list of past-due customers with balance of $300 or more to Portnoff for collections. Other accounts that are past due but with bills less than $300, the borough will send them a letter advising them they have 30 days in which to pay the past-due bill.

In other business

• For July, American Fire Company responded to 15 fire calls in Lansford, with a total of 114 fire calls for the year so far.

Lehighton had 66 calls in Lansford. The average response time was nine minutes from dispatch to arrival.

• Tax Collector’s Report, from July 1, 2022, to July 31, 2022, collected $86,545.71.

• Chuma said he just discovered a neighbor who has a 300-tank pressure washer mounted on a trailer, with a variety of tools and accessories to go along with it. It has a 7½-horsepower engine.

“It’s something that might come in hand here,” Chuma suggested. “He originally said he wanted $3,000; but, if the borough is interested, he’ll take $2,500 for it.”

Council passed a motion to purchase the pressure washer for $2,500.

• Council voted to purchase three large signs that would be posted, saying “Permits required within borough limits.”

“People are moving in, putting pavements in, doing all kinds of work that would require a zoning permit, but they are not getting permits,” Chuma advised council. “People are saying our signs are too small, they don’t see them. There shouldn’t be any excuse that people can’t see that permits are required here in Lansford.”

The three new signs would cost about $70 each and will be posted by the signs that say “Welcome to Lansford.”