Updates were given on both Walnutport's Oak Street project and its brand-new water filtration system at Tuesday's borough authority meeting.

"The Oak Street project is done," announced Chairman Ron Kuntz.The project, begun in early June, involved construction of approximately 1,050 linear feet of water main along Oak Street. Construction costs were covered by a Community Development Block Grant project; engineering costs were not."Everything is closed out," borough engineer Jason Newhard said. "Council should approve the final payment Thursday night, and we're actually under budget by about $1,200."Council handled the project because it also involved an asphalt overlay and covered about 28 percent of its cost."The contractors did a really great job and were great to work with," Kuntz said later, adding that the project was done on time.The authority also discussed the Heimbach Filtration Plant, located on Alder Drive just north of Kmart, which was publicly dedicated on June 12. It began operations after receiving approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection. It was issued an operations permit in May.Newhard said that, since June, he issued the certificates of substantial completion for all three Heimbach contracts and that they were signed and were now ready to be signed by Kuntz, which he did after the meeting.Kuntz later explained that starting Aug. 12, a year's warranty starts running on the plant's equipment.He said that though the equipment is working fine, the plant's filtration "fingers" need to be cleaned about every three-and-a-half days, so new media will need to be found to resolve that issue.However, he noted that some delay in regard to the filtration process had been anticipated and that the water is perfectly suitable for drinking; the plant shuts itself down if the filters become too clogged and water is simply drawn from the borough's other water source.In other news, Kuntz said the authority's new auditor, Kirk, Summa & Co., which is also the borough's auditor, gave the authority its report and would visit Wednesday to discuss some "internal control issues.""(Anytime) a new firm comes in, they're going to find things that they can't work with that the other guy could work with," Kuntz said. "That's the way it is."Newhard also said that the Bill Jones subdivision, on Lehigh Gap and Walnut Streets, will be up for approval at Thursday's borough council meeting and that the Advance Auto Parts store, which received conditional approval at last month's council meeting, is awaiting PennDOT approval.