Lehighton has money available for a truck for its Light and Power Department, but not for a piece of equipment for its Public Works Department,

Kris Kunkle, supervisor of the borough’s Public Works Department, asked borough council at last week’s meeting what to do about the department’s street sweeper.

“I’m in a quandary as to what I should do,” Kunkle said. “What do I do?

Kunkle said the borough’s street sweeper needs a new body-topper, and added the hydraulics are basically shot.

He said it has 10-12 feet capability, but that only 3 feet of it is operational.

Council President Grant Hunsicker said he believes it’s important that the situation be addressed.

“I think any way we can afford (to do it),” Hunsicker said. “We can’t keep letting our equipment go.”

But, Councilwoman Lisa Perry said, “We don’t have it in the budget.”

Borough Manager Steve Travers said there are some options the borough could look at such as grants or loans.

“Whatever the balance is, we would have to finance that,” Travers said.

Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky said she hoped residents would be understanding of the situation.

“We’re asking the community to give us a little leeway with our street sweeping,” Abelovsky said.

After the meeting, Travers said the street sweeper is around 30 years old.

“It’s an older piece of equipment,” he said. “A new one is quite expensive; it wasn’t something we were planning on for this year.”

For now, Travers said the street sweeper is down.

“We will probably send it out to the manufacturer to refurbish the machine,” he said.

Relocation project

Also last week, Lonnie Armbruster, superintendent of the borough’s Light and Power Department, discussed the relocation project with borough council on Monday.

Armbruster said the total cost for a new truck would be $368,968.

Of that, he said $101,993 is the price of a chassis, and $266,975 for the boom.

Armbruster said the truck likely won’t arrive until next year. The good news, Travers said, is money is in the budget for the truck.

After the meeting, he said the borough has $279,241.

“When we place the order, we’ll probably pay 50% of it this year, and next year put the other half of that in,” Travers said.

He said the new poles that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has put in as part of the Route 443 relocation project are taller poles.

“We are unable to reach the correct height,” Travers said.

With the new truck, he said the borough’s L & P Department will be able to fix the power lines.

“All our poles we can reach right now,” Travers said. “The new poles on 443 is where we’re running into the problem.”