Slatington council members discussed road projects for 2024 during their meeting Monday night, just not as many as the agenda suggested.

Council members were going to discuss a variety of roads that need work and could be considered for a Community Development Block Grant, but the discussion fell flat when the motion failed to get a second.

Instead, the council decided that the matter needed to go back to the Highway Committee for it to narrow down which roads are the worst, and to present them to council for discussion. Ultimately, council plans to select three roads to apply for CDBG funds, borough manager Daniel Stevens said.

“Willow Avenue for sure,” Stevens said.

Two roads do have funding this year, and are definitely in the works. The borough is just waiting for some paperwork to return from Lehigh County, Stevens said.

The roads are North Street and Fifth Street. The borough received two CDBG awards in August for reconstruction projects on the two streets.

The reconstruction on North Street will run from Second Street to Willow Avenue. The grant was for $87,399. On Fifth Street, the reconstruction will run from West Church Street toward Franklin Street, Stevens said.

“We don’t have enough money to go the whole way to Franklin Street,” he said. The grant was for $90,898.

The borough received notification in December that it is going to receive $235,957 through the COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act that provides money to the Pennsylvania Small Water and Sewer Program. The grant Slatington will receive will be used for a water main and service line replacement project on Maple Spring Drive.

“It’s a good sized grant for a water line,” Stevens said.

The council also approved returning a $50,000 grant to the State of Pennsylvania that was intended to be used for renovating the restrooms at Victory Park. Stevens said the borough intended to supply an additional $20,000 to the grant money for the project but when they put it out to bid, the result was 320% higher than they anticipated. One company placed a bid for $226,000 to do the work.

In order to pursue more grant money, the borough would have to do additional engineering for detailed specifications, which would cost the borough more money for engineering and legal expenses.

“It was eating up money,” Stevens said.

Now, the borough is going to use its $20,000 to do work on the restrooms piece by piece. For instance, they might start with painting the exterior, then put in new faucets, etc., with some of the work being done in house.

One project that is taking a step toward completion is the installation of new control panels at the sewer plant. The work is being done by Martz Technologies Inc.

“They are supposed to start the installation on Monday,” Stevens said, weather permitting.

In other business, the council granted permission to the fire company to get detailed information about a new fire truck, and report back to the Public Safety committee.

“This is a long-term project,” Stevens said. “It could take three to four years to work it out.”

Additional items discussed at the meeting include:

• The St. Luke’s 13th Annual Hospice Charity Bike Ride will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 1 with a rain date of June 2;

• The Slatington Public Library sent a thank-you note to council for a $5,000 donation;

• The Greater Northern Lehigh Chamber of Commerce was granted permission to hold its monthly board meetings in the borough chambers;

• Appointed Statewide Tax Recovery (which merged with Berkheimer Inc.) to be the tax collector for delinquent taxes;

• Approved Cowan Associates to do additional consulting work for a new sewer permit;

• Appointed Clarence Schmoyer to the Slatington Borough Authority.