Nesquehoning residents in proposed project areas along Park Avenue and East Diaz Avenue will now be required to install curbing before the road projects can occur.

During borough council’s meeting on Thursday, in a 4-2 vote, the board voted to mandate curbing for the two roads. Council members Lois Kuba and Bruce Nalesnik cast the no votes, while Councilwoman Mary Fox was absent.

Prior to the vote, Park Avenue resident Tim Maurer, who was one of eight homeowners required to install curbing along Park Avenue, from the Route 54 intersection to Fourth Avenue, when the road was reconstructed years ago.

He asked why was this board changing the requirement for curbing, noting that it costs the homeowners thousands of dollars.

“If you pave the rest of Park Avenue for those eight individuals there (from Fourth to Eighth), I just want to know when we are going to be reimbursed for curbing we had to put in,” Maurer said.

Mayor Tom Kattner said that he was required to put curbing in in front of his home when that street got paved.

“If one’s going to do it, everybody should do it,” Kattner said.

Nalesnik said that the street committee discussed the curbing requirement, which isn’t included in ARRO Engineerings requirements for these roads, and determined in a 2-1 vote that the committee recommend mandating curbing for the two projects.

He pointed out that curbing is not mandated in the ordinance, but that it is at the council’s discretion on projects.

As part of the change, Nalesnik said that there wouldn’t be enough time for residents to install curbing and the road project be completed in this construction year.

Kuba then asked for a roll-call vote because she isn’t hearing of any storm erosion on East Diaz Avenue that would make her think curbing should be required.

She also pointed out that in previous projects, if residents couldn’t afford the curbing, the borough would pay for it and create a payment plan with the homeowner, however, that outstanding balance owed to the borough is still approximately $17,000.

Councilwoman Suzanne Smith said that you can’t look at the past and determine things should change just because the borough wasn’t enforcing the payback.

“Nobody is ever going to agree on curbing,” Smith said. “You’re not going to convince some people that curbing isn’t going to help with maintaining a road and keeping it from eroding. I think we could talk about this until we’re blue in the face.”

“But what do we do when somebody will not pay for it?” Kuba asked, pointing out that it would delay a project.

Nalesnik said that the curbing will now the delay the paving projects until approximately next year.

Council also approved several other motions regarding streets that piggybacked off the curbing mandate.

• The street paving bid for Pine Street and Park Avenue was rejected because the bid was bundled together and couldn’t be separated.

• ARRO Engineering was asked to prepare new specifications and estimates for resurfacing the first two blocks of East Center Street and Pine Street.

• Authorized council President David Hawk to sign the agreement with the county on the Community Development Block Grant funds for the East Diaz Street project.

• Approved Reading and Northern’s offer for the Allen Street railroad crossing signal upgrade with gates and lights.