As this year’s winter begins to wind down, Walnutport Borough Council discussed the idea of purchasing a generator for the Lincoln Avenue Borough Hall.

“Nancy (Treskot, former council member) was working on getting one in the budget. Last time things went out for six days,” police Chief Peter Wayda said.

“I brought home the borough’s radios, computer to charge. I don’t mind, but we need to make this a priority,” he said.

“God forbid we have a burglary or something, and I can’t do anything if the power is down.”

The chief said after the March 2 snowstorm, the borough hall and police station were without power throughout the weekend.

“We had nine calls on Friday, 11 calls on Sunday, it was a weekend from hell and we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday writing reports,” he said.

Council member Patrice Hunsicker agreed with the chief, saying, “In the worst-case scenario, what if we do need to open this building for residents in a power outage?”

Wayda told the board that the Diamond Fire Company Social Hall is the official emergency place for the borough.

“But we need to stop kicking this can down the road. We’ve been in this building for 23 years now,” he said.

He told the board after looking online he found a generator for an estimated $5,000.

“It will all have to be rewired. That’s a cost,” borough President William Turk said.

“PEMA will not give us one, because this building is not considered a necessity due to emergency operations plan,” council member Michael Gaston said.

“If we get one, it depends from where, but Pete’s right. You can get one for around $4,000.”

The board voted to have Eric Strohl, borough road foreman, collect estimates for a unit large enough to fill the needs of the government building.

Wayda asked the board if a handful of officers from the borough could assist Coplay on March 24 for a Saquon Barkley homecoming parade.

The parade honoring the Penn State football team’s running back is expected to draw close to 10,000 people, Wayda said.

The chief said that Coplay’s police force agreed to reimburse any Walnutport officer assisting on the parade day.

“All the regular guys want to go,” he said.

Michael Wentz, grant coordinator and Deputy Fire Chief, told the board with the last two storms the governor signed a disaster declaration. “We did our own. This way, we are up for funding,” he said.

“Walnutport has gotten on the priority list, because of the two water treatment plants. Two years ago, we got $11,000, that was when the canal lock blew and we got an additional chunk of change for that,” he said.

“This time a tree came down and took the power out for 20 homes near Kmart. I got taken care of, but this goes back to having a generator and making things happen. It’s a long process to get these things taken care of. This just hit everyone,” he said.