On Tuesday, Weatherly Borough broke ground on a 8,600-square-foot municipal complex with space for police and a district court.

But a long discussion at the previous night’s council meeting suggests the borough still has space issues to resolve.

Council intended to discuss a request from the Weatherly Area Museum to take over their current municipal building, a historic train station, when the new building is completed.

But the conversation quickly turned to the Weatherly Police Department and their space needs.

Chief Brian Markovchick said the new building won’t change the fact that the department currently needs space in multiple buildings in town, and needs a garage so they can protect equipment in their squad cars.

“You’re building a building that doesn’t function for the police department,” he said.

Markovchick said the project started out as a police station, and the borough joined in. He said the new police station won’t have enough room to accommodate the department. There won’t be space for evidence and files, as well as a garage to save wear and tear on police cruisers.

“There’s just not enough room for our equipment, that’s the big thing,” Markovchick said.

Currently during the winter, he said, they keep the cars running 24/7 so freezing temperatures don’t affect equipment. The temperature-sensitive equipment includes the anti-overdose drug naloxone, Automated external defibrillators, as the well as the windows of the cars themselves.

“It’s a safety issue with our cars, we don’t just want to park our cars indoors,” said Sgt. Michael Bogart.

Council members said that there is room on the property to build a garage for the police. But they defended the building project as a positive for the borough, the magistrate, and the police department.

“We didn’t expect to get everything that everybody wanted right off the bat. We wanted to try to make something new as a start, as a building point,” Councilman Joseph Cyburt said.

Mayor/council president Tom Connors pointed out that the borough manager obtained $2 million in grants to fund the cost of the project, and council made the decision to complete it without using any additional township funds.

“I really apologize to anybody who thinks that building isn’t good for this community,” Connors said.

Connors said when the borough downsized the project to keep it under budget, its engineers decided what to cut, not council members. He said the borough’s space was reduced too. Markovchick responded that the borough is the customer and has the last say.

Meanwhile, volunteers from the Weatherly Area Museum explained why they asked to use the building. They said they doubt that the building could sustain a restaurant or another business, as some have suggested.

Michele Connors, a museum volunteer and the mayor’s daughter, said her primary goal is to preserve the train station.

“We just don’t want to see it lost to a private citizen,” she said.

They also need more space because their current home is too small for their collection.

Alicia Quinn, a museum volunteer and granddaughter of the late town historian Jack Koehler, suggested that the building could be a welcome center, possibly with a cafe.

Volunteer Irv Richie said the museum needs space and bathroom facilities. The current location, a former dispatch house for the Lehigh Valley Railroad, doesn’t have running water because they can’t get approval to run a water line beneath the railroad tracks.

Some residents said they don’t think the museum should get a handout from the borough. Others said they should not take priority over the police.

Jen O’Donnell said it would be nice if the train station would be able to generate tax revenue from a business, rather than keeping them under borough control and using tax revenue to maintain it.

“If we’re gonna raise taxes, we should raise it for important things like police. By giving away building after building it’s on the taxpayers, it’s on the borough workers to keep up with maintenance,” she said.

Lori Ursta said the police garage is needed for the safety of the town. She and her husband John said they would welcome paying higher taxes in order to give the police the resources they need.

“If we have to raise taxes for our protection and security, I would support that,” Lori Ursta said.

Police Chief Markovchick said the building problem the latest instance of council failing to communicate with his department. He and Sgt. Michael Bogart said council has failed to fill a full-time officer position which opened four years ago. Finding part-time officers is difficult because they leave for full-time positions with benefits.

“There’s very little consultation with us on what’s needed for emergency services in the town,” Markovchick said.

Bogart said in Weatherly, the police aren’t just a law enforcement agency. They often will be the first ones on the scene of overdose calls, and in at least one case, an arson which threatened multiple homes.

As a result of the discussion council agreed to take the first step in hiring a new full-time officer — requesting that the borough’s civil service commission certify a list of candidates for the position.

Councilwoman Theresa D’Andrea said she agrees that the police department is the town’s first responders.

“They are our first responders. We are trying to have 24 hour ambulance service, we do not have it,” she said.