Emmaus Borough Council approved the authorization of a loan for the Rodale building with a 5-1 vote during the committee meeting July 27.

Council will be entering into a loan with ESSA Bank & Trust. It will be a seven year loan with a fixed percentage of 2.12 percent, and is pre-payable at anytime. The loan size is $5,796,000.

"The hope is that we'll be able to sell properties, move into the new building and be far along in this process seven years from now," acting Council President Brian Holtzhafer said.

Councilman Nathan Brown noted he was still receiving questions from uneasy residents regarding the purchase of the building.

"Just so everybody is aware it is a process and it's not going to be taken lightly and done overnight," Brown said.

Councilman Brent Labenberg added he was getting concerns about the fire department. "That's [fire department] going to be hammered out in the committee process and be well discussed before anything even moves forward."

Councilman Jeff Shubzda voted against this ordinance, his reasoning being he was against the purchase of the Rodale building. He did, however, say he thought everybody did a great job with negotiating and getting the best possible rate.

Council made the decision to allow the Emmaus Main Street Partners to hold the annual Farewell Summer Festival on Main Street. It did, however, bring up the discussion on who has the authority to issue road closures.

Councilman Wesley Barrett first brought up the topic and said only recently council has "flip flopped" on who gets that power.

"The way this council had dealt with this in the past, is delegate that power to our mayor," Holtzhafer said.

"The bottom line is council has the primary obligation or duty to make a determination of road closures," Borough Solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker said.

While discussing how they should deal with road closures for future annual events, Holtzhafer said he didn't know "if the mayor is going to be happy we take his power away from him that he has had all his life."

Labenberg countered that statement. "I've seen him [mayor] not here more than he is here, so that's part of the issue. He should be here for this debate and the events that are going forward, other than reading them on a piece of paper."

Labenberg went on to say if the mayor gets upset about this discussion, "then maybe he should be at the meetings."

Ultimately it was decided this discussion will continue to take place on a committee level.

In other business, a public hearing was held regarding Ordinance No. 1128 which will "amend the borough of Emmaus zoning ordinance of 1993, to delete definitions and regulations relating to 'brew pubs' and 'craft breweries' and to substitute definitions and regulations relating to 'craft beverages,' 'craft beverage restaurants' and 'craft beverage production facilities.'" This new ordinance, which passed 6-0 will now allow wineries and distilleries in town.

Council voted 6-0 to award Sewer Specialty Services Company of Leicester, N.Y. the sanitary sewer inspection and rehabilitation bid. The company will inspect the lining of the sanitary sewer lines in the borough. The bid was $48,500 which is about $27,000 less than what council budgeted. Borough Manger Shane Pepe said the engineer has worked with the borough before and they are confident the bid is accurate. Council hopes to be able to do extra work with the additional money saved on the bid.

After a lengthy discussion, council voted 6-0 in favor of not waiving the pavilion rental fee for the Emmaus Live! event.

What drew some discussion was if they decided to waive the fee for this non-profit event, how many other non-profit organizations would be asking for the pavilion rental fee waiver as well. As it currently stands, there are pavilion rental fees only on the weekends.

Council approved to sign a five-year agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in regard to the plowing of Main Street and other state roads. This agreement allows the borough to plow the main roads and in return PennDOT will reimburse the borough.

When asked if this was a good deal Pepe said, "If you don't have an agreement, you can't touch that street so if you want to wait for PennDOT to come and plow Main Street be my guest."

Council unanimously voted to pass the following: to allow the purchase of an ambulance van with an automatic lift, lower the transport mileage rates on ambulance rides, order a Ram truck for the police department for 2016 and to allow the sale of old equipment on Municibid, an online government auction site.