Resident Anthony Groller started a little scuffle with council when he once again complained about borough employees, specifically the public works department.

Groller, a senior citizen who regularly attends borough meetings, was questioning why there was an end of the year picnic held for employees in the middle of the week and not on a Saturday.

“Think about how much that costs the taxpayers, when those people [workers], they do nothing,” Groller said. “They didn’t have to do nothing (sic) for three hours.”

Groller went on to say how the public works department could have been spending that time paving streets and fixing them.

Councilman Brian Holtzhafer cut in to ask Groller, “why are you so after the public works department? Why do you follow the public works guys around and harass them?”

“Well if any of you people sitting in these chairs would go around and see, are they working eight hours a day or are they working six hours a day, or what they (sic) doing?” Groller responded.

“Yes, please follow them home like he does. Follow them everywhere they go, when they go to the bathroom, follow them everywhere you can because that’s what he spends most of his day doing,” Borough Manager Shane Pepe replied.

Groller then said he was being “harassed” by the public works men when he went to the compost site.

Holtzhafer informed Groller he cannot go to the compost site unless it is open to the public. Groller said he does not go when it is not open to the public, but Pepe cut him off and said that is a lie.

Council President Lee Ann Gilbert told Groller they were no longer going to have the discussion about the compost site, as it was discussed at the previous meeting.

“So in other words, you’re telling me I don’t have the right to express what I’m trying to say?” Groller said.

“I didn’t say that,” Gilbert said. “When you and Mr. Holtzhafer were talking you brought up the compost pile. That issue was discussed with you. We talked about it, we heard it last month and we’re done on that topic.

At this point Councilman and Chairman of the Public Works Committee Brent Labenberg stepped in to say over the years Groller has “almost always” complained about the public works department. Labenberg said when Groller has legitimate concerns, he raises them at committee or council meetings. He will not respond when Groller comes to meetings and says workers get paid to do nothing.

“You have a reputation for being around them all the time. It’s known in the borough, it’s known by the workers, it’s known by this council, and when you come up here and accuse them of not doing any work, council is going to tune you out.”

In other business, Pepe asked council to remove Michael Hoffman from the planning commission. Hoffman has missed multiple meetings over the past months.

“He has been MIA for months now,” Pepe said. “I’ve sent him emails, we’ve sent him letters, the commission has sent him letters, made phone calls; we get absolutely no response from him.”

Pepe said they are at a point where they need “warm bodies that can be of assistance rather than a name tag sitting there with nobody to fill it.”

Borough Solicitor Jeffrey Dimmich said if Hoffman is on staggered terms then council “cannot just remove a person except upon notice of charges.”

Dimmich said there has to be an official hearing in order to have the official power to remove him of duty.

“You have to give him a statement of charges; he has to know exactly what he’s charged for.”

Gilbert questioned how council is supposed to get Hoffman to a hearing if he is not responding to any attempts to communicate with him.

Pepe said the letters to Hoffman have been very clear in stating Hoffman has not been to meetings in months and he has 10 days to contact the borough.

Dimmich said that does not suffice legally, but if council wished to proceed they could. However, they would be open to challenge.

Holtzhafer made a motion to remove Hoffman from committee, which was only backed by Labenberg and Councilman Nathan Brown. Councilmen Roy Anders, Wesley Barrett, Jeff Shubzda and Gilbert opposed. The motion was dropped and an official legal letter will be sent to Hoffman. If he does not appear to his hearing he will be removed from the planning commission.

Matthew Spangenberg, a local contractor, spoke before council regarding a house he is remodeling at 544 Broad St.

Spangenberg, who currently resides in Macungie, has run into a problem getting a gas line installed. When he called UGI Utilities to inquire about putting a line in, he was told there was a five year moratorium put on the road due to previous work done around April and July of 2011. UGI is not allowed to open the road early without council’s permission.

“I currently have all the water on in the house because I need the water pressurized for the plumbing inspection, and now I have no heat or any way of getting heat,” Spangenberg said. “I’m very concerned about the pipes bursting or freezing.”

Spangenberg said he understands it will be six to nine months earlier than when the road is “allowed” to be cut open, but he really has no other options.

Gilbert said it is typical protocol to send this type of request to committee level. The committee that could handle the request earliest would be the general administration committee, which has their next meeting Oct. 28. From there it would go to the full council meeting which will be held Nov. 2.

Spangenberg, again, mentioned he was very concerned about the cold temperatures.

“I understand,” Gilbert said. “Unfortunately, we have a process that we follow and that’s what it would be. Send it to committee and have it reviewed.”