The Jan. 16 meeting of the Macungie Borough Council, which took place in the Macungie Institute, began with the swearing in of several police officers and a junior council member.

There were four part-time police officers who were sworn in at the meeting: Alexander Smith, Anthony Campanel, Michael Marshal and Kyle Fisher. Members of the new officers’ families were also in attendance.

After the police officers were sworn in, borough council turned its attention to swearing in the second junior council member, Renee Martin. Martin is currently a junior at Emmaus High School. The other junior council member, Valeria Cordner, currently a senior at Allentown Central Catholic High School, was sworn in at the previous borough council meeting.

The borough council next opened the meeting up to public comment.

Macungie resident and retired Fire Chief Tim Shantzenbach was at the meeting and voiced some of his concerns about the state of the fire department. The council discussed the number of people on the fire department’s roster. There was also a discussion regarding the amount of training each of the roster members has. The council needs to know the amount of training each member has for workmen’s compensation purposes.

There was a debate about whether the borough or the fire department should keep track of fire reports and training. The reports would include who reported to what fires or accidents and when.

The solicitor’s report primarily dealt with the possibility of medical marijuana dispensaries cropping up in the borough. The solicitor argued there should be rules to constrain where dispensaries could be in the borough. He explained if there isn’t a specific category for medical marijuana dispensaries with rules, the dispensaries could be built in the borough under the category of doctor’s offices.

The borough council decided not to comment on either the Lower Macungie Township Zoning Ordinance Amendment or the Emmaus Borough Zoning Ordinance Amendment because they did not affect Macungie Borough in their comprehensive plan. If passed the ordinances would allow the local government not to be bound by its own ordinances when it came to development.

The final issue discussed at the meeting was the improvements to Brookfield Park. In previous meetings a plan had been developed to improve the basketball court and add a walking path around the park. Council decided to postpone further planning of the park improvements until a future meeting when the borough engineer could be present.

The next meeting of the Macungie Borough Council will be Feb. 6. Meetings are held 7:30 p.m. the first and third Mondays of the month. The meetings are located at Macungie Borough Hall.