During the April 17 meeting of Macungie Borough Council, there was a discussion about the festivities occurring over Easter weekend.

This year, the borough celebrated 75 years of holding an Easter egg hunt. Unfortunately, this year might be the last since David Saylor, who has organized the event for many years, has said this was his last year. The borough is currently looking for a volunteer to step up and organize this event for next year. Council said it is important the Easter egg hunt tradition continue in Macungie because it makes the borough unique.

Linda Emery, of Waste Management, appeared before council during the meeting to discuss a contract extension. In a previous meeting, the borough had decided to not accept the Waste Management contract extension and put the contract out to bid.

Emery talked about how the borough could renew the contract at the same price and not all companies provide the same quality of service. She also mentioned “at your door hazardous waste pickup” which is available to some customers. Emery said Waste Management definitely would place a bid on the contract.

Council also discussed the police budget. It was said the police force has 13,000 man hours in an average year. A few representatives of the police department who were at the meeting explained their hope is to not have a need for part-time employees. The representatives explained one of the issues of hiring new employees is that an officer’s time is not counted toward man hours when training new officers. They wanted to avoid turnover and becoming a revolving door for other departments. The issue is that part-time officers hired end up leaving when they find full-time work elsewhere.

Council talked about how the police department did a good job organizing their budget. The police talked about how the price of fuel had gone down. The police department is costing taxpayers $213 per person.

Council talked about setting basic ground rules and discussed setting the budget of the police department by averaging the budgets of the last five years. One of the suggestions was to hire 30-hour officers instead of part-time officers as they are likely to stay on the force for a longer period of time.

Council unanimously passed ordinance 2017- 02 during the meeting. The ordinance established a new definition for equivalent dwelling unit which is a measure by which the user charge for sewer services is calculated and imposed.

A rental inspection meeting will be held 7 p.m. April 19. The Great Macungie Cleanup will be held April 22. One group is meeting at the fire station 9 a.m. while another is meeting at the train station 9:30 a.m. in the flower park. There will be an electronics recycling and document shredding event for Alburtis and Macungie residents and businesses 9 a.m. to noon April 29 in Macungie Memorial Park.

Macungie Borough Council will hold its next meeting 7:30 p.m. May 1 at Macungie Borough Hall.