The Aug. 30 meeting of Alburtis Borough Council began with a discussion of Norfolk Southern rental fees. The borough has a sewer line crossing under the railroad near the Main Street crossing.

The right to pass under the railroad was rented by the borough. The rent price has quadrupled to $1,700 for the upcoming year. Council wants to schedule a meeting with Norfolk Southern to make sure the rate would remain within a certain range for a number of years.

During the meeting, retiring Alburtis Police Department Sgt. Jay Ruff gave a farewell address to council and thanked everyone for the experience. A retirement party is planned.

In other business, there was a debate over a strip of land between two properties. One of the property owners, Michael Pavlik, had questions about a tree hanging over the two properties.

Pavlik said the tree does not belong on either property and asked who should be responsible for the tree. It does not seem to be an entrance to the nearby bird sanctuary. The borough map shows the two properties are abutting. Council said the strip of land was possibly a paper alley.

The alley was split between Pavlik and his neighbor. The two neighbors seem to be willing to work together to get rid of the tree between the properties.

Council received a bid to remove the Playground of Adventure. The bid came from To the Top Tree Service and was $850.

There was also a discussion of Verizon’s request to build a cell tower on the borough’s land. Verizon originally brought up the idea in 2015 and it fell by the wayside. Recently Verizon reached out asking to look back into cell tower placement.

One issue is that the cell tower would take up a lot of space from the ball field. Council suggested there should be a better place for the tower. There was a discussion about putting a fence around the baseball field and having the cell tower just beyond the fence. Council sees it as a playability question, dealing with the people who use the field. Council could not agree to rescind the current motion with a vote being deadlocked at three on either side. The issue was tabled until the next meeting.

Council also discussed the issue of ownership when it came to the fence at the Hills at Lockridge. Council said the fence was not as good quality as it was supposed to be. It was suggested to go back to Jaindl Land Development and ask for the fence to be replaced with something of higher quality.

The next Alburtis Borough Council meeting will be Sept. 13. Typically meetings take place on the second and third Wednesdays of the month. Meetings are 7 p.m. and take place in Alburtis Borough Hall.