It was stated at the Emmaus Borough Council meeting Jan 15, that the borough’s trash and refuse collector, Mascaro & Sons, is treading on very thin ice with their contract.

“I personally witnessed our garbage hauler combining recycling and refuse together,” Borough Manager Shane Pepe said.

Pepe said he followed the truck and counted 80 houses where this occurred. He said the borough is fining Mascaro $50 a house, which Pepe said will amount to a little over $4,000.

Pepe said they made the president of the company aware, and in turn were told some employees were going to lose their jobs and some already have lost their jobs.

“Their general manager and their operations manager are very uncomfortable at this point, as they should be,” Pepe said.

Pepe noted he made it very clear to Mascaro they better be at the next health, sanitation and codes committee meeting Jan. 31, where they will be discussing Mascaro’s future in detail and whether or not they are going to remain in the borough.

“If they don’t show up then, well, they may have lost an $800,000 contract,” Pepe said. “It’s as simple as that.”

This episode is coming a little over a month after Mascaro’s Director of Sales Sam Augustine and Manager Chris Caras appeared before council to hear the number of complaints the borough had been receiving regarding trash and refuse pick-up.

During the Dec. 5, 2017 meeting, Augustine was told by council Mascaro had until Jan. 1 to fix the problems being raised, otherwise the company would start to be fined as per the contract.

Mascaro & Sons has been contracted with the borough since 2015. The original contract was to end in 2017, but last year council decided to extend the contract to the end of 2018.

In other business, resident Craig Smith spoke before council regarding his next-door neighbor’s use of a large smoker grill, which in turn has been on occasion causing smoke to fill Smith’s house. Smith said he and his wife have been trying to solve the issue peacefully by sending texts and trying to communicate, but they don’t seem to be “getting the message.”

“I wanted to know if there’s an ordinance or anything we could do as a resident,” Smith said.

Borough Solicitor Jeffrey Dimmich and Pepe said they would look into the matter and reach out to Smith in the near future. It was noted they do have ordinances regarding grilling and burning.

Linda Waddell was reappointed to the Emmaus Arts Commission with a term expiring Feb. 2, 2021.

Jeffrey Baker was appointed to the board of health with a term expiring Jan. 1, 2022.

Dr. Aaron Ratner was appointed to the board of health with a term expiring Jan. 1, 2023.

Nigel Watt was appointed to the board of health with a term expiring Jan. 1, 2019.

Richard Farmer was reappointed to the Emmaus Arts Commission with a term expiring Feb. 7, 2021.

Michael Gibson was reappointed to the Emmaus Planning Commission with a term expiring April 1, 2022.

The next council meeting will be held 7 p.m. Feb. 5.