Alburtis Borough Manager Sharon Trexler told council at the Oct. 14 meeting the police department wishes to train at the Topton Gun Club. It costs $75 to rejoin the gun club and an additional $35 each year per officer.

Councilmember John Aleszczyk questioned how many police officers the borough currently employs. With 11 officers total, Aleszczyk then explained it would cost $750 per year versus the current bill of $350 at the Alburtis Rod and Gun Club.

The majority of council wished to ask the police department to continue training locally.

Vice-president Steven Hill suggested asking if the gun club could waive the $75 fee.

“We’re gonna table this until next month when we get more information,” President Ron DeIaco said. “Then we can hash it out and decide what to do.”

Mayor Kathleen Palmer announced that anyone who plans to vote by mail can take their ballots to the county government center, 17 S. Seventh St., Allentown.

Councilmember Stephen Kaufman delivered the treasurer’s report.

“ ... Kinda the same as last month,” Kaufman said. “The top numbers look good, but once you start scrolling down through the individual line items we are greatly exceeding certain categories, but we’re only OK because certain expenses didn’t come through ... vigilance is warranted.”

Council carried a motion to accept the report.

Borough solicitor Dave Knerr created Ordinance 563 awarding a contract for business with Solid Waste Services as J.P. Mascaro. Council carried a motion to accept the ordinance.

Next, council discussed the plans to rehabilitate the bird sanctuary.

“ ... We said we weren’t going to do anything until we rolled out of the coronavirus ...” DeIaco said.

Hill agreed with DeIaco and expressed concerns about finances.

“I’d personally just like to leave it alone until we come out of [the pandemic],” Hill said. “I don’t think we should be spending any money unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Second vice-president Kathleen Raines suggested asking the maintenance workers to clean up the area, as trash and invasive wildlife gathered over the years.

Councilmembers Vanessa Taggart and Hector Vasquez agreed with Raines that a significant amount of trash lies in the sanctuary and should be cleaned up.

“There’s big pieces of cement that were thrown in there,” Taggart said. “ ... I mean, they’re huge pieces. It’s really a mess.”

Vasquez felt that much of the garbage most likely originated from neighboring yards.

“There’s tires, there’s fencing,” Vasquez said “ ... Pretty much all of the debris and trash we saw and have pictures for pretty much lines everyone’s property that’s [near] the sanctuary. That’s pretty much where you find a lot of the garbage.”

Raines also pointed out a resident also set up a deer stand in the sanctuary.

Trexler shared she received a few calls about hunting in the sanctuary. Council agreed to post the property.

Aleszczyk recommended sending letters to nearby residents to warn them of dumping garbage in the sanctuary.

“I think we should send a letter to the neighboring properties that it’s not a garbage dump and anything put back there they should get out,” Aleszczyk said.

DeIaco agreed, adding the residents should “ ... clean it up ... by this spring ... because [council will] be in there looking at property lots.”

Palmer suggested installing trail cams, but council turned down the idea, dubbing it an unnecessary expense.

Council liked the idea of sending letters to neighboring properties about trash cleanup in the sanctuary.

“I like John’s idea of the letter [to] say ‘look, we’re going to be looking in the spring for redoing the boundaries and we need you to clean up the mess that you’ve made,’” DeIaco said. “ ... at least everything that they clean up ahead of time is less that our [maintenance crew] will have to do in the spring.”

Vasquez agreed.

“While it would be nice to have our maintenance crew go out and do that, ultimately, they’re not the ones that made the mess,” Vasquez said. “So, I’m in agreeance with sending a letter out … this way it’s going to prepare all those property owners [to clean up]. Then, when spring comes [if] we see that no action has been taken, we can revisit it again and maybe we have to send out another strong letter, but once the boundary lines are established, then we can really enforce it at that time. I think we can start by sending out that notice and give everybody a heads up.”

Trexler then delivered an update about painting the church.

She inquired about a pressure washer and lift to try to complete the project this year; however, she feels there is still much work left to do.

“It’s kind of late in the year, so I’m not sure that they’ll be able to finish it this year,” Trexler said.

Hill suggested asking a contractor for quotes to finish painting in the spring.

Trexler also explained the project on Fort Sumpter Road is on hold. After discussion of opening the road as one lane or two, council agreed to keep it operating as a two-way road.

Next, Trexler informed council that after former zoning officer Dave Kutzor’s resignation, she plans to take on as much zoning work as she can. However, she would like to authorize Knerr to permit Barry Isett and Associates as the alternate zoning officer. The engineering firm plans to operate as an alternate zoning officer for $75 an hour.

Knerr agreed to prepare a resolution detailing the agreement for the next meeting.

Trexler plans to send a call-out to residents about the electronics recycling event 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 31. Residents can recycle various items for free, such as computers, keyboards, lights, cellphones and other items like washers and dryers, air conditioners or tires for a fee. A full list can be found on Alburtis Borough’s Facebook page or Responsible Recycling Service’s website.

Council wrapped up the meeting by discussing installing alternatives to the speed bumps in the borough, as the current ones continue to get damaged.

Kaufman advised extending new projects due to budget concerns.

DeIaco agreed postponing projects until spring might prove more financially beneficial, but explained the borough withstood the economic impact of the pandemic better than expected.

“ … We haven’t lost the kind of money that Macungie or Emmaus have lost,” DeIaco said. “We haven’t laid off anybody, all our services are being provided. We’ve been very fortunate through this virus to be able to still maintain all of our services and have semi-healthy finances.”

Council then carried a motion to adjourn.