North Catasauqua Borough Council held its second regular meeting of the month Nov. 16.

Borough Engineer Dave Kutzor came before council to report on the bids that have come in for the storm sewer improvement project. The lowest bid on the project was $1.28 million, and the highest was $2.4 million. This comes in at least double the roughly $600,000 budget the borough estimated for the project.

“We can’t proceed with the project,” said council President Peter Paone, regarding the $1.28 million price point.

However, council is looking to reduce costs if possible, which could mean scaling back the scope of the project.

Paone and Kutzor are set to meet with PENNVEST, the Harrisburg agency helping to fund the project, to assess their options to bring down costs. Paone floated the idea of having the borough handle some of the work, if possible, to help cut the cost.

Council also reviewed the bid for a new waste removal contract. The singular bid came from J.P. Mascaro & Sons, which holds the borough’s current contract for waste removal, and would cost the borough more than $300,000 per year for curbside waste removal, curbside recycling and a number of dumpsters.

Paone and other borough officials noted this is a significant increase from the current contract, which has them paying roughly $240,000 a year for those same services. Tom Sassaman, corporate controller for J.P. Mascaro & Sons, who attended the meeting virtually, said the price increase is mostly for recycling due to changes in that market, which have occurred over the past few years.

Council members decided they will wait to vote on accepting the bid until Solicitor Steven Goudsouzian has time to review the new contract.

Tasha Jandrisovitz, borough secretary, reported the borough received $8,300 for a set of old vehicles that were replaced by newly leased vehicles from Enterprise Fleet Service. She also announced nine houses in the North Catasauqua section of the new Willowbrook Estates have been sold so far.

Police Chief Chris Wolfer discussed his department’s upcoming Thanksgiving Fill a Police Trunk food drive. Since the Catasauqua Police Department is doing a similar food drive, the two plan to team up with Catasauqua Area School District so they can be sure to find families in need and put all the donated food to good use.

Borough council decided on the meeting schedule for 2021 and will continue to meet on the first and third Mondays of every month. The next regular meeting will be held 7 p.m. Dec. 7.