North Catasauqua Borough Council held its second meeting of the month May 17. During the meeting, council agreed it will meet only once during the months of June, July and August. The regular meetings on the first Monday of the month will be held in June and August, and a meeting will be held July 6, two days after the national holiday for Fourth of July.

If council must hold a second meeting for any reason during those months, it will make a public announcement of those dates.

Treasurer Annette Englert told council that since the last meeting, she met with the borough’s finance committee to discuss incoming funding from the American Rescue Plan. North Catasauqua Borough has been told it will receive roughly $280,000 from the federal government across this year and next.

In anticipation of that funding, borough council approved North Catasauqua Police Department’s $21,000 purchase of body cameras for its officers.

Council also approved the public works department’s purchase of a new stainless steel pickup truck bed, which is expected to cost between $17,000 and $19,000.

Police Chief Chris Wolfer also asked council for permission to apply for a grant through the COPS Hiring Program. If awarded, the grant would offset a significant portion of a new full-time officer’s salary.

Wolfer announced he and his department would like to start a community watch program. He explained this would not be just some group of vigilantes going out and making arrests, but rather their purpose would just be to observe and report. Members will be trained to understand the law and be able to judge what kind of activity is actually suspicious and worth a call to the police.

Council President Peter Paone encouraged Wolfer to coordinate the formation of this program with Mayor William Molchany, as well as borough council’s law and police committees.

Officer Brian Douglas addressed borough council on plans for the department’s community event, scheduled for 6-9 p.m. July 14 at North Catasauqua William J. Albert Memorial Park, 701 Grove St. The police department was sent a letter from the National Night Out organization informing the department it was prohibited from using the name National Night Out for the event because it is not formally affiliated with the national event and is not occurring on the set date. Instead, the borough has declared it the North Catasauqua Community Night Out event, and it will serve as the recreation committee’s first official family night of the year.