During North Catasauqua Borough Council’s Oct. 4 meeting, Marc Hillenbrand, with North Catasauqua Betterment Committee, was in attendance to make a donation from the committee to North Catasauqua Police Department’s Less Than Lethal project. The committee donated $1,859 to the project, which aims to purchase equipment and training to give the NCPD a wider variety of nonlethal approaches in its use of force.

Hillenbrand also gave an update on plans for the upcoming Autumnfest, scheduled for 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 10 at North Catasauqua William J. Albert Memorial Park, 701 Grove St. The rain date is Oct. 16.

The car show for the event already has more than 100 vehicles preregistered, with more expected by Sunday. There are also at least 29 vendors registered for food and activities, including Siss Barbecue, Dale’s French Fries, Geakers Tacos and more. North Catasauqua Recreation Committee will also have the snack stand open for the event, where volunteers will be selling hot dogs, homemade sauerkraut, snow cones and more.

For kids, activities include horseback riding, pumpkin decorating, fingerprinting from the NCPD and a performing ventriloquist. There will also be a new Mack truck on display.

A performance from the band Flirtin’ with the Mob is planned for 1-3:30 p.m.

In other news, public works Supervisor Travis Brett asked council to post an advertisement that the department is hiring for a position on the borough road crew to replace a retiring member. The position will either be full time or 35-38 hours per week, at a starting rate of $20 per hour for those who have a commercial driver’s license and $18 per hour without. If accepted without a CDL, new employees will be given six months to acquire this license.

Travis also suggested council add a road-paving line item to the budget to cover the various roadway issues the borough already plans to, and may eventually have to, deal with in the future. Council President Peter Paone agreed and suggested the borough council finance committee add the line item when it meets later this month.

Police Detective Stephen O’Donnell gave a report from the police department and announced Cpl. Antonio Tramonte was awarded the Pennsylvania DUI Association’s Top Gun Award for the third year in a row. The award recognizes officers who go above and beyond in their efforts to keep impaired drivers off the road.

Also at the meeting, Paone briefly discussed the flood damage done to the D&L Trail during storms over the past several months. The North Catasauqua section of the trail, which was under construction in some areas and recently completed in others, sustained roughly $600,000 worth of damage during the storms. One particularly difficult area is the remnants of the old feeder gate, which once channeled river water into the Lehigh Canal. The stone wall - which would have originally dammed the river away from the towpath, where mules walked to pull boats along the canal - was battered by water during the flooding and has partially collapsed.

The borough is awaiting a contract from Hunter Research, a New Jersey-based firm that specializes in historical architecture. Since the feeder gate dates back to the 1800s, the borough would ideally like to repair and preserve it, but the cost of such a project is not yet clear.

Historical significance aside, Paone pointed out the gate still acts as a suitable flood wall and maintaining it could have the added benefit of protecting the trail from more flooding in the future.

Roger Scheirer, assistant director of emergency management, informed council Northampton County could receive special funding from PEMA and FEMA to cover flood damage done to the trail, but the county needs to accumulate $1.5 million worth of requests to receive anything.

So far, North Catasauqua has requested the $600,000 it needs for its own damages, but it is unclear if the needs of the rest of the county will make up the difference.