Catasauqua Borough Council, at its July 25 meeting, voted to eliminate the monthly council workshop meeting. Council Vice President Howard Cunningham has led the effort to eliminate the workshops.

“The workshop meeting is redundant,” he said.

He noted Catasauqua has a council business meeting and a half-dozen committees that are public. According to Cunningham, properly run committee meetings will allow council to gather information and input.

Councilman David Bernini reminded council members that, at a previous meeting, they agreed to rework the business meeting agenda in order to preserve the workshop meeting.

The vote to eliminate the workshop meeting was 6-0. Councilman Gene Schlegel was not in attendance.

Council also passed an ordinance to limit the time a resident can address council in the hearing of persons present agenda item to three minutes.

Borough council also passed a resolution for permission to pursue about a million dollars in grant applications for various projects in Catasauqua.

Of the seven recent Right to Know requests filed by The Press, two have been answered. It was reported the delay is due to a lack of staff to gather the requested information. Mayor Barbara Schlegel has been appointed the interim Right to Know officer until a replacement borough manager is hired.

The abrupt July 27 departure of Stephen Travers, former borough manager, from his position has been verified by one of the Right to Know requests. When Travers officially announced his resignation in June, his expressed intention was to remain in his role until early September.

The Press also requested the annual official audits of Catasauqua for 2019-21.

In his general government committee report, Bernini said the committee discussed grants and matches. There was also an Iron Works discussion and reports on an effort to update information on the borough’s website.

Cunningham, chair of the public safety committee, reported the cost of school signage at Sheckler Elementary School would be about $27,000.

He also reported he reviewed traffic on Walnut Street and found numerous vehicles exceeding the speed limit. He noted there are about 17 children on Walnut Street and will talk to the police chief about possibly installing signage to promote safety.

Councilwoman Jill Smerdon said the planning and zoning committee discussed rental inspection fees and a better way to manage the fee administration process. The committee is also reviewing the sign ordinance to clean up ambiguous language in the law.

Councilman Cameron Smith, in the public works committee report, said the expanded Third and Pine streets project is cost prohibitive. He requested the road plan bids be rejected and the borough rebid the plan, citing changing circumstances. His request was approved by council.

Cunningham requested the Iron Works property be appraised for its current value. Bernini said the appraisal should wait because it is not known if the property will be taken over by a single developer or if the property will be subdivided.

Borough council President Brian Bartholomew noted there is interest by a person to rent the garage at the Southworks building. He suggested council divide the property to potentially return at least part of the property to the tax roll. Dinkelacker said there is no downside to subdividing the property.

Bernini requested the planning and zoning committee look into options.

Cunningham, in a statement regarding the borough’s finances, said he believes taxes were not raised sufficiently. The borough is faced with tax increases, he said, because incremental tax hikes should have been done years ago. He alleged the borough will have a difficult time borrowing money and has a $460,000 payment due in November.

“We don’t have it,” Cunningham said.

Engineer Vanessa Nedrick reported the George Taylor House roof replacement is on schedule for completion.

It was also reported the Lehigh County Community Development Block Grant program has approved $45,000 to fund the water fluoridation update.

Copies of ordinances and resolutions are available from the borough office.

The next Catasauqua Borough Council meeting is 7 p.m. Aug. 29. It is a hybrid meeting, with both in-person and virtual options. Visit catasauqua.org to get the call-in number and access codes to view virtually.