The April 3 Emmaus Borough Council meeting began without any personal appeals and went right into special presentations.

Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong attended to give an annual update. He announced Lehigh County appointed a community liaison, Yorman De La Rosa who will help serve as, essentially, the dedicated resource for all the municipalities in the county. The decision was made to hire a liaison in hopes of better organizing and attending to each municipality’s needs.

The evening was highlighted by the swearing-in of Deputy Chief of Police Bryan Hamscher.

In communications, there was a voluntary resignation from both the Shade Tree Commission and Emmaus Arts Commission. The singular member served on both commissions, but is moving out of state this summer. Additionally, there was a resignation from Emmaus paramedics.

There were two event requests received.

The Farewell to Summer event is scheduled 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Emmaus Triangle. There will be music, food trucks and games.

The Old Fashioned Christmas event is scheduled 4-7 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Emmaus Triangle. There will be music, food trucks, an ice cream truck and a pig roast.

Both events were submitted and organized by the Emmaus Main Street Partners. They were approved by council.

In new business, three new ordinances were introduced. Each fall under the public safety committee.

Ordinance No. 1241 amends Chapter 15, extending residential permit parking areas to additional streets throughout the Borough of Emmaus. This was in response to the many complaints received about parking around Emmaus High School. It’s aimed to improve the quality of life for people in the surrounding area.

The ordinance reads it shall be unlawful for any person to park, or allow to remain parked, for any longer than one hour on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The streets are:

•Berger Street, Harrison Street, North Street and Pine Street, from Macungie Avenue to Sixth Street.

•Spruce Street from Barrett Road to Seventh Street.

•Franklin Street from North Street to North Seventh Street Circle.

•West Greenleaf Street and Cherokee Street from Franklin Street to Sixth Street.

Ordinance No. 1242 amends Chapter 15, extending school zone parking restrictions on portions of Harrison Street and amending 2-hour parking requirements on Main Street between Chestnut Street and South Fourth Street and amending disabled parking hours at a portion of North Fifth Street.

Ordinance No. 1242 amends Chapter 6, repealing a section of Part 3, Alarms and Automatic Protection Devices, to amend sections of the code that are not enforced.

A list of performed activities was presented during Mayor Lee Ann Gilbert’s report. On Feb. 18, she performed a marriage ceremony for Jessica Jimenez and Saul Hernandez Jr.

On Feb. 24, she administered the oath of office to Maricel Colvin, crossing guard and, again, March 9 to Brent Reed, zoning officer and Shane Pepe, borough codes officer.

Gilbert also attended the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Annual Mayors’ and Municipal Officials Reception March 30.

In general administration, a construction change order was discussed for needed work at borough hall. Due to the building’s age, there were additional issues discovered with renovations underway. To only take care of the minimum, the added work will cost $60,000. To handle all the new issues, the estimates came to a little over $166,000.

Council concluded they did not have a choice but decided to take care of all the issues. They didn’t want to push the problem for only a relatively short amount of time and, potentially, cost the borough more money.

Additionally, a resolution was passed during the general administration portion of the meeting.

Resolution 2023-14 authorizes the Borough of Emmaus to dispose of certain municipal records. Some of these records date back several decades.

In budget and finance, the bill list totaled $588,215.77.

There were no other action items until the borough manager’s report.

In his report, Pepe announced the hiring of a part-time public works employee to work some of the extended hours at the compost site. Plus, a memorandum was provided of the 2023 seasonal employee hirings for the public pool.

Following this, the meeting was adjourned.

The next meeting will be held 6 p.m. April 17 at 420 S. 10th St., Emmaus.