Alburtis Borough Council met June 26 to address recent community and administrative activity. The meeting began 7 p.m. following an executive session 6:30 p.m., which focused on personnel matters. Present at the meeting were council members President Ron DeIaco, Vice President Steven Hill, Second Vice President Hector Moss, Chad Atkins, Mehmet Birtek, Ashlynn Rivera and John Aleszczyk, as well as Borough Manager Stephen Nemeth and Police Chief Tony Alsleben.

During the public comment segment of the meeting, a resident thanked council for helping to remove trees that fell from another property onto his own.

Since Mayor Kathleen Palmer was not in attendance, there was no mayoral report. Following this, council approved the minutes from the June 12 meeting.

Moving forward, council reviewed and approved the bills for payment as of June 26, where questions were raised on an engineering bill. This was followed by the approval of the fiscal consultant’s report, which offered a detailed overview of the borough’s finances.

The engineer’s report was also approved. The borough engineer provided an update on the mailbox replacements taking place due to the Bicentennial Village project. He also stated the roadwork disruption and damage that occurred during the construction of the project will be addressed.

Following this, the meeting moved to administration.

First, borough council looked at quotes for the development and management of the borough’s yard waste facility, which has been a hot topic of debate in recent meetings. They looked at various quotes for a fence and gate installation around the property and the cost of employing part-time employees to monitor the site. The council debated on the value of operating the facility, as some of the council members thought it would cost too much.

The facility was not in the 2024 budget. So, questions were being raised about how to pay for the facility. Two options were a future tax hike or the borough could offer a placard that residents would need to purchase to enter the facility.

At the end of the discussion, the council was at a 4-3 vote not to bring the yard waste facility back.

Next, borough council approved Payment Application No. 4 to Construction Masters Service, LLC., which is for the Bicentennial Village project.

After this, Resolution No. 2024-11 was introduced and approved, which authorizes the borough manager to execute all necessary documents and agreements with the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority to obtain a Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development Multimodal Transportation Fund Grant. This will be used for a continuation of the Bicentennial Village projects for Roberts Street.

Lastly, council recapped a recent meeting with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office and truck traffic was a large point of discussion. The bridge outage at Church Street was also discussed, to which it was stated Lower Macungie Township would be contacted.

The meeting then ended in adjournment. The next Alburtis Borough Council meeting will be held 7 p.m. July 12 at 260 Franklin St.