Rowan Hobson, a junior at Emmaus High School, was sworn in as a Junior Emmaus Borough Council member at the Oct. 15 meeting.

Hobson's first meeting sitting alongside members of Emmaus Borough Council included the explanation of potential proposals from both the Emmaus Public Library and the Emmaus Historical Society which offered plans for improving the functionality and appearance of the property the library sits on.

Ron Madison, an engineering consultant with Rettew Associates, Inc., spoke on behalf of the library and formally told council about the plan to add a 4,000 square foot children's wing to the library. He submitted an application fee waiver request on behalf of the library in an attempt to reduce cost to the volunteer organization through the planning stages.

He also told council one of the issues holding up the updates to the library is the FEMA flood plain regulation, making it difficult to get the permits for the build. He said the library property, in reality, is not in a flood plain but the FEMA designation would be hard to lift.

Madison said it will cost $53,700 to review the entire flood plain, from Community Park to South Mountain, including computer models and an extensive study.

The library has been raising money for the expansion in an attempt to alleviate limited seating, tightly packed book shelves and the close proximity of computers. The proposed expansion would relocate the children's area, expand study and lounge areas and provide more space for collections.

John Zettlemoyer Jr., a 25-year member of the Emmaus Historical Society, said the society is also thinking about the library's borough-owned property and told council members the nonprofit group is considering the possibility of building a museum on the property to provide a more permanent headquarters for the organization.

"We think that having us in the same location would benefit both the historical society and the library," Zettlemoyer said.

He told council the historical society has "upwards of 900 members," is a "self-funded organization" and houses "thousands of artifacts."

The very early preliminary plan for the building would include a climate controlled museum to showcase the artifacts, a basement to house rotating exhibits and an auditorium large enough to be home to their popular historical lectures and presentations.

Councilman Mike Waddell said this early proposal for the facility is for a stand-alone building to house the historical society.

Zettlemoyer said the society's paying members along with the possibility of renting out their current facility would probably qualify them for a loan to build this structure.

"This is not something we plan on rushing into," Zettlemoyer said. "We want to do this for us, our future and our past."

These potential proposals will be further discussed in the borough's General Administration Committee.

Emmaus Borough Council passed an ordinance allowing nonresidents to serve on some of the volunteer commissions of the borough.

With the borough struggling to consistently fill vacancies, they passed the ordinance to give them a larger pool of interested and qualified candidates.

The Emmaus Arts Commission will now allow up to three non-borough residents to serve on the 11-person board.

The Emmaus Parks and Recreation Commission will now allow up to two non-borough residents to serve on the seven-person board.

The Emmaus Special Entertainment Commission will allow one non-borough resident to serve on the five-member board.

The unanimously passed ordinance also shortened the term on the Arts Commission from five years to three years.

Council President Lee Ann Gilbert said the public safety committee is researching the possibility of allowing commercial trucks owned by borough residents to have permitted parking near the "upper dump" off of Klines Lane in the borough. She said the truck parking regulation is still being looked at and to be fair, she wanted to research the possibility of tractor-only parking in a specified area within the borough.

Borough Council also approved a resolution increasing the rental rates for borough fields. The cost of baseball or softball field will increase from $15 to $20 per practice, from $25 to $40 per game, from $25 to $40 for a light usage fee and $100 to $150 per field per day.

The light usage fee for the multipurpose field will also increase from $25 to $40. The increased rates will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.

The fee increases will not affect Emmaus' youth organizations as it is a standing policy to waive all fees to teams comprised of 50 percent or more Emmaus residents.

Councilman Wesley Barrett said Emmaus' fees were low compared to others around the area and said the primary clientele the increase would impact would be paid adult leagues.