Macungie Borough Council has decided to initiate the funding of three capital fund road projects with financing, a decision with long-term effects on the borough that will most likely include tax hikes.

The borough is already contracted with the Devine School to reconstruct unopened Lumber Street in preparation for the new day care to open there it's a $250,000 contribution from the borough to match that of the Devines. Now council has approved financing for reconstruction of Cotton Street and a traffic light at the intersection of Church and Main Streets.

Altogether, says council president Chris Becker, the projects would be financed for over $865,000 and Greg Hutchison, vice president, advocated financing for some cushion of up to a million in case of unforeseen circumstances.

In addition the financing will include the possibility of the water authority refinancing for some existing debt which runs up to 2023. This is only if the water authority so chooses, however. The refinancing will benefit all projects because of exceptionally low rates, currently around 3 percent, estimates Becker. But that number is flexible as a lot of factors contribute to its determination, including the life and type of the bond.

Macungie will have to initiate a traffic study on Church Street with a private engineer. This will not necessarily be Keystone Engineering, the borough's partner hitherto, as the bids have just come in from 16 engineering firms for council review. Borough Manager Chris Boehm said she isn't sure what council will do but it will be a private engineer doing the traffic study.

Council member Joe Sikorski was in favor of the traffic study and financing, which he said is not going to get any cheaper.

Boehm is confident PennDOT will require the borough to install a traffic light at Church Street once the traffic study is complete. Increase in borough traffic since the last study due to the estates at Brookside and a route to Bear Creek Mountain Resort has made the intersection more dangerous, council member David Boyko said.

Cotton Street is in disrepair and Boehm says the road requires rebuilding, including storm drains and curbing. Not to mention the sidewalks required by council ordinance, Becker reminded council. Boyko said he was in favor of reconstructing the street as long as he could be sure it would not be ripped up again for the water line or the installation of a gas line in the near future.

Boehm insisted Cotton Street would have to be done anyway but once financing is obtained it does not have to be done right away. But by then, she warned, it could be a lot worse.

"There's no way you're going to do these projects without raising taxes," Boehm said.

Becker proffered the options of 15- or 20-year financing at $100,000 or $73,000 per year respectively. "We'd have to budget for that," he said.

Hutchison confirmed from Becker the money set aside in the contingency fund would only partially cover costs.

Becker suggested taxes would be raised according to need as projects progressed, not all at once.

Since council's approval, the projects go to consulting where council will begin to put together more solid numbers for the RFP. It will continue to come before council.

A video camera will be installed in the Flower Park facing the train tracks by request of the Beautification Committee. The camera will stream to the borough website, ostensibly for the purpose of "watching the flowers grow," Boehm said, and "so that people can see the beautiful flowers in the park."

The committee will pay for the installation and cost of the camera and the borough will handle maintenance costs. These will, Boehm said, result from the tree-mounted camera being a likely target for rocks.

Leaks in the sewer lines are preventing the borough from proceeding on some parts of the slipline project, the installation of a material within the lines under the streets that seals and creates new pipes inside the old ones. Boehm says there are leaks between Locust and Plum Streets, and maybe some elsewhere. The contractor is going to wait until later in the season to see if the pipes will dry up. When wet, the slipline cannot properly form, confirmed Sikorski.

Chris Greb of the Macungie Ambulance Corps gave his annual report with positive reviews of 2012. The corps, serving the borough and Macungie Township, Alburtis and Upper Milford, answered 3,085 calls and 30 special operations. Of those, 382 calls were in Macungie. The Corps began a "patient satisfaction initiative" involving a survey asking patients to rate the corps in response time, courtesy to patient and family, and comfort in the ambulance. With a 30 percent return rate the reviews were 94 percent satisfied. "We're happy with that, but there's always room for improvement," Greb said.

When asked by Becker what more the borough council could do to help, Greb replied, "I don't come knocking on your door too much … but we appreciate the support when we do ask for it." Greb said the Corps would like to be involved in more borough events that tie in together, as turn outs are sometimes nil for sole-Corps events.