Come January, positions on Coplay's parks and recreation board will most likely be open to nonresidents.

At its workshop Tuesday night, borough Secretary-Treasurer Sandra Gyecsek said changes to the parks and rec board ordinance will be advertised for a vote in January.

The most significant change is one that will allow the borough to appoint nonresidents to the board.

Councilman Steve Burker has been trying to resurrect the parks and rec board for several months. An informal meeting in October was well attended. However, only one board member showed up to a subsequent meeting in November. Currently all five board members live in Coplay.

"There's a lot of good people that want to be on and unfortunately they don't live in town," said Councilman Charles Sodl.

Councilman Bill Leiner Jr. said he is not surprised the borough has to go outside its borders to fill the board positions.

"I'm disappointed but we have to do it," he said.

With little discussion, council members agreed to change the residency requirement. They also agreed without discussion to keep the number of board members at five, rather than increasing to seven, as had been previously proposed.

The meeting location generated numerous comments, however.

The current ordinance requires meetings to be held in council chambers. Some parks and rec board members proposed changing the ordinance to allow the members of the board to vote on where to hold meetings each month.

"This is the one that I got a problem with," said Sodl, reading the proposed changes regarding meeting locations. "What that says is they can have it wherever they want."

Other borough boards meet in borough hall, including the Coplay Community Days committee and the library board.

"I'm wondering if by putting it out there somewhere else is a deterrent to average person," Sodl said.

He acknowledged park and rec board meetings may not be consistently well attended by members of the public but he does not want to discourage anyone by moving the meetings to a nontraditional location.

In addition, he said, meeting locations would have to be advertised in compliance with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, which governs open meetings.

Mayor Joseph Bundra asked Burker where he preferred to have meetings, noting that changing the meeting venue provides an opportunity to support local businesses.

Burker said current members Bill Loy, owner of Samuel Owens Restaurant, requested the board be allowed to change the meeting location.

However, Burker said, rec board members are free to go out after the meeting.

Sodl said he believes meeting in borough hall keeps the meeting professional and businesslike.

"I don't think you get that outside of this establishment," Sodl said.

"I do think it's a better atmosphere to have it held here," Burker said. "I think you're going to be more productive here and that's what I'm looking for."

"If a person is offended because we didn't have [the meeting] at a certain restaurant or something, we can't look at that," said Sodl. "We have to look at what we're trying to get done."

"If they really want to be on the board it doesn't matter where [the meeting] is going to be held," said council President Lou Bodish.

The meeting location is not the only issue, Burker said.

"You need a set date," Burker said. "Before we got involved here, they never had it set."

Establishing a firm meeting day and time will help board members to plan to attend.

"That's what you have to do," said Sodl.