Nearly 500 Northampton property owners have yet to pay their 2014 garbage collection fees.

The amount owed the borough for the back refuse bills totals $380,000 and involves 479 accounts, according to LeRoy Brobst, assistant to the manager.

Brobst informed the Northampton Borough Council at its meeting last Thursday the outstanding unpaid refuse bills equals the same amount as in previous years.

The delinquent accounts will be pared in the coming weeks and months, particularly as the outstanding debt for the unpaid refuse bills grows and penalty fees accrue as the weeks and months pass without payment of the refuse bills.

The borough will take the owner of the unpaid refuse bill to the district judge for collection, which adds to the outstanding debt. As a last recourse, the borough places a lien at the county courthouse, should all other attempts to have the unpaid refuse collection bill fail. Borough officials say, however, the number of delinquent refuse collection fees will dramatically drop as the year progresses.

Borough Manager Gene Zarayko is looking to council members who may be interested in serving on a committee that Northampton Area School District Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik is putting together. Kovalchik is looking for volunteers to serve on a committee that will direct its attention to better communications between the two entities. The meeting is set for Aug. 21, a time when council holds only one meeting a month and the schools are still on summer break.

A bit more color will be added to Canal Park later this spring and summer as Daniel Micio, a Boy Scout, will be planting flowers and creating a floral garden at the park, a project he is embarking on to earn his Eagle Scout pin and award, the highest rank with the Boy Scouts of America.