At Catasauqua Council's workshop session on Monday, and with this weekend's fire at a rental property on Crane and Chestnut streets, borough Fire Chief Richard Hertzog explained a long-standing problem with some of the borough's narrow side streets.

"Our response time to the fire was delayed because we could not get the fire truck onto the street because we were blocked by parked cars," he said. "Police helped us out and were getting phone numbers for the owners to get the cars moved." Councilman Brian McKittrick agreed with the assessment.

"The situation had the potential for disaster," he said. The solution is to ban parking along certain sections of Crane Street.

The same solution would be necessary for Milton and Limestone streets, which have similar parking problems.

A decision to restrict parking makes the borough's bad parking situation worse. Hertzog said he counted 12 cars in the area that impeded firefighters.

"I think I would rather be safe than have my car parked in front of the house," said Hertzog. In his quick parking assessment, Hertzog saw that spots were available, but not in front of every house.

Council is going to look into the problem. It will not be the first time.

"Anything we do is not going to happen overnight," said McKittrick. The problem has been reviewed numerous times, but council has taken no action to restrict parking.

In a related matter, Councilwoman Christine Weaver proposed that the borough hire a traffic engineering specialist to address pending changes in the borough's traffic pattern.

In a conceptual plan for the borough's Iron Works property, Spillman and Farmer Architects proposed converting Front Street to two-way traffic.

PennDOT also proposed traffic-flow changes at the intersection of Lehigh and Race streets with additional changes at Second and Front streets along Race Street.

In Allen Township, FedEx is proposing two million-square-foot distribution warehouses. Although the trucks from the FedEx facility are expected to increase traffic along Airport Road, the borough expects to see increased traffic as employees move through Catasauqua to the facility on their way to and from work.

With added parking restrictions proposed by Hertzog, it seems appropriate that the borough take some action to review how traffic moves through the borough. How the borough handles parking and the expected increases in traffic from local development will affect Catasauqua's residents. Council will review Weaver's request at its next meeting Monday.

Weaver also proposed that the council meet more often than the workshop and regular business meeting.

"With all the changes coming up and decisions that will need to be voted on, it might be beneficial to hold more than one business meeting a month," she said.

Although members of council recognized the problem, they were reluctant to commit to a new round of meetings at this time.

"You can always call a special session. They can be called quickly," Solicitor Jeffery Dimmich said. "We really are not at a place where we need to start those sessions now."

Council agreed with the solicitor. Members agreed to monitor the situation and if the programs under consideration require that council meets more frequently, then the council would consider a second business meeting.

What the council wants to avoid is to set a number of meetings and then cancel then because there are no agenda items. "People get upset when you set a meeting and then cancel it," said Dimmich.