Emmaus has saved its taxpayers several thousand dollars thanks to interns Eli Bracken, of Kutztown University, and Xiaying Huang, of Lehigh Carbon Community College. These two interns created a geographical informational system to map the entire borough.

"We went from analog to digital very quickly," Councilman Wesley Barrett said. "We basically used to have all of this information put on pieces of paper and index cards, but now it's all organized in one easy visual software program."

Wesley went on to explain what is on the GIS map which includes everything from water and sewer hookups to the locations of all street lights, curbs and sidewalks. The map also shows which sidewalks are in good condition and fair condition and areas with no sidewalks. The interns even went into the already mapped trails and created some potential ways to connect them to town.

Borough Manager Shane Pepe said the interns saved the borough well over $50,000 in professional services.

The Emmaus Borough Council held a public hearing regarding Ordinance No. 1111 prior to the Sept. 2 meeting to amend zoning laws to allow craft breweries and brew pubs in certain parts of Emmaus including the highway commercial, light industrial and central commercial zoning districts.

"The intention is to allow business operations to carry out certain type of activities permitted by the PA liquor control board and the liquor code," Borough Solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker said. He also said council does not want to end up "with a bar on every corner."

During the regular meeting, council unanimously passed the ordinance which will allow preparations to begin.

In other business, council made several changes to the EMT staff. Jeffrey Hoffman was appointed the interim ambulance chief and Devin Neitz, Craig Deppe and Jeffrey Knopf were all appointed lieutenants. Kyle Kormer, Thomas Gauntner and Charles Sabo were hired as part-time EMTs.

Pepe said the borough is still in need of EMTS. "One of the problems that we have is the same issue every department is having. You do 12-hour shifts, and with the 29 and half hour rule the EMTs can only work two shifts a week, which is 24 hours," Pepe said.

Pepe said they are especially having trouble filling the day shifts, as most of the part-time EMTs are working a number of different jobs because "no one wants to pay the benefits, including the Borough of Emmaus for a lot of reasons, there's a lot of cost to that."

Council is still trying to deal with the geese problem in Furnace Dam Park. After the blinking light system council installed failed to drive the geese away, Councilman Jeff Shubzda said the health, sanitation and conservation committee want to hire the geese police to help remove the geese for good.

Council voted to allow the hiring of the geese police on an as needed basis, with a cost of $350 per week. The cost will be split between the borough and Rodale who are also interested in getting rid of the geese.