The 2015 budget for Macungie Borough was adopted without a hitch Dec. 15 and without a tax increase.

Borough Council voted unanimously on the $2.5 million budget, with the exception of David Boyko and John Yerman who were not present. The tax rate was also approved at last year's three mills.

The total revenue for the general fund is $2,534,276 while expenses are projected at $2,561,324, leaving a deficit of $27,048. Sewer revenue is projected at $811,106 with expenses at $781,596. Liquid fuels revenue is projected at $91,214 with expenses at $60,465. And the capital reserve fund revenue is projected at $743,031 with expenses at $790,768.

Council President Chris Becker said council will have to discuss funding for some of the remaining capital projects for the year due to the obvious discrepancy between revenue and expenses projected in the budget. There have already been talks regarding ways to save money in the Cotton Street project and those are not represented in the budget.

Council also made the decision to move council meetings back to Borough Hall starting in January. Borough Manager Chris Boehm reminded council the question had been brought up in the beginning of the year and was put off but never addressed.

Part of the advantage to holding meetings in Borough Hall is making the space in the Macungie Institute available for rent, which means slight revenue for the borough.

However, on an occasion where public attendance of a meeting is unusually high, Borough would be unsuitable as it only seats between 15 and 20 people safely, according to Boehm who had this from the fire chief.

In the past, meetings where high attendance was expected were advertised in the newspaper as being held in the Macungie Institute and a notice could be placed at Borough Hall as well.

It has been a consistent pattern for the last year public attendance at meetings has been getting lower. Generally crowds are drawn by the big issue agenda items, but even these have been low this past year.

Greg Hutchison noted in the past council has also used the park building for larger crowds, as in before the Macungie Institute was built, or in the event it was unavailable.

Those council members present showed no resistance to the idea of moving and it was agreed upon by informal consensus.

Becker reported on a list of action items projected for the new year's agendas, including several that will carry over from this year, such as the ADA ramp at the railroad crossing and the streetscape plan for Main Street.

Additional items for council's deliberation next year include a water management plan; looking into trash collection; the borough employee handbook; an ordinance about restricting the opening of streets after construction; a time management study for the public works department; automatic red light enforcement for emergency vehicles; and the Teamsters contract.

Borough Mayor Gary Cordner requested and received council's approval of the letter of resignation of Officer Richard Murphy. The part-time police office has offered to fill in where needed until the end of the year, but Boehm says he is already off the schedule. This notice comes about a month after council approved a new part-time officer, Kyle Bernhard.