By PETER MCCONNELL

Special to The Press

The borough will begin street sweeping again, but not from within its own garage doors. The 31-year-old street sweeper is retired, according to a report from Borough Manager Chris Boehm and services have been contracted from Stanley Sweeping in New Tripoli.

Previously the borough shared use of its machine with Alburtis and spent considerable man hours and funds on maintenance, including $20,000 a year on brushes. The disadvantage of contracting services out is street sweeping cannot be done "at the drop of a hat anymore," Boehm said.

Boehm said three days will be enough to get all the streets swept, and after that the service might be used once a week. Boehm calculated on average the old machine was used about once a month. The cost of the service from Stanley is $125 per hour, including travel time of a half hour each direction, less than the competing bid which came in slightly lower but with a three-hour roundtrip travel time.

Boehm also reported the borough farmers market starts May 14 and encouraged participation in what has now increased to 24 vendors.

Council was approached about deteriorating conditions at the playground on Village Walk Drive by a resident of the Ridings. John Murphy told council he passes the playground often and it is clear the spot has received "very little investment" for several years.

Murphy called it a safety hazard and noted the slide is barred by caution tape because it's falling apart. The park is also plagued by vandalism, and Murphy presented a series of testaments from neighbors who refuse to bring their children or pets to the park because of safety concerns, including broken glass.

Murphy's point was to bring awareness to the condition of the playground, which seems to have fallen out of council's concerns. He saw the aging playground as an opportunity to get involved in his community and asked council what could be done to start prioritizing restoration of the park.

President Chris Becker promised to follow through with Murphy and look into the issue, though he couldn't say it would appear on this fiscal year's budget. Murphy, who did some research on equipment costs, estimated that between $20 and $50,000 would be needed to get the playground back in shape.

Meanwhile, Murphy has created an online account to help raise funding for restoring the park at gofundme.com/smallparkmacungie.

Council authorized the advertisement of a new ordinance to allow the fire department to seek reimbursement for reasonable costs associated with incidents. Other municipalities with fire departments have a similar arrangement or use third-party billing services. This ordinance simply allows the fire department to ask for reimbursement when funds are spent, where typically the insurance company would do it.

Mayor Gary Cordner asked council about the introduction of a light duty policy for the police department, which would allow officers with injuries otherwise not deemed fit for regular police duty to perform office duty out of uniform in the police department office. Cordner says it is a common practice in police departments and in the last year, a series of injuries has made it a point of consideration where before it had not been done probably due to the borough's size.

Solicitor Patrick Armstrong pointed out light duty is an assignment, and therefore not necessarily subject to a policy. Cordner says the police chief will likely start using light duty anyway. Council was agreeable to the idea.

Roseann Schleicher announced members of the Southwestern Lehigh Comprehensive Plan will seek the participation of stakeholders in the community, everyone from prominent business owners to religious leaders. Cordner suggested the inclusion of youth and minority or disenfranchised groups as well, to involve as much voice in the community as possible. A letter will be sent to stakeholders asking for their participation in helping to guide planning and get an idea of what groups in the community want.

Under new business, council approved the appointment of a part-time summer employee to begin May 5 and remain until Aug. 28.

In addition, Fire Chief Mike Natysyn was appointed deputy emergency management director. Natysyn was remarked upon as being highly qualified for the role, and likely to be present at emergency incidents as fire chief.