Although much of Coplay Borough Council's workshop meeting July 7 centered around the excellent job done by the public works department in cleaning up the mess from the summer storm June 30, Bill Wiessner, a Coplay resident, addressed council about its announcement to purchase land formerly owned by General Supply Company.

In response to Wiessner's question on the feasibility of the purchase, Council President Louis Bodish said the sale was not complete.

"We are doing the Phase 1 and Phase 2 (environmental inspections) because the agreement says the property must be clean. The county is paying for the inspections," he said.

Wiessner clarified his comments after the meeting.

"We have plenty of other places to put public works or a new municipal building. One of them is to close up the pool and use that place. Or we could put something next to the fire department building," he said.

Wiessner's comment on the municipal building was in response to an estimate presented by Councilman David Royer on the cost to repair the aging boilers used in the municipal building. According to Royer, revamping the system would run nearly $300,000. Replacing the roof, another item on the must-do list, is $100,000.

"The windows need to be replaced also," said Royer, although no cost was attached.

"We have been through this discussion before. Eight years ago, everyone wanted to keep this building. Now we will need to make a decision going forward," said Bodish.

Council will look at options. Bodish will ask council to have an engineering study with an estimated cost of $20,000 to assess the building. Royer noted that the borough spent $12,000 for a study at an earlier review.

Residents were divided between those who wanted to see a new building and others who wanted to keep the former schoolhouse that was converted to a municipal building decades ago.

In other business, there were deficiencies noted during the storm emergency. Police Chief Vincent Genovese reported that the police station was unable to operate at full capacity because it has no backup power. When the power failed, the ability to contact patrol cars diminished.

Councilman Charles Sodl pressured council to look at a backup generator.

Jim Paukovits questioned storm emergency response by the borough.

"We had no information on where to go or what was happening. There used to be police with bullhorns to keep us informed. What would happen if we had a chemical spill and had to evacuate?" he asked.

Notifications are sent out over cellphones and on media, said Genovese, adding, "If there was some major chemical spill, we would have cars out to direct people. It wasn't necessary for this storm."

Genovese asked council to support his request for a part-time officer dedicated to the borough.

"Some of the part-time officers are working in other communities, so we can't always get enough hours to fill slots," he said.

According to Genovese, the budget impact would be minimal.