Coplay Mayor Joseph Bundra announced Oct. 6 that he will veto an ordinance establishing a curfew in Coplay.

Last month, Coplay Borough Council voted 6-1 to implement a curfew for youth under 18.

Council President Louis Bodish announced he will not be in attendance at the regular meeting Oct. 13. Council will need to have at least five votes to override the mayor’s veto.

There was some discussion on when the mayor should announce his intention to veto.

“I was told by the solicitor that I needed to announce my decision at a public meeting,” said Bundra.

Bodish, quoting the same source, said the veto announcement needed to be made at a regular meeting. Once the legal ruling is clarified, council has 10 days to take a vote. If a determination is made that the veto decision needs to be announced at a regular meeting, council can call a special session, or the mayor can elect to wait 10 days and allow the curfew notice to be enacted without his signature. That is called a pocket veto.

Councilman William Leiner is opposed to the curfew and conducted several informal patrols during hours covered by the curfew, midnight to 5 a.m.

“Last weekend, there were four humans on the streets…We don’t need a curfew,” he said.

Leiner proposed civilian patrols using volunteers from Coplay Crime Watch, a group he founded and promoted.

“We want to get the people in the community to know the police better,” said Leiner after the meeting.

Bundra bases his opposition on a two-month investigative process he conducted with officials in surrounding communities and residents.

In other action, George Briner, the borough’s health officer, submitted his resignation. In his resignation letter, Briner suggested the borough consider Lynn Zakos as a replacement. Zakos will be invited to the next council meeting.

On the agenda, council had an item to discuss setting a load limit on Ruch Road. Whitehall posted a five-ton limit on its section of the road.

Police Chief Vincent Genovese made two critical points during the discussion. Posting a load limit requires a state study. The second point is restricting Ruch Road would put a weight limit on all roads leading out of Coplay.

Councilman Carl Luckenbach opposed any further restrictions.

“These other townships seem to impose weight restrictions without a study,” he said.

Luckenbach’s business has trucks that often exceed the weight limit, causing a lot of wasted effort. “We just redid Ruch Street. Why didn’t we get it up to standards?” he asked.

Council deferred discussion until more information could be obtained.

Bundra announced that the Ironton Rail Trail will have a float in local parades. The float has been dormant for almost a decade.

“There was a lot of effort to get the float done. It will be the first time in a long while that it is entered in the parades,” said Bundra.

Roxanne Wanamaker asked council why the borough failed to respond to her letters on storm damage. Bodish indicated he was unaware of the request. Wanamaker had a tree in the planting area between the sidewalk and the street uprooted by the storm.

“I wanted to know how the borough could help me on this,” she said.

Bodish responded that the borough no longer has any money to deal with these trees and the repairs caused by the storm damage should be covered by her homeowner’s policy.

“Even though I could never touch that tree before?” she asked.

In his comments, Bodish indicated that removing all the trees would be beneficial, but the borough did not have the funds to undertake the project. Council did offer to waive permit fees for the sidewalk repairs.