At its meeting July 18, Catasauqua Council passed a new set of park rules that included new general park rules and some new changes for pavilion rentals.

One of the policies is banning portable grills in the park.

Another is that enforcing the rules can now be done by anyone appointed by the borough. In the past, regulations required a police officer to enforce rules.

The new appointee will have the power to issue citations to those who refuse to obey the rules.

Another of the new policies is to keep lights on at the basketball courts only during league play. There are indications that keeping the lights on when there is no league play has attracted some destructive after-dark activity.

In other business, Solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker reported he found an action against one of the Front Street properties destroyed by fire earlier this year. Dinkelacker discovered the matter during a routine title search. The owners of the two demolished properties have offered both parcels to the borough in exchange for the borough assuming cleanup expenses.

Dinkelacker found the fall/injury suit for less than $50,000 filed against one of the properties.

“The filing indicates that the parties are willing to settle the matter in arbitration,” Dinkelacker said.

The council agreed to accept the parcel without the suit and to accept the other parcel later. Council members approved the purchase with the narrowest of margins. Councilmen Brian Bartholomew, Eugene Schlegel and Brian McKittrick opposed the decision. They said the property is more productive in private hands.

PennDOT is scheduled to replace the Race Street bridge across Catasauqua Creek in 2017. The replacement project is on PennDOT’s fast track replacement program.

There is some concern about water and sewer lines that pass under the bridge. The township engineer assured the council that the lines would be replaced. PennDOT will assume 75 percent of the cost to move the sewer line.

Also at the meeting, the council approved a measure to allow Air Cleaning Systems Inc. to install a vehicle emission extraction system in the new municipal building garage. The system is part of the contract for the new building, but the system is offered through COSTARS, a bulk buying consortium for municipalities. Councilwoman Christine Weaver indicated using the consortium would save the borough around $50,000.

Weaver said construction on the new municipal complex could begin early, but the contractors have stuck to their original scheduled start date of July 25.