At the April 12 meeting of Coplay Borough Council, Karen Shields, of 130 S. Ninth St., approached council to explain her plan to get her house back in shape.

Shields was cited for property maintenance violations more than three years ago. She had to vacate the house because it was declared uninhabitable by the borough’s code enforcement officer, Ronald Helman. Shields houses cats she is nursing back to health or sheltering. Local ordinances restrict the number of cats to five per household. Shields house-harbored an estimated 50.

“When we were having the problem with the cats, I was bedridden and could not keep up with all of my duties,” she explained.

Shields outlined a plan to fix the exterior and to get the interior cleaned up.

“What I’m asking for is some time to get everything done. I’m over there every day cleaning up the inside. I can’t afford to have anyone else in there, so I need to do everything myself,” she said.

Council empathized with her plight but wanted to be sure something is done.

“This has been going on for a long time, and we realize that you had health issues, but we need something definite, so we can get this house back in livable condition,” Councilman Charles Sodl said.

Solicitor James Preston emphasized the point in his comments: “We want to get an agreement that has a deadline on when things need to be fixed. If you miss the deadline, then you need to deal with the issue in court … that is going to be costly for you.”

Shields did agree to get the house repaired.

“I have the time to be there now, and I have some money to get repairs made. I never had that before,” she said.

Shields’ sister, who lives in New Jersey, assists with tax payments.

“Everything that I have so far says I should be ready to have the property inspected in June. I just want to be assured that there won’t be a lot of things added to the list. When Mr. Helman inspected the place before, he only stepped inside the house,” she said.

Council also asked Shields for assurances she would not bring back a swarm of cats.

“I’ll stick to the code, but I might rent the property out to someone. It may take me a while to find a place for all the cats, but I know that I can’t bring them back to the house,” she said.

Given those assurances, council asked Helman to draft an agreement and to inspect the house as Shields is repairing it.

“Because it was listed as uninhabitable for so long, she will need to get a new CO (Certificate of Occupancy), and she needs to comply with the latest rules,” Helman said.

In other action, Dean Fenstermaker, the new owner of Milander’s Market, petitioned the board to add parking for his customers across the street from the store.

“If there are events going on, there is limited parking,” he said.

Fenstermaker was asking for a 15-minute parking space during the hours of operation. Council denied the request, citing a precedent set by Police Chief Vincent Genovese.

At a previous workshop meeting, which Fenstermaker was not able to attend, Genovese said parking across the street from a place of business causes a problem. It is the borough’s policy to deny such requests.