Catasauqua Borough Manager Eugene Goldfeder told the borough council Monday the ground around the municipal building construction site on the Iron Works property has been determined to be unsuitable in certain areas.

“There are pockets of slag in the area and Whiting-Turner determined that the questionable soil needs to be removed to make the ground stable. Whiting-Turner (the firm hired by the borough for municipal building construction project management) estimates 40,000 cubic yards of slag need to be removed,” Goldfeder said.

As Goldfeder indicated, transporting slag material off site is troublesome.

“There are contaminants in the soil, which is true with all types of slag in the Lehigh Valley. Only certain authorized facilities can take the slag,” he said. “We are going to test to see what we have. If we need to transport the slag off site, each load would need to be tested.”

The recommendation by the project management firm is that slag be used on site to form a base for grassy areas. The grassy areas would need to be covered with at least 2 feet of soil. The slag on site can cover two acres of ground 2 feet deep. The slag could also be given away to developers who understand how to use it effectively.

In other business at the council workshop, the borough is studying parking, according to Councilman Brian Mc-Kittrick.

“We are looking at parking on Crane and Limestone streets. There is parking on a portion of the street, but we have problems getting emergency vehicles on the streets,” he said. “They just aren’t wide enough.”

Goldfeder announced that parking across from the construction at the Iron Works site will need to be prohibited.

“There are going to be a lot of trucks moving in and out of the site. They are not going to make the turn if there are cars parked there,” he said.

McKittrick also recommended painting yellow curb stripes on areas where parking is prohibited.

“It should not be necessary, but there are places where cars are parked close enough to the intersection that it is hard to see oncoming traffic,” he said.

Councilwoman Debra Mellish recommended that council not give requested relief to ASF for water usage. There is a discrepancy in the bill.

“The ordinance says that if the water is recorded on the meter that it must be billed,” she said.

Mellish said relief granted to the school district and to Richie’s Public House in prior months for water that was unaccounted for was a mistake.

“In the future, I will vote against any water relief for customers,” she said.

Mellish also reported the Revolution Church asked permission to park on the George Taylor House property. According to Mellish, the borough could not give permission, but the borough also would not deny access.

Councilwoman Jessica Kroope announced the borough pool would be open over the Labor Day weekend. According to Kroope, this is the first time in decades that the pool is open over the holiday. The pool opened early over Memorial Day weekend, another first for the 2016 summer season.