At Coplay Borough Council’s workshop meeting Tuesday night, council received bids for reconstructing a stormwater line at Second and Third streets.

The apparent low bidder is Dirt Works Solutions, with a bid of $185,896. The runner-up was LanTech. All other bidders were over $200,000 for the project. The bids will be reviewed by borough Engineer Daniel Witczak for completeness.

The borough is still reeling from the delays on a sewer project along Front Street that has seen continuing construction obstacles. Council President Louis Bodish indicated additional expenditures would be needed. The costs would be shared with the Coplay-Whitehall Sewer Authority, but the borough’s portion of the cost would approach $75,000. The project is not complete.

Councilman Charles Sodl expressed his displeasure on the delays in getting fire alarms installed at the firehouse.

“We demanded that a tenant (Commitment to Family & Community) install protection equipment and pushed them. We identified this problem in November and let a contract that still is not complete,” Sodl said. “There are wires hanging everywhere. This is not acceptable.”

Sodl stressed there is no supervision on how these projects are completed.

“We can’t expect that Paul Boyle (borough public works director) is chasing down every detail. We need to have better communication among the borough staff,” he said.

In other business, the property at 130 S. Ninth St. remains a concern. The house was declared uninhabitable last summer. There has been legal wrangling since. The owner agreed to make a concerted effort to clean the house and make it livable. An inspection was scheduled for the day of the meeting, but it was postponed for a week. Council will address the problem at next week’s regular session.

Kimberly Fitzpatrick, who chairs the Feral Cat Committee, was scheduled to make a presentation before council but failed to show. Mayor Dean Molitoris reported that he had several complaints about feral cats.

“We don’t know the status of the Feral Cat Committee,” he said. “We need to do something to address the problem.”

Police Chief Vincent Genovese suggested the borough take stray cats to the same shelter that the borough uses for dogs.

“They have offered to handle the problem, but we would need to pay them. I will check to see the cost,” he said.

Genovese indicated, under the plan, residents would need to trap the cats. The details are still open for discussion.

Bodish reminded citizens that street cleaning is scheduled for May 17, and a tire drop-off is scheduled for May 20.