At its regular meeting July 18, Coplay Borough Council unanimously approved a measure to authorize The Sanctuary at Haafsville to provide feral cat services to borough residents.

The issue has been debated at council meetings since March. Until this measure secured approval, the borough relied on an in-house cat committee run by resident volunteers to keep feral cats under control. The local group was unable to keep up with the demand and unable to attract enough volunteers.

The Sanctuary at Haafsville will collect feral cats and neuter them for a $50 fee, to be paid by the borough. The maximum the borough can be charged in any given year is $650.

Also at the meeting, council rejected a request from Colson and Claudie Jean-Louis, at 145 S. Seventh St., for a reprieve from a $1,000 fee to open the street to install a natural gas line. The Jean-Louis family is without heat and hot water because their aged oil system failed. Natural gas is available, and they are converting, they said.

The borough fee is designed to provide revenues to the borough in the event the gas utility does not properly repair the street at the site of the connection. The street was recently repaved.

The couple argued that any problem with an improper closure is between the borough and the utility and should not be an expense of a homeowner who has no authority or power to have the closure done correctly or incorrectly. A secondary provision is that there is no recourse for the homeowner if the closure is done correctly.

Council rejected the arguments.

Based on reports of vandalism at Community Plaza discussed at the July 11 workshop meeting, council approved a measure to purchase three cameras to watch over the area. The total cost was under $750, and the video system uses an existing system at Samuel Owens Restaurant.

“We had an unexpected offer to assist us with the vandalism problem at Community Plaza,” Councilman Stephen Burker said. “Domino’s in Northampton is going to help us pay for the costs.”

Burker and Councilman Charles Sodl met with Domino’s management, which offered to donate a percentage of all sales on each Monday in August.

“We want to get out and support this effort … It is great to see that a business in our neighboring borough is willing to help us out,” Burker said.

In other news, the borough has seen some interest in property it owns at 38 S. Fourth St. Council unanimously passed a motion to advertise for bids on the property.

Township Engineer Daniel Witczak of Acela Engineering went over the draft of the Pollution Reduction Plan. There was no adverse public comment to the plan.

Witczak’s plan envisions a series of lagoon-style rain gardens along the Lehigh River that would retain harmful sediment, particularly harmful debris from roadways, from entering the river.

“The goal of the program is to get rivers and streams back as close as possible to their natural condition,” he said.

The program is backed by the state Department of Environmental Protection and under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency.