At the Aug. 8 Hellertown Council meeting it was announced council member Herbert Payung has resigned, effective immediately.

The announcement was made with “regret” by Council President Thomas Rieger. Rieger said “thank you for your service to the borough and the kids of the community and Saucon Valley as a whole…it’s been a pleasure.”

Payung has been the band director at Saucon Valley HS. He resigned from his music teaching position at the high school effective Aug. 2.

He plans to further his studies at Penn State University in the fall.

Payung originally joined as junior counsil member and became an official council member in July of 2014, when he replaced outgoing council member Gail Wolf.

He subsequently ran for council and was elected in 2015 to a 4 year term. That term was set to expire in 2019.

The borough has 30 days to fill the vacancy, and resumes were due by Aug. 17. If they do not fill it by then, the vacancy will go to the borough’s vacancy chair. At that point, if it’s still not filled it will then go to the Northampton Court of Common Pleas.

In other news, the borough will have a paper shredding event at Dimmick Park on Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is only open to Hellertown residents and public works employees will be verifying residency via driver’s licenses.