At Catasauqua Borough Council’s regular meeting Dec. 10, Solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker indicated the borough is close to an agreement with the lone developer interested in pursuing the Iron Works project.

“We have been in five negotiation sessions, and we are close to the final agreement,” he said.

The plan is to release the final draft of the document to council at a private session scheduled for Jan. 28, 2019.

The agreement, assuming approval, would be released to the public at the Feb. 4, 2019, council meeting. There is a 30-day comment period required, which would put approval out to March 6, 2019. Council would have a special session after the comment period to formally approve the agreement. The tentative date for the special session is March 11, 2019.

According to Dinkelacker, there is an agreement on the sale of the old municipal building as well.

There was limited discussion on acquiring additional land from FL Smidth. The land, along the canal by the Lehigh River, was an old rail bed and has a complicated railway right of way that Dinkelacker is sorting through. The right of way extends into North Catasauqua, but the neighboring borough indicated it has already negotiated for the land in its boundaries. The trail will connect to the Northampton trail and ultimately to the D&L trail. The Catasauqua portion will extend the trail down to Canal Park. The goal is to make a trail entrance projected to be on the Iron Works property.

Council conditionally appointed two new police officers. Officer Richard Reese holds a part-time position in Fountain Hill and is the municipality’s fire chief. Officer Anthony Buckland works with the Collindale Police Department and is scheduled to move into Catasauqua. The officers fill vacant positions on the police force.

Councilman Brian McKittrick indicated the borough is interested in hiring another officer in January 2019. The new position would supplement the borough’s school resource officer.