Freemansburg Council unanimously voted to cancel all scheduled community events for the remainder of 2020 during its July 7 virtual council meeting.

Citing the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic and an inability to plan ahead because of it, members agreed that it would be logistically difficult to execute all major community events – if conditions allowed for them to happen at all.

They mentioned National Night Out, Fall Fest/Bonfire and Christmas Tree Lighting as the three events they were most concerned about. They did not rule out the possibility of planning smaller community events on a whim, such as the hotdog drive-through the borough hosted June 27.

Chief of Police Jonathan Itterly was especially concerned about National Night Out, which had already been canceled nationally.

“It’s almost 100 percent donation driven,” Itterly said. “I personally don’t feel it’s appropriate to send donation requests to some of the businesses just because I know for a fact, there are some difficult and challenging times right now financially and through other means. We’re also behind the eight ball for planning for that.”

Council President Homer Lorrah said he felt similarly, adding that there wouldn’t be time to organize anything that needed more than a little planning.

Council also unanimously voted to waive the deadline of late fees for both sewer/sanitation and real estate taxes through the end of 2020.

The late fees were waived in two separate 7-0 votes due to concerns over ongoing widespread financial struggles related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sewer/sanitation late fees were already not being invoiced due to the pandemic, while the deadline for base rate real estate taxes was coming up on July 15. The board initially considered pushing the sewer/sanitation late fee deadline to Dec. 1, but decided it would be best to delay it back from 2020 altogether.

Due to constant littering and trashing of the Freemansburg Municipal Park, particularly on the basketball courts, as well broken locks and damaged fencing, the council discussed closing the basketball courts and removing the backboards but ultimately decided to revisit the issue at next month’s meeting.

At the recommendation of councilman and Fire Chief Donald Wilcox, the council elected to proceed with a plan of cleaning the courts twice a week to see if littering and destruction alleviates.

Outside of those discussions, the council also decided to push back potential approval of a street excavation ordinance and a zoning ordinance to the Sept. 8 council meeting in hopes that the meeting could take place in person, per recommendation of solicitor James Kratz.

Although the virtual meetings are public, Kratz felt that waiting until an in-person meeting was most logical in order to allow as many community members as possible the chance to voice their opinions.

With the Northampton County “Hotel Tax Grant” deadline coming up July 17, the council approved the submission of a plan to use grant money for an extension of the Freemansburg Municipal Park parking lot with a 6-1 vote, with councilman Justin LaBar as the only no.

The plan will need to be reviewed by Northampton County and is not guaranteed to be approved.

Itterly also proposed a floorplan and virtual drawing of a potential new public works garage, which was passed 4-3. The approval, however, was not for the construction of the garage but of just the idea itself.

Itterly cited concerns that the old garage was severely decaying and said that if anyone on the board to come down and look at it, they would feel that it is in need of a repair.

“If we don’t take action in the next couple of years, I think eventually it is going to be a total teardown,” Itterly said.