Nesquehoning council

Nesquehoning Borough Council on Wednesday acted on or discussed the following items:

• Council is continuing to look at how other counties handle police enforcement of county jails within their jurisdiction after council, last month, voiced their concern over using borough police to cover the jail when incidents happen with inmates because it takes up significant amounts of time. Councilman George Sabol said Columbia County calls out Bloomsburg police, but it is for 15-20 calls per year, a figure Nesquehoning is well beyond with the Carbon County Correctional Facility. He said Monroe County uses state police, Schuylkill County uses Pottsville police and Luzerne County uses the district attorney’s office. Council approved a motion to reach out to the county commissioners and district attorney’s office to see if help is available in how to handle inmate incidents.

• Letters will be sent out to borough businesses with grease traps because they are required to send reports in every 90 days, and if not there are fines.

• Approved the resignation of Rose Richelo, wastewater plant operator II, effective Aug. 30.

• Approved contracting with Water Mechanics for the wastewater treatment plant in the event help is needed at a retainer of $250 a month with a $50 per hour if called out. The contract is effective Sept. 1.

• Approved installing two new water tanks down at the wastewater treatment plant at a cost of $1,200 per tank.

• Approved a motion to hire Kyle Sabulsky as a full-time police officer in the borough, effective Aug. 29.

• Mayor Sam Kitchko said that for the month of July, police received $5,154.87; issued 35 citations; had 497 incidents reported for the month; and drove 3,797 miles while on patrol.

• The next Nesquehoning Neighborhood Watch meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Oct. 7 in the borough hall. All are welcome.

• Ratified purchasing 12 pistols for the police department at a total cost of $5,100 using a $5,000 donation from Nesquehoning VFW Post 8008. The old pistols will either be bought back by the manufacturer where the new pistols were purchased or officers will have the opportunity to purchase the service pistol from the borough after some officers expressed interest in purchasing their pieces. The money from the sale of the old guns will go into a police equipment line item in the general fund.

• Approved a resolution between the borough and Commonwealth Financing Authority for a Local Share Account grant application in the amount of $153,602 for the Nesquehoning police. The borough is applying for a new 2020 Ford Interceptor, two license plate readers, two surveillance systems and five onboard cameras.

• Approved getting workers’ compensation insurance from BrickStreet Insurance through ETA Benefits at a cost of $74,541.

• Attorney Brian Stahl, who represents Broad Mountain Power LLC, approached council to ask about setting up a meeting with the borough solicitor and zoning officer regarding clarification of zoning ordinances for transmission lines prior to submitting anything to the borough. Broad Mountain Power is proposing constructing a transmission line from the Broad Mountain wind farm in Packer Township down to the PPL substation in Nesquehoning. The line, Stahl said, would be built under PPL Electric specifications and taken over by the utility company. No action on setting up a meeting was taken as the borough solicitor was not present at the meeting to make a recommendation on the request.