Nesquehoning discusses guns, fire company issues

Nesquehoning officials were talking about police guns and its three fire companies during council’s workshop on Wednesday.

Police guns

Mayor Sam Kitchko reported that following the donation of new handguns to the borough police department by the Nesquehoning VFW, the borough needed to figure out what to do with the handguns that would no longer be used.

It was agreed upon last month to see how much they could sell the firearms for after a few full-time officers expressed interest in purchasing their service piece.

Kitchko said that of the three quotes the borough received, the highest amount was $235 for a gun.

Council said that while no action could be taken at the workshop, it will be put on the agenda to vote to allow the five full-time officers, as well as one former officer and any borough employee, to purchase one of the nine firearms for $235.

Whatever isn’t sold to the borough employees will then go to a bidding process to the public with a minimum bid of $235.

Kitchko added that the sale of the nine guns would bring in $2,115, which would then be used to purchase nine holsters for the police department.

Fire companies

Councilwoman Rosemary Porembo, chairwoman of the public safety committee, said that the committee met with representatives from the three borough fire companies — Nesquehoning Hose, New Columbus and Hauto — about schedules, grants, applications and finding common ground.

Porembo reported that the discussion was good, but heated at times, with the committee asking the companies to find some common ground.

“We weren’t asking them to consolidate,” she said, noting that some members said if the borough would force the three departments to consolidate, they would quit.

Financial records for each of the departments also show they are doing well on their own at this time.

Porembo hopes another meeting could be scheduled to get more of their input.

Other matters

• Council announced that there is a vacancy on the borough zoning hearing board. Anyone interested in serving on the board should send a letter of interest to the borough, 114 W. Catawissa St.

• On Oct. 27, PPL will be removing and adding streetlights in the borough based on council’s map of where lights should be shifted. The company will then come in at a later date to do the conversion from the current lights to LED.

• Reading and Northern Railroad representatives again asked Nesquehoning if something could be done about water runoff in the Hauto Valley Estates, where the tracks are close to Park Avenue and water from the avenues dumps onto the rails, causing deterioration. The borough, which has been trying to come up with a solution, said they would have the borough engineer look at the matter and try to come up with something.