Apr. 8--GORDON -- It's been a time-consuming process, but the borough's fight against sewer account delinquencies is showing results as the total continues to decrease.

During Monday's council meeting, Borough Manager Paul L. Snyder said delinquencies had dropped $5,366.37 during the past month, from $35,552.18 on March 1 to $30,185.81 on April 1.

Snyder also said the previous month had seen a reduction of $5,538.52.

Several years ago, the delinquencies amounted to about $100,000.

"There are four accounts that total about $19,000 in delinquents, so if those accounts were paid, we'd actually only have $11,000 in delinquencies," said Snyder.

Borough solicitor Mark Semanchik said it has taken much work to get the total down as far as it is.

"It's fair to note that the delinquencies have come down, and it's been a long time in coming and through the efforts of Dotsy (sewage accounts Secretary Dorothy Snyder) and Paul monitoring accounts, sending letters and going to magistrate hearings. They really have put in untold numbers of hours to keep that under control," Semanchik said.

"It's good to be sitting here and hearing that those efforts are paying off and it's getting down to a manageable amount," he continued. "I would think that over the next couple of months you'll hear that number continue to drop."

Semanchik recommended that two of the four aforementioned delinquent accounts be prepared for forwarding to the local magisterial district judge. Council approved the recommendation.

In other business, the council will schedule a meeting with members of the Citizens Fire Company to discuss the use of the municipal hall.

Council President Lynn Korn and other council members said that even though the borough owns the building, which houses the borough office and the fire company, the borough has no input regarding who is renting the hall.

Korn said that after some recent functions, the borough was left having to clean up the hall and after one fundraising event, there was a cost of nearly $1,000 to repair a restroom.

Councilwoman Suzanne O'Neill said the repair bill should be submitted to the fire company.

"My issue is if the money is coming in on this end (to the fire company) and we're paying the bills on that end, I have an issue with that," council Vice President Curt Lynch said. His motion that the council meet with fire company representatives passed unanimously.

The council approved contributing $400 to the Northern Schuylkill Council of Governments for a concrete pad where a new pole building will be constructed. The COG plans to use the building for storage of equipment that is shared with the COG member municipalities. A state grant will pay for the building, but the cost for the pad exceeds the funds available. The COG leadership is requesting $400 from each member to subsidize the additional costs so that the construction can be done at one time.

Snyder said there has been vandalism at the Gordon Community Park, including to a basketball rim that will cost between $100 and $180 to replace. He also said only two seesaws remain because the others were broken.

While council members expressed some reluctance in replacing the equipment due to the vandalism, members agreed it should be done for the youth who use the park without damaging it.

In another report, Snyder said many tractor trailers having difficulties finding the Highridge Business Park along Interstate 81 atop the Gordon Mountain continue to enter the borough. He said some trucks have been damaging tree branches as their drivers attempt to turn around and travel back up the mountain.

The next borough council meeting has been moved to 7 p.m. May 5 in the municipal building.

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