This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.
Mount Gretna Borough Council on Aug. 10 discussed the possibility of circulating new ordinances to residents prior to voting.
During public comment, resident Jim Cassel asked again that borough meetings be made available online via Zoom to make resident participation more accessible.
Council president Deb Simpson said the matter was on the agenda under new business for later in the evening. Council member Allan Feldman said he asked for the item to be on the agenda following conversation with Cassel.
Cassel said none of the residents he spoke with knew about an ordinance passed in July regarding trash can removal. Borough meetings are open to the public, with general agendas and meeting minutes posted on the borough website.
“Half of our residents are part-time, so that has a pretty big negative impact, potentially, on those folks,” said Cassel. “It seems like there would be something we can do other than creating an ordinance so that people can be fined for not bringing in their trash cans.”
Cassel suggested emailing residents when a new ordinance is coming up for a vote. Simpson said eCode360 is the platform used to post ordinances to the borough website and raised the possibility of emailing residents a link to ordinances there, as unresolved errors occurred in the past with emailing embedded links for another project.
In other news:
- Mayor Kerry Royer said results from a July 20 PennDOT Local Technical Assistance Program were received and circulated to council members Aug. 10. Discussion on suggested traffic calming solutions from the study for state Route 117 will continue next month. Public works director Bill Care said they are pursuing the placement of speed tables on Route 117 to aid in controlling traffic, ideally by summer 2027.
- Council approved an expense of $629.11 from the liquid fuels account for installation and signage for a handicapped parking space at Yale Avenue.
- An executive session on the topic of personnel is planned for Sept. 3 with location to be confirmed.
- Mount Gretna Fire Chief Travis Haak said they responded to 46 calls in July. Simpson asked if they have had any response to their need for more volunteers. Haak said they have had two to three new volunteers but the need remains.
- Resident Tanya Mann enquired about the neglected state of the property at 4 Muhlenberg Ave., noting it received prior code violations in 2019 and 2023. Care said it was recently inspected and a notice of violation was sent to the owner, who has 30 days to respond and rectify the situation before further action can be pursued.
- Cassel requested the raw data collected relative to the borough’s labor allocation study and a summary of the methodology.
Mount Gretna Borough Council will meet again Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy. Meetings are open to the public.
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