Hop Bottom council questions gunfire

BY PAT FARNELLI

Hop Bottom Borough Council members discussed hearing what sounded like gunshots over the previous weekend during the regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 3

Several of those attending reported hearing either gunshots or explosions on Friday and Saturday. The borough does have a noise ordinance in effect, but the source of the disturbance needs to be identified before action can be taken, they said..

Fred Fry, one of the new council members sworn in on Jan. 3, said that there was an explosion Saturday afternoon that shook his house, possibly coming from a nearby quarry.

He said that he called DEP and was told someone would investigate.

Fry noted that in the past 26 years he has owned his property, there has never been an event like that, although there has always been a quarry there.

He said it sounded like explosive charges being set off or blasting, and went on for most of Saturday and Sunday. It was not known if any seismic testing is going on in the area at this time.

Vice President Bill Black presided over the meeting in the absence of John Koshinski. The borough building’s plans for renovation have been reviewed by the contractor.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded to the application for the Martins Creek clean-up, and the funds should be available to cover the sediment basin project.

Other areas of concern have permits already in place, which are good until either September or December of 2012.

Lathrop Township adjoins the borough, and their workers have removed a large dump truck full of tires that collected since the flooding, as well as completing a great deal of work on the berms.

Hop Bottom needs to do tree trimming, and to clean up the area near the feed mill and on the borough’s side of the tower on the hill.

Some rebar sticking up on the old trail has been taken out, said the mayor, who implemented some bolt cutters to remove some of the offending metal.

The ordinance committee is reviewing already established ordinances, having them checked by the solicitor, and then removing the fines from the old ordinances. Once the fine schedule has been agreed upon, a properly worded resolution will have to add in the new fines.

Some of the ordinances for the borough date back to 1925.

The borough spent about $5,000 on building repairs, which secretary Deb Norton said came back in the form of grant funds.