Joan and Manuel Muniz of Pine Street brought their concerns to Bowmanstown Borough Council about a group home on their street.

"A few weeks ago a neighbor approached me and told me about the halfway house," Joan said. "I came to the borough to see if they have permits. I personally spoke to zoning officer Duane Dellecker to see if there is a zoning law regarding group homes."According to the information Joan Muniz received, the property is currently being leased by Spectrum of Bethlehem.Muniz asked if there was a moving permit or occupancy permit issued. "We were in real estate, we know about occupancy permits. If there is a permit maybe we can get tax revenue for the borough," she said.She told the borough there are always five to six cars parked on the street."If there are five or six people living there, are they regulated by the state, who enforces it?"At the foundation of the issue is the classification of the home."A group home is a home where a small number of unrelated people live together for support. A halfway house is for former drug addicts, prisoners or people who need psychiatric support," according to Muniz. "If it's a halfway house, we were told to lock our doors and watch our property value go down."The moving and occupancy permit issued over the summer list the leased property as a group home, which according to borough solicitor James Preston, must be treated as any common single residence."They can be somewhat sensitive because of federal laws used to control and classify group homes. There is a need to be careful because of discrimination. Zoning ordinances have a lot of language to address things like this, but the only way to enforce them is to discriminate. It's kind of a dicey situation," Preston said.He added that the facility still had to be licensed and certified. "There are very few ordinances for parking regarding single dwelling homes. The people that run group homes are the people who know that.""Have there been problems reported, noise complaints?" Scott asked Muniz."Not that I'm aware of, just traffic," Muniz told her.Fire Department Chief Michael Spairana asked the council if the department could receive notification about future dwellings of this type."The problem is that in June it passed occupancy and in November is the first time anyone is hearing of it. It's prudent that the fire department know about it, what special needs these individuals have. It's going to be a problem," he said.Bills not paidResidents also question why the sewer committee was abolished.According to Council President Kara Scott there were issues with personnel.Scott said, "It is a committee of all the council now.""That's not the answer we got earlier," council member Darren Thomas said. "You just told him incorrect information.""You are speaking out of turn, Darren," Scott said. "Can we not have this at every meeting?""You brought it," Thomas said.A motion to accept the sewer treasurer's report and pay the borough's sewer bills was not passed during the meeting."You realize the bills will not be paid?" Scott asked the council.The motion divided the board with Thomas and co-councilmen Rob Moyer and Norman Engle Jr., in the opposed column. Council Vice President Pam Leiby was absent from the meeting."The mayor has a chance to vote to break a tie. Read the book," Thomas told Scott. "I'm told I'm wrong by you at every meeting.""I doubt that happens, Darren," Scott said.Mayor William Ravert's tie-breaking vote was to table the bills until the December meeting.The board agreed later in the meeting to act as sponsoring municipality for the nonprofit organization Family Promise of Carbon County.Family Promise will be applying for a Federal Emergency Shelter grant in July 2016. In order to qualify the organization must have a sponsoring municipality.Scott volunteers for the organization and brought the letter to council's attention.Carbon County currently only has two homeless shelters in operation, Family Promise and The Peaceful Knights located on First Street in Lehighton.The board unanimously agreed to act as sponsor for the nonprofit.