The Palmerton Borough adopted its 2019 budget during its council meeting last Thursday, and the borough has a few projects in its sights for the coming year.

Some of those projects, Borough Manager Rodger Danielson highlighted, are acquiring a new police vehicle, a medium duty plow and new leaf removal equipment.

Despite these new projects, Danielson pointed out, there was no changes in taxes or user fees.

“It’s pretty much a basic, meet the needs budget,” Danielson said.

Next year's budget also reflects Palmerton’s interest in bettering its water system.   

In October, the borough approved a one-time transfer of $150,000 in capital funds from Palmerton’s water operating account to the municipal authority for maintenance. They also approved a 25 percent transfer of industrial water revenue to the municipal authority in January 2019.

“The revenue from the potable system has always paid 25 percent over, the industrial water had not,” Danielson said. “It means about $25,000 a year additional over to the municipal authority.”

Danielson said that the funds transferred to the municipal authority, which owns the water system, go toward improvements to the system and maintenance.

“They’ve undertaken several large projects, especially this last year,” Danielson said.

Some of those projects are the construction of a new waterline on West Princeton and a new storage tank at the top westend of Edgemont.

“It’s a way to upgrade the water system,” Danielson continued. “At one time, most homes were lucky to have a bathroom. Now they have dishwashers and laundry equipment. There’s a lot more demand for water than there used to be, so this is one way to bring that system up to date.”

In other news:

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The borough will hold the line on property taxes in 2019, setting the general purposes tax rate at 8.78 mills, the recreation purposes rate at 0.74 mills and the debt reduction purposes rate at 2.25 mills.

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The borough will also hold the line on tax rates proposed during last month’s meeting, including the $10 per capita tax, 1 percent earned income tax, 1 percent real estate transfer tax, $52 local services tax, and mechanical devices tax.

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The borough council congratulated Richard Nothstein, public relations and borough code chair and co-owner of County Harvest Market in Palmerton, for being awarded business of the year by the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation.

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“It’s a pleasure to be a part of the Palmerton community in all ways,” Nothstein said.