It was standing room only at the Slatington borough council meeting Monday night. Residents came out to complain about road conditions on Shadow Oak Lane, Oakhurst Drive and other streets in the housing development near the elementary school.

Instead of going to the podium and giving their name and address, the crowd voiced their dissatisfaction from where they sat or stood.

“It’s an embarrassment when somebody comes to your house,” one man said. “Take a drive up there and see.”

Council President Thomas Bartholomew replied, “No, I understand the situation.”

Another man answered back, “Understanding and doing something about it is a different story.”

“The issue is the millions of dollars we are going to need to do those roads properly,” Bartholomew said. “Just operating our police department costs over $1 million. … We just don’t have the millions of dollars you think we have sitting around to do this.”

Borough manager Dan Stevens said the borough brings in $945,000 in property taxes each year. In all, 70% of the taxes people pay goes to the school district. The borough gets 18%, and the county gets 12%.

A woman in the crowd said, “We just want you guys to make it a priority. … When I come up home on Maple Spring, I have to go on the other side of the road at the intersection so my car doesn’t bottom out with my two kids in the car. I know you guys are saying you don’t have the money, but we are sitting here asking you, ‘What can we do to make it a priority to get it done’. You have a lot of angry residents who just eat it every day, and complain about their cars, and get their cars fixed.”

Council Vice President Bryon Reed said, “You definitely have a gripe, all you people. … We’re trying to do something there. Shadow Oaks is the worst of all. It is the worst street in the whole town, other than Chestnut Alley.”

Stevens said the borough can’t repave the roads up there until the stormwater improvements are done. That will cost about $2 million. He said it doesn’t make sense to repave the roads and then just tear them up again to do the stormwater improvements.

Stevens said the borough has tried for years to get the money for the project. Twice they have applied for grants from the Multimodal Transportation Fund through PennDOT, and have been denied.

“I have no idea. They don’t tell us why we were turned down,” Stevens said.

He plans to apply again this year for the multimodal grant. The council approved Monday night to apply for a Local Shares Account grant to go toward improving the roads.

“We put in as many grants as we can,” he said.

Stevens said one of the reasons for the poor road conditions is they were torn up 11 years ago for a sewer project.

The Slatington Borough Sewer Authority got a $4.7 million grant to help pay for repairs to sewer lines and the laterals leading to houses. The borough borrowed $2.3 million at 1% interest for 20 years to cover the remaining cost of the project. As a result, the borough pays $10,600 a month on that loan.

Stevens said the work was inspected by an engineer and approved, but the ground has sunk over the years leaving bumps in the roadway.

Then three years ago, the borough put in new water lines on Shadow Oaks and did curb stops, he said. That project cost $350,000.

Once the stormwater project is completed, then the roads can be repaved.

The engineering has been completed, but they just don’t have the money to pay for it yet, Stevens said.

The plan is to collect the stormwater, and flow it through larger pipes under Oakhurst Drive, and Route 873, and down to the river, Stevens said. Right now, the stormwater drains into quarries.