Lehighton could look to switch its engineering firm after it requested a large increase in its pay rate.

Borough manager Dane DeWire brought the matter up for discussion at Monday’s special meeting of borough council.

DeWire said that council could choose to retain Vanessa Nedrick, an engineer with Remington and Vernick Engineers, or go with one of two other candidates whom council met with earlier in the year.

Councilman John Kreitz asked why council doesn’t just look to retain Nedrick.

But council members David Zimmerman and Becky Worthy both said they liked the idea of looking into another engineer.

DeWire noted Remington and Vernick’s rates have gone up across the board, and added all engineering rates have increased between 21% and 30% between the 2024 and 2025 rates.

Comparatively, he said the other firms in council’s top three choices from earlier this year only had rate increases of 5% and 4%, respectively.

DeWire said his main point of contention was regarding the professional estimate that the borough received for the I & I abatement project.

He noted that the Remington and Vernick firm serves various municipalities, including ones larger than the borough.

As a result, DeWire said it appears at times that the borough isn’t always given top priority, and noted correspondence isn’t always swift.

The borough engineer position, along with other official appointments, will be visited at next month’s meeting.

In February, borough council on a 4-2 vote, with one abstention, reappointed Nedrick to the post. Council members Worthy and Zimmerman were opposed. Councilman Steve Hawk abstained from the vote.

That decision came after council met during a special meeting earlier that month with three candidates for the position.

Along with Nedrick, also interviewed at that time for municipal engineering services were Mike Muffley, of Hanover Engineering Associates, and Eric Snyder, of Keystone Consulting Engineers.

Nedrick replaced Bruce Steigerwalt, who retired at the end of 2022 after 43 years as the borough engineer.