Coplay Borough Council, at its Dec. 9 meeting, accepted the resignation of the fire chief and approved the hiring of a replacement. The resignation of Fire Chief Joseph Britt is effective Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Taking over the position will be Dakota Fenstermaker. Council also approved David Buchfuhrer to serve as deputy fire chief, also effective Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
The proposed naming of Tyler Bell as assistant fire chief was tabled by council.<\/p>\n
In another emergency personnel matter, council approved Thomas Morris III to be hired as a police cadet starting next month, pending physical agility and Nelson Denny testing at the Allentown Police Academy.<\/p>\n
The second reading of the 2026 budget was approved. There is no tax increase in this spending plan.<\/p>\n
Borough Mayor Joseph Bundra announced he plans to veto the budget based on a personnel issue. No other discussion was had.<\/p>\n
First Northern Bank & Trust, Neffs Bank and Penn Community Bank were approved as depositories of borough funds. Kirk & Summa were approved to audit the 2025 financial statement.<\/p>\n
As the end of 2025 approaches, council approved the following transfer of funds from the borough\u2019s general fund to specific department projects:<\/p>\n
\u2022 $160,525 for streets\/roads construction<\/p>\n
\u2022 $25,000 for streets\/parking lot paving<\/p>\n
\u2022 $9,000 for streets\/roads materials<\/p>\n
\u2022 $2,000 for office furniture<\/p>\n
\u2022 $10,000 for the MS4 program<\/p>\n
\u2022 $40,000 for the engineer<\/p>\n
\u2022 $6,000 for police schooling<\/p>\n
\u2022 $2,000 for police firearms<\/p>\n
\u2022 $3,900 for police\/community engagement<\/p>\n
\u2022 $500 for police uniforms<\/p>\n
\u2022 $1,000 for police vests<\/p>\n
\u2022 $27,000 for police radio\/cellular services<\/p>\n
Also approved were the transfer of $25,000 for garbage contingency\/landfill maintenance and $10,000 for a new garbage truck from the borough\u2019s garbage fund.<\/p>\n
Coplay Public Library received $3,898 from the budget\u2019s building maintenance line item.<\/p>\n
In other library business, the board resignation of Faye Schreiner was accepted, as were the continued three-year terms of both Jane Gillespie and Mil Procanyn.<\/p>\n
A transfer of $334.27 was made from the IRT maintenance fund to the recreation fund.<\/p>\n
Borough council approved the use of the gym, located in the borough building at 98 S. Fourth St., for aerobics classes 9:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in January, February and March.<\/p>\n
Lehigh Council Juvenile Probation staff also received approval to use the gym for training last week and this past Monday.<\/p>\n
Council approved a resolution that increased the borough\u2019s noncontract employees\u2019 pension contribution from 6% to 10%.<\/p>\n
Residents at 25 N. Fourth St. and 30 N. Fourth St. requested handicap parking spaces. Council approved those requests.<\/p>\n
Council also approved the replacement of a commercial hot water heater at the borough fire station and a heat pump compressor mini-split in the borough hall administration office.<\/p>\n
A special budget meeting was planned for Dec. 15.<\/p>\n
A reorganization meeting will be held Jan. 5, 2026. A regular meeting of council is planned for Jan. 13, 2026. Both will be held 7 p.m. at borough hall.<\/p>\n
Dakota Fenstermaker is named the new Coplay Borough fire chief, with David Buchfuhrer as deputy fire chief, during the Dec. 9 Coplay Borough Council meeting.<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOSCouncilman Lou Bodish takes the oath of office at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Councilman Michael Dee is sworn in.<\/p>\n
Councilman Tim Grohotolsky takes the oath of office to serve the borough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coplay Borough Council, at its Dec. 9 meeting, accepted the resignation of the fire chief and approved the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-63486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}