In a bid to reverse the agreement with CVS over the traffic patterns at the intersection of Main and Fourth Streets, council member Bob Jennings moved to reject the agreement.

That agreement was dated December 19 and was signed by council president F.J. Monaghan and Michael W. Buckless, vice president of Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy.

The agreement said that “within 14 days” CVS must submit to the borough revised traffic plans for the intersection. As of January 11, 23 days had passed since the agreement was signed.

Because of this, Jennings moved to reject the contract totally. When put to a vote at the borough meeting on January 14, Jennings’ motion was defeated 4 to 3. Voting with Jennings were Juanita Pisano and Harry DeVrieze. Voting against the motion were Monaghan and council members Jim Brennan, Michael Slish and Scott Smith.

In a second motion, Jennings moved that the borough take the company to court over its failure to meet the agreement’s deadline. His motion failed to get a second and it died. The contract with CVS stands.

In a special meeting on the CVS plan held on Monday, January 21, further discussion was held among council members concerning the same intersection, specifically about a wide turn, called a radius turn, that may be necessary for long semi-trucks. The board discussed five comments made by the borough’s traffic engineer, Mary Bogart of Bogart Engineering, having to do with several issues at the intersection.

“We took no action, but only addressed Bogart’s points to be sure we were in agreement with state regulations,” said Monaghan. “We then sent our comments to CVS.”

The CVS proposal has been the subject to much debate among council members.

In other council action, the ordinance against overnight winter parking on the streets was modified. Up to now, it has been forbidden for any car to park on any street between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and that ban still applies when there is a snow emergency, which is called by Mayor Ed Langendoerfer. When there is no snow emergency, it will now be permitted to park on most side streets. However, overnight parking on 23 designated streets (largely those going north and south) will still be prohibited.

“We are changing it in order to give people who live in apartments a chance to park their cars on the street,” Brennan said. “What many do now is park on lawns and other undesirable places.”

The law took effect immediately.

In other board action, the board accepted a grant of $16,800 from U.S. Senator Pat Toomey’s office to purchase a new police vehicle. The source of the funding is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant came from the efforts by Councilwoman Juanita Pisano, who is the head of the grants department.