Delmont will update, modernize its burning ordinance

If you want to have a fire in a Delmont driveway fire pit on Friday, technically you had to notify the fire department in writing by Monday.

“I was looking at it and I thought, ‘This is nuts. Who does this?’” Councilman Bill Marx said.

With that in mind, Delmont officials will begin updating the borough’s burning ordinance to put it more in line with modern times.

The existing ordinance makes no distinction between burning trash and having a small, self-contained fire pit, and requires residents to notify the fire department in writing five days in advance of having a fire.

Borough solicitor Dan Hewitt said the ordinance dates back to the borough’s early days.

“This is from when the borough was being built, and sending the letter was likely for a builder who was going to have a large fire,” Hewitt said.

Marx drew on elements he liked in ordinances from neighboring towns, saying he simply wants to modernize the ordinance.

“I know, in my neighborhood, I have a fire pit, my neighbors have a fire pit, my other neighbors have a fire put, and I know no one is submitting writing five days in advance to the fire department,” he said.

Hewitt will bring a draft ordinance back to council for its consideration at a future meeting.

In other borough business:

• Council awarded a $12,500 contract for paving work on the intersection of Lou Ann Lane and White Oak Drive, as well as roughly half of White Oak Drive.

• Three geothermal wells will be drilled in the next couple weeks for the new Delmont Public Library building off School Street. The wells will help heat and cool the building.

“It will be loud. There’s no way around it,” said councilman and library board member Dave Weber. “These are 555-horsepower drill rigs. But certainly we won’t be drilling at 3’o’clock in the morning.”

Library construction is slated to finish in late fall, and Weber said he hopes to begin moving into the building before Christmas.

• Council unanimously adopted a sewage lateral testing ordinance, part of the requirements of a Department of Environmental Protection consent order the borough shares with the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority and its client communities.

The ordinance requires that private lateral lines be tested and televised for integrity if a property is sold or transferred. If issues are found, they must be corrected at the property owner’s expense.