"We're still buzzing around. You can use that if you want to," Salisbury Township Commissioner Vice President Debra Brinton said at the end of an April 9 workshop forming a committee on beekeeping in the township.

Brinton, along with township Commissioner Joanne Ackerman, agreed to serve on the committee along with township resident and beekeeper Norma Cusick and Salisbury Township Manager Randy Soriano.

Brinton's quip came in response to a letter from an unnamed Bethlehem man criticizing township commissioners for "wasting their time" discussing beekeeping.

Emphasized Brinton, "We find everything that people bring before us important. That's why we're here."

"We received some derogatory mail," Commissioner Robert Martucci, Jr. said, "and I can speak for all of us [commissioners]. None of us is against beekeeping."

Cusick, along with Jan Keim and other township residents, addressed concerns about beekeeping regulations contained in the new zoning ordinance commissioners approved March 26.

At the March 18 public hearing for the zoning ordinance, beekeepers questioned the requirement for a six-foot fence for beehives.

The new ordinance stipulates beekeeping cannot take place 30 feet or less from a lot line of any dwelling or a street and, if the beekeeping activity takes place 30 to 60 feet from the lot line, a six-foot-high fence is required.

With the collapse of beekeeping colonies, maintaining hives is considered no laughing matter for the pollination of flowers, fruits and plants.

Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Cynthia Sopka has cited efforts to encourage beekeeping, including an introduction to beekeeping class held at Lehigh Carbon Community College and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's "Bee Informed Partnership" program.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture licenses beekeepers.

"The state does regulate beekeeping and they come and check your hives," Cusick said.

"The problem that I have is with the cost of the fence and that it would be prohibitive to beekeeping," Keim said, adding, "It's very necessary for agriculture."

"One of the problems is that there's not a lot of public awareness of bees because there's not a lot around," Martucci said.

"They're dying," Cusick responded.

Depending on what the committee recommends, the township may amend beekeeping regulations in the new zoning ordinance.

"You would have to do an amendment to rescind it," Atty. John W. Ashley, township solicitor said.

Cusick suggested the committee invite Lehigh Valley Beekeepers Association President Steve Finke to address it. "He and the group would come up with a reasonable ordinance for the township," Cusick said.

"Mrs. Cusick submitted some language that is worth considering," Soriano said.