A permit has been approved unanimously by Salisbury Township officials that could clear the way for clear-cutting in the vicinity of a utility company power line in William H. Laubach Memorial Park.

The township board of commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Highway Occupancy Permit on behalf of PPL.

The permit was approved even though township officials appear to have few details about PPL’s plans, which occurs as the township embarks on the Laubach Park Master Plan for the 14.25-acre park in eastern Salisbury. At least one official is urging the utility to meet with the park master plan committee.

The permit, with the paperwork for it to be done by PPL, would give the utility company access to Laubach Park from Fairview Avenue. PPL apparently wants to replace a high-tension wire tower in the park with a monopod pole for the Allentown-Hosensack electrical transmission line.

“It’s going to be kind of hard to do a master site plan if we don’t know what they’re [PPL] going to do,” township Commissioner Vice President Debra Brinton said. “It’s going to be a huge impact,” Brinton said of PPL’s tower work.

Township Commissioner James Seagreaves made the motion to bring the motion for the occupancy permit, which is temporary, to a vote, seconded by Commissioner Robert Martucci, Jr.

Martuccci, a Laubach Park Master Plan committee member, told a reporter for The Press after the Aug. 27 meeting, “I think they [PPL] should sit in on our public meeting.”

Prior to the Aug. 27 vote on the permit, Martucci asked the Laubach Park Master Plan consultant Leonard J. Policelli of Urban Research & Development Corp., Bethlehem, if his firm has communicated with PPL.

“No. We’re not sure what they [PPL] want to do,” Policelli said.

“You might have some leverage,” Martucci said.

The Laubach Park Master Plan Committee next meets Sept. 21.

“If there’s going to be clear-cutting, it’s going to change the whole nature of the park,” Martucci said.

“They [PPL] are definitely receptive to working with us,” Salisbury Township Director of Finance and Acting Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich, who, along with Salisbury Township Director of Public Works John Andreas, met with PPL officials. Bonaskiewich reiterated she made PPL officials aware of the Laubach Park Master Plan.

“We definitely need to sit down with them [PPL officials],” Martucci said.

Brinton asked what contingencies the township would have in the event of PPL clear-cutting trees.

“In their [PPL] right-of-way, they can cut down whatever they want,” Salisbury Township Solicitor Atty. John W. Ashley said.

A Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center official has expressed concern about PPL clearing trees and brush at its utility-line easement there.

The Laubach Park Master Plan committee will hold public meetings to be announced. The committee’s meetings are not open to the public.

The vine-encrusted utility tower drew attention when the Laubach Park Master Plan Committee met July 20 at the park, 1600 Lehigh Ave.

PPL is expected to begin its work in Laubach Park in early 2016.

The Laubach Park Master Plan Committee expects to complete its proposal in early 2016.

During the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners’ workshop Aug. 13, township administration officials said they met at the township municipal building with PPL Electric Utilities Inc. officials to discuss the electrical utility company plans to replace the tower.

Access to the tower is more direct from Fairview Avenue.

“It would minimize the impact,” Andreas said of the Fairview access. “We didn’t have a detailed plan,” Andreas added of the meeting with PPL officials. “They [PPL] are going to mark trees,” Andreas added.

A township map of Laubach Park displayed after the Aug. 13 workshop by Andreas depicted a PPL right-of-way through the park, west of the pond, roughly in a southwest to northeast direction. The right-of-way appears to cut a 100-foot wide swath through Laubach Park.

The new utility line in Laubach Park would apparently continue a power line from South Mountain and connect to a tower north of Lehigh Avenue, over East Susquehanna Street and on to Lehigh Mountain and across the Lehigh River.

Andreas has said he sees the PPL project in a positive light, describing it after the workshop as a “potential win-win” for the Laubach Park project.

“If anything, we may be able to partner with them [PPL] to improve the park,” Andreas told a reporter for The Press after the Aug. 21 township workshop.

To dismantle the tower, remove the steel and install a new tower, PPL would need to bring equipment into the park.

According to township officials, once the new tower is installed and in use through Laubach, electrical transmission towers along Fairview would be removed.

Because the township owns the park and because Fairview Avenue is a state road, the township was required to apply to PennDOT for the occupancy permit application on behalf of PPL.

PPL has been having trees pruned and removed in the vicinity of its utility lines following Lehigh Valley power outages after the “Halloween Blizzard” in October 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The PPL tower in Laubach is in the vicinity of Trout Creek.

Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Cynthia Sopka said at the Aug. 21 workshop she received correspondence from PPL regarding the tower project. She said a firm will be doing site work regarding wetlands and watercourses for an environmental impact study where the PPL work is proposed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources approved a $26,700 Community Conservation Partnership Program Grant for the Laubach Park Master Plan and Recreation Connections Project. The grant is being matched with an equal amount from the township for the $55,400 project, which funds the master plan. An estimate for park improvements is to be determined.

Laubach Park, which is used by Salisbury Youth Association football and boys and girls softball teams, has an old pavilion, bathrooms that do not meet Americans With Disabilities Act requirements, a wooden footbridge with missing boards, shuffleboard courts and a pond.