A nixed road closure, dusty roads, road repairs and sharing the road with bicyclists, were on the agenda at the April Heidelberg Township Board of Supervisors meeting.

Following the usual meeting formalities of reviewing the minutes and paying the monthly bills, the floor was opened for comment regarding the possible closure of Jones Road.

Due to the elicited responses made by residents, the board unanimously voted on not to vacate the road and to investigate other maintenance options this summer.

At last month’s board of supervisors’ meeting in March, discussion ensued about the ongoing cost of making constant repairs versus vacating the road.

Subsequently, letters were sent to affected residents.

According to Chairman Steve Bachman, in the past the board had asked the residents’ opinion with regard to the Werley’s Corner Road bridge, “So we went down that path with Jones Road,” he said.

“There weren’t mixed comments,” said Bachman. “They were not in favor of closing it [Jones Road].”

In other road maintenance plans, the board approved a motion to begin projects on Memorial and Reservoir roads.

There were also concerns from several audience members about dust issues on some of the dirt roads.

Roadmaster Kevin Huber informed those in attendance the roller is still out for repairs.

This is the piece of equipment used on the dirt roads for dust suppression.

A few in the audience questioned paving the roads in the future.

Bachman said there are many pros and cons to road paving.

“When you pave, you have more traffic and faster traffic,” he said.

In other matters, Mark Smith, NOVA’s Heidelberg Township liaison, informed the board for the first quarter there were 64 calls in the township and, of those, 49 patients were transported.

The average response time from dispatch to being on the scene was 8.7 minutes.

“I think that’s very good considering some of them were non-emergency calls,” said Smith.

The total calls for NOVA for the first quarter was 810, making Heidelberg’s portion 12.6 percent of the total.

Smith also announced that sometime in June, NOVA would be having a round table for the board and all of the townships it serves to discuss ideas.

Township Administrator Janice Meyers gave the annual auditor’s report, which offered a few suggestions and requests made by the auditors to streamline the process in future years.

Finally, from fixing roads to sharing them with bicyclists, the board voted to provide a letter of support to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission as it plans to evaluate for possible bicycle routes in the township.