PPL Electric Utilities officials responded to William H. Laubach Park neighbors’ concerns, as well as concerns of Salisbury Township commissioners, regarding the replacement of electric utility poles on the township’s east side.

“There’s about three weeks left [on work in the Laubach vicinity],” Kevin Burke, PPL Electric Utilities project manager said. After that, Burke said, “We move into the restoration phase.”

Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners Vice President Robert Martucci Jr., asked Burke for a plan for PPL’s proposed work in the 14.25-acre park and vicinity.

“If you could come up with something black and white,” Commissioner Debra Brinton said.

“I can get you that plan,” Burke assured the commissioners.

The PPL Electric Utilities transmission line $35-million rebuilding project is in several phases. The first, the Elliot Heights Project, to be completed in June, extends roughly from Elliot Heights in west Bethlehem, across Lehigh Mountain and East Susquehanna Street, through Laubach Park, across East Emmaus Avenue at Fairview Avenue, where it ties into the Hosensack-Seidersville Transmission Line Project.

Single-shaft steel poles about 95-feet-tall replaced existing poles and lattice-style towers.

PPL officials, in addition to Burke attending the May 12 commissioners’ workshop, included Carol Obando-Derstine, PPL Electric Utilities regional affairs director and Scott Hippen, PPL Electric Utilities right-of-way agent.

Hippen distributed copies of the PPL Electric Utilities’ “Transmission Line Vegetation Management” brochure.

The brochure states: “In our area, the heavy snowstorm in October 2011 knocked leaf-laden trees into transmission lines and resulted in prolonged power outages for PPL Electric Utilities customers.” The snowstorm happened Halloween weekend October 2011 in the Lehigh Valley.

“In May 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, in a review of power outages after the October 2011 snowstorm, recommended that utilities do more to keep trees away from high-voltage lines,” according to PPL documentation.

“This means that we are removing more trees and trimming more trees than we did in the past.

“The area directly under the transmission line wires, plus an additional 10 feet on each side is called the wire zone,” the brochure states. Typically, the right-of-way is from 50- to 100-feet-wide.

“There will be a big difference when it is graded and seeded,” Hippen said of the PPL right-of-way. “If we have good weather, all that will go away.”

Brinton asked if PPL would restore its Laubach right-of-way.

“If we would do something for Laubach Park that is above and beyond what we would do,” Burke said.

“I thought that was our agreement,” Assistant Manager-Director of Finance and Acting Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich said.

In introducing the PPL officials and explaining why they were invited by township officials to the workshop, Bonaskiewich said, “We had a recent public meeting about Laubach Park and there were a lot of questions about work at Laubach Park.”

More than 50 residents packed the meeting room of the township municipal building for the April 18 Laubach Park Master Site Plan meeting. The Laubach Master Plan Committee was to meet May 16.

Explained Martucci, “We’re trying to incorporate it [the PPL work] into our Master Plan [for Laubach Park].”

Brinton asked about PPL’s right-of-way through the park and said, “It looked like somebody went in and clear-cut.”

“They did,” Martucci interjected.

“It looks horrible,” Brinton said.

Burke said “low-lying species” could be planted under the utility line through Laubach.

Brinton asked whether restoration planting would also be done “along with that thing along Emmaus Avenue that looks ‘War of the Worlds.’” Brinton was referring to several monopole towers erected on the north face of South Mountain on the south side of East Emmaus Avenue at Fairview Avenue.

Burke said replacement of the utility poles and lines and clearing of adjacent trees is necessary “so that you don’t see long-term outages like we did in [Superstorm] Sandy [in 2012].”

“Our [PPL] outages were 37 percent down last year,” Obando-Derstine said.

During the 20-minute discussion, Brinton asked why the power lines couldn’t be placed underground. Burke made the distinction between long-distance electricity transmission lines, such as those being upgraded in the vicinity of Laubach and neighborhood electricity distribution lines.

“The cost of underground transmission lines is much higher and less reliable,” Burke said.

Martucci referred to one resident at the Laubach Master Plan meeting who complained about the PPL work in the vicinity of Laubach.

“We do have someone on site,” Hippen said.

Martucci and Bonaskiewich said they would get the name of the man to the PPL officials.

Bonaskiewich said one of the resident’s concerns was those using Laubach Park might not know where the residential property line ended and where the park property line began because natural boundaries have been removed by PPL crews clearing the park area.

Hippen said a property owner’s deed clearly defines a PPL right-of-way if there is one.

Salisbury Township commissioners voted 5-0 at the Aug. 27, 2015, meeting to approve a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Highway Occupancy Permit on behalf of PPL for access to Laubach, required because the township owns the park and Fairview Avenue is a state road.

“In their [PPL] right-of-way, they can cut down whatever they want,” Salisbury Township Solicitor Atty. John W. Ashley said at the Aug. 27, 2015, meeting.

PPL officials addressed the Sept. 21, 2015, Laubach Park Master Plan Committee meeting and met during summer of 2015 with the Salisbury Township administration about the Elliott Heights Project.

Details about the PPL Electric Utilities transmission line rebuilding project, estimated to cost $35 million, were provided at an Oct. 28, 2015 public information meeting attended by about 45 area residents at the Upper Saucon Fire Company Social Quarters, Center Valley, Upper Saucon Township, where 12 PPL representatives explained several panel displays and maps depicting the project.

The first .6 miles of the Elliott Heights Project uses what was an inactive power line right-of-way through Laubach Park. The remaining 2.4 miles is being rebuilt in the existing right-of-way. There are 21 property owners impacted by the project.

The Elliott Heights Project is part of an upgrade to 9,300 customers, including St. Luke’s University Health Network - Bethlehem, in Fountain Hill.

Pending Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approval, the Hosensack-Seidersville Transmission Line Project, expected to start in June 2017 and to be completed in December 2018, will rebuild an existing 14.6-mile, double-circuit 69-kilovolt line from the PPL Seidersville substation in Lower Saucon Township through Salisbury, Upper Saucon and Lower Milford townships to the Hosensack substation.

PPL Electric Utilities is a subsidiary of PPL Corp. which provides electric delivery service to 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania.

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.