Emmaus Borough Council unanimously approved selling the 18.4 acre property at 4052 S. Second St. to Lehigh County at the April 17 meeting.

The vacant tract of land, which was sold at the appraised value of $70,000, is located along South Mountain in Upper Milford and Salisbury townships.

Borough Manager Shane Pepe said the proposal for the land was prepared and sent to the borough by Lehigh County. By law, the property has to be put out for bid twice, which the borough did and was unsuccessful with. In turn they were allowed to sell the piece of property directly, which is when Lehigh County stepped in.

“My understanding is they’re partnering with the Wildlands Conservancy, and they’re already applying for a DCNR [Department of Conservation and Natural Resources] grant to try and get reimbursed for,” Pepe said. “The route that they’re looking at is obviously for more recreational use which makes sense with the property, because it connects to another county property and then it connects to the Shelter House property.”

In other business, council reported the Earth Day community cleanup and recycling event held April 8 was such a huge success they had to turn away 100 cars.

“I spent probably four hours down there loading electronics out of cars and into dumpsters, and we filled four truckloads of televisions and air conditioners and you name it,” Councilman Jeff Shubzda said. “Also, the shredding event was extremely successful.”

Shubzda said they estimated about 45 percent of the people dropping off items were Emmaus residents. The most common item dropped off were old televisions followed by computer towers and air conditioners. Only a few items weren’t taken because they were broken and the recycling facilities won’t take broken items.

Pepe gave a lot of credit to the waste hauler and their staff who brought an additional truck to fill. All of the dumpsters present were filled to capacity.

“It tells me two things,” Council President Brent Labenberg said. “One, there’s a really high demand for this stuff, and two, people really do want to do the right thing.”

Ordinance 1155 passed its first reading which deals with changing the purpose and function of the community relations, planning and development committee. According to Pepe, the goal of the committee is going to focus more on “doing the actual community development part, [they’re] not necessarily interested in any of the enforcement stuff or the interview stuff.”

Tasks added to the committee’s common goals include overseeing the grant application and grant management and development of projects, overseeing Flag and Memorial Days, overseeing events for the borough not held inside the parks themselves, overseeing the shade tree commission, overseeing the community-wide function of the arts commission and being the liaison for some of the department heads for municipal development projects.

Council approved the purchase of a new telephone upgrade package from ET&T. The purchase of phase 1, which cost $9,992.40, will include upgrading the current hardware, as well as allow employees to work between two phone systems once they move to the new council chambers.

Council approved resolution 2017-15 which will allow for additional disposal of old municipal records. The records date anywhere from 1966 to 2013 and include ambulance, payroll, bids, police, and miscellaneous documents.

Olivia Trotman was appointed to the Emmaus Arts Commission with a term expiring Feb. 7, 2019.

Mayor Winfield Iobst declared April 28 as Arbor Day in Emmaus.