“This is my 27th year in corrections,” Warden Janine Donate said, when asked by Commissioner Nathan Brown to address the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners Aug 22. She is currently the warden of the Lehigh County Jail.

Donate was introduced by Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong as someone of whom he is proud; someone who has been “coming up from our own ranks.”

In other meeting news, the proposed $5 vehicle tax to fix infrastructure such as bridges proposed by Armstrong at the last meeting came under attack by Joe Hilliard, who called it a “Total money grab on the middle class and working poor.” He said it is just not needed. “All of our bridges are fixed,” Hilliard said.

He called the proposed state contribution of $2 million to those counties who enact the vehicle tax a “bribe.”

“Hold them [the state] to what they should do,” Hilliard said.

According to Lehigh County Recreation Authority Executive Director Michael Kukitz, a feasibility study on the sustainability of a 16,000-square foot Northern Lehigh Community Center building at West Church Street in Slatington will be completed by the end of the year. Kukitz said he would share the results of that feasibility study with county commissioners.

Kukitz said a public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20 at Northern Lehigh School District in its administration building.

The commissioners approved release of $3,250 for the feasibility study. It is a portion of the total money set aside in the county’s budget for the Northern Lehigh Community Center.

Commissioners also approved distribution of gaming program grants: the Borough of Coopersburg will receive $32,993 for a police cruiser; Upper Saucon Township will receive the same amount for a police cruiser; Whitehall Township is allocated $62,250 for a police cruiser and a license plate reader; the Borough of Fountain Hill will receive $113,800 for a rescue system, a patrol vehicle and training and outfitting of three part-time officers and Salisbury Township will receive $113,800 for two patrol vehicles, funding for 300 hours of additional police patrols in the traffic corridor safety project and other hardware including camera systems.

County commissioners also gave preliminary or first reading approval to give a young bison bull from its herd at the Trexler Nature Preserve to Catoctin Zoo and Wildlife Preserve in Thurmont, Md. Because the young bull is “coming of age,” he will be a challenge to the existing dominant male on the preserve and must be transferred.