The Lower Macungie Township Board of Commissioners announced the approval of the volunteer service earned income tax credit at its Feb. 7 meeting.

Fire Chief David Nosal forwarded the names of all those individuals eligible for this credit as specified in Ordinance Section 24-109. Twenty seven applicants were submitted to the board of commissioners and approved for the tax credit certification.

In other business, the 2018 International Property Maintenance Code was adopted which replaces the 2012 Property Code.

The sewer planning module was approved for the White Orchid project which will be located on Hamilton Boulevard.

Denise Foulke, recreation director, expressed her gratitude for the donation of 479 pajamas and 484 new books. Lehigh County Children and Youth Services sent a letter of thanks to the township. This is the eighth year of this program and a total of 2,541 pajamas have been donated as well as 1,772 new books. Foulke said this was her favorite year.

An executive session was held over potential litigation.

Lehigh County Executive Phillip Armstrong attended the meeting and said he wants to get to know the area municipalities.

Armstrong said residents are attracted to the open space and encouraged this concept needs to continue.

Resident Scott Forbes expressed his concern about the news over the state police considering charging areas for police response. Forbes suggested the township begin looking at the idea of a local police force.

The bill list was approved. The detailed bill list is available on the Lower Macungie Township website lowermac.com.

Requests for speed humps has become a major topic within the township with the success of the Mill Creek Road project. The township will look into establishing guidelines for determining the necessity.

Church Lane was a road suggested by residents for speed humps. Church Lane is considered a collector road and was not determined to be in need of speed humps as the average speed is not over the recommended speed for a collector road.

Another road considered was Clubhouse Lane. Through a traffic study, 85 percents of drivers were considered to be under the speed limit which rules out speed humps for this area.

A request was made to post truck restrictions on Kressler Road due to a difficult turn onto East Texas Road. This will be further considered as to size and weight.

The Wild Cherry Lane bridge upgrade is up for bid. Upon completion of this project, the Mill Race bridge, Macungie Road bridge and the Wild Cherry Lane Bridge should be constructively sound for quite a while.

President Ronald Beitler spoke about issues surrounding commercial right-to-know requests. These requests have become a heavy burden for local offices as they are numerous and are for commercial purposes. Legislation has been introduced in the state to charge additional fees for search, review and duplication fees when responding to requests for public records for commercial purposes. This legislation was introduced “to help balance the importance of the general public’s right to know with the value of preserving the ability of our local governments to balance their many responsibilities and serve their taxpayers,” as per state Rep. Justin Simmons, R-131st.

There was discussion on the background of the truck stop gambling issue.

“We simply want the state to allow us the ability to opt out in the same way as we already can (and did) with class 4 casinos. Senator Martin’s gives us that ability. We are hoping Sen. Pat Browne will co-sponsor,” Beitler said.