It was announced at the Emmaus Borough Council meeting Feb. 18 the three Emmaus historical sites will launch new websites.

The Knauss Homestead, Shelter House and 1803 House have all been a staple part of the borough for centuries and the board members hope the new and improved websites will provide more knowledge and insight to these historic properties.

“This will not only bolster tourism and visitation to the homes and appointments for Shelter House, but will also help donations, membership and just the unified voice of the history perspective of Emmaus,” Councilwoman Teri Sorg-McManamon said.

During the summer of 2019, Gene Clock, president of The Knauss Homestead, met the co-owner of Altitude Marketing, Gwen Shields, at an Emmaus Main Street Partners round table meeting. From that meeting the idea to have a joint effort by all three historical houses work with Altitude Marketing to develop new marketing strategies, starting with websites began.

“Our desire is that Emmaus becomes known as “Historical Emmaus” with our rich heritage,” Clock told The Press.

Clock said the land donation to Emmaus Moravian Church by Sebastian Knauss and Jacob Ehrenhardt established the community and they wish to build on that history with the ability to raise funds to support and restore these historical sites through the new websites.

Clock said they hope the results of these efforts bring more tourism to the borough “which broadens economical support to the business community.”

The 1803 House already has a website, but it will be reintroduced with the new changes from Altitude Marketing.

Richard Farmer, president of the 1803 House, told The Press he feels the effort and synergy between a local business and three nonprofit historic organizations is vitally important. It showcases the desire for local businesses and organizations trying to better the community as a whole.

“This is a wonderful story of how local business resources can aid the activity that help define the community,” Farmer said.

Altitude Marketing, located at the former Wentz Hardware store, 225 Main St., is helping create and market the websites.

Adam Smartschan, who is chief strategy officer for Altitude Marketing and a board member of the Shelter House, spoke with The Press about the collaborative efforts that have been occurring between the company and the three historical sites.

“There are exceptional people working on behalf of these historic sites and it’s our goal to arm them with the tools that work best for them,” he said.

In terms of functionality, Smartschan stated they want to focus on two main objectives. The first objective is to make it easier for the community to support the missions of these historic sites.

He said they are deploying “online giving” that will work on any device.

“You can become a monthly supporter in about three minutes. We want to make it incredibly simple for folks to support the mission of these organizations.”

The second objective is to make it easier to find these sites in the borough.

“It’s important for folks in the region to know what we have here - the history of colonial America, and the early republic,” Smartschan said.

The story of colonial America is told “exceptionally well” in all three of these properties, and they want as many people to be informed of these areas as possible.

Each of these historic sites will have their own ideal digital setup, with varying degrees of activity online. Altitude’s goal is to help create a functional website that is sustainable, stable and user-friendly.

The projected date for the website launches as of now is the end of March. There are talks of the websites possibly being showcased at a future borough council meeting.

In other business, Emmaus Borough Manager Shane Pepe said the borough is in the process of getting 5G. Pepe stated the current zoning ordinance is “outdated” because of a new law and has been given to Borough Solicitor Jeffrey Dimmich to review the evolving complex issue.

Dimmich said there is “an ordinance, an agreement and a statute that deal with this, and we’re trying to blend it.”

“We’re just not prepared to speak intelligently on it yet,” Pepe said. He said there’s “another pre-emption law getting ready to go through the Senate and House, so if we pass an ordinance and another pre-emption law comes in, then you just waste time and money.”

Pepe said they recently had a presentation by Verizon Wireless to discuss the future of the 5G technology. Pepe noted the borough asked if representatives could come to a public meeting in the future to present the information to residents.