Salisbury Township officials will step up the monitoring of basketball playing in township parks, especially Green Acres Park and Lindberg Park.

Some township residents have complained about litter and loud music at the parks. The complaints were put forth during the July 9 board of commissioners meeting via the Zoom format.

In response to the Pennsylvania green phase of the COVID-19 shutdown, the township has reopened its parks.

“We have slowly reopened the parks,” Salisbury Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich said during the July 9 meeting workshop discussion about township park use.

“We reopened the courts probably about a month ago, tennis, pickleball and basketball. The bathrooms are closed. We’ve accepted pavilion reservations. We haven’t gotten too many,” Bonaskiewich said.

“We are attracting a good crowd. I think people need an outlet. I know it creates litter for the park, but public works is out there just about every day.

“We have been approached by both youth organizations [Salisbury Youth Association and Hamilton Park] in the township. Their leagues want to start fall ball, both soccer and football.

“We want to open the reservations system. At the end of July, we will need to get a reservation form going. We have that in place. We have added some language [with respect to green phase protocol].

“Both leagues are adding from their end to make sure that they are doing what needs to be done to keep their players and audience safe.

“We’re just trying to move forward, knowing that we may close down,” Bonaskiewich said.

Bonaskiewich said she polled officials of municipalities neighboring Salisbury regarding park use: “Ninety percent are opening. Most are not opening up restrooms or it’s ‘use at your own risk.’

“I think we’re getting overflow from the city [of Allentown],” Bonaskiewich conjectured concerning Salisbury parks’ use.

“Would it help if we had more trash receptacles?” Commissioner Alok Patnaik asked.

“If you’d like to add a can or two to Green Acres, I could look to add a spot that would be appropriate. Next week, I will go out and try to spot a location or two,” Salisbury Township Director of Public Works John Andreas said.

“We do the cleanup the morning after [in the parks],” Andreas said. “I don’t know that it’s any worse than in the past.”

“We’ve haven’t even had our dedication yet [of Lindberg Park],” Board of Commissioners’ President Debra Brinton said.

Salisbury Township Recreation Director Genny Baillie said basketball players were cooperative recently when she pointed out illegally-parked cars, which were then moved.

Township resident Bill Sames said no one from the community is playing basketball in the parks.

Salisbury Youth Association President Daniel Soria offered to place signs in the parks, to the effect that, “Courts stay open if courts stay clean.”

Brinton and Bonas- kiewich backed the idea.

“It is a public park. It’s been paid for by taxes across the state. It’s not for Salisbury residents only,” Baillie said.

“There’s never been a problem that I’ve seen at the courts [at Lindberg],” Hamilton Park President Jerry Collins said.

Referring to Allentown, Collins said, “The courts at Ott Street have no rims. They took all the stuff down at Cedar Beach.

“I think if there’s a presence there at the right time, somebody in authority, that’s reinforcing,” Collins suggested.

“Our officers have a very good back and forth with the people at the courts. We will do an enforcement effort in the next couple of days,” Salisbury Township Chief of Police Kevin Soberick said.

“There are times when the courts are overcrowded. I’ve seen incidents where neighbors have come over and complained about garbage. They just don’t care because it’s not their community,” Sames said. “Do you need to pull a permit to use the pavilion?”

“If it’s not reserved, people can use them,” Bonaskiewich replied.

“I see more issues with the pavilion. They were blasting the music,” Sames said.

“We have gotten noise complaints. I explained that amplification of music is not permitted,” Baillie said.

Brinton asked if green phase guidelines are being followed in township parks.

“There are some areas that we can rope off. One of the things is the bleachers up at Franko. We’re not going to let the parents sit there,” Soria said.

“Parents are to plot off and group up in their ‘family pods’ and are to wear masks,” Soria said.

“We’re going to keep moving forward cautiously and hopefully don’t have to step backward,” Bonaskiewich said of township parks’ use.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. July 23 via the Zoom online meeting format.