The March 16 South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners meeting began with Vinny Quinn, president of Greenawalds Fire Company, who said he came up with the idea to give back to the community and give two $1,000 scholarship awards through Parkland High School to students in the emergency service fields, or if they want to work in the fire, medic or police fields.

There is an application on the high school website and they are going to try to pick two students, one male and one female if possible, he said.

Board President Diane Kelly said, “Thank you very much, Vinnie. That’s fantastic to hear. And I think it’s wonderful that you’re going to do that. It’ll encourage hopefully more of our young people to be interested in emergency services.”

The first item on the list of resolutions was “Extending the Conditional Final Approval Granted to a Major Subdivision Entitled ‘Hamilton Hotel.’”

“In December, we pretty much had final approval from PennDOT [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] authorizing the execution of a trail easement agreement with Parkland School District providing the granting of a perpetual trail easement over lands of Parkland School District,” the representative said.

The township was seeking an easement agreement with Parkland School District for the development of the Jordan Creek Greenway trail for their properties.

The easement will allow for a 10-foot-wide paved trail in exchange for the easement from the school district.

Commissioner Monica Hodges asked a few questions about the map on the screen and how the trail connected to River Road.

Parks and Recreation Manager Mike Kukitz responded, “If I understood your question correctly, the answer would be that this trail easement will not touch River Road.”

Kelly asked how close the proposed trail would be to Cedar Crest Boulevard, a heavily traveled road.

Kukitz responded he believes the easement will be 50-feet wide and will have ample room to stay away from Cedar Crest Boulevard.

A motion was made, and this resolution was approved.

The next resolution was for a 2022 Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant application for the covered bridge park improvements project.

This is for a continuation of the project’s Phase C, which is a new pavilion amphitheater on the east side of the park to provide shade and other amenities to residents.

The grant will require a match and allow for fundraising to complete Phase C of the covered bridge park master plan.

Kelly said she looked at the master plan recently and realized that it still had the demolition of Wehr’s Dam.

She mentioned there would be another meeting about upgrading the park the next day and said it would be important to serve residents needs before doing further upgrades on Covered Bridge Park.

She suggested they regroup and get a path forward and not work on a piecemeal plan and devel op a 5- to 10-year plan.

Hodges supported revisiting the master plan.

She talked about flooding and not putting a Band-Aid on a piece of the park. She suggested looking at the entire plan.

Commissioner David Kennedy asked Kukitz, “If we’re awarded the grant, can we then decline it?”

Kukitz explained it would be bad practice and advised the township to avoid taking that route.

Commissioner Mike Wolk asked about the budget for this phase, “…your proposal tonight is for a possible $50,000 expenditure?”

He agreed this was a moderate expenditure but said there should be a long-term plan along with the importance of considering flood risk.

A motion was made, and the resolution was carried 3-2.

Hodges suggested generating a survey about this improvement.

There were three motions regarding Covered Bridge Park.

The first was to award a bid for the park restroom staining project. This motion was approved.

Next was a motion to award Jordan Creek Greenway design and engineering services supplement two, Phase 1: Wehr Mill Road to Cedar Crest Boulevard and Phase 2: Lapp Road to Cedar Crest Boulevard.

Kukitz explained the staff is seeking permission to complete the design work for the Jordan Creek Trail.

Now that easements are secured, the township can award Phase 2; Phase 1 was approved in July 2020.

“The whole shared road really bothers me from a public safety standpoint,” Hodges said.

Kelly and Wolk also had safety concerns.

Kukitz explained the township will need a second bridge in the section closer to Cedar Crest Boulevard to cross the Jordan Creek along the trail.

“… we have a tacit grant aid right now to potentially pay for the entirety of the construction of the trail through the park with no tax dollars being used …” he said.

Commissioner David Kennedy suggested tabling the motion.

There was a discussion with assistant solicitor Jennifer Alderfer to make a motion to separate Phase 1 and Phase 2 into separate motions.

Phase 2 was approved and Phase 1 was tabled.

Phase 1 will be added to old business at the next meeting.

There was a motion to award a bid for a flood mitigation study in Covered Bridge Park. This motion did not carry.

There was a motion authorizing the execution of an intermunicipal aid police cooperation agreement between South Whitehall and Whitehall Township.

Lt. Steve Brown from South Whitehall Township Police was in attendance.

This resolution is authorizing the execution and delivery of mutual aid police cooperation with Whitehall Township. The motion carried.