Budget 2024 was approved during the Dec. 18 Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners’ meeting, with no real estate tax increase but small fire and sewer increases.

A sketch plan for a Bethlehem Area School District elementary school was presented to the board.

Project Engineer Terry DeGroot of Terraform Engineering said there is a partnership with PennDOT regarding land owned by BASD for over 40 years at Freemansburg Avenue and Farmersville Road, to be prepared for the construction of a new school if it’s needed,

The proposal currently has two driveways to the school, one on Freemansburg Avenue and one on Farmersville Road.

“We are in the process of doin g a mini traffic study to provide the information to PennDOT and to determine what kind of turning lanes would be required,” said De Groot.

“Our goal here is to plan this so that when the school is needed, those intersection improvements won’t be hampered for the access of the school.”

The board unanimously passed the revised final plan of a Wawa, located at 3608 Nazareth Pike. Among the changes, light-up signs must not be within 200 feet of residences.

The Active Transportation Plan was approved for advertising in its original form after Commissioner John Gallagher argued it was the only way the plan itself could move forward.

The plan went to different parties for opinions but had yet to hear back from some, including Lehigh Valley Planning Committee.

“It would be nice to be able to incorporate LVPC’s comments, and it would be nice to have the latest data, because this is the plan that’s going to stick around for a long time,” Gallagher said.