BY SUSAN BRYANT

sbryant@tnonline.com

During the Lowhill Township supervisors Feb. 13 meeting, Supervisor Mike Divers reported the people who have been running Night in the Country are stepping away from it, so they more or less don’t want to do it.

“Now they’re looking at every township going ‘you do it, you do it,’” Divers stated. “They are asking for volunteers to run it for a $6,000 to $7,000 profit.

“I understand there was a rainy day and everything but basically on top of that during the regular time you’re talking about $15,000 to maybe $20,000 but then with every township providing four to five days for the work, is it worth it?

“That’s one of the things I made the comment about.

“Everybody’s worried about the gathering of six different townships getting together and having this big picnic and so on and so forth, or drink fest or whatever it happens to be, but with that being the case, is it really worth it because of the fact that nowadays you don’t get volunteers.

“If anybody knows of any volunteers interested in stepping up and more or less taking the whole thing, the bull by the horns, I am more than happy to introduce you to some people up there at the recreation commission, but it does not look like it’s going to happen.

“It’s unfortunate.”

In other matters, the board discussed the user fee resolution.

Zoning consultant Mike Siegel commented on the issue.

“The fees were extremely low and we tried to time them with Weisenberg, matched them up with them as best we could,” Siegel said. “Some of the things that were significantly low was the ability to handle zoning decisions and conditional uses, since our new zoning is promoting commercial uses for any commercial establishments.

“They do cost the township a lot of money, so those fees were upped considerably.

“The one thing that I did put in there that matched a couple other municipalities in the Valley, that I felt needed to be done, was the curative of amendment, now that we’re in the multi-municipality comprehensive plan the challenges of curative amendment are a little bit higher than normal.

After further discussion, the board approved the resolution.

The board also discussed the Highlands Conservation Reauthorization Act.

Siegel explained the act.

“It just opens the door for federal grants for us if we want to or ever obtain park lands or open space where we want to connect to any county trails that would help,” he said. “We can try to get money to do that work and not take it from the township.

“There are no strings, it just opens the door farther if grants become available.”

He added the conservation district was trying to push this, as well, because they could tie in their own DCNR grants with the federal program and maybe even go a little bit further.

Supervisor Jack Iannantuono asked if this is considered significant.

Siegel responded.

“Absolutely, yes, in case we ever wanted to put in our own trail system, we could probably get grant money available for doing that to emphasize the connectivity,” he said. “The township has been asked to participate in something very unique that this township hasn’t seen in probably 30-40 years.

“They’re going to extend the trail system through the Game Preserve areas and the Zoo and the conservation district is going to put in almost a mile’s worth of walking trails and they’ are having a meeting with the township engineer because that trail is going to go through Lowhill Township.

“That money could be used to benefit that trail, as well down the road.

“This has the possibility of making our own trails connect to that trail, as well in the township in the future, if we decide to put in park land or open space areas that we acquire.”

After further discussion, the board approved the resolution.