Cathy Bonaskiewich has accomplished a lot in her 10 years as Salisbury Township Manager during a 40-year career there.

When she retires May 2, her accomplishments will continue.

Cathy Gorman, Lower Saucon Township acting manager-finance director, has accepted the offer to succeed Bonaskiewich as Salisbury Township manager.

A vote on the new manager is expected to be on the agenda of the April 10 Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners’ meeting.

Gorman’s first day is to be April 28. “We’ll be here together a week,” Bonaskiewich says.

Bonaskiewich began her Salisbury government career as a clerk in April 1986.

She concludes her career, overseeing a $22 million annual township budget.

“So I have begun my 40th year here,” Bonaskiewich said in an interview with The Press.

Bonaskiewich has been Salisbury Township manager officially for eight years and acting township manager for two years. She was previously finance director-assistant manager.

“I had the great fortune to advance here. There was always something new,” Bonaskiewich said of her township career.

As township manager, Bonaskiewich, working with the elected township board of commissioners and appointed township department heads, employees and consultants, has shepherded township park system upgrades, including a renewed Lindberg Park, improvements to Frank McCullough Park, Devonshire Park and Franko Farm Park and plans for Laubach Park; the new Western Salisbury Fire Company Swain Station; renovations at the township municipal building and police department facility, the under-construction police training facility and the purchase of the McAuliffe property.

Bonaskiewich has overseen changes in Salisbury Township less visible to the public eye, such as establishing a community development department, setting up an environmental advisory council, bringing on board an IT expert to streamline government services and functions and having the public works department undertake more township projects in-house.

Bonaskiewich is a Salisbury High School, Class of 1982, graduate. She was on the softball team; treasurer, Future Business Leaders of America and a member of National Honor Society.

She received an associate degree in accounting from Allentown Business School. Her first job was bookkeeper for Bastian Commercial Floors. “Straight from the business school to Bastian,” she recalled. She worked for Bastian for two years.

At Salisbury Township, she began as account clerk 1, doing residential taxes in the finance office.

“At that time, our tax collector was Harry Faust. He had retired. Linda Minger was elected tax collector. Her term started in January of that year.” Bonaskiewich was Minger’s assistant, handling real-estate taxes.

After two years as entry clerk, she was promoted to account clerk 2, handling payroll and accounts payable.

“I sort of grew into a supervisory capacity in finance,” Bonaskiewich said. That was in 1994. The township finance director was Janice Walz. “She saw what I was doing and said I should be elevated to a supervisory position,” Bonaskiewich recalled, who became accounting supervisor, a title she held for five years. Walz retired. Bonaskiewich was appointed finance director in 1999.

“During that time, I got a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Moravian [College, now University]. I graduated in 1994.”

Randy Soriano was hired as township manager in 2008. “They named me finance director-assistant manager. So, I kind of kept moving. I got to see all sides of everything,” Bonaskiewich said.

One of the major changes during her tenure pertains to township maintenance and improvements.

“We take on a lot more work internally. We have a lot of talented people,” she says of the 60 full-time township employees.

“We do a lot of utility work, water and sewer work. We do as much as we can in-house, even road work. There is some work that we must contract out. Doing it in-house saves us a considerable amount.”

Bonaskiewich, when asked to enumerate her accomplishments as township manager, said, “Most of it’s personnel-driven. I’ve restructured things so that it makes more sense for Salisbury.

“The big one is community development. We restructured our planning and zoning department. It is now community development.

“Community development is more all-encompassing. There is the planning and zoning. But there is also code enforcement, rental inspections. And we’re looking to add resale inspections.”

Sandy Nicolo is assistant township manager, director, community development.

“Bringing on an IT specialist was a key move. We were behind where we should have been. We used a third-party vendor before that.”

Rob Moyer has been Salisbury Township’s IT specialist for three years.

“He [Moyer] pulled together everybody’s needs. It was piecemeal before that. He got our system more functional and secure.” This included changing the township Uniform Resource Locator to https://salisburylehighpa.gov/.

“We’ve definitely bolstered the staff of public works with people who have experience, like with pipe work, road paving and maintenance-type repair work. Simple repairs, we now do ourselves because we don’t have to call somebody,” Bonaskiewich said.

Jim Levernier is Salisbury Township’s director of public works.

The McAuliffe property, site of McAuliffe Asphalt Paving, Inc., 2937 S. Pike Ave., approximately across the highway from the township municipal complex, was purchased two years ago. An adjacent property was donated to the township. “We are cleaning up the property and hope to move some public works’ functions, specifically the utility department [water and sewer] there,” Bonaskiewich said.

“We’re going to be building a salt shed there and not have one plunked down in the middle of our parking lot. It’s all about opening up space that we definitely need,” Bonaskiewich said.

Renovation of the police department headquarters is complete. “The magistrate moved out. It had been one building. That was our municipal building. They now have a training-meeting room. The emergency operations center is there with all the equipment they need to operate. The chief’s office got moved to that area,” Bonaskiewich said.

“The chief of police makes sure we have a good crew up there and we do,” Bonaskiewich said.

Don Sabo is Salisbury Township police chief.

The police training facility is expected to be operational at the beginning of 2026. “All the work to date was done in-house by public works,” Bonaskiewich said.

“The majority of the pole building at Franko is for police, to store some of their equipment and secure evidence storage,” Bonaskiewich said of the garage structure on the park’s eastern side.

Concerning township parks and recreation improvements, Bonaskiewich says of Lindberg Park: “It started before, but I got to finish it out. And I can’t wait to see the same happen at Laubach Park.”

At Frank McCullough Park, formerly Green Acres Park, “We repurposed the basketball courts and made pickleball courts. We’re talking about rehabbing that pavilion and restrooms.”

At Devonshire Park, “We redid the tennis courts. And they rehabbed the pavilion and restroom.”

At the township municipal building, “We swapped out community development and finance. That dovetailed with creating a community development department. They needed a more functional space.

“In moving finance, we gave the tax collector, treasurer Tamara Kulik Smarch her own office, with her own service counter and window.

“We updated the front-office area. It made sense. It was just to make the work flow go better.”

The municipal building HVAC was replaced and the roof was repaired. The building opened in 1995.

“The Swain Station was a project that the township was a part of and assisted with,” Bonaskiewich noted.

“I think across the board, our police department, public works, code enforcement, we’ve taken a more proactive approach, in communicating with people and being more positive in our approach,” Bonaskiewich said.

Bonaskiewich, 60, has been married to David Bonaskiewich for 39 years. “I started at the township and I got married four years later, in August in of ‘86.”

“We were neighbors, but we did not meet until we were adults. We dated for three years before we got married. It was a happenstance meeting. He was out walking. And I was out biking. And we just started talking.”

They were married in Trinity Memorial Church, Emmaus Avenue. David Bonaskiewich, also a Salisbury High School graduate, retired four years ago as a crew leader in the Salisbury Township Public Works Department. The couple resides in Salisbury.

She is a daughter of Bob and Betty Bauer. He is a son of John and Emma Bonaskiewich. “We are each the youngest child of six.”

The couple enjoys attending concerts. “We love live music. There’s nothing better, I don’t think,” she said.

Among her favorite concerts:

“I enjoyed seeing Joe Cocker at Musikfest. We also got to see the 25th anniversary show of Cheap Trick in Rockford, Ill., which is where they are from. We saw Brandi Carlile in Woodstock.

“What we plan on doing is be able to do road trips where we incorporate concerts and baseball. We like to visit baseball stadiums.

“As excited as I am about retiring, I know I am going to miss being involved here at the municipal level. I’m proud of being a part of it and I know I am going to miss it,” Bonaskiewich said.