Franklin Township Supervisors opened up the July monthly meeting on Tuesday by honoring a Franklin Township police officer for his heroic action when he tried to save the lives of a child and his grandmother in the Lehigh River.

Chairman Rod Green said, "In recognition of heroic action, with total disregard for his own safety, for the attempted rescue of two drowning victims in the Lehigh River on June 22, 2012, we the Franklin Township supervisors, do hereby commend Officer Frank Lorah for his meritorious service above and beyond the call of duty as a Franklin Township police officer."Green also commended Franklin Township Fire Company and Justin Smith for their role in the attempted rescue and then recognized Franklin Township's 14-year-old All Star Team for achieving District IV Champions.Lorah said that the attempted rescue was a team effort with officers from Lehighton and Lehighton and Franklin Township fire companies, as he accepted the plaque.Supervisors also commended on a letter received from PennDOT that advised supervisors that PennDOT would be inspecting local bridges in the future instead of having the township's engineers perform the inspection.Franklin Township has one bridge that falls under this program."We're disputing that PennDOT perform the inspection," said Green. "We just feel that PennDOT is taking more and more control away from townships and we wonder what's next? What will they make us do next?"In the letter from PennDOT, PennDOT noted that most of the municipal bridge owners have decided to utilize PennDOT's bridge inspection consultants and for those communities who prefer to to their own engineers, that most communities have not submitted all of the necessary information to satisfy the consultant selection and reimbursement procedures for federal aid contracts.The letter notes that PennDOT has concluded it would be more efficient for all local bridge inspections to be assigned to PennDOT inspection consultants because it eliminates the tasks of creating separate engineering and reimbursement agreements and assures that consultants are qualified full service engineering firms with extensive bridge inspection and design experience.In another matter, the board authorized its solicitor, Attorney William Schwab, to file an injunction to close the Pure Beauty Lounge due to a violation of the Clean Streams Law, which requires beauty salons to be served by municipal sewage service. Presently the beauty salon is served by private on-lot sewage.Supervisors also noted that results are in on a survey by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Carbon County Dump sites. The survey noted that in Carbon County there are 49 dumpsites containing an estimated 126.5 tons of trash. In Pennsylvania, there are 6,244 illegal dumpsites containing an estimated 18,022 tons of trash.Since 1990, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has helped local communities, watershed groups and concerned citizens across the Commonwealth to clean up over 87 million pounds of trash from their communities.Supervisors also listened to concerns from Charles and Nancy Llewellyn of 1095 Jefferson Street, who said their neighbor's construction has caused them to have flooding on their property every time it rains.The Llewellyns said that their neighbor's construction of a building and three driveways has caused water run off to erode the soil and they fear large trees will come down.Green noted that the Llewellyns should not have dug a trench near the road because it could undermine the road in the future.The Llewellyns said they had no choice but to dig the trench to divert the water.The Llewellyns asked the supervisors to visit the area when it rains to see that water from the neighbor's property is causing damage to their property.Green advised the couple to seek advice from Carbon County Conservation District.Judy Borger, director of the Carbon County Office of Planning and Development, agreed to release a portion of the 2012 funding before receiving a grant to pave Cedar and Market streets. The project will cost $65,444.75. The low bidder was Pennsy Supply, Inc.Also, supervisors approved an application for a Junkyard license for Ahner's Used Auto Parts.