Residents of Kidder Township living on and around Lake Harmony made themselves heard in July and the township supervisors responded by voting to hire ARRO, the township's engineers, to conduct an extensive study of the storm water runoff in the township. ARRO will be paid $19,500 for the study.

Lake Harmony is a private, glacial lake in Kidder Township. The lake is not open to all residents of the township.According to a study performed in 1998 by Carbon Engineering Inc. Lake Harmony had entered into a eutrophic state, with excessive levels of nutrients and high amounts of sediment and suspended solids entering the lake.The report said. "This state is undesirable because of the recreational activities that occur at the lake. In addition, real estate values tend to decrease dramatically around lakes that have high plant and algae growth."The report also addressed the impact of storm water on the quality of well water, since all of the township's residents rely on well water."Two phases"This will be a two-part study," explained Tom Yashinsky of ARRO. "Part one is to gather all of the information, listen to what everyone has to say and to conduct a township wide study. Part two will consist of putting dollars to the study and completing the design work to correct the problems."Yashinsky said that part of the study will include meeting with the various groups and residents who have ongoing issues with runoff. The study will take a few months to complete.The township also plans to create a committee to advise supervisors on storm water issues in the future."We want to stop the silt from running off our property into the lake," commented Russ Ferretti of Lake Harmony Estates property owner's association.The township does have a storm water management ordinance that contains information on controlling storm water crossing private property."I had an engineer redesign my property to handle the water runoff. I have four rain gardens and I converted my septic tank into a holding tank," Richard Kennedy said. "When the water leaves my property there is no sediment."Joe Morgan said, "I am new to the lake, I just built my home and I have to say that the township does enforce the storm water runoff and containment. I have the bills to prove it.""Over the years my taxes go up and the property values are going down, I want to know if you guys were negligent," Peggy Ragno questioned.The supervisors asked township solicitor, Daniel Miscavige to address the residents on behalf of the supervisors.The cost"By necessity the study must take into consideration the entire township. As supervisors we are held to what is permitted by federal, state and county storm water management. Also a township's roll is limited to what the state statute permits them to do. While they are permitted to enact a storm water ordinance, which they have, they are limited to only authorize a storm water system on property owned by the township," Miscavige said. "In the past the township had to acquire a legal interest or an easement on or across private property."Many of the residents were concerned that maybe the study was too little, too late and that the conversation was not addressing the sediment and the need to dredge the lake."If you look at the 1998 study and you bump the numbers, you are looking at $750,000 and we have not addressed the dredging of the lake," said resident Robert Ryan."We are not ruling anything out at this time, but that is not within the scope of the study," Miscavige responded."We need to be thorough, we need to look at everything and every possibility," Yashinsky said. "I expect that our recommendations will be wide and varied and there will be many."Supervisors said they would not entertain a tax increase to address the issues of the lake, with $500,000 from the sale of the sewer system earmarked for the lake. A large portion of the funds were used to pay off the loans taken by the township to purchase the sewer system. The additional $2 million will be used for other township projects.In other business, supervisors approved a final plan for new dormitories at Camp Moseywood.The board approved a request from the Penn Kidder Library Center to waive the fee for a new sign permit.Resolutions were passed for the Lake Harmony Fire Company to apply for LSA funds for the 2015 firemen's convention and for Albrightsville Fire Company's $90,100 request for 10 new air packs.