Carbon County should have no issues this summer when it comes to lifeguards at Mauch Chunk Lake.

The commissioners spoke about the summer position during their weekly meeting on Thursday after they voted to approve the hiring of Gianna L. Bucci of Jim Thorpe and Katie Mongi of Summit Hill as lifeguards.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said the lake is fully staffed with 12 lifeguards. They are now in the process of fulfilling other requirements for the position."It's a big difference from last year when we only had six," Nothstein said.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said the hourly rate increase the county passed last month may have helped. In February, the commissioners voted to increase the lifeguard salary from $9 per hour to $10 per hour. This will help cover the costs of certification that the lifeguards are required to have by the state.Commissioner William O'Gurek said the county initially looked into partnering with municipal pools in the county to host a certification training, but have stopped looking into the matter because many of the lifeguards are college students, so finding a day that worked for everyone was problematic.The problem with the lack of qualified lifeguards came to a head last summer when the commissioners talked about not being able to find enough certified lifeguards to fill all the available positions at Mauch Chunk Lake.In other business, Nothstein said the county looked into the request by Andrew Stettler of Parryville regarding the current assessment of one of his properties.Stettler approached the board two weeks ago to see if they could help resolve the problem that was caused by what he said was a decimal point being moved in the assessment of a 40-foot by 150-foot parcel he owns. The property is the site of a one-car garage and has no power or sewer, is not paved and is at a slope that does not permit for any residence to be built on the land.He said the issue happened in 2005, when the assessment on the property jumped to $26,840, over $20,000 above the assessment in 2004. His tax bill also went from $77 to Lehighton School District to $458.Nothstein said the solicitor and tax assessment office looked into the matter and it was not an error. The school district had appealed the property value assessment and it had been increased.O'Gurek said the county notified Stettler of the information about the request and noted that no tax credit would be given, as had been requested.