Two school districts and three municipalities received their annual payment from the city of Bethlehem for property its water authority owns in Carbon County.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved the distribution of the 2016 payment in lieu of taxes to Jim Thorpe and Palmerton area school districts, as well as Penn Forest, Towamensing and Lower Towamensing townships.Jim Thorpe School District will receive $8,528.30; Palmerton School District, $5,046.86; Penn Forest Township, $355.34; Towamensing Township, $304.29; and Lower Towamensing Township, $4.70. Carbon County will also receive $6,118.10. This is an annual fee paid by Bethlehem for the property owned in the county.In other matters, two residents approached the board to discuss some concerns happening within the county.David Zucal of Summit Hill, who spoke with the commissioners last week, wanted to follow up with his problem.His property's assessment is currently one of 39 properties in the Panther Valley School District that is being appealed.Last week, Zucal said that if the fair market value of his property is used for the new assessment, his taxes for his home along White Bear Drive will jump from $9,000 a year to $16,200 a year.He asked the commissioners if the board could enforce the statute for the reassessed properties that would bring their millage down so that the increase wasn't so sharp."We feel it is discrimination that this action is not being done," he said.Zucal also said that Panther Valley school officials never took a vote to approve the appeals and he feels that is also discriminatory because "no action was taken by the board to increase the values of these homes."He said that he requested the minutes from the Panther Valley School Board meetings but was denied them for 30 days, pushing that deadline until after his property's assessment hearing on Oct. 26.He asked the commissioners if they could also push back the appeals because of this.County solicitor Daniel Miscavige told Zucal the commissioners do not have the jurisdiction over the board of assessment appeals or the school district, so they could neither enforce any statute nor delay the appeal."The only forum you can raise this in is the board of assessment appeals and if you are dissatisfied with that, the statute provides any of the parties with the right to raise those issues in the Court of Common Pleas," Miscavige said.He said that Zucal would have to request a continuance for his assessment appeal with the board of assessments.Linda Christman of Save Carbon County also spoke about the proposed PennEast project just to give the county an update.She said that the group's best estimate is that the project is now delayed about a year.