Summer is quickly cooling off, but the Northern Lehigh Recreation Authority has created a full menu of activities for the fall/winter seasons for all ages.

After a successful summer camp program, Michael Kukitz, executive director of the authority, said he is still looking for ways to improve recreation around the area."We had 80 kids for this first year," he said."We made it very structured and had a lot of community partners like the police and the Lehigh Nature Gap. We made the program both recreational and educational," he said."We have an ongoing online survey to assess the community's needs. We've been talking with people and tried to meet with every nonprofit and community member as possible. Everyone said the summer programs were lacking," he said."This summer we provided over 109 swimming lessons and ran a community night hike," he said.Kukitz said he had concerns over participation of residents in the new programs but his fears were quickly quelled."For the night hike I was worried at first about attendance, but after 10 minutes of waiting we ended up with 50 people and walked a good 2 miles out at the nature center," he said.The authority will host two more twilight hikes in the next months at the Slate Heritage Trails sites.While Kukitz continues working on expansion plans for next year's program, he has turned his attention to focus on the upcoming cooler months."We already have a strong football program so they don't need me for that. I'm just trying to fill in what's missing," he said.Kukitz recently celebrated a one-year anniversary as the executive director and the accomplishment of getting the authority deemed a nonprofit organization in July.According to the Lehigh Valley native, "It's a lot of hours on the job, there's a lot of great groups in the area. I just want to make sure I help them as much as I can."The authority officially began in December of 2015 after Walnutport and Slatington boroughs and Washington Township, partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to create the program.Funding"It's funded by the DCNR and all three municipalities. They decided they needed better things for their residence."DCNR gave the authority a five-year decline grant. The first year was a large lump sum that will decrease by percentages over the next few years to give the nonprofit a chance to build its own funding foundation as it continues providing the community with programs.Kuklitz is working with several organizations in the area including the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Corridor in an effort to have Slatington deemed and official "trail town.""We received a $2,000 grant form the Chamber of Commerce and $4,000 grant from the DCNR for the program to improve signage and possibly to create a welcome center and work on the beautification on either side of the trail, for Walnutport and Slatington.The third prong of the recreation creation plan is the partnership with the DCNR to tackle the long-abandoned community center in Slatington."The community center is a big project," he said.A required feasibility study includes the area's demographics such as population and age along with assessing the need and likelihood of the center being used by residents."We don't want to build a center if we can't support it in the next few years," he said."We want to launch a strong capital campaign and get this thing built for the community," he said. "We'll get the study and decide what to build from there. We're just doing a lot of background work," he said.ChallengesOne of the biggest challenges of getting the community center and authority up and running was the administrative paper trails that needed to be gathered and organized."We needed to work out the fine-print details," he said."It was just a lot of background work. We had to get all the information from the great volunteers and community groups," he said.The programs offered to the community are hosted in several locations, from churches, fire companies, the 12 local parks, the canal and several trail heads."The Diamond Fire Company hosts a lot of senior programs as well as St. John's," he said."In October we will have a 'fit boot camp' where different parks will be used by the instructor who will make use of the landscapes for the program on Saturday mornings.""It's about getting people outside and meeting each other," he said.The recreation authority will also cash in on the local history with an October Spooktacular Ghost night at the Covered Bridge on Oct. 26. Author and storyteller Charles J. Adams will entertain the crowd with local lore."That's what makes a well-rounded community," he said."Not just the basic services like police and water but getting recreation events going, it makes a community a community," he said.For a list on upcoming programs, visit

www.northernlehighrec.org or stop by the Slatington Municipal office .