Local News

The Summit Hill Recreation Commission desperately needs members.

The organization stages the annual Memorial Day Stay-At-Home Festival in Ginder Field - that has become a tradition which attracts thousands of people - and Christmas on the Hill. It's main purpose is to provide recreational activity for the community's children, with the festival serving as a fund-raising event.

According to Joseph Weber, president of Summit Hill Borough Council, there are presently only two active members on the commission: Larry Marek and Monica Marshall.

The Borough of Tamaqua Street Department will be collecting Christmas trees throughout the month of January. Residents should place their trees at the curb for pickup on their garbage collection day.

The street department will check each street on garbage days and collect trees as time and weather permits.

The trees must be free of tinsel and other decorations. No trees will be collected after Jan. 31.

Residents may also drop off their trees behind the borough garage at 421 rear East Broad Street.

Snow Removal

Supervisors in Penn Forest Township voted to begin developing plans to make the borough municipal offices safer for township employees.

"We've seen an increase in crime, probably because of the state of the economy," said supervisor chairman Paul Montemuro. "Most of the employees working in this office are women and we want to do a better job of making sure they are safe."

An abitrator's decision which granted a grievance filed by the Panther Valley Education Association on behalf of teacher Robert Jay Thomas, has been affirmed in a memorandum opinion handed down by a Carbon County judge.