Updates on Walnutport's canal locks, canal association by-laws and upcoming canal festival werediscussed at Wednesday's Walnutport Canal Association meeting.

While reporting on construction at Lock 23, President Everett Kaul said that last Sunday the Army Corps of Engineers released an excessive amount of water from the Francis Walter Dam, causing the Lehigh River to rise and flood the canal in Walnutport.This caused a delay in the construction being handled by Nimaris Construction L.P. However, the contractor and some borough workers put plywood over the inlet to bring the water down in the upper level, he said.Kaul then noted he was told they plan to remove the plywood today and was assured there will be plenty of water in the middle level of the canal for the borough's upcoming Canal Festival on Sunday.When asked if the contractor's equipment will remain on-site during the festival, Kaul remarked that, "(It will and) to me, I think that's going to be one of the focal points of our festival. If 2,000 people are there, 2,000 people are going to look to see what's going on there."Kaul also reported that the contractors are ahead of schedule on Lock 23 and plan to have it completed by Thanksgiving. In regard to Lock 24, he said, they plan to do the very same thing to it and have it done sometime in the spring."At one time they talked about just making that stonework pointed," Kaul said, "but now they said no, they're going to board the whole thing. It'll look just like Lock 23 when they're finished."Kaul noted that some of the $200,000 received last year from the Mount Airy Casino Resort will go to cover the cost of repairing Lock 24.At the start of the meeting, Chairman of the Trustees Bob Treskot had reported that the association's by-laws were recently cut back from 20 to 13 pages, mostly through eliminating excess spacing. He also noted that the association's articles of incorporation, particularly Article 10, "Transaction of Business," needed to be reconsidered in case the Canal Association was ever to disband."The pavilion andso on belongs to theborough. The lock house (and that property) belongs to the Canal Association," Treskot said. "What we have to do is go through these by-laws … and (they have) to be approvedat three consecutivemeetings by the members that are here without any changes and then they're adopted."Kaul said a copy of the by-laws should be made available to everyone so they could study them.Later, Kaul also announced that the security system, discussed at last month's meeting, for the WCA Heritage Center is now installed and operational.Lastly, 2nd Vice President Margaret Kaul said 114 tickets have been sold for this Saturday's "Feast-ival" fundraiser at the canal pavilion. She noted that, though it was mentioned at last month's meeting that tickets would not be available at the door, there will be a limited number available on-site.