Leiby's Ice Cream House and Restaurant in South Tamaqua could soon bereopening.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation approved and issued a highway occupancy permit on Tuesday, according to PennDOT spokesman Ron Young.Attempts to contact owner Daniel Leiby as to when the business plans to reopen in time for today's publication were unsuccessful.At a West Penn Township board of supervisors meeting Monday morning, township engineer Bill Anders said that Leiby's had not met all the requirements for a highway occupancy permit.Leiby attended the meeting and said at that time the application was under review.He said the business is looking to employ about 120 people once it opens, which would include servers, cooks, cashiers and bakers.Founded and opened in 1965, Leiby's closed its doors in 2007.Last year, members of the Leiby family acquired the building and began renovations to reopen.Last week, the Walker Township Zoning Hearing Board agreed to grant an application to Leiby's Dairy Inc., 116 Mountain Road, Tamaqua.Leiby's was granted a special exception under a section of the ordinance to expand the existing nonconforming use of the property as an ice cream manufacturing plant.The business was also granted a variance from a section of the zoning ordinance to allow for an expansion of the existing nonconforming in excess of 25 percent of the area occupied by the use at the time of the effective date of the zoning ordinance; and a variance from a section of the ordinance to allow for a maximum of 40 percent impervious coverage upon the parent tract.