Improvement and possibility were the running themes during public comment Monday at Lehighton Borough’s Council meeting.

Jerry McAward, owner of the soon-to-open Lehighton Outdoor Center, stopped by the municipal building to update residents and council on the construction. McAward said the company is expecting a soft-open in mid-August.“It was a long process,” he said.McAward had two requests of the council: one regarding the possibility of a sign located at the newly developed entrance to the D&L Trail along the Lehigh River, behind the Red Castle Grill.“We are looking for a 4-by-6-foot sign, something tasteful,” he said.“It’ll be where the Switchback meets the trail. Once the bridge is complete in Jim Thorpe, people will go downstream. My thought is people will turn right at the Red Castle and never see us,” he said.The board agreed to the new sign after McAward sends the specifications of the design to the borough.McAward’s second request was about parking near the old waste water treatment plant near his new building.“As we grow the business we will become people transporters,” he said.“We can put an enclosure on our back lot, but hope to work with the borough to have events back there and would like the opportunity to clean up the inside of the enclosure, fix the fence and put our buses there,” he said, requesting the area to park four buses.“We would clean up the trees. We don’t need the building, just the ability to park a few vehicles,” he said.Councilman Joesph Flickinger said the borough’s fire department uses the property for weekly training session.“If we have no area to train, we put our citizens and businesses at risk,” said Flickinger, a volunteer firefighter.McAward agreed to meet with the department to discuss the matter.Christopher Strohler and Dennis DeMara of the Wildlands Conservancy also made a proposal to improve a section of the Lehigh River in the borough.Strohler, senior planner for the nonprofit conservancy, told the board, “Ten years ago the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation of Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council partnered together to create water trails with public access points,” he said.The conservancy used a grant to install a dry hydrant and concrete ramp in North Whitehall.Strohler said the agency plans to “inventory the river, access, parking and amenities, in concert with talking to the Fish and Boat Commission to restore some of the damage caused by the zinc factory in Palmerton.”The board agreed unanimously to allow the conservancy to investigate the property and report its findings to the council.“There is a need for this in our area and it would help in developing it,” McAward said.