At least for now, the ball is back in Lehighton Area School Board’s court as it relates to Christman Ballfield.

Franklin Township’s board of supervisors on Tuesday unanimously agreed to hire an attorney regarding the Franklin Elementary School’s property pending the outcome of the school board’s meeting.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Monday.

After the vote, one resident questioned what is happening with the elementary school, and what exactly stemmed from the meeting held earlier this month at the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company.

Supervisor Robin Cressley explained the outcome of that meeting.

“We had a lot of people that really wanted to keep the ball fields as ball fields,” Cressley said. “We had a lot of support for that.”

Cressley added, “We were hoping that we could pay for the subdivision and the school board can either keep it the same and keep leasing it to us for $1, or give it to us. That’s what we were hoping.”

Supervisors Chairman Jason Frey said the property is 25.5 acres, with Christman Field being 11.8 acres, and the bottom soccer field about 5-plus acres.

Cressley said, “It was brought about there that the soccer field should stay with the school and we’d be willing to subdivide it, just that we get the Christman Field. That’s up to the school board.”

Frey added, “Yeah, we can’t make the decision for them.

“We’re not willing to sit back and just let it slip away either,” Frey said.

Thomas Beltz, former township police chief, then weighed in on the situation.

“It could be resolved very easily if the school board gave us the property,” Beltz said.

Cressley said they should just keep it the way it is, keep leasing it for $1 like they have in the past, and the township would pay for the subdivision and the district could still sell the school.

“And then it’s a win-win for everybody,” he said.

Supervisor Barbara Beltz said the issue remains unresolved.

“Unfortunately, we’re still trying to decide what’s gonna happen,” Beltz said. “We’re not making any hasty decisions.”

Earlier this month, supervisors held a special meeting to discuss options regarding the ball field.

The purpose of that meeting was to discuss what it could do to either purchase it or do the intermunicipal transfer.

At that time, Frey said an intermunicipal agreement would be preferred, but added the township would buy it if it had to.

Last month, a motion by the school board to transfer ownership of the complex known as “Christman Field” to the township at no cost, with a right of reverter and pending a subdivision plan acceptable to the school district, failed by a slim 5-4 measure because an intermunicipal transfer requires a two-thirds vote of the board, which meant six affirmatives were necessary.

The township currently leases the four fields from Lehighton Area School District for $1 per year and, in turn, allows Franklin Township Athletic Association to use them.