The 2021 Homecoming remix for Lehighton students has been moved to the Franklin Township Fire Company from 5-9 p.m. Saturday.

However, that didn’t stop the event from being a hot topic of discussion at Monday’s Lehighton Borough Council meeting brought forth by Councilman Ryan Saunders.

Saunders noted that on the evening of Sept. 23, he began getting questions as to “why council denied a request at the Rec Center for a Homecoming remix.”

“I replied with ‘I have no idea what you are talking about. Facility rentals are handled by Rec Director Tom Evans.’?”

Saunders said he was forwarded a correspondence from Evans to the requesters.

The email from Evans said: “Good morning, I have some disappointing news, borough council and borough manager (Nicole Beckett) just told me since the school cannot have the Homecoming dance, the recreation center will not be available either for the dance. Due to COVID-19 virus, sorry for the inconvenience.”

Saunders said over the next three days following that email, he was contacted several times as to why council denied such a request.

“And my reply remained consistent, that council did not and does not ‘typically’ see such requests,” he said. “These are handled solely by Tom Evans.”

Saunders said he reached out to Evans for clarification, and said the verbal inquiry did not include an expected head count of the event in question.

“But, as Tom usually does, he advised them he allows a maximum capacity of 100 people and that they need to fill out the application for the rental,” he said. “Although a formal application was never submitted, a written denial was sent to the event organizers.

“I would have been fine if Tom were to deny this request for his own reasons. However, Tom did not deny this request; Tom was overstepped because a reference to the school district was made.”

Last month, the official 2021 Lehighton Area High School homecoming dance was canceled for the second straight year due to COVID-19.

Administrators said at the school board’s Sept. 20 meeting that providing a safe environment given current COVID-19 restrictions would be difficult, leading to the decision.

“We’re talking about anywhere from 400 to 500 students and my question to them was can you guarantee you’ll be physically apart from one another and not dancing together for three-and-a-half to four hours,” high school Principal Sue Howland said at the school board meeting.

“Ultimately, student council approached me and their advisers and suggested we postpone it this year. We’re not looking to possibly quarantine hundreds of kids at a time. We also really don’t want to get into playing mask police with 450-plus kids in a gymnasium.”

While a homecoming dance won’t be held on school grounds, a private event known as “Homecoming Remix 2021” had been planned for the Lehighton Recreation Center from 5-9 p.m. Saturday by students including Rylie Bryfogle and Leah Mickley.

The decision to cancel Lehighton’s event sparked controversy at the Sept. 20 board meeting, and several people in attendance questioned why football games could be held in the athletic stadium with hundreds of fans in attendance, but not the dance.

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said concerns over having to quarantine a large number of students plays a large role in the district’s decision making.

The LHS student council has planned an outdoor pep rally on Friday, the day of the homecoming football game against Bangor.

Saunders said Monday’s that the Rec Center has been rented out “almost a dozen times this year with the same (100-person) capacity as set forth by Tom Evans, so we cannot use COVID-19 as the excuse for the denial.

“As I learned from the event coordinators, they were fine with the (100-person) capacity in the building and were going to have tents outside in the parking lot to allow for recommended social distancing guidelines to be followed,” he said. “Similar to the way the 2021 Prom was set up in Center Valley.”

Saunders added, “The perception we have given our community is that we, in this case, let the school district dictate who we rent out our facilities to.

“I, for one, would like to apologize to the community for this perception and assure them that this will not be the case moving forward,” he said. “Tom Evans has my full support in the decisions he makes as related to our facilities rentals.”

Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky said she doesn’t think council needs to approve or deny rentals.

However, council President Grant Hunsicker said that borough Manager Nicole Beckett is in charge.

“She is the borough manager, and that’s what the borough manager does,” Hunsicker said.

Later in the meeting, council approved consideration on the request from Head Start to hold a trunk or treat event Oct. 20, with a rain date of Oct. 21.

Afterward, Beckett noted that she and Evans have a wonderful working relationship.

Beckett added it was one misstep, and that she has a wonderful working relationship with everyone.