Strides continue to be made to wrap up the project for the Lehighton Elementary Center.

Borough Manager Nicole Beckett said all of the electrical easements have been executed.

Beckett noted that the Lehighton Water Authority was scheduled to meet to act on the water easement.

From there, Beckett said the district will record the easements and supporting documents.

“We will have a separate traffic signal agreement between the district and the borough,” Beckett said. “From there, all land development items will be complete.”

Last month the borough received revised plans for items needed to close out the project for the elementary center.

Borough engineer Bruce Steigerwalt said at that time there was only one correction needed on the easements, which would be needed to be recorded upon correction.

Beckett recommended to council at that time that the borough has a separate agreement for the traffic signal at Ninth and Bridge streets in order to close out the land development items.

In August, Lehighton Area School District administration said it was not ignoring requests from the borough for items necessary to close out the project for its elementary center, which opened in 2018.

The district requested an addendum to the land development agreement to request the issuance of a temporary certificate of occupancy until all requirements of the land development processes could be met.

Council granted the request, however it never received the outstanding items. However, all the interior items were in good standing with the borough codes.

After the elementary center project was complete and the building was occupied, a request came from the borough in September 2019 to develop a plan that altered the approved line striping plans to include a fire lane.

When the issue was brought up again in May, Lehighton Area School District Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said the district’s civil engineer began working with the Lehighton fire chief to establish a plan that would meet the request in relation to the fire lane.

“Approved site plans were submitted to the fire chief for review and comment,” Cleaver said at an August school board meeting.

“Again, the issue we struggled with was trying to avoid elimination of event parking spaces. After much discussion, the district and fire chief have developed a striping plan that meets the request of the borough and does not eliminate any event parking.”

Going back to February 2020, according to a district timeline, there was discussion with the Lehighton Water Authority, when the district’s engineer requested clarification on the water lines.

“As we are all aware, shortly after that in March, everything came to a standstill,” Cleaver said at an August school board meeting.

“In recent months, we have been working to prepare to the as-built and easements for submission and review. The final documents have all been submitted to the borough as of Aug. 17 and they are in review from the borough’s team.”