Lower Towamensing Township supervisors have not received the expected letter of resignation from elected Supervisor Terry Kuehner.

On Jan. 21 during an injunction hearing, Kuehner told Judge Joseph J. Matika that he would turn in his letter of resignation, but he hadn’t as of the meeting Tuesday night. Kuehner did not attend the meeting.

Kuehner’s position has been challenged in court, because of his felony convictions.

Carbon County District Attorney Michael Greek filed a Quo Warranto complaint on Jan. 4 alleging that Kuehner cannot hold an elective office due to prior felony criminal convictions in accordance with the state constitution. The injunction petition asked the court to not allow Kuehner to participate in supervisors meetings, specifically voting on any township business, until the court could hold a hearing and give a ruling.

That injunction hearing was held on Jan. 10, but Kuehner asked Matika to give him time to hire an attorney.

Matika granted the request and the hearing was continued to Jan. 21, which is when Kuehner told the judge that he had spoken to an attorney in Harrisburg and he would voluntarily resign.

Since the township does not have a secretary and the municipal building is not open at this time, Greek told Kuehner to give the letter to him before the supervisors next meeting on Feb. 1, and he would get it to the township solicitor Jim Nanovic. Nanovic could then present it at the meeting, so that the supervisors could officially accept his resignation.

Nanovic said at Tuesday’s meeting that Greek has not contacted him to say he has received the resignation letter, and the letter has not been sent to Supervisors’ Chairman Brent Green.

“I have not received a resignation from Terry yet, so I don’t know what is going on with that,” Nanovic said. “I have received nothing.”

At the continued injunction hearing in January, Matika had told Kuehner that if the letter was not submitted, he could reschedule the injunction hearing.

A “Quo Warranto” action is a writ issuable by the state. It demands a person to show by what right he or she exercises an authority, which can only be exercised through grant or franchise from the state.

Greek is seeking an order of court declaring that Kuehner is “unqualified due to his prior felony convictions pursuant to Article II, Section 7, of the Pennsylvania Constitution. He is asking for removal.”

According to a county court summary, Kuehner was convicted in November 2005 of three felonies and three misdemeanors.

The first conviction was for aggravated assault with attempted bodily injury. The word aggravated is used when a deadly weapon is part of the assault. He was sentenced to prison for 18 months to 10 years for the conviction.

He also had two more felony convictions for aggravated assault, but one sentence length was merged into the other. Again, the sentence was 18 months to 10 years in prison.

All three misdemeanor convictions were for simple assault, which carry a sentence of six to 12 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to one of the misdemeanors and was sentenced for it, but the other sentences were merged into the felony.

The convictions stem from an incident in September 2004 where after a nine-hour standoff at his house with state police, Kuehner fired his weapon. The bullet struck the hood of a police cruiser where an officer sat and put in a three-quarter-inch scrape.

Throughout 2021, Kuehner disrupted township meetings and said he would fire all of the township employees if elected. This led to the resignation of the township secretary.