Lake Harmony is in trouble. The beautiful lake once measuring almost 40 feet in depth is now believed to be about 15 feet at its deepest point.

The lake is surrounded by homes and businesses.Over the years, development has stripped away the natural defenses, and the lake is slowly filling up due to stormwater runoff."This is the most important issue facing this township at this time," resident Tom Wagner said. "It is a fantasy not to consider Lake Harmony the single greatest asset of Kidder Township."The township has earmarked $500,000 from the sale of the sewage plant for matching funds for projects on the lake," Chairman Bob Lengle said. "The money will be used to match funds from the various groups, associations and homeowners who present plans for preserving the lake."Township residents expressed their disappointment in how the board of supervisors is approaching the issues plaguing the lake."The supervisors prior to you thought that the lake was important enough to put in sewers to protect the lake. The sale of the sewers brought $2.3 million to the township. While I respect all of Kidder Township, the lake netted these funds, and these funds should be used to preserve the lake," resident Kathi Lex said.Numerous residents listed specific issues related to berms, swales and sewers near their homes."The township sends a guy to clean out the drains, and he piles it next to them and they get swept right back in," resident Marvin Raphaelson said."A couple of months back, there was a request made for $12,000 for a study. We denied the request because grant money is available. No one stepped up to apply for the grant, so the township applied for the grant, and we are waiting to hear if we received it," Lengle said."We have some money available. I will give you $6,000 right now to get this study started. We need this now," said Jack Peters of the Lake Harmony Group.The supervisors did not accept Peters' offer, opting to wait for the grant."Furthermore, these individual projects that you are talking about, they are hard to come by," Peters told the supervisors. "These interested groups and homeowners, how would they come up with the matching funds?"The residents called for the township to set up a commission to address the problem.Township manager Lisa Klem said the township would begin looking into the commission immediately.Supervisor Frank Pieri asked for a list of potential candidates for the commission to be submitted to the township."You will have it tomorrow," Lex said.At the conclusion of the meeting, Supervisor Thomas LaFond made a motion that the formation of a commission be added to the agenda for the August supervisors meeting.Also addressed at the meeting were a number of other issues.• Resident Edger Getz addressed the board regarding a number of warnings he has received related to the quality of life ordinance."I have a farm. I received a warning from (officer) Woodside because my grass is higher than 10 inches. Well, that's because it's a farm. We cut that and use it for feed," Getz said to the board.Getz also questioned how much scrap metal he could store before he recycled it."Any questions like this should be addressed to the township manager," solicitor Dan Miscavige said.• The township has hired a new, part-time officer. David Baldicanas of Stroudsburg is a recent graduate of the police academy and will be making $15.30 per hour. According to Kidder Police Chief Matt Kuzma, the township is still looking for one more part-time officer.• Also present at the meeting was Barbara Fransoza, president of the Friends of Penn Kidder Library Center. Fransoza informed the board that the library is in the process of moving into the old Carrigan's Pharmacy location at the Pine Point Plaza."We will have more room, especially for our programs which have been doing very well," Fransoza said. "It is still our intention to eventually have our own building, but this is a great step in that direction."