Lehighton's annual Bike Night will roll on through Saturday, though this time it will be staged from a different venue.

The 17th annual event will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company, 2440 Fairyland Road, Lehighton.Skill ride registration will begin at 9 a.m. Poker run registration will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon.The annual event will feature food, beer and bands, as well as adult comedy by nationally recognized comedian "Bag Lady Sue."In each of the past 16 years, Bike Night has been staged in Lehighton.Ty Poole, of Boatyard Bar & Grill, who is serving as a consultant for Bike Night, explained how the decision to hold the event in Franklin Township came about."Franklin (Township) Fire Company stepped up to host it there, and of course people realize what I've done over the last 16 years," Poole said."The biggest key thing was communication with vendors, getting them on board, and getting it marketed."Poole said the group was able to do all those things despite having only about a four-week window to do so."I'm very happy; being involved in it in the past, this year in the short time frame, it was very enjoyable to see so many people step up, the citizens, other business owners," he said. "For the most part, everybody worked really well together, and outside of the community, even."Good feedbackPoole cited the feedback he's seen on social media."Ninety-nine percent are looking forward to it, wanted the event," he said. "The majority of people are grateful that it's going on; there are a select few that are negative about it."Poole said the event figures to have "considerably more vendors than last year.""I've had people calling me (Wednesday) morning still wondering if they can be involved," he said.Poole praised all those who helped organize the event."We'd like to thank the Franklin Township supervisors, police department; our hat's off to all of them too," he said."Without them and their cooperation and support, the event doesn't happen."Proceeds from this year's event will benefit the Franklin Township Fire Company.Almost didn't happenIt wasn't all that long ago when it appeared as though this year's event would not be held at all.In June, the organization behind Lehighton Bike Night announced that the popular summer event would be canceled this year in the hopes of bringing it back "even bigger" in 2016.At that time, Jim Henderson, president of the Lehighton Downtown Initiative, said the group had recently reorganized, and as a result, pulling together Bike Night by the second Saturday in August, its usual date, would have been difficult.However, Henderson said at that time that the LDI was not giving up; instead, it planned to host an even better Bike Night in 2016.Borough manager Nicole Beckett previously said that LDI decided that it was not going to run Lehighton Bike Night because it did not have a lot of vendors.Beckett said last month that the borough was "disheartened" by the news that Bike Night will be held in Franklin Township, and not the borough."It's very unfortunate; the borough of Lehighton has accommodated Bike Night in many ways and has allocated many resources to the event," Beckett previously said.Henderson took over the reins of LDI after Frank Potoczak's resignation earlier this year.Potoczak and Poole had been the organizers of last year's event.Last year, Bike Night was held at the Grove, as well as the surrounding areas of Seventh Street, Eighth Street, Iron and Alum streets.That came after Potoczak and Poole met with borough council several months before last year's event to discuss the change in location after the event had been held in the lower and upper park as it had in the 15 years prior.At a special meeting held in February 2014, council made a motion to not allow the event to be held outside of the borough.That decision came after Beckett said Poole and Potoczak had informed her at that time that they were considering moving the event to Franklin Township because of construction work to the Thomas J. McCall Memorial Bridge, as well as lower park construction.Beckett previously said that the borough, at the request of the Bike Night organizers, changed ordinances to allow for alcohol in borough parks, and electric was installed at the Grove.For more information on this year's event, visit LehightonBikeNight.com.