Members of the Bear Creek Lakes Civic Association attended the meeting the Penn Forest Township supervisors meeting to discuss the association’s plans to seek grants to fix stormwater runoff that is silting up their lake. Water flows from along Route 903 are a particular concern.

Their plans are to construct swales at inflows around their lake to trap sediment. Cost estimates for the whole project exceed $400,000. After discussion made it clear that there was to be no cost to the township, supervisors agreed to support any grants the association finds for the project.

Park volunteers and the Park and Recreation committee were commended for “the fabulous job” they did with the Christmas tree lighting. Later in the meeting as an addition to the agenda, supervisors approved payments of $4,509 to Blue Ridge Services and $5,528 to Verizon for the connection of internet to the park on a 5-0 vote. Getting this done has taken over a year.

Supervisor Judy Knappenberger, who was not reelected, offered to share her archives. She has some artwork samples of a flag and an eagle for the new veterans monument at the park. What is also needed is the number of characters that will fit in the space on the stone.

Supervisors, along with veteran Jim Maddux of the Albrightsville VFW, will try to reach out to Jim Thorpe Area High School officials to see if a contest can be started to create the message for the stone. It is likely the stone will arrive by summer.

Supervisors’ Vice Chairman Christian Bartulovich presented the proposed 2022 budget for adoption, with balanced spending of $2,476,754 in the general fund, sanitation fund spending balanced at $422,900, and liquid fuels balanced at $261,232. These were approved unanimously.

All 11 employees of Penn Forest Township received a Christmas bonus for keeping the township operating through the challenges of 2021. Supervisors discussed using some of the federal American Rescue funds for a $1,000 bonus, but at Supervisor Scott Lignore’s suggestion, agreed to $2,000 each. The vote was 5-0.

Supervisors also provided $500 for food for a staff Christmas party on Dec. 10.

Supervisors agreed with Knappenberger’s request to send the entire $50,000 budgeted for the Lehighton Ambulance to them without deduction.

The township’s roads crew has been out for snow and ice. When the weather is not bad, they are doing service on the equipment. Roadmaster Roger Meckes says the township’s new truck is at the truck body shop. It will be ready for winter work once it gets delivered in several weeks.

Township Zoning Officer Kathryn Forry’s report show 183 zoning permits issued in November with 129 of those short-term rental permits for 148 short-term rentals to date, with another 144 registrations in process.

After a final engineer’s inspection, supervisors released the remaining escrow money for Beltzville Enterprises’ storage units project.

A discussion that started about buying another set of file cabinets for records led to the topic of digitizing, which would make the new cabinets unnecessary. It was decided to have township secretary Dana Vitale find out the costs. Supervisors tabled the motion to buy more cabinets.

Barry Isett & Associates will supply two enforcement officers to be available for court hearings regarding violations of short-term rental rules.