A Carbon County man whose request for on-site septic on property near Mauch Chunk Lake has given the county an option to purchase most of the land.

On Thursday, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that he received a call from Ed Kanick on Monday.

“We had a good conversation,” he said, noting that Kanick offered to sell 45 acres of land to the county. He would retain the last 10 acres.

The call came one week after Commissioner Chris Lukasevich made a motion to consider buying the property in question through eminent domain. That motion failed 2-1.

Nothstein said that he reached out to several people regarding if a purchase like this could fall under the new bond the county is looking to secure for land preservation, and also contacted the appraiser to get an appraisal of the property since the county can only spend within a certain amount based on an appraisal.

Kanick, on Thursday, said via email that he only wanted to build a one-floor home for he and his wife, as well as have the opportunity for his family to build next to them on the property.

“Some people who do not know how a septic works and are not from the area are now basically saying the sky is falling and the entire area is going to be ruined by nine houses, and others open meetings by saying, my father put that ordinance in the books, and I have no intention of changing it before any info was even proposed,” he wrote. “Some people have said the ducks are a bigger problem than what I was proposing.

“I am hoping the county and I can come to a deal and then I can use the remaining 10 acres for my wife and I can build. If not, I will stay the course with our plan,” he added. “I have no problems with the borough council as they were willing to listen to all the safety precautions, we were putting in place, and know that if we run the sewer out there, we would have to develop at least 60 lots to pay for it. The Summit Hill side was developed back in the ’70s and there have been no problems.”

Nothstein said that he hopes to have the appraisal back sometime in the next week so the county could begin talks with Kanick.

If the county purchases the property using funds from the preservation bond that the taxpayers approved during the November election, the land would remain preserved.

The land in question has been a source of much debate for several months, due to the fact that Kanick had requested making a zoning amendment to allow the on-site septic within a half-mile from Mauch Chunk Lake because extending the sewer line to the property from Jim Thorpe would cost upwards of $500,000.

Numerous meetings had been held and several officials spoke out against the proposed change due to potential adverse effects on the water quality of the lake if the septic were to leak.