Believe it or not, Lower Macungie Township Manager Bruce Fosselman told the township Board of Commissioners at Monday night's meeting, Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner. And, with Memorial Day weekend, thought of by most as the traditional kick-off of summer, comes the opening of the township pool, Fosselman said. Memorial Day 2012 saw the opening of the lazer luge slide at the pool, with seven-year-old Catherine Sirignano winning the honor of taking the first slide down the new attraction. Fosselman told the commissioners that he will likely chronicle the maiden 2013 voyage …

It’s not quite a case of the boy who cried wolf, but it’s close. After learning that a good 30 to 40 percent of the calls that prompt Lower Macungie Fire Department volunteers to spring into action actually turn out to be false alarms, the township decided something needed to be done. So, township staff has recommended some changes to an existing township ordinance covering false alarms, Commissioner Roger Reis told the rest of the commissioners in his Public Safety Committee report at Thursday night's Board of Commissioners' meeting. The key changes being looked at Reis explained, are …

Officials are aware that the deadly intersection of Route 222 and Mill Creek Road near the Lower/Upper Macungie border is a problem. A traffic study has recently been completed by the Upper Macungie Planning Commission and the Lower Mac planners and zoners will have the opportunity to study it too, according to Lower Mac Commissioner Doug Brown. One flaw, however, is that the study does not include "the important intersection at Hamilton Blvd.," Brown said at the BOC's Thursday meeting. There will be changes made to traffic patterns on the Route 222 bypass in the future, Brown said. He hinted…

Earlier this month, Upper Macungie Police Chief Edgardo Colon warned residents to keep their cars locked and garage doors closed. Now, according to a Facebook post by the Upper Macungie Police Department, we know about a common practice known as "garage hopping." It's a phenomenon seen in Lower Macungie, as well. Police say garage hopping is a popular suburban activity where teenagers try to obtain beer from open garages. Police say many suburban residents have a refrigerator with beer and wine located in their garage. Police said some of these residents do not close their large overhead …

Unlike the nights that Lower Macungie Commissioners faced standing-room-only crowds and angry accusations, the township's five elected officials on Thursday unanimously and without fanfare approved the last piece David Jaindl's plan to develop about 700 acres of farmland. The settlement between Jaindl and the Appellants—the six people who were named in the almost three-year battle to prevent any development on the land—was approved at the April 4 meeting. Spring Creek Properties Subdivision Improvement Preliminary Agreement—version 8—which was approved Thursday, essentially approves Jaindl's…

Tree stumps that remain from the recent "vegetation management" project carried out by contractors for PPL Corp. will be ground by contractors who will be coming to the township soon. Some confusion has been circulating through the township, however, as residents have wondered on Lower Macungie Patch's Facebook page whether they have to call PPL to set up an appointment to have stumps ground. No, says PPL spokesman Paul Wirth. "PPL will grind all stumps on residential properties. The work has already begun and will continue until it is finished. "There is no need for anyone to call to get …

By David Jaindl, Special to PatchAfter nearly three years, litigation involving my proposed mixed-use development known as Spring Creek Properties in Lower Macungie Township has been resolved. I initiated this settlement for two reasons—out of respect for the good faith efforts of the current township commissioners and in response to the input of several of the project’s neighbors.Based on four consecutive legal decisions in our favor, at the municipal, county and state levels, I was in a position to conclusively end all existing litigation inmy favor, without any discussion with the …

In 4-0 vote, the Lower Macungie Township Board of Commissioners on Thursday agreed to accept and sign a settlement agreement ending three years of litigation that involved the BOC, David Jaindl and a group of six Lower Mac residents that came to be known as "the Appellants." Commissioner James Lancsek was absent. The terms involved compromise for all, but as Commissioner Ryan Conrad said before the final vote, "At least it's better than a quarry," which is what Jaindl originally said he would do with the land. The denouement of three years of hearings, court dates, protests and rancor …

More trees fell Thursday as contractors for PPL Corp. removed evergreens in the path of the company's right of way. Unfortunately, part of the video is obscured by another often-seen visitor to Lower Mac, the tractor trailer. PPL said the hope is that cutting down the trees will prevent downed wires and loss of power that has plagued the area due to storms which have occurred around Halloween in 2011 and 2012. Representatives from the electric utility said during a recent public meeting that clearing the trees is the best it can do to ensure nobody goes without power. The company also issued …

In the wake of the tree removal along Sauerkraut Lane in Lower Macungie, one family set up a memorial to the trees that are now gone from their yard. At the corner of Millhouse Road and Sauerkraut Lane residents have remembered each tree with a pot of flowers and a cross.

At the end of the day, what do you have? Very few standing trees along Sauerkraut Lane. Just before rush hour on Tuesday contractors for PPL Corp. were cleaning up the tree limbs and trunks that remained as part of the "vegetation management" it is performing in Lower Macungie Township. The company says there have been too many power outages—mainly related to the Halloween storms the area has experienced in the past two years— and in areas where there are no trees in the right of way there are almost no outages. Residents' impassioned pleas did not change the company's plan. It has no plan to…

Contractors for PPL Corp. began clearing vegetation from its rights of way throughout Lower Macungie Township. "Clearing vegetation" is the term PPL uses for cutting down trees that have the potential to pull down power lines—in a storm or any time. Sauerkraut Lane appeared to be the starting point on Tuesday, when an estimated 75 trees were chopped and ground. The electric utility company will continue until it has cleared all trees within its rights of way that are not listed in its list of "compatible vegetation." Many Lower Macungie residents were extremely upset about the PPL decision to…

Sophia Lantz, 7,  caught this golden trout on the first day of trout season, March 30, 2013, in the Little Lehigh Creek off of Lower Macungie Road between the Brookside and Willow bridges. Sophia is the daughter of Audrey and Thad Lantz of New Ringgold, Schuylkill County, and the granddaughter of Dan and Jo-Anne Hamm who live on Lower Macungie Road.

David Jaindl attended but did not speak at the Lower Macungie Township Board of Commissioners' meeting Thursday. But after he left the meeting both he and Robert Rust, the attorney for the six people who objected to Jaindl's Spring Creek Development plan, gave their thoughts on the almost three-year litigation. A settlement was signed by Jaindl and the objectors Thursday after the group of six decided they could not come up with the $275,000 bond they were required to pay to continue. One of the objectors, Constance Moyer, said after the meeting that her group's "fight has not been in vain. …

Six objectors to David Jaindl's Spring Creek Development plan signed an agreement Thursday that ends their battle after almost three years of litigation. After Lehigh County Judge Michele A. Varricchio ruled on March 5 that the appellants had to pay a $275,000 bond to continue their fight, the objectors considered their options, according to an email release from Donald Miles, one of the lawyers for the appellants: Constance and Ronald Moyer, Gerald and Karen Kronk, and Joseph and Kimberly Castagna. Miles also asked the Pa. Supreme Court to hear the case, but has not received an answer, he …

The best summer jobs are the ones that allow you to be outside soaking up the sun, right? To that end, Lower Macungie Township is hiring lifeguards and playground counselors for its summer programs. The part-time positions are for applicants who are at least 16 years old. Interviews begin in April. Applications are available 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Lower Macungie Township Municipal Building or by calling 610-966-4343. Download an application here.

PPL Corp. recently met with concerned Lower Mac property owners to explain its new policy and strategy to keep customers' lights on even through the nastiest of storms. As a result, hundreds of trees on 49 properties throughout the township will be removed beginning within the next few weeks. The company distributed a list of "compatible vegetation" that can be planted to replace the tress that are being removed from PPL rights of way: Small Trees Flowering Dogwood Redbud Green Hawthorn Washington Hawthorn American Hornbeam Eastern Red Cedar Winterberry Holly Large Shrubs Alder Witch-hazel …

Lehigh County Judge Michele A. Varricchio on Monday ruled that the seven people who have been opposing Jaindl Land Co.'s Spring Creek development plans must post a $275,000 bond if they are to proceed with their case. In January David Jaindl asked the courts to require a $500,000 bond of the Appellants to protect, he said at the time, "against some of the damages that he will suffer based upon further delay attributable to the frivolous actions of the Appellants and their attorneys." Appellants' attorney Donald W. Miles said in an email Tuesday that Varricchio's Yesterday's ruling could put …

Lower Macungie Commissioners revisited the ongoing saga of the Church Lane Bridge at the Feb. 21 meeting. Commissioners approved plans to fix the wooden bridge that spans the Norfolk Southern tracks near the township's border with Upper Macungie. But the fix has its "good news/bad news" aspects. The good news is that the bridge will be fixed and will take only a few days of work. A beam that is currently damaged will be replaced, and beams that are expected to go bad in the next few years also will be replaced now. The hope is that the anticipation of problems will prevent a future closing …

David Jaindl brought his revised plan for the Spring Creek development to the people of Lower Macungie Township Tuesday in what he hoped would be a comfortable setting at the township's community center. His hope, he said in last week's announcement of the meeting, was that such a presentation away from the formality of a board of commissioners meeting would create an atmosphere that would allow people to speak freely about his new plan which he says provides for more green space and less truck traffic. The seven people who have been suing him for the past two years, however, may make it …