Lower Macungie Township

Lower Mac is 'Ruining Quality of Life' Says Upper Milford Supervisor

Eight acres of farmland at Quarry Road and Route 100 is the first domino to fall. Some fear another MacArthur Road.

Editor's Note: On Jan. 17 both the Upper Milford Supervisors and Lower Macungie Commissioners met. Since both governing bodies talked about the same topic, this story is the first of a collaborative effort to present the information in the context the region as a whole in the spirit of the Southwestern Lehigh Comprehensive Plan. There’s a feud a-brewin’ in the southwestern corner of Lehigh County that could ultimately rival that of the Hatfields and McCoys. The source of the dispute? What the Upper Milford Board of Supervisors feels to be the uncontrolled and ill-conceived land development in Lower Macungie Township. It was that development and what, if anything, Upper Milford Township can do about it, that became the focus of a spirited …

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Pa. Family Farms Freed from Death Taxes

Family farms in Pennsylvania are now exempt from the state’s “death tax,” or a tax on transfer of assets from a deceased owner to a child or relative

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Jay Grove’s grandfather built Gro-Lan Farms in 1905, the Franklin County dairy farmer said proudly. More than a century later, Grove and his brother, Jeff, grow grain to feed their dairy cows on 425 acres and produce some 10,000 8-ounce glasses of milk a day. Not all family farms experience this success. Grove tells a story of a neighboring farmer who sold his 130 acres to a developer who built more than 130 houses there. “Family farms have struggled over the years just to stay alive,” he said. But Grove said Pennsylvania took a step in the right direction to help keep farms in the family. The state repealed the inheritance tax, or “death tax,” as it applies to family-owned farms, a passage …

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farmerjoe

3:26 pm on Monday, August 20, 2012

Wow, I think Slyfox needs to move to the city then. It's great how this area of farm land is now being taken over by those who want to live in the country but have a problem with the way we 'farmers' make a living! If you don't like it, move! You are very wrong in believing there is "plenty" of breaks for farmers in this state. maybe for big time farmers, but not the little guys. (Little meaning …   more ›