Whitehall Township Mayor Edward D. Hozza Jr., reflecting on Black Friday and Black Thursday Evening at several major stores on MacArthur Road, said there were long lines of people waiting to enter the stores for the bargains. He noted a police presence at the various shopping locations, along with crowd and traffic control was effective in keeping the shoppers at bay and at ease.

Asked if many police officers were assigned the task of providing the stores with a police presence to ensure safety for the patrons and maintaining order, Hozza said, "Let's put it this way, no one had a vacation."

The added presence of police officers, who the mayor said did a commendable job, resulted "in the elimination of mayhem."

There were police stationed at Toys "R" Us, Lehigh Valley Mall, Super Walmart and Best Buy stores. Hozza commented at the locations, the stores and mall paid the officers' salaries, not the township. At Kmart, Hozza noted he observed lines of people waiting to get into the store on Thursday, the crowd stretching as far back as Buckman's, an outdoor sporting store on MacArthur Road.

At Route 22 and MacArthur Road, where a major construction project is ongoing involving bridge replacement, road widening and ramp configuration, there were police stationed for the Black Thursday-Friday store events for traffic control. Again, Hozza said, PennDOT paid for township police officers stationed at the site.

With traffic bottlenecks occurring at the Routes 22/145 construction area, Hozza also said congestion was eased, not only by the police presence, but also because of a temporary traffic light that was erected.

It was also learned the contractor owning a large number of yellow cones, now boots because of their black base, placed too many, congesting traffic on MacArthur Road. The cones were meant to control traffic and intended for southbound traffic going east on Route 22. Removal of the large number of these boots has made traffic move more smoothly in the area.

The township and police will monitor the stores and traffic as yule shopping continues in full mode during the weeks leading up to Christmas.