Hanover Council continued its debate over the proposed FedEx hub in Allen Township at its June 3 meeting.

With the concerns expressed by council, the Rockefeller Group, who will be developing the FedEx facility, asked for a conference with council.

FedEx has made a proposal to Allen Township to locate a ground transportation hub on property now owned by the Lehigh Valley International Airport. The proposal is making its way through the approval process in Allen.

Hanover is concerned that the increase in traffic generated by the facility on Hanover roads will significantly damage the quality of life for residents and businesses located in its jurisdiction.

Township Manager Sandra Pudliner said the Rockefeller Group would meet with council. (See related article on page 2.)

No decisions were anticipated by council at the meeting which was open to the public. The purpose was for the Rockefeller Group to answer questions posed by council members.

Representatives of StopFedEx, a group of Allen Township residents opposed to the project, informed council the Allen Township Planning Committee would meet June 16 to discuss the project and offer its recommendations.

Allen Township board of supervisors was scheduled to meet on June 24 to vote on the project.

The opposition believes that the project could be approved by the supervisors at their June meeting though they continued to look for ways to stop the project.

Because Hanover has objections to the plan, Solicitor Jackson Eaton suggested members of council address the Allen Township Planning Committee and board of supervisors with their concerns.

"The problem we have is that there is not enough data on the impact this will have," Councilman Curtis Wegfahrt said. "If we don't have the data, I need to rely on my common sense judgment which leaves me opposed to the project."

At the council meeting, the council authorized the township to hire an independent engineer to review the traffic data provided by the developer and determine if there is sufficient information to make an informed decision about the impact of increased traffic.

Council approved the expenditure unanimously.

The decision to hire a third party was driven in part by a response from PennDOT on traffic data.

In May, the township asked for traffic data on Route 22 and that request was denied. Eaton appealed the request and was informed that the reason the original request had been denied was that no data exists.

According to Eaton, the last traffic data available for Route 22 is from 2001. PennDOT did release all the data it had, but the additional data did not change any reported conclusions.

In other action, the township is waiting to see if the county will provide some grant funding to assist the township in rebuilding sewer lines in Chestnut Grove.

The area meets the guidelines for grant funding. Council Chairman Bruce Paulus said he expects a decision by council's July meeting.

Councilman Bob Heimbecker asked Pudliner to investigate using credit cards to pay bills. Councilman Michael Woolley, who understands the business, explained implementation details. Eaton indicated that council would need to review its ordinances to ensure provisions are made to adequately secure the privacy of information received.