An engineering study involving the historic Saylor Cement Kilns, Coplay, has been completed.

The findings and recommendations will be presented at a public meeting that could come as soon as next month.

Rick Molchany, Lehigh County director of general services, is hoping to hold the meeting late in May. The meeting will be open to the public and likely will include officials from neighboring communities.

Molchany was hesitant to provide cost estimates for the brick kilns restoration project but said, "It's going to take time; it's millions."

The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners up until now has been reluctant to commit county tax dollars to the project.

In the early 1970s, Coplay Cement Mfg. Co., on the urging of Coplay Borough's elected council members, agreed to donate the kilns and adjoining property to Lehigh County, which at the time had a vibrant program in place to retain places of historic significance.

When a previous county administration threatened to demolish the kilns, which then included a museum with cement artifacts, a citizens group was formed and the new incoming county administration moved ahead in 2000 by restoring and capping four kilns.

However, the capping of the four kilns didn't stop the issue of condensation, resulting in a further analysis.

Coplay Cement Mfg. Co., which manufactured the first Portland cement in America in 1871, built eleven 93-foot-tall Schofer kilns to meet the growing demand for cement. The kilns were in use until 1904, when they were replaced by the rotary kiln, a technology that reduced operating costs.

The building housing the Schofer kilns was demolished in the 1920s. The kilns in 1980 were listed in the National Register of Public Places.