It looms over Laubach Park like a monster from the science fiction movie, "War Of The Worlds."

The vine-encrusted tower drew attention when the William H. Laubach Memorial Park Master Plan Committee convened there July 20.

The mysterious presence in Laubach Park, 1600 Lehigh Ave., Salisbury Township, is a several-stories-high tower which has no visible transmission lines connecting it with other electrical towers.

The tower looms large over plans to upgrade the park which is the goal of the master plan committee.

During the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners' workshop Aug. 13, township administration officials revealed they recently met at the township municipal building with PPL Electric Utilities Inc. officials to discuss the electrical utility company's plans to replace the tower.

According to township officials, PPL would replace the high-tension wire tower with a monopod pole to reactivate what a township map states is the Allentown-Hosensack line.

Salisbury Township Acting Manager-Director of Finance Cathy Bonaskiewich and Salisbury Township Director of Public Works John Andreas briefed a reporter for Salisbury Press after the workshop about their meeting with PPL officials.

A PPL spokesperson could not be reached for comment in time for deadline for the Aug. 19 Salisbury Press.

A township map displayed by Andreas depicted a PPL right-of-way through Laubach Park, west of the pond, roughly in a southwest to northeast direction. The right-of-way appears to cut a 100-foot wide swath through Laubach Park.

What PPL intends to do in upgrading its electrical transmission line, which would apparently connect to a tower north of Lehigh Avenue, over East Susquehanna Street and on to Lehigh Mountain and across the Lehigh River, was of some concern to township commissioners during the workshop, for which there was an agenda item regarding the PPL tower project.

However, Andreas sees the matter in a positive light, describing it after the workshop as a "potential win-win" for the Laubach Park project.

"If anything, we may be able to partner with them [PPL] to improve the park," Andreas told a reporter for Salisbury Press.

What led to the discussion and revelation about PPL plans was Workshop Agenda Topics of Discussion No. 2: "Township-PPL-Highway Occupancy Permit Application to access Laubach Park from Fairview Street."

To upgrade the tower, which would presumably include dismantling it, removing the steel and installing a new tower, would require PPL to bring equipment into the park. Apparently, the easiest access would be from Fairview Avenue.

According to township officials, once the new tower is installed and in use through Laubach Park, electrical transmission towers along Fairview would be removed.

Because the township owns the park and because Fairview Avenue is a state road, the township must apply to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the occupancy permit application on behalf of PPL. Bonaskiewich said PPL officials would handle the paperwork for the permit.

"There's a tower there with no wires," township Commissioner Robert Martucci, Jr. said, who lives in the vicinity of Laubach Park.

"They [PPL] are going to be using new technology," Andreas said of the electrical tower project in Laubach Park. "It's supposed to improve the service in the area.

PPL has been having trees pruned and removed in the vicinity of its utility lines following Lehigh Valley power outages after the "Halloween Blizzard" in October 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

"They [PPL] are going to be putting up new poles rather than towers," Andreas added. "They're going to build a new transmission main."

"There's a water course there," Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Cynthia Sopka noted, referring to the PPL tower location in Laubach Park, which is in the vicinity of Trout Creek.

Sopka said she "received correspondence" from PPL regarding the tower project. She said a firm will be doing site work regarding "wetlands and water courses" for an environmental impact study where the PPL work is proposed.

"Does it fit in with the master plan [for Laubach Park]," Martucci asked.

"I did make PPL aware of the master plan," Bonaskiewich said.

"They [PPL] have the right to clear them, not just shape them," Andreas said.

According to Andreas and Bonaskiewich, PPL would begin the tower work in 2016.

A Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center official has expressed concern about PPL clearing trees and brush at its utility-line easement there.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources approved a $26,700 Community Conservation Partnership Program Grant for the Laubach Park Master Plan and Recreation Connections Project. The grant is being matched with an equal amount from the township for the $55,400 project, which funds the master plan. An estimate for park improvements is to be determined.

Laubach Park, which gets a lot of use by Salisbury Youth Association football and boys and girls softball teams, has an old pavilion that could use upgrading or replacement, bathrooms that need to meet Americans With Disabilities Act requirements, the abandoned high-wire electrical tower covered in weeds, a wooden footbridge with missing boards, shuffleboard courts that appear to be neglected and a pond that appears to be choked with algae.

Plants and weeds obscure the Laubach Park signs, which are in need of repair along Lehigh Avenue and Fairview Avenue.

Laubach Park, accessible from Fairview Avenue and Lehigh Avenue, is between East Susquehanna Street and East Emmaus Avenue not far from the intersection with Broadway and Seidersville Road.

Leonard J. Policelli of Urban Research & Development Corp., Bethlehem, consultant for the Laubach Park Master Plan, was assisted by URDC staffer Joanne H. Conley, on the July 20 master plan committee tour of the park.

The Laubach Park Master Plan is expected to be completed by February or March 2016. From seven to nine meetings are planned for the Laubach Park committee and the URDC. After that, several as yet to be announced public meetings are to be held in the municipal building.

After public meetings, the recreation commission and URDC are expected to present the Laubach Plan Master Plan to the township board of commissioners. The commissioners would decide how to proceed with the plan and how to fund park improvements, the work for which is not expected to begin until 2017.