At its meeting Aug. 20, Whitehall Township Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved a request to relocate a nursery from St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Catasauqua to Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Whitehall.

St. Paul’s, 417 Howertown Road, is under an agreement of sale, although the sale has not been completed. Part of the church was a nursery school that parents used for decades. Parents at the facility wanted to continue the faith-friendly nursery, but the new owners opted instead to close the facility.

The ensuing months caused a frantic search for a location prior to school starting.

Most school-aged children were absorbed by other local programs, including the Suburban North Family YMCA in Catasauqua. However, the St. Paul’s nursery also accepted infants and toddlers. Faith Lutheran, 3355 MacArthur Road, offered to open up its facility for toddler care, but it required an approval from the township.

The action was originally scheduled for last month’s meeting, but the number of items on the docket caused some - including the nursery request - to be postponed.

In the interim, the zoning board indicated informally that it did not see a problem with the request, so the number of objectors at the Aug. 20 meeting was a surprise.

Faith Lutheran hosts a school-age nursery called Petite Scholars. The objectors were parents who had children in the Petite Scholars day care. The biggest concern was security. Mike Miller, president of church council at Faith Lutheran, assured the objectors and the zoning board members that all necessary security measures were in place. The measures, according to Miller, were verified by local police and the state.

Another concern was access. Under the present arrangement, the older Petite Scholars class has a secure single-access entrance. The church has a number of doors, but they are all secured with panic bars.

Miller assured the objectors that the infant day care would have a separate access as well.

Miller was reluctant to discuss security measures in a public forum. After the meeting, he turned the security discussion over to Fred Scheirer, who developed the security plan for the church. Scheirer addressed each condition and answered a myriad of detailed questions. He stayed with the parties of both day care operations until everyone seemed satisfied with the details.

The intent is to have the facility ready as area schools open for the new academic year. Most parents with infants had found temporary care over the summer months.