By SARIT LASCHINSKY

Special to The Press

As with all townships of the second class in Pennsylvania, North Whitehall had its annual reorganization meeting virtually Jan. 4.

To begin, Supervisor Ronald Heintzelman was appointed board chairman, while fellow Supervisor Mark Hills was named vice chairman.

Brenda Norder will continue her duties as township secretary, treasurer and chief pension administration officer, and Chris Garges will continue serving as township manager.

The board approved the establishment of the treasurer’s bond at a $2 million limit, and to retain The Neffs National Bank and the First Northern Bank and Trust as township depositories.

Lisa Young was appointed solicitor for the board of supervisors and planning commission, with a rate of pay established in the fee schedule.

Keystone Consulting Engineers was named the township’s engineering firm to conduct general planning and traffic engineering for 2021.

The firm will also serve as North Whitehall’s sewage enforcement officer and sewage project engineer for the year.

Scott Bieber, Chris Noll and Steve Hawk were appointed alternate sewage enforcement officers for 2021.

Supervisors authorized the township tax collector to collect real estate and streetlight taxes, to bill interims, for compensation to be set at 5 percent of all collections, and at the rate of $23.50 per hour for time used in completing tax duplicates.

Portnoff Law Associates was retained to collect all delinquent real estate taxes, streetlight assessments and sewer fees for the year.

Keystone Consulting Engineers will serve as North Whitehall’s acting zoning officer and code enforcement officer.

Barry Isett and Associates, Keycodes Inspection Agency and Lehigh Valley Inspection Service were listed as the primary, third-party code compliant agencies to conduct building plan reviews and inspections.

Garges said Keith George of Barry Isett and Associates is the township’s designated building code official, and the three agencies can enforce the Uniform Construction Code.

Todd Kern was named to the building code board of appeals to serve from 2021-24.

Eugene Wolfgang was appointed to the zoning hearing board for 2021-23, and Terri Hoffman was appointed to the same board to fill the unexpired term of Sheila Horwith until Dec. 31, 2022.

Horwith was named the alternate member of the zoning hearing board to fulfill Hoffman’s remaining term until Dec. 31, 2021.

John Barto and Leonard Nuss were named to the planning commission to serve 2021-23, and Rod Lowe was named the alternate to the planning commission to serve 2021-24.

Additionally, Holly Krause and Jenny Krumrine were appointed to serve on the recreation board from 2021-25.

Supervisor Dennis Klusaritz was named the planning commission board representative, and Hills was named representative to the recreation board.

The board also approved the establishment of the vacancy board, as well as the appointment of Scott Mellen to be the chairman of the board for 2021.

For meeting dates, board of supervisor meetings will continue to be the first Monday of each month, with the exception of the July and September, which will take place on the second Monday, at 7:30 p.m.

Zoning hearing board meetings will be the third Wednesday of each month and the planning commission meetings will be held the fourth Tuesday of every month, both as-needed at 7:30 p.m.

The recreation board will meet the third Monday of January, March, July and September at 7:30 p.m. and the farmland preservation and open space board will meet the first Thursday in February at 2 p.m., as well as the second Thursday in April, July and October at 7:30 p.m.

Lastly, the board also set township holidays according to the union contract, and also approved the Halloween celebration to be 6-8 p.m. Oct. 29 with no rain date.