Accepting private donations to preserve a farm in Lynn Township was one of two major issues discussed at the May 8 board of supervisors meeting.

Fritz Najarian began the discussion on the farm donations.

He said for those members of the community who were not here at last month’s meeting, Larry Grim is in the process of preserving his remaining farmland through Agricultural Easement and 8.11 acres are in Lynn Township.

Najarian added that the appraisal is over Lehigh County’s cap of $6,000 at $6,450 per acre and Donna Wright, specialist, with Lehigh County Farmland Preservation asked if Lynn Township would consider contributing to the overage $3,649.50.

“In our meeting in April, the board, the three of us, voted to table that request because the township has not even created, funded or specified criteria regarding the involvement of the township in preserving farmland, so it was table to some future date,” he said. “On April 11, the following day two residents contacted me personally to assist funding the over cap dollar amount at which the farm is appraised.

“Resident one pledged $3,500 specifically towards funding the over cap amount of the Grim Farm. Resident two pledged $500 towards preserving the over cap amount of the Grim Farm and the balance to be used towards preserving Lynn Township farmland at a future date once the township has its program up and fully running.”

He stated both residents have requested to remain anonymous but they have a severe interest in preserving the rural character and beauty of Lynn Township.

“I spoke with Donna Wright because this is a whole new scenario with which I’ve not been familiar with. These moneys which total $4,000 is pledged from private individuals, this is not Lynn Township funds, this is not any of our tax funds,” Najarian explained. “Unfortunately, there’s no system in place within the Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation program that allows private individuals to financially donate to specific farmland preservation. The local municipality, the township is the only legal entity that’s allowed to take these funds and pass them through towards preservation.”

He added the township doesn’t use their own money; they act as a front man.

“Donna states that this process has been successfully implemented in other Lehigh County municipalities and that the acceptance and pass through of these private donations does not set up the township for any kind of precedence regarding its own participation in farmland preservation,” Najarian stated before deferring to Attorney Marc Fisher, township solicitor, for his comments.

Fisher said he was familiar with the cap process on behalf of another municipality.

“There is nothing that prohibits the township if it wishes to accept a private donation. I agree with Donna’s assessment it is not the normal way of doing it but you can do it if it is the wish of the board. I could probably craft a motion for you to consider. Beyond that I don’t think there’s anything else I need to say. It is permissible,” Fisher stated.

Ron Jerdon offered his comments.

“I am very much opposed to that and I’ll tell you why,” Jerdon said. “I completely support farmland preservation. I think it is a program that preserves the rural nature of our community and I think that is invaluable but I am opposed for the township to be accepting private donations that are just going to get funneled through to a property owner. I think it breeds inconsistency and with inconsistency sooner or later the lines are going to get grayed and I don’t think it’s the right approach to be taking. I think we need as a board to come up with a solid plan of how we would be funding that over cap so that it’s consistently delivered to all the residents that want to enter into farmland preservation.”

He added it’s wonderful the township has residents that are generous enough that they want to put their personal money out for that, but he would encourage them to go visit the Grim family and give them a check, they can give it to them directly, not have anything be feeding through the township.

Jerdon said he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the township to accept the funds.

At this point in the discussion, Chairman Brian Dietrich asked, “do we to have a motion on the floor?”

Najarian responded and began to make a motion for the board to accept these two private donations but before he could finish Fisher interjected and offered to make the motion.

“It would be a motion to approve the over cap payment of $3,649.50 for Larry Grim’s 8.11-acre parcel number 552-0557 737-90 contingent upon the following: resident number one provides $3,500 to the township with the condition that all that money is applied to the over cap amount to preserve that parcel. Secondly, resident number two pledged an additional $500 to the township with $149.50 of that amount being specifically earmarked for the over the cap appraisal amount with the balance to be deposited in the township toward future farmland preservation and thirdly that nothing related to this motion shall be deemed to set a precedent for any future contributions to be made by the township towards over the cap payment.”

Najarian seconded the motion before Dietrich opened the issue for more discussion.

Jerdon again offered comments.

“I think it would be totally appropriate for those residents to just pay the Grim family direct and not funnel it through the Township. Whether we say it’s going to start a precedents it will. Inconsistency is not what residences deserve. They need to have a consistent program in place that everyone is treated fairly and equally. I oppose it,” Jerdon stated.

Dietrich offered his comments.

“That’s fine. I agree to a certain extent. When you are using taxpayers’ dollars consistency has to be consistent. These are private funds. I had said earlier in tonight’s meeting about forward thinking landowners and residents of our township about preserving farms. I think the people that are donating money for this project are very forward thinking, so I absolutely agree with this,” he stated. “I mean you are right when you’re using taxpayer dollars there’s got to be a system in place that’s consistent but this is not taxpayer dollars.”

After further discussion, the board voted two to one with Najarian and Dietrich for accepting the residents’ donations and Jerdon against it.

The second major issue discussed was Lehigh County Authority’s letter sent to the township in June 2024 about getting together to start discussing some upgrades that are going to be required to the sewage treatment facility in the county.

“I had brought it up and at that point my counterparts said that we have other irons in the fire at this time and we needed to table that and so we did,” Jerdon stated. “I’ve noticed some of our neighboring municipalities are starting to engage in some of these conversations.”

He said the letter that they were sent indicated that the DEP has indicated that the system is operating at 100% of its permitted capacity, no additional sewer allocations exist for future connections and the last remaining equivalent dwelling units available for new connections were purchased with Madison Village, so at this point the system remains challenged by high flow conditions and during rainstorms exasperated by the fact that the system is operating at full capacity.

“We have a lot of residents that are tied into that sewage facility,” Jerdon stated. “I feel that we’re irresponsible if we don’t start to address this. I think there’s no risk to just being open to having a conversation with Lehigh County Authority and just talk about what it is that needs to be done. We are going to have a significant rainstorm one day and all of a sudden we are going to have the sewage system backing up and then Tammy White and Trish Burkhardt in the township office are going to get their heads ripped because residents are going to be calling and complaining they have a problem. I think we have a responsibility to do something about it.”

Najarian comments.

He said he read that ACT 537 letter last June.

“If Lehigh County Authority wants to expand the sewer plant they can certainly do it on their own accord they do not need to be inspecting however many thousands of private septic systems there are within our township,” Najarian said. “They can expand the plant if they care to. If Lynn Township insists upon expanding the plant at this point in order to allow more development within the sewer plant confines then you would need to do this but I’m not in favor of giving LCA the authority to inspect everyone’s private septic’s. If they want to expand the plant they could do it.”

Jerdon said he does not see any harm in the township at least having a conversation with them on what their thoughts are on the system and what the risks are and who is responsible for what.

He added there’s no risk; there’s no cost that the township is going to experience to do that.

Najarian again comments.

“They came to Lowhill Township because Lowhill Township has a couple dozen of residents that use the sewer treatment plant,” he stated. “If Lehigh County Authority wants to address their own problems on their own accord without making the township get involved in inspecting everyone’s private septic that is fine, but I am not in favor of it.

Dietrich also comments.

He said he agrees with Najarian that LCA can expand it and do upgrades to it on their own, but he is not in favor of them going around inspecting everybody’s septic systems in the township.