Resolution 2025-08 adoption of township seal was one of several major topics of discussion at the Lowhill Township Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Aug. 14.

Mike Siegel, township manager, said one of the things that the board had asked him to do is bring consistency with the many things in the township.

“One of those things is to bring identity to Lowhill Township. Specifically right now the township is not identified, it’s what I call a consistent player with other municipalities and I don’t mean that in a harsh way I mean there’s some things that just should have been done many years ago and they have not been done,” he stated. “One of those is identifying public documents, for example permit applications, letterhead and identifying what and who Lowhill Township is.”

He said since the board hired him in May, one of the first things he wanted to do is bring identity to the township and one of the best ways to do that is to have an actual seal on the letterhead saying who we are and what our township represents.

“After listening to the board’s concerns and the planning commission’s concerns of what identifies Lowhill Township I worked with our web designer to come up with a seal that we could put on our letterhead, our building permit applications and even hang it up in here on the wall and put it on the gateway signage that I’m planning for next year,” Siegel stated. “The difficulty was to make the seal so it would be easily conveyed on all these documents and what we did is we worked out several drafts of the seal and we came up with some ideas.”

Siegel said one of the things he wanted to point out with this seal is what is exactly important to the residents and the community of Lowhill Township.

“So what I did is identified this seal into four distinct quadrants and each one of them means something to the heart of the residents of this township,” he stated.

Siegel then explained the different quadrants of the seal.

The first one on the far left identifies with a heritage tree along rolling hills with a single park bench which demonstrates the vast amount of natural park land and beautiful scenic vistas that all citizens can appreciate within Lowhill Township. This quadrant also accurately represents Lowhill Township’s valuable assets of the Lehigh Valley zoo and Trexler Nature Preserve for all the public to enjoy.

The second quadrant of the sealed displays a single house which visually portrays the major residential aspect of all Lowhill Township’s beautiful historic exorbitant village character for all residents.

The third one on the left that’s a deer overlooking the hills and stream, the Jordan in particular representing the vast amount of forest and open space within Lowhill Township as a home for thousands of various types of wildlife including animals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles all contained within environmentally sensitive areas along the Jordan Creek watershed.

It also portrays the role of the existing 1,300 acres of game lands that exist in Lowhill Township.

The last quadrant shown in the seal is of corn husks that instinctively demonstrates the critical role agricultural portraits in the daily activities among all citizens in Lowhill Township as portrayed nearly by the 1,000 acres of private farmland already preserved in Lowhill Township.

“That’s what I’ve come up with and I’m looking for the board’s approval to adopt that seal and put it on all the documents within the Township. I wanted to bring the heart of the residents into the picture here and I think I may have successfully done that,” Siegel said.

The board unanimously approved the new township seal.

Another major topic of discussion was Resolution 2025-07 for the PA Sewage Facilities Act 537 amendment regarding the Kline’s Island Wastewater Treatment Plant plan.

Curt Dietrich, board chairman, began the discussion by stating Resolution 2025-07 references Chapter 71 of Title 25 of the Pennsylvania Code.

According to the resolution, it requires the municipality to adopt an official sewage facilities plan providing for sewage services adequate to prevent contamination of waters and/or environmental health hazards with sewage wastes, and to revise said plan whenever it is necessary to meet the sewage disposal needs of the municipality.

Dietrich stated the document goes on to describe that ARRO Consulting has prepared a Regional Act 537 Plan which provides for a sewage facility in a portion of Lowhill Township and how it’s flow characterization study is to be completed in 5 years for seven items and talks about a municipal agreement with Lowhill Township.

David Brooman, township solicitor with High Swartz Attorneys at Law, explained because what the county did Lehigh County Authority has addressed the Department of Environmental Protection order they are under.

“They did a kind of Focus Act 537 to really deal with inflow and infiltration more than anything else. So you can imagine some of the older communities at the least Allentown, has significant inflow and infiltration problems which are causing problems down in Allentown,” Brooman explained. “You don’t have a built-out sewer system so while they want you to sign that there really is nothing under that for you to do. It’s also for those communities that will be most effective. If you read it carefully it’s an agreement to agree.”

After further discussion, the board agreed to table the resolution until they have a chance to have their questions regarding it answered by LCA.

The board also discussed the issue that presently the township doesn’t have a place for residents to take their yard waste.

Dietrich began the discussion by stating a resident contacted him asking him to place this item on the agenda.

Numerous options were made during the discussion but the board didn’t come up with a solution.

During the engineer’s comments, Ryan Christman, township engineer, with Keystone Consulting Engineers, discussed the issue of a stop sign at the T on Church Road.

“Over at Church and Farrier I think you need to discuss putting some stop sign installations which I can work with David (Brooman), on that to get the ordinance together,” Christman stated. “I guess we just need to confirm that Farrier would be going straight through without a stop and we’ll make it stop at the T at Church. I think that is the best way to do it than making it a three-way. I don’t think it’s necessary we don’t have the volume there. Curt (Dietrich) and I talked about it a little bit. I’ll work with David to get a resolution pretty straight forward.”

Christman also introduced Dave Alban from his office.

“He’s going to be filling in for me when I eventually retire,” he stated. “Dave is actually being phased in at North Whitehall also, so we thought it should be a real good fit (for Lowhill Township). He has been doing municipal work for a long time so you will see him from time to time. I’ll start phasing him in on some of this stuff.”

Prior to adjourning the meeting, Dietrich recognized Barry C. Betz, a member of the planning commission, who was not in attendance for his 29 years of service to Lowhill Township.