Heidelberg Township Board of Supervisors discussed two key road issues at their July 16 meeting.

The first issue was Mantz and Bake Oven roads realignment.

David Fink, board of supervisor vice chairman and director of public works, said months ago that one issue found during a recent road inspection was that Mantz Road does not intersect with Bake Oven Road at the T.

“We engaged Keystone Consulting Engineers to take a look at the cost projection for [correctingthe issue],” he said. “We received that report a little while ago. Just the soft cost alone is just under $200,000.”

He said township workers could put it in and black top it for less than the projected soft cost, so at this point he sees no sense in going any further with the issue.

Jay Scheffler, fire chief with Germansville Fire Company, said in his 32 years he has been with the fire company, the company has never had any issues or accidents with Mantz Road near Bake Oven Road.

The second issue was the township’s traffic signal maintenance service provider which was previously Telco.

Telco recently announced it will not longer service traffic signals.

Dawn Didra, township manager, said she contacted four companies that were provided to her by Telco.

“One of them said no, that they’re too far away,” she said. “The other two we’re still waiting to hear back from to get quotes from, but we did get one quote from CM High Inc., and it seems in line with what we were paying with Telco.”

Didra said it is up to board members if they want to wait another month and see what else comes in and see if we can find out anything about CM High Inc.

Jonathan Jakum, board of supervisor chairman, said he thinks the board can table it for another month.

Kevin Huber, road superintendent, said he doesn’t know anything about the company but that the township needs somebody.

Fink said his recommendation would be to contact CM High Inc., the company from Myerstown, and ask them for their history on their response time.

Didra said based on the fact that they got back to her like within hours of speaking to them and nobody else has that’s a good sign to her.

“If their time is good I’d make the motion that we hire them pending review of their response time,” Fink said.

The motion was unanimously approved.

Jakum, who is also the director of office operations, said during his monthly report township staff met with Munibit for security update on the website.

He said beginning April 26, 2027, legislation will require township websites to be ADA compliant. “Munibit estimates we are already 98% compliant and will continue to monitor the legislation to keep us in compliance,” Jakum said.

Matthew Schneider, board member and director of parks and recreation, provided the board with an update on Night in the Country scheduled for Aug. 15.

“We are still planning Night in the Country, putting everything together and finishing up last minute details,” he said.

He said the parks and recreation committee are putting up a new fence on the pickle ball court. “They are having trouble with people parking where they’re not supposed to be behind and next to the building,” Schneider said. “They weren’t happy about that.”

Teena Bailey with the township’s farmland preservation committee said the committee was visited by a representative from the state Farmland Preservation Committee at their meeting on July 15.

“He filled us in about federal funding possibilities for farmland preservation which add another layer of protection,” she said. “There are a few more contingencies that go with a federal preservation as opposed to state, local or townships. That is what we learned last night.”