East Allen homes to move off well
Property owners to connect to new main intended to supply industrial project.
A community well serving homeowners in East Allen Gardens will soon be abandoned thanks to a water main extension being planned by the City of Bethlehem to serve an industrial development.
A proposed 8-inch main extension — northward from Jaindl Land Company’s forthcoming warehouse complex along Seemsville Road in Allen Township to the Mud Lane subdivision — will affect 25 to 30 homes within the East Allen Township portion of the development, Township Manager Brent Green told township supervisors Monday.
Green will soon meet with representatives from the City of Bethlehem Department of Water and Sewer Resources to voice agreement with a letter to both townships and the developer from Director Edward Boscola.
Boscola wrote that the diameter of the line should be increased to 12 inches in order to guarantee adequate flow, ensure enhanced emergency response in the event of fire and to better provide service for future growth.
Increasing capacity for fire suppression “is definitely a plus,” East Allen Supervisor Mark Schwartz said.
The 4,200-foot extension would run along Seemsville Road from the proposed Jaindl Lane Company development in Allen Township, which calls for six warehouses totaling 2.5 million square feet between Seemsville and Howertown roads.
The line will connect to the well pump on Prospect Drive in East Allen and will necessitate the installation of a small booster pump to be connected to the existing network of distribution piping currently serving the development, wrote Boscola.
Four fire hydrants will then be installed along Mud Lane, where none exist at present.
Roughly 25-30 homes are in the East Allen side of the development, with another 40 or so situated across the boundary line in Allen Township.
There will be no cost to residents in order to connect to the line, and no time frame has been set for when the work will begin, Green said.
The line extension amounts to a good will gesture on the part of the developer and is not a requirement of the land development plan, Allen Township Manager Ilene Eckhart said.