Two Lehigh County communities are splitting $891,000 in state grant money, with Emmaus Borough set to overhaul Boroline Park and South Whitehall Township poised to extend the Jordan Creek Greenway another mile toward Parkland High School. State Senator Nick Miller announced the funding on October 13, saying the money comes through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Community Conservation Partnerships Program.
Miller, who represents Pennsylvania’s 14th Senatorial District, said two Lehigh County projects in his district will receive a combined $891,000 in grants, according to a release from pasenate.com. Of that total, Emmaus Borough is in line for $391,000 through the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to rehabilitate Boroline Park, while South Whitehall Township will receive $500,000 through the Keystone Community Program to keep building out the Jordan Creek Greenway.
The Boroline Park overhaul covers a lot of ground. Plans call for parking and baseball field improvements, a natural play area, new playground equipment, ADA accessibility upgrades, landscaping and other site improvements, per the same release.
A New Mile Toward Parkland High School
In South Whitehall, the grant money will help fund roughly one mile of trail running from Lapp Road to North Cedar Crest Boulevard, according to the senator’s announcement. The Lehigh Valley Press, which first reported the latest round of grants, noted the funding supports the ongoing buildout of the greenway, which also includes ADA accessibility, landscaping and other site improvements.
The new segment will specifically link the Lapp Road parking lot at Covered Bridge Park to the intersection of Cedar Crest Boulevard and the entrance road to Parkland High School, according to lehighvalleylive.com. The stretch will be about a mile of 10-foot-wide paved trail built for shared use, and the project also includes a marked crosswalk at Ritter Road, the outlet reported. Construction will begin once final engineering and permitting are finished, though officials have not announced a start date.
Years in the Making
The Jordan Creek Greenway has gone up in pieces over several years. Its first South Whitehall section opened in 2019, and the township added a mile through Covered Bridge Park in 2024, lehighvalleylive.com reported. That 2024 stretch connected Wehr Mill Road to Lapp Road, according to wdiy.org.
The vision extends well beyond the latest mile. When finished, the greenway will connect Allentown with Lehigh County’s Trexler Nature Preserve as part of the LINK Trail Network, per the lehighvalleylive.com report. South Whitehall Township’s own project page describes a far larger ambition: a proposed 14-mile Jordan Creek Greenway Trail crossing four municipal borders, with seven of those miles linking the township’s eastern and western borders, according to southwhitehall.com.
Stacking State Dollars
This isn’t the first state check written for this particular stretch of trail. The segment has drawn $2 million in state-administered grants altogether, including a $1.5 million PennDOT award in May, lehighvalleylive.com reported. A separate account from wdiy.org describes a $1.5 million PennDOT award in June 2026 to advance construction of the same segment, while wfmz.com has reported that South Whitehall received a $1 million PennDOT Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grant for a one-mile section of the greenway through Covered Bridge Park — accounts that differ on the exact dollar figure for that earlier award.
Beyond that, pasenate.com reported in May that South Whitehall was allocated $1.5 million to construct Segments 35 through 40 of the Jordan Creek Greenway Trail, part of a broader regional push that also sent $823,698 to Allentown for 1.1 miles of shared-use path connecting to the D&L Trail and $902,575 to Hanover Township for a mile of shared-use path along the former D&L Canal towpath. Separately, wfmz.com reported that South Whitehall was awarded $150,000 from DCNR for design and engineering covering the greenway’s first two phases.
What Officials Are Saying
In the announcement, Miller framed the funding around access and quality of life. “Every community deserves parks and outdoor spaces that are safe, accessible and welcoming for everyone,” he said, according to pasenate.com. He added that “the investments will give Lehigh County residents more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, stay active and connect with their communities,” and said he is proud to support projects that strengthen neighborhoods and improve residents’ quality of life.
The Community Conservation Partnerships Program, which is managed by the DCNR Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, is designed to support recreational improvements, natural resource conservation and community revitalization efforts across the state, per the senator’s release. Its stated aim, according to the same source, is to build connections between Pennsylvanians and the outdoors.
