Lower Saucon Township Council appointed three representatives to a proposed library task force during its Dec. 1 general meeting.

The task force will investigate the feasibility of Lower Saucon Township switching its allegiance from the Bethlehem Area Public Library system to the Hellertown Area Public Library within the next two years. The committee will be made up of three representatives each from Lower Saucon Township, Hellertown Borough and the Hellertown library.

The township's representatives include Lynn Koehler, Michael Karabin and Kimberly LaBrake. Koehler has served as the township's representative to the Bethlehem Area Public Library; Karabin serves as a school director in the Saucon Valley School District; and LaBrake is a township resident and architect with experience designing libraries.

Rev. Lamar Handwerk, Hellertown Borough Council member Gail Nolf and Hellertown Planning Commission member Joseph Pampanin will represent the borough; and Michael Evangelista, Alison Finkbeiner and Jessica Goedtel will represent the library.

Township Manager Jack Cahalan stated that the task force is still in its nascent stages, and no specific objectives have been created.

He anticipates that meetings will begin by January, he added.

"Now that we have the members of the task force appointed, I will meet with the (Hellertown) borough manager and the Hellertown library director in the next week or so to go over what further plans we have for the task force," Cahalan said.

Borough manager Charles Luthar,  Hellertown library director Robin Rotherham and Cahalan will serve as "ex officio" members of the task force, acting as liaisons between the three entities.

The task force itself will be responsible for supplying council with a report by Nov. 1, 2011, before the 2012 budget is completed, it was announced.

The library investigative task force was proposed last summer, in part because approximately 50 percent of Lower Saucon residents already use the Hellertown library system.

If the consolidation occurs in the future, expansion of the Hellertown library might be necessary, Cahalan stated.