Mahoning Township Board of Supervisor S Meeting s2

MAHONING TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISOR’S MEETING Monday, January 28, 2013

CALL TO ORDER: John Wieczorek called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. at the Mahoning Township Building, 2685 Mahoning Drive East, Lehighton, PA 18235

ROLL CALL: PRESENT: John Wieczorek, Chairman; Franklin Ruch, Vice-Chairman; Linda Benner, Supervisor; Bruce Steigerwalt, Supervisor; Todd Weaver, Supervisor; Thomas Nanovic, Solicitor and Natalie D. Haggerty, Secretary-Treasurer

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION John Wieczorek made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2013 Board of Supervisors Meeting Seconded by Todd Weaver. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, abstain; Bruce Steigerwalt, abstain; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 3-0 vote. Motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT Mark Ebbert, MVVFC Thanked the Board for all they do for the township and support of the fire company. Extended that appreciation to the police department and road department as well.

Audie Mertz, OIC Shared with the Board the incident of 2006 Crown Vic striking a deer. Received quotes to repair: Wentz came in at $3700.00 and Blockers at $2200.00. His perspective is to retire the car due to the cost to repair verse value. High idle mileage of 300,000. Provided three quotes to purchase new with the option to defer payments for a year. The Board asked Audie to provide them one more quote from Milham. In the interim Natalie to contact insurance company to file claim. In other discussion Car 32 (Unmarked Vehicle) is at Lehighton Ford requiring $1200 to $2000 in repairs. MOTION John Wieczorek made a motion to authorize the police department to have repairs made to Car #32 not to exceed $2000. Seconded by Linda Benner. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS: Lowe’s Traffic Signal Maintenance Agreement MOTION John Wieczorek made a motion to adopt the Lowe’s Traffic Signal and Intersection Installation Maintenance and Indemnification Agreement. Seconded by Franklin Ruch. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried.

Super Walmart Traffic Signal Agreement - Table

Recreation Fees MOTION Bruce Steigerwalt made a motion to increase recreation fees from $200.00 to $300.00 per lot. Seconded by Franklin Ruch. Bruce Steigerwalt amended motion to any subdivision filed or enacted after January 28, 2013. Seconded by Franklin Ruch. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried. MOTION 1 january28,2013m MAHONING TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISOR’S MEETING Monday, January 28, 2013

Franklin Ruch made a motion to adopt Resolution 2013-8 Recreation Fees. Seconded by Bruce Steigerwalt. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried.

Street Openings - Table

CDBG Funds Bruce Steigerwalt wants an estimate of cost with drawing giving limits and written technical specifications and drawings and if it’s a PENNDOT 408 we will do it ourselves. John Wieczorek will reach out to Tim Edinger and will then pass along to the Board. Question of whether or not to forward application to Tim for Westside Road or complete ourselves.

Carbon County Animal Shelter (Wait until you hear back from the county to place on agenda)

Capital Improvement Fees Discussion took place. A lot of unanswered questions. How does this work in practice? Can we use the granted waiver money anywhere within Township? John will reach out to Tim Edinger with questions. Bring back to next agenda.

NEW BUSINESS

CORRESPONDENCE MOTION John Wieczorek made a motion to approve and place on file the correspondence dated January 28, 2013. Seconded by Linda Benner. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried ***T & M ASSOCIATES, TIMOTHY EDINGER RE: C2P2 GRANT WINDOW IS OPEN-PARK, TRAIL, RIVERS, CONSERVATION PLANNING

***CARBON COUNTY DEPT OF SOLID WASTE, DUANE DELLECKER RE: FUTURE OF COUNTY RECYCLING PROGRAM Contact Duane Dellecker to find out if the electronic recycling will continue in 2013 and request contact for future *** T & M ASSOCIATES, TIMOTHY EDINGER RE: BEAVER STREET CONSTRUCTION

***NANOVIC LAW OFFICES, THOMAS NANOVIC RE: CENTAX TAX BUREAU OF PA, INC.

COMMITTEE REPORTS: Police Committee Discussed earlier in minutes.

Road Committee Franklin Ruch advised they had a meeting with road crew. Mentioned the plywood is up, they painted, they would like to construct a workbench it will cost roughly $400-500. They are need of fire extinguishers, first aid kits, getting some new accounts open, blade for street cutting, scanner, shelving and a phone system. Discussed an 2 january28,2013m MAHONING TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISOR’S MEETING Monday, January 28, 2013 email sharing that the township and solicitor does not have to be carbon copied on information with regards to pole building. Bruce Steigerwalt took part in a walk thru last week, punch list items will be addressed by contractor. Basically we need to get water, communications and electricity into the building and then get our generator tied in.

OFFICIALS: Todd Weaver  Feed back on an article in The Times News regarding Packerton Yards. Recalled a conversation I had with Commissioners Gerhard and Nothstein sharing that years ago while the Packerton Yards Building was in place that Lionel Trains wanted to come into the Packerton Yards and offered to put in a museum and factory and was turned down by the commissioners. The reason I bring that up is because I’m shocked. Within that news article it seems Commissioner O’Gurek says that they are the only ones concerned about bringing jobs in and inferring that we don’t. Yet here was an opportunity for jobs and he turned it down. Politics as usual which I am not a politician. I just don’t understand how they feel that we are telling them do the same thing according to the zoning but they feel that are above that and they don’t need to follow our zoning.

Franklin Ruch  Bidding limits went up  Recycling of electronics and its future of being placed on the municipality. Waste haulers will not pick up. Natalie will contact Duane Dellecker to see if electronic recycling is in place in Mahoning for 2013 and ask for a contact for the future.  Question for Police Committee, did we receive Moressi and Getz issuances back. Bruce Steigerwalt  A new home is being built within Hillside Acres. There is not enough site distance to pull out; so to alleviate the issue he is requesting to share a driveway with his neighbor (brother). Agreed that an agreement needs to be shared with the township and solicitor describing shared driveway and responsibility of maintenance.  Also discussed issue of stormwater and not being enforced in the township. He will set up a meeting with LeRoy Leibenguth and Carl Faust. Linda Benner  Commented on the latest rambling of County Commissioners. They have been very offensive and they actually are not considering the intelligence of the people on this Board, the entire township and county. Do they really think that no one has followed this fiasco since day one? When this property was originally purchased, did anyone look into it? Did any one take the time for tests of contamination or look into having tests done to see if you can turn tractor trailers around down there? No…. So, there they sat with this big piece of property that they can’t do anything with it and suddenly it is our fault because we ask them to comply with the ordinances of this township. How could us asking them, to adhere to our ordinances make this county have a 48% increase in taxes? This totally is there fault and now we are suppose to take the blame for this… I don’t think so. First of all when they said business after business wanted to come in there and because of the hostility of this board no one wants to come in. I am here for a little over two years and when I first came on Board we literally had to beg them to come and talk to us and one of my favorite questions when they did finally approach was how many business’s are looking at that property? The answer was always one. Maybe it still is that same one now that they are caught in this fiasco and our commissioners making others think that those on this Board don’t want industry, business and jobs. Have they been on Route 443 lately? I feel we have done a good job bringing business here and providing jobs for the township and county.

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 Requesting an executive session at conclusion of meeting. John Wieczorek  Commented on the Packerton Yards. There is a magical quality about the Packerton Yard project. It has unified the County Commissioners; including two that campaigned against it an was not elected in part because he supported it. Without indicating all of the money spent on the project Mr. Nothstein claims that we are losing a lot of money. He indicates that another business that wanted to develop a project in Mahoning Township pulled out because of hassles and hoops that they had to jump through. However he does not identify the project. Mr. Gerhard now admits that the previous administration wanted to create jobs and has changed his stripes to, after being opposed is now a strong advocate of the project. Who can be against creating an atmosphere that produces jobs? In the event that they have not noticed Carbon County has needed jobs since the mines closed. They, the commissioners reference all of the denied revenues unlike those provided by Ametek. Do they not remember that they wanted to create a KOZ? Revenues would not have started flowing to the county, Township and the school District for years. That they, the Commissioners claim that they are in jeopardy of losing $5 million, free money in grants has absolutely nothing to do with their constant revisions including one disclosed at the day of the Court hearing. That they say they want to cooperate but not providing advance notice of the revision until in the court room. Their whining continues to the point that this magical Packerton Yard project has caused an overload of the County Court system. It is the cause requiring the commissioners to increase county taxes by 48% and not moving forward contributes to the high rate of unemployment. They need to stop the whining. Stop blaming others roll up their sleeves and begin performing the job that they are supposed to do. As an aside, why when they are so intent in creating jobs in Carbon County do they have to go outside of the county for legal advice? At what cost?  Executive session at the conclusion of meeting for legal matters.

ADJOURNMENT: MOTION John Wieczorek made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:05 PM. Seconded by Linda Benner. John Wieczorek, yes; Franklin Ruch, yes; Bruce Steigerwalt, yes; Linda Benner, yes and Todd Weaver, yes 5-0 vote. Motion carried.

Respectfully Submitted,

Natalie D. Haggerty Secretary-Treasurer

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