PALMER TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING
MARCH 27, 2007
A
general business meeting of the Palmer Township Board of Supervisors was held
on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Palmer
Library with all Supervisors in attendance.
Also in attendance were the Township Manager, Director of Public
Services, Planning Director, Police Lieutenant, and the Township
Solicitor.
2. APPROVAL
OF DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS – MARCH 27, 2007
INFORMATION
The report will be provided at the meeting.
DISCUSSION
On motion by Mitchell, seconded by Panella, and agreed by all, the Board approved the disbursement of funds for March 27, 2007.
3. APPROVAL
OF MINUTES – MARCH 19, 2007
DISCUSSION
On motion by Smith, seconded by Lammi, and agreed by four, Colver abstained because he was not at the March 19th meeting, the Board approved the minutes of March 19, 2007.
4.
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove permitting
DISCUSSION
Bruno said he received a
letter from Attorney Dan Cohen requesting approval to work in a township
easement. Engineer Dillman presented a
plan to the Board outlining the area of the easement. Dillman said the hospital has work to do in
the township easement area. Bruno said
it isn’t a request for an easement it’s just a request to allow the hospital to
work in the township easement.
On motion by Lammi, seconded by
Panella, and agreed by all, the Board approved access to
5. ESTATES AT
NORTHWOOD ESCROW RELEASE
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the escrow release.
DICUSSION
On motion by
Lammi, seconded by Mitchell, and agreed by all, the Board approved escrow
release number one for the Estates at Northwood in the amount of $159,052.00.
6. FOX RUN ESTATES
ESCROW RELEASE
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the escrow release.
DISCUSSION
On motion by
Mitchell, seconded by Panella, and agreed by all, the Board approved escrow
release number five for Fox Run Estates in the amount of $241,546.53
7. AGREEMENT OF
MUTUAL RELEASE
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the agreement of mutual release.
DISCUSSION
Bruno said this item was previously
discussed by the Board and you were informed in detail by the Public Services
Director.
On motion by Mitchell, seconded by
Panella, and agreed by all, the Board authorized payment of $1,000 to Jeff and
Christina Godley.
8.
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the postcard exemption.
DISCUSSION
On motion by Lammi, seconded by Smith, and
agreed by all, the Board approved the planning module postcard exemption for
9. EASEMENT
AGREEMENT BETWEEN
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the easement agreement.
DISCUSSION
Bruno
said this is an old topic that was discussed a few years ago by the Public
Services Director.
On motion by Lammi, seconded by Smith, and
agreed by all, the Board approved the easement agreement between the township
and Binney and Smith related to use of railroad right-of-way owned by the
township for parcel L9-4-1.
10. WASTE
HAULING AND RECYCLING BID AWARDS
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove the waste hauling bids.
DISCUSSION
Colver reviewed the background on the
Environmental Steering Committee’s (ESC) research and recommendations and
explained the bid process that has taken place in the past several months. Colver said the Board would like to discuss
it tonight and before a motion is voted on this evening the public will have an
opportunity to comment.
Colver said the three year bid for the all
inclusive option will cost the residents $299 year which includes the township
13% administration fee, and the five year contract cost would be $317
year. Colver said the toter option for
three years would cost $300 a year and the five year option would cost $303 a
year. Colver said the up front cost for
the toter option is why you don’t see a big difference in costs. Colver said the numbers did come down
approximately 5% from the first initial bid when comparing the all inclusive
numbers.
Panella said her concern from the start
was she thought it would cost a lot less going with the toter option and it
doesn’t. Panella
said there is also the issue of moving a 96 gallon toter around for our older
residents. Panella said you could go
with a 32 gallon toter but there would be no discount. Panella said because of that she can’t
support the toter.
Panella said if the 32 gallon toter included a
discount it would be different.
Lammi said he’s been involved in the ESC
and has supported the toter program from the start. Lammi said he’s seen it work in the three
communities his children live in and in neighboring communities to Palmer. Lammi said he doesn’t feel it’s something
we’re ready for yet here in Palmer.
Lammi said he met with the Citizen’s Advisory Board last night and
presented the two options for their opinions.
Lammi said their consensus was to stay with the all inclusive. Lammi said if he was sitting in the audience
as a resident he would support the toter option. Lammi said personally he supports the toter
but he doesn’t feel it is right for the township right now, but he believes it
will have to come eventually. Lammi said
as Panella said, there are some issues that will continue to need to be
resolved. Lammi said he agrees to go
with the all inclusive option at this time and maybe go with the toter option
next time around. Lammi said we learned
a lot through this process and obviously we didn’t know the impact of the
numbers until the bids were received.
Lammi said it is very difficult to justify from a cost perspective.
Smith said he’s reviewed the contracts and
he’s talked to many people about it in the township. Smith said we definitely need to recycle
better and the toter program was aimed at doing that. Smith said he is a little disappointed with
the cost of the toter program. Smith
said it’s been said a second contract with toters would include a savings
because there would be no start up costs.
Smith said there is no guarantee of that. Smith said the unlimited is the most cost
efficient way to go. Smith said we try
to take into account what the residents say.
Smith said he will be voting for the all inclusive but would like the
public to understand that at some point we will be going in the direction of
toters. Smith thanked the ESC for the
hundreds of hours they put into researching and gathering data on this
project.
Mitchell said basically he feels the same
as everyone else on the Board. He’s
spoken with about 75 residents and they all feel the same way about the all
inclusive option. Mitchell said he
doesn’t think it’s fair to raise the costs and cut the services.
Colver said because of our ESC the
residents have enjoyed a $152 rate for six years. That’s pretty much unheard of and our
neighbors haven’t had that opportunity. Colver
said unfortunately now our rate is going to double and there isn’t anything we
can do about that. Colver said our
residents have become accustomed to a high level of services provided by the
township. Colver said initially he was
never a supporter of the toter program but halfway through the process he saw a
need for the township tonnage to go down and the toter option would help
that. Colver said there has been an
overwhelming response from the public through telephone calls and emails and
not one resident came to him personally asking for the toter option. Colver said making the changes to the
contracts and re-bidding put us in a time crunch and that issue will go away
staying with the all inclusive option.
Colver said we also need to discuss the three year versus the five year
option. Colver said he would vote for
the all inclusive option.
Lammi made a motion, it was seconded by
Mitchell, to select the “all-inclusive” trash and recycling bid option. Colver opened it up to public comment on the
motion and asked for opinions on the three year versus five year option.
Catherine Grey,
Chris and Mindy Danko,
Jo Hodick, 16 Freedom Terrace, wanted to
now why we’re paying 100% more for the same garbage services. She asked if it was because of all the new
developments. Colver said it has to do
with the providers insurance costs, workers’ compensation costs and landfill
costs. Colver said there was a ten year
spread from the time the last contract data was collected to this
contract. Hodick said she’s a senior
citizen that has hardly any garbage and doesn’t even need to put trash out
every week. Hodick asked if there wasn’t
a senior citizen discount available.
Colver said unfortunately there isn’t.
Colver said it would be very difficult to track who has what trash if we
had different levels of trash pick up.
Colver said years ago the ESC looked at the option of residents
contracting out their own trash. Colver
said that could put five or six garbage trucks on your street each week. Lammi said he has a friend in
Janet Hodick,
Bill Fox, J. P. Mascaro & Sons, said
they will be happy to serve this community no matter what option the township
chooses. Fox said when you locked in six
years ago you benefited and it is very likely you would benefit again going
with the longer term contract.
Sam Augustine, Director of Sales for J. P.
Mascaro, said they will do a good job no matter what option is taken. Augustine said there is also a sixth year
option that is part of the contract.
Augustine said five years ago everyone was going with three year
contracts. Augustine said because of
landfill costs most communities now are going with longer contracts.
Robert Natkie, J. P. Mascaro, said he
lives in the township and is the General Manager of the Allentown Division and
will be very happy to serve this community.
Natkie said the longer term you lock into is a benefit since rates are
always going up and landfill rates are always increasing.
Richard Schlichter,
Ron Scalzo,
Joe Alessi, 64 Clairmont, said he’s seen
the toters used effectively on flat areas.
Alessi said we have a lot of hilly areas in the township like Hillcrest,
Parkview, and Old Orchard. Alessi said
his driveway is very steep and it would be difficult to move up and down the
driveway and the toter wouldn’t sit flat at the bottom of his drive.
John Hummer Sr.,
George Baker,
Mike Miller,
Tim Shepherd,
Mike Kist,
Colver introduced Rob Reese, Co-Chair of
the Environmental Steering Committee, and
Rob Reese said he would like to speak as a
concerned citizen and also the silent majority.
Reese said the Board’s duty is to represent the best interest of the
township. Reese said you can be leaders
or politicians. Leaders make tough
decisions and politicians make the easy choices. Your decision tonight can put us back three
or five years. Reese said we don’t know
if we will continue to receive recycling money.
Reese said the residents who complain about the residents that don’t
recycle continue to subsidize those residents.
Reese reviewed some figures regarding current recycling rates. Reese said we need recycling rates to
increase and still provide a service to our residents and he asked the Board to
make the right decision this evening.
Chris Danko, said in the fall the township
is very good at picking up leaves that residents rake curbside. Danko asked for individuals who bag grass
clippings could there be a way for the township to come by once a week to suck
up the grass clippings. Colver said
there is no where to go with the clippings.
Danko said a science magazine he reads talks about turning trash into
bio fuels and it’s a very easy process.
Lammi said
James Young,
The motion was voted on, agreed by all, to
award the all inclusive option.
Colver asked the Board for their opinions
on the three year versus five year option.
Lammi again noted he supports the toter option but he is voting all
inclusive because he doesn’t feel the township is ready for toters. Lammi said he’d like to see us continue with
having the toter option as our goal so he’s not too sure he wants to wait five
years to move in that direction. Lammi
said cost containment in the long run will begin to save the township
money. Lammi said he doesn’t believe the
cost will continue to increase 18% per year.
Lammi said he could be wrong but he doesn’t continue to see fuel
increases as we have in the past. Lammi
said he can’t disagree with locking in with a five year price, but looking from
the other side, he would recommend the three year contract with one year
option.
Smith said he knows how much work goes
into this process and the time that it takes.
Smith said he will go with the five year option. Mitchell said he thinks the township should
take the five year option. Panella
agreed to lock in on the five year costs because she doesn’t see savings coming
soon on workers’ compensation costs or fuel costs. Colver said there is good reason to cap our
exposure for the next five years. Colver
said it’s a $1.50 per month difference between three and five years. Colver said he’s going to err on the side of
caution and cap our exposure for the future and go with five years. Lammi said he made his views known but won’t
vote against his colleagues.
Mitchell made a motion to award the bid to
the lowest bidder, J. P. Mascaro, for the five year contract, subject to all
conditions associated with the bid being satisfied to the satisfaction of the
township solicitor and per bid specifications.
The motion was seconded by Smith, and agreed by all.
Lammi thanked the ESC and the recycling
coordinator for all their hard work and dedication.
11. DISCUSSION
REGARDING BANKED SICK DAYS
INFORMATION
The
Board needs to approve/disapprove payment of banked sick days.
DISCUSSION
Anckaitis said a township employee that
plans on retiring within the next ten months has requested early payout of his
banked sick days. Anckaitis said the
total cost to the township to pay out now is $13,860. Anckaitis said if we wait until he retires next
year we would be paying the days at his 2008 pay rate and it would increase an
additional $414. Anckaitis said he is
recommending that we do it now.
Anckaitis said the only thing he would caution on is to condition the
payout because I’ve had another individual who will retire in five years that
would be interested in doing the same thing.
Anckaitis said if we pay people off now it saves us money but if
something happened with their performance, attitude, etc. and they would end up
being dismissed from their position prior to their retirement, they would have
received a benefit they would have lost by being discharged. Anckaitis said he would recommend we change
the wording in our personnel manual that if the employee is within one year of
retirement they can request early payment of their banked sick days. Mitchell asked if we received a letter from
the individual stating his intention to retire.
Anckaitis said we could do that but if he decides to stay another year,
what would it hurt.
On motion by Smith, seconded by Mitchell,
and agreed by all, the Board agreed to amend the township policy to state if an
employee requests early payout of banked sick days they need to be within one
year of their retirement date.
On motion by Smith, seconded by Mitchell,
and agreed by all, the Board approved the early payout of the banked sick days
in the amount of $13,860.
12. TOWNSHIP
ENGINEER CAPITAL PROJECTS UPDATE
INFORMATION
The township engineer will update the Board on the status of all capital projects.
DISCUSSION
Dillman said he submitted plans to Penndot
for the highway occupancy permit for Route 248 and
Dillman reviewed the
Dillman said they’ve been working with
Verizon and Met Ed and they are both removing their poles slowly but they are
doing it for free. Dillman said there
are a half dozen poles they will be able to slide just a few feet in one
direction. Dillman said the contractor
has hit some rock but it all falls within contract. Colver asked if we are any closer to
finalizing plans for the next part of the project.
13. PUBLIC COMMENT
Ronald
Grimsby,
14. REPORTS
Solicitor
· Bruno had an extension agreement for the Highlands of Glenmoor requesting an extension until December 31, 2007 that was discussed last week. Bruno said at that meeting the Board questioned what work needed to be completed that required such a long extension. Dillman said when the project was processed we thought that it would be advantageous to have them do the roadwork according to township specifications in case the streets would end up needing to be turned over to the township at some point in the future. Dillman said the finished road surface doesn’t need to be completed until 80% of homes are constructed. Therefore, it will be most likely until the end of the year that they could put the surface course on. Lammi said the Board wasn’t sure if the improvements included the interior roads. Lammi asked where they stood for work on Van Buren. Dillman said it’s scheduled for this summer. On motion by Lammi, seconded by Smith, and agreed by all, the Board authorized the Chairman to sign the extension request.
·
Bruno had an extension request from Easton Self
Storage,
· Bruno had an extension request for the Villages at Mill Race, Phase 2, requesting an extension until June 30, 2007 to complete public improvements. On motion by Smith, seconded by Mitchell, and agreed all, the board approved the extension request.
· Bruno had a request from Laslo Custom Kitchens requesting an extension until August 27, 2007 to enter into an improvements agreement with the township. On motion by Smith, seconded by Panella, and agreed by all, the Board approved the extension request.
· Bruno had a request from Mr. Preston, Nic Zawarski & Sons, for the Charlotte Avenue Land Development plan requesting an extension until April 26, 2007 to enter into agreement for plan approval with the township. Bruno said this development will probably transfer to Ashley Development Corporation. On motion by Smith, seconded by Mitchell, and agreed by all, the Board approved the extension request.
· Bruno said a zoning appeal was filed on behalf of David Grucela regarding the Jennie Melham property. Bruno asked if the Board wanted to authorize him to intervene with the Zoning Hearing Board attorney to challenge. The Board all agreed. On motion by Lammi, seconded by Panella, and agreed by all, the Board authorized the solicitor to intervene on behalf of the township.
· Bruno had two litigation items for executive session.
Township Manager
·
Anckaitis said the grant we submitted for
building restrooms between the two fields at the
· Anckaitis said the following properties on Babbling Brook by the sinkhole, have been acquired by the quarry company: King, Pridgen, Dietrick, and the Baccadora properties. Anckaitis said the only property not closed on is the Nitale property because no one knows where the owner is. Anckaitis said the company will now start working with the insurance company. Anckaitis said they are also working with the township sewer department regarding demolition of some of the properties. Anckaitis said they can’t do anything with the sinkhole until they get the Nitale property.
Colver said we had money in the 2007 budget for the community center project. Colver said since we didn’t get the grant we may want to use the money we budgeted for the roadwork improvements at Bethman and Green Pond Roads.
Public Services Director
·
Planning Director
· Jensen said last month we discussed the HRP report for the Remaly project and she said she is waiting for the final copy of the contract.
· Jensen reviewed statistics with the Board for the number of grants submitted and the number of grants denied by the state as a follow up to the township manager’s report regarding denial of the community center grant.
· Jensen asked if there were any items to discuss regarding the Zoning Hearing Board agenda. There were none.
· Jensen said she spoke to Steve Goffredo and he said they will be starting the filtration pond in two to three weeks at Villages of Mill Race so we may be able to use the fields in the fall.
Police Lieutenant
·
Young said about a year ago he thought the
Recreation Board came to agreement on closing parks at dusk. Smith said he’d make some calls to make sure
there weren’t any issues. Anckaitis said
he didn’t believe the Recreation Board ever approved it.
·
Young said regarding the State Police Aggressive
Driving initiative, the township department isn’t currently involved because we
have too many officers out. We will be
involved in it this summer.
Supervisors
·
Colver said in the past we discussed doing
fireworks at
·
Colver said a few months ago we talked about the
dire need for expansion of fire station two on
· Colver said the new fire vehicle is due the end of April and will go into station two and the old truck will be put up for sale and the Suburban will be placed at station one.
On motion by Smith, seconded by Mitchell, and agreed by all, the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m. with two litigation items for executive session.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert G. Anckaitis
Township Manager