© 2003 by Joel Buckley
Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT A TOWNSHIP DOCUMENT. Conewago Online is not affiliated in anyway with the municipal government of Conewago Township. The township does not release the official meeting minutes until they are approved at the next regular monthly meeting. To slake the public's thirst for knowledge in the interim, Conewago Online's crack reporter, "Flash" Buckley, presents this summary. Flash takes terrible notes, does not always pay attention, so errors are possible and accuracy is not guaranteed, and is indeed most unlikely. (Don't worry, Shirley, your job is not in danger.) For an official copy of the meeting minutes, you'll have to wait until they are released at next month's meeting. An online version can be found at www.conewagoonline.com/tdocs.htm.The Conewago Township Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on February 19, 2003 to present the draft agreement between Conewago Township and DTMA. Those present were:
Call Meeting to Order
There was a meeting (executive session--meaning public not allowed) going on with DTMA representatives as the public arrived for the scheduled special meeting. It was announced that despite the announcement a week earlier that a draft agreement would be presented tonight, that there were still some "issues to be resolved" and so no agreement would be presented. The board indicated they would be going back into executive session. Rather than immediately adjourning the public meeting and sending home all the interested citizens who had braved the snow to attend, they held a short period for public comment and questions--many of which they couldn't or wouldn't answer.
Public Comment Period
Maurice asked what the tapping fee and annual fee were going to be. Sorry, they couldn't say.
Ruth (I am not Mrs. Widome, that's my mother-in-law) Siegel
(Sorry, Ruth. Seriously, I know how it feels--Joel {I am not Mr. Ostrov} Buckley)
Ruth Siegel, perhaps anticipating that these fees are going to be unpleasantly high, wanted to discuss using general fund revenues to defray the cost of the project. There was a bit of discussion pro and con on this idea. One of the supervisors responded that several hundred thousand dollars of general fund revenues had already been spent on this project (mostly design fees? to DTMA). While it wasn't explicitly stated, I got the impression that perhaps these amounts would not be added to the rate base (capital construction costs) that the sewer users will have to pay and perhaps this would be the extent of the township's contribution to the project costs. Though they didn't exactly say that, and I don't know if that's actually been decided. So the $3.3 million quoted as the cost of the sewer--does that NOT include $300,000 already spent on design fees, etc? Is the cost really $3.6 million? Inquiring minds want to know.
Todd Kreiser said that he wanted to commend the board for not rushing into things and taking the time to get a good agreement.
Let's see. Under the Township's 1998 Act 537 Plan, this agreement was scheduled to be adopted in 1999. Before we spent over a quarter million dollars on design fees, before bidding on the construction was advertised. I would agree that the board has been taking its time to get an agreement. Whether it will be a good one, remains to be seen.
Joel Buckley asked if the board would advertise the agreement and allow a period of time for public review and comment before voting on it. Solicitor Yost replied that they might advertise a special meeting one day in advance in the Lebanon Daily News (Ed Note: everybody in the township reads that paper, right?) and present and vote to approve the agreement at the same meeting.
Remember - Next regular Board of Supervisors Meeting is Wednesday March 12 at 7:30 pm. A special meeting to approve an agreement with DTMA could be held one day after being published in the Lebanon Daily Item. Naturally, ConewagoOnline will post notice of any special meeting on its website as soon as I hear about it. And just in case you are not yet in the habit of logging on to ConewagoOnline every day, you can contact the webmaster to ask to receive an e-mail alert when sewer news is posted on the site.
That's it - Flash