Aug 4, 2014 4 min read

CARMICHAELS – Cumberland Township supervisors voted Monday to donate $20,000 to Flenniken Memorial Library to help the library replace its roof and to advertise for bids to replace the heating and air conditioning system at Carmichaels Senior Center.

The library needs a new roof and faces problems because of decreases in other funding sources, Supervisor William Groves said.

The supervisors agreed to provide the additional money to assist in the project from the township’s general fund. The township provides a donation to the library each year.

The supervisors agreed to advertise for bids for replacing the heat and air conditioning system at Carmichaels Senior Center, which is used as an emergency shelter.

The township will replace the system using township funds and some of the township’s Act 13 natural gas well impact fee money.

The bid packages will be available from K2 Engineering after Aug. 27. Bids will be open by the supervisors Oct. 6.

The supervisors also agreed to increase the base payment for work on a house in the township’s housing rehabilitation program from $16,000 to $20,000.

The program is funded by the township’s Community Development Block Grant. Marcia Sonneborn, the township’s grant administrator, said recent bids for work on home rehabilitations have all exceeded the $16,000 base.

Under the program, the township can spend more than the base amount on a home under certain circumstances that include abatement of lead-based paint, preservation of historic features or work required to meet certain building codes. The criteria will still apply under the new base limit, Sonneborn said.

The supervisors were asked about progress on the township’s proposed noise ordinance. Groves said the ordinance is about 90 percent completed and should be adopted before the end of the year.

The supervisors will announce the ordinance at a regular meeting and make it available for public review before adopting it at a subsequent meeting.

Resident Bob Willison asked the supervisors to consider eliminating the $5 per capita tax.

He questioned whether the tax was necessary when the township’s budget exceeds $4 million.

Willison also asked that criteria for people who are exempt from paying the tax be made public on the website of the Keystone Collections Group, which collects the township’s per capita tax.

Four people from Nemacolin addressed several issues with the supervisors. They first wanted to know why nothing has been done to force some property owners to mow their lawns.

Groves said residents who fail to mow their lawns are sent registered letters requesting they cut the grass and if they fail to comply the matter is presented to the district judge.

But it can take a long time before a hearing is held by the district judge on the matter, Groves said. The township also could cut the grass and place a lien on the property, but if it cut every yard that needs cut there would be no time for other work including repairing roads, he said.

Groves said there are no easy answers for addressing the problem. He said the supervisors would talk to Charlotte Blaker, the township code enforcement officer, about the particular properties.

The supervisors also were asked whether the roads in Nemacolin would be repaved. Supervisor Bill Nicholson said road surfaces in the village first have to be milled before they can be repaved. The road surface is too high and if it was repaved without being milled, water runoff form the road would flow into residents’ basements.

The township intends to tar and chip the roads in Nemacolin to preserve them. It doesn’t have a milling machine. Before the township can repave the roads in Nemacolin, it will first have to find a way to have them milled, Nicholson said.