The Harford Township Supervisors will need at least 2 meetings this month to get through pending business. When they met on May 17th they disposed of a few items, but decided that they needed more information on a few more. And so they scheduled another session a week hence.
They did agree to solicit bids for the project to renovate the lower part of White Road under a Dirt & Gravel grant. And they did agree to spend $5,074 to fix the guard rails on the Lower Podunk bridge, materials to be purchased from Chemung Supply. They agreed to contract with Rick Moser to cut the grass at the township building and the sewer plant at $90 per. And they decided to purchase two E-1 pumps with basins for the sewer system; one is designated for a relocation at Tingley Lake, the other will be a spare.
Major road work, however, will be held over for a week of deliberation. The Supervisors accepted a bid from New Enterprise Stone & Lime for DSA material at $9.80 per ton (FOB). But Doug Phelps was uncomfortable awarding the contract to apply the stuff to the low bidder, Rock Estabrook, until he was comfortable with the performance of Mr. Estabrook’s partner, Suit-Kote. Mr. Estabrook has already completed preparing the base on a grant-supported project to renovate Oliver Road from Fair Hill Road to the creek. Suit-Kote will provide the paver to lay the DSA for a hard driving surface at a cost of $3.30 per ton.
The Supervisors will also delay for a week a decision on bids for a project to refurbish Houlihan Road from U.S. 11 to the New Milford Township line. Two of the bids were incorrectly computed.
They will also postpone a decision on taking back State Route 2022, aka Owego Turnpike, a stretch of thoroughfare from Shoup Road to U.S. 11.
And a decision on ditching quotes will be held over for a week. Conrad Owens said there are some 43,580 feet of ditches remaining to be worked in the township. The Supervisors received at least 2 bids at around $100-$105 per hour, but the scope of the work has yet to be determined. North Harmony and Beaver Meadow are at the top of the list.
Many of these large projects completed by outside contractors are paid for out of the so-called “impact fee” from the natural gas exploration and production activities in the area. According to the May reports, some $20,000 was spent with various contractors last month on such work, leaving $132,451 still in that account.
Speaking of Beaver Meadow, a brief spat broke out between Mr. Phelps and Mr. Owens over the scheduling of the road crews as they begin the process of “working the roads.” A resident of the Podunk Road area complained that the crew interrupted work on her road to respond to a complaint at Beaver Meadow, and never came back to finish, leaving her road in a deplorable state. The argument was a bit hard to follow, but there was some shouting and finger wagging over who said what about when and how the crew was to return to Podunk, or something like that.
A project to lay a concrete wash pad, and construct a containment wall in the yard behind the township garage was tabled at least until June. Mr. Owens said it was not a priority, although the containment wall must be in place before the salt brine for dust control can be delivered. The township has received a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) authorizing the use of the brine on the roads.
At the end of the meeting Mr. Phelps announced that an executive session would take place to discuss legal issues surrounding the dispute with some residents in the Tyler Lake Road area. He said that a trial has been scheduled for September. The dispute arose last year following work on the road that some residents claimed did not improve drainage as it was supposed to, but instead caused damage that they want the township to amend.
So, the Harford Township Supervisors will meet again on Tuesday, May 24. In June they are scheduled to meet on the 21st. Meetings generally begin at 7:00pm at the township building on Route 547 a mile southwest of the Interstate.
