The 2017 Tax Ordinance was unanimously approved and adopted during Susquehanna Borough Council meeting on December 14th.  Tax will be levied at 25.7 mills, an increase of 1.5 mills, which is the first increase in nine years.

Four hundred eighteen thousand, six hundred seventy-seven dollars is the 2017 Budget, which was unanimously approved and adopted.  President JosephVarisk thanked Margaret Biegert for, once again doing an excellent job preparing the budget.

Councilman Roy Williams stated during the DPW report they have been busy plowing, salting roads, and maintaining equipment.  He reported the wall at East Street and Franklin Avenue is almost completed.  Councilman Williams said the portion of the wall the Borough bid out is completed; the resident’s portion is almost completed.  He said he was very impressed with the work. 

Mr. Whitehead, a borough resident, said the DPW was doing a good job.  He said there has been more snow last month than all of last year.  Councilman Williams said the Police Department is doing a good job having the vehicles moved that are parked on the roads.  He said it has minimized the time they spend on the roads.

Pennsylvania American Water Company sent a request to the borough asking for information on the projects planned, so they can coordinate their projects with the borough.  Councilman Williams said he would be meeting with one of the representatives from PA American Water to discuss their obligation to take care of the streets the way Susquehanna’s Ordinance is written.

On East Church Street, at a location where a deteriorated house was taken down, excavating has begun to put up a new house, reported Councilman Williams.  A house on 581 Grant Street is in the process of demolition, and the title for the Haynes building was just received he stated.

Approved to be advertised was the 2017 Council meeting schedule.  Council has elected to continue to hold their meetings on the second Wednesday of each month at six o’clock in the evening.   Winter Parking Ordinance with proposed changes, and a new Abandoned Vehicle Ordinance for Council to adopt at the January 11, 2017 meeting, was also approved to be advertised.

Erhlich and Artic Bear proposals were reviewed and discussed by Council.  Both companies proposed service contracts, on a monthly billing cycle.  Council spent several minutes on each contract discussing the pros and cons and elected not to sign either agreement to save the Borough some money.  They will evaluate their decision during the course of 2017, and if it proves to be more prudent to have a service contract they will discuss it at that time.

Susquehanna Community School notified Council they would hold their Pride & Polish Day on Friday, May 5, 2017.

The next meeting for Council is January 11, 2017.

President Dan Boughton, along with Councilmen David Glidden and Dale Rockwell wrapped up Lanesboro's final meeting of the year with a gathering for 40 minutes on Tuesday, December 13. Also present at the meeting were Secretary/Treasurer Gail Hanrahan and Police Chief Jim Smith. Council members Christen Beamer and Tom Nitterour were absent, as was Mayor Chris Maby.

The anti-climactic highlight of the evening was final passage of the borough's budget for 2017. The budget, unchanged from the proposal approved at the borough's November 1 meeting, balances expenditures with revenues at $130,164. The budget, available for viewing at the borough's website, was passed with non-controversial unanimity.

Only one Lanesboro resident was present in the audience. At the appropriate point during the meeting she requested time on the agenda to address council. The resident noted that she had received a flyer in the mail informing that Penelec would be installing a smart meter at her home-in response to Pennsylvania Act 129 of October 15, 2008. Councilmen agreed that they had received similar notifications of the same. The resident briefly explained the circumstances under which Act 129 was enacted, and she made the following points:

- Act 129 was passed by the General Assembly and signed by then-Gov. Ed Rendell on October 15, 2008. It's purported purpose was to implement efficiencies and conservation of energy at the expense of building new electric power plants.

- Act 129, in matter of fact, creates a system of electricity rationing to manage artificially-induced scarcity, thereby necessitating and imposing ever-increasing costs upon ratepayers.

- "Smart meter" installation is a necessary component for imposing these higher costs and rationing of power.

- Smart meter replacement of analogue meters (which do a perfectly fine job of measuring electric consumption) is being carried out to measure moment-by-moment consumption of electricity. This is made possible by almost constant emission of RFID signals to the "smart grid."

- With real-time measurement of electric consumption EDCs (Electric Distribution Companies, i.e., Penelec in our municipality) have the ability to charge "surge" pricing for peak-energy usage.

- Electric rate-payers lose in multiple ways: (1) they have to pay for so-called "efficiency & conservation" measures implemented by EDCs; (2) they have to pay for the cost of their meter replacement; (3) they have to pay for higher energy costs due to artificially induced scarcity; and (4) they have to pay for surge pricing of electricity, i.e., when electricity is most needed its cost will be most dear.

- Penelec and other EDCs assert that consumers will "better understand electricity use-which means consumers can then make informed decisions on how to manage and control electricity consumption." But that assertion is very misleading. All EDCs, Penelec included, are actually carrying out social engineering to change consumer behavior.

- Changing consumer behavior is necessitated by the artificially-induced scarcity. Since coal-fired power plants are being shuttered, and not replaced by newer plants, Pennsylvania is producing less electricity year-over-year. To handle the burden being placed on the now-starving electric grid, EDC's are heavily dependent on managing "load-demand."

- To constantly manage load demand (match reduced supply to increasing demand) higher prices are imposed, especially at peak-times when consumers are in greatest need of electric power. Rationing is initially imposed by a system of disincentives and incentives ("sticks and carrots"). Punitive pricing will punish the pocketbooks of the incorrigible who seek to continue high energy use during peak hours; reduced pricing will be offered for those willing to agree to modify their behavior and put off electric consumption to inconvenient hours. Ever heard from friends in other states who get up at 3 a.m. to do their laundry?

- Managing load demand is so vitally important to keeping an energy-starved grid in operation that if surge pricing proves inadequate to the task, more punitive steps will be taken. Rolling brown-outs and even rolling black-outs will be imposed by EDCs, if necessary. In essence, consumers are forced to compete for each slice of any ever-smaller energy pie. Each person's energy usage becomes of ever greater importance and concern to every other consumer, unlike in a free market which would dictate the building of new power plants as energy needs increase.

- But the rolling power outages won't have to be imposed regionally or even by neighborhood; they will eventually-once smart meters achieve full functionality-be implemented very selectively, right down to the very house or apartment that is "over-consuming" (in the view of authorities).

- But wait, there's more. Smart meters will "learn" your behavioral patterns by recording your electric consumption, room-by-room, appliance-by-appliance, and over the course of each day of the week. Much like NSA recording all your phone calls, be they the meta-data or actual conversations, a permanent record will be maintained of your patterns of electricity usage. Do you not think government agencies will have access to that data-and use it for social engineering programs as yet undreamed of?

- And, subject to some restrictions, data derived from your smart meter can be shared, even sold, to third parties. Does that not raise red flags as to privacy and security concerns, particularly in that inferences can be drawn as to when residents are absent or have turned in for the night?

- There are many other issues that should concern every consumer, not least including health risks associated with the constant RFID signaling, safety hazards of smart meters, and the potential for abuse of power by EDCs and bureaucratic state and federal agencies.

- Under Act 129 consumers have no right to opt out of smart-metering. By law, Penelec does not even have the option to permit anyone refusal of smart meter installation. Consumers may protest that they never opted-in to smart metering, but our state government doesn't think we should be afforded informed choice. The point of the smart meters, the smart grid, and other so-called "efficiency and conservation measures" isn't really to improve anything; it's to extend governmental control over your behavior and the economy, even to a micro level. THAT it will accomplish!

- Residents concerned about their security, privacy, and health-including financial health-should contact their state representative, state senator, the governor, Penelec, and the Public Utility Commission to make known their views. Pennsylvania is already in Phase 3 of smart metering. The master minds who think they know what's best for Pennsylvania consumers would like to have every electricity-consuming structure in the state smart-metered by 2023. Unfortunately for Lanesboro and surrounding areas our time is up in the next few weeks or months. Act 129 imposes centrally planned diktats for ever-greater reductions of electric consumption, under conspicuous penalty of large fines.

Insofar as full disclosure is concerned, this article's author was the Lanesboro resident who stood up to inform her municipality of the imminent threat posed by smart meter installation. The degrowth agenda of our state government under Act 129 will necessarily impose a collectivist economy based on scarcity, on reduced opportunities, of increasing fragility, and ultimately resulting in erosion of freedoms. Collapse of the civil society as we currently know it is the ultimate end-game.

Chief Smith presented the Police Report for the month of November 2016. It showed the following. LPD clocked in at 198 hours of work, including four hours in court and 10.5 contract hours in Thompson. SCSD campus patrol totaled 128 hours. Traffic stops were made 34 times, resulting in 11 citations and 23 warnings. Citations or warnings were issued for the following reasons: speeding violations (22), stop-sign violations (3), registration violations (5), equipment violations (5), careless driving violation (1), and vehicle on 10-ten roadway violation. Chief Smith also reminded council of the need for a police car enclosure. He suggested an 18 by 20 foot building, seven feet in height, with no passage door or windows, might be procured for approximately $5,000. Council agreed to explore the matter, including funding, for future action.

In discussion of Parks & Recreation, Councilmen agreed that the new sign (constructed of bluestone) looked great at Luciana Park. Thanks were extended to Butch Coleman, who donated the bluestone and made the sign possible. Also, thanks were extended to John Sholtis of Susquehanna who suggested sealing of the bluestone, and completed the bluestone sealing with Council's concurrence.

So far as the Community Center is concerned, Secretary Hanrahan noted that there were several reservations made for its use. President Boughton reported that the borough had an estimate of $300 for repair of the chimney. Council discussed the matter, then voted unanimous approval to accept the bid.

By 7:45 p.m. all borough business was completed and the night's meeting adjourned. Lanesboro's next monthly meeting is scheduled for the second Tuesday in January.