Susquehanna Community School District, starting June of this year will be offering a food pantry for families living within the school district. Families registering for the food pantry do not have to have children attending school, they may have children younger than school age or otherwise educated.  Superintendent Bronson Stone provided this information during the School Board meeting held on March 21st.

The food pantry is a volunteer based, monthly program through the Council on Economic Opportunity’s People Helping People.  Superintendent Stone stated neighboring schools Mountain View and Blue Ridge School District have implemented this program and it is doing very well helping people.  Food will be distributed to families who are registered on the first Monday of the month, starting June 4, 2018. More information will be provided by the school district in the near future on how you can register.

Superintendent Stone voiced congratulations to the girls and boys Basketball teams for an outstanding year.  Congratulations also to the elementary wrestlers who are going to the State and National meet.

School safety is on everyone’s mind, stated Superintendent Stone and Susquehanna personnel and students are lucky to have law enforcement in the school.  School administrators have been meeting with law enforcement, the District Attorney and other enforcement agencies, but the primary focus is to have the school remain a school, not a prison.  The number one mission of the School Board is education. An Active Shooter training session will be held on Monday afternoon, March 26th at the school.

Read Across America was very successful, and Superintendent Stone recognized and thanked Title 1 Coordinator Judy Gallo for the success of the program.

Resignations for retirement were accepted from Elizabeth Updyke, Bonnie Holmes and Stacie Hilton.  Also accepted for personal reasons, was Joe Burke’s resignation as the boys Basketball Coach.

Business Manager Gary Kiernan said in preparing the 2018/2019 budget it will be slightly above the current 2017/2018 budget and hopefully the state will pass their budget on time.  During the meeting Mr. Kiernan’s Employment Agreement was unanimously approved, effective date July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2023.

The 2018/2019 calendar was unanimously approved and Superintendent Stone said it was a little different than previous years.  Eight snow days were added to the end of the school year, as well as a four-day Memorial Day weekend. 

Substitutes for the bus/van drivers were unanimously approved; Edward Graves Jr. for Swanson’s and James Johnson and Heather Hedrick for Lewis busing.

The Nutrition Group was unanimously approved for the 2018/2019 school year.  Superintendent Stone said this past year the company cut down on losses, and have provided a very good menu.

Posting for the position of Elementary Principal was unanimously approved, with a start date of July 1, 2018.

A relatively large crowd assembled in the relatively small office on March 20th to watch the Harford Township Supervisors paw through a pile of bids for road materials and other supplies for the year.  They ended up accepting almost all of the bids, with preference given to the lowest, of course.

As the meeting opened, Chair Sue Furney remembered two members who served long years for the Township who passed on recently: Doris Morrison was Township Secretary for many years; and Ms. Furney’s own mother, Faye Button, was the Township’s Tax Collector for a very long time.

Reviewing the Treasurer’s report, it appears that the Township has balances totaling nearly $800,000 in some 14 accounts.

The Supervisors reported that investigators from the Conservation District had examined the failure of the road surface on Lower Podunk Road.  The Conservation District funded the resurfacing under a Dirt & Gravel grant.  Investigators will be working with the material supplier, the contractor that laid it down, and the inspector responsible for overseeing the project to determine what to do, at no cost, they said, to the Township.

The Supervisors are still trying to decided what to do about a roller; that is, whether to buy, rent … or lease.  Supervisor Dustin Walker is studying the issue and said he is thinking that a renewable 2-year lease might be the best option.  The newest Supervisor, Kyle Payne, said his preference was to buy a machine outright.  The cost of on-going maintenance is a concern; and the machine would be used only during the summer months.  The matter will remain under study for the time being.

The Supervisors discussed a request from the Township’s Tax Collector, Jessica Miller, to be reimbursed for computer software, for membership in a professional association (about $75 per year), and for on-line training (about $250).  The Township shares the services of Ms. Miller with the County and the Mountain View School District, so they would only consider ponying up a third in any case.  The school district had yet to receive a similar request, and, according to Ms. Furney, neither had neighboring municipalities from their own tax collectors.  There was a sense that the tax collectors should be responsible for what they bring to the job, especially since they knew when they ran for the office that new requirements would entail new costs.  Some also thought that municipalities needn’t pay for voluntary association memberships.  The Supervisors tabled the request until they hear the positions of other jurisdictions.

The Supervisors opened bids from New Enterprise Stone & Lime and from Lopke Rock Products for stone road materials of various types.  Lopke was consistently the lowest bidder, but the Supervisors chose to accept both bid packages so that they could choose to purchase as necessary when the time came.

There were 4 bids to supply cinders, but the Supervisors tabled a decision pending clarification of a bid from Kiefer Trucking.

Bids from both Vestal Asphalt and Suit-Kote for calcium chloride solutions and AEP oil for dust control were accepted; Suit-Kote had the lowest bid prices.

The Supervisors accepted all 5 bids for trucking services.  Harford Township in recent years has been contracting separately for trucking its supplies in order to get the lowest FOB prices for road materials.  The lowest bidder for trucking seemed to be Dave Young, but the township can choose to use another contractor if service cannot be provided as needed.

The Supervisors selected Mirabito Energy Products as the low bidder to supply diesel fuel and gasoline.  Mirabito bid 14 cents per gallon above the “rack” price (determined in Harrisburg at the time of purchase), plus 3 cents per gallon for winter additives.

At the end of the meeting, under new business, Mr. Walker recommended adopting a resolution to sign a contract with Express Employment Professionals to help find road workers and equipment operators.  The Township, like other municipalities in the area, has had some trouble finding drivers with CDL (Commercial Driving License) certification, as well as qualified grader operators.  (In fact, they would be reviewing applications in executive session from 4 individuals for an open position.)  According to Mr. Walker, the contract with Express would not require the Township to use their services at all, and offered considerable flexibility in hiring (and firing).  Express would be responsible for all costs except health care (full-time employees only), and workers could be hired for long or short periods, as needed.  The hourly cost would be about $7 above the rate paid to employed workers.  Express specializes in providing temporary help of this sort in the Binghamton-Scranton area.

On the motion to adopt the resolution, Mr. Payne voted against, wondering what was the hurry, since the Township wouldn’t need anyone else on the roads for at least another month.  Although Mr. Walker said the Township’s solicitor had no problem with the contract, Mr. Payne recommended further study, in particular canvassing any references the company could provide.  But he was out-voted and the measure passed.

The next public meeting of the Harford Township Supervisors is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17, 2018, beginning at 7:00pm at the Township office on Route 547.  With some luck, spring will have actually arrived by then.

It was a typically brief session – all of 11 minutes – and without the customary “budget” listing of expenses for the month (Secretary Julene Graham was absent) – but at their meeting on March 21st the New Milford Township Supervisors managed to buy a grader, a loader, and road materials to use them with.  The Supervisors didn’t actually open the bids during the session; the agenda simply and conveniently listed the bids and recorded the winners.

Supervisor and Roadmaster Jack Conroy said that the township could use a backup loader to help out, for example, when the other one is busy handling snow.  He said that a used model could be purchased for less than $25,000 from Medico.  The Township has also traded in its 7-year-old grader on a new model for about $166,000; the purchase will be made through the COSTARS program sponsored by the state and will not require a bidding process.

The Township accepted bids from New Enterprise Stone & Lime, Pennsy Supply, and Lopke Rock Products for road materials.  FOB prices per ton were mixed among the three vendors , but the Supervisors chose Lopke as primary supplier because its “delivered” bids were the lowest.

Mirabito Energy Products won with a low bid for propane at $1.479 per gallon.  Lindsey Oil won with the low bid to provide gasoline and diesel fuel at 6 cents below the posted (“rack”) price.

The Supervisors accepted bids from both Vestal Asphalt and Suit-Kote for liquid calcium chloride solution for dust control; Suit-Kote had the lowest price to apply the material at $1.03 per gallon; Vestal Asphalt also bid to deliver the material to the Township’s bulk tanks at $1.11 per gallon.

The Supervisors agreed to renew their $100 contribution to the Summer Adventures program offered by Blue Ridge Recreation for this summer.

They reviewed notices from the Department of Environmental Protection and the various natural gas production companies, including an upgrade to the retention pond at the Zeffer facility on Three Lakes Road.  They also reviewed additional documents related to a pipeline to be installed by Bluestone to the compressor station east of the Interstate that may require closing Route 492 for a day, although the date projected for the closing is not yet known.

The New Milford Township Supervisors meet on the third Wednesday of each month beginning at 7:30pm at the Township office building on U.S. Route 11 north of the borough.  The next meeting is scheduled for April 18, 2018.