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At their meeting Tuesday, June 14, South Londonderry Township supervisors began the process of establishing pre-employment screenings for non-uniform employees, agreed to two traffic signal resolutions with PennDOT, and adjusted the proposed rezoning text amendment for Northside Crossing.

While the township already performs varying degrees of background checks for new employees, there is not a specific policy in place.

Members of the board present (Faith Bucks and Jack Custer) unanimously agreed to begin requiring drug testing, a physical appropriate for the job, and a State Police Criminal Background Check for non-uniform employees.

The township will be covering the costs for these screenings. The township manager will draft up a specific policy to be approved at a later date.

The board also unanimously approved Resolutions 11-2022 and 12-2022 regarding to traffic signal maintenance and electronic access to PennDOT’s system.

This is following a board workshop (PDF) held May 25 at which concerned citizens spoke with the board about pedestrian safety.

At that meeting Custer made a motion, seconded by board member William Bova, for the township’s engineer to write a letter to PennDOT asking PennDOT to:

  • reevaluate the speed limit along 322
  • review traffic signal permits to consider adding three seconds of pedestrian phase to each of the three lights along 322.
  • consider installing visual crosswalks by these three traffic lights.

In order to work with PennDOT on these requests, PennDOT required the township to sign Resolutions 11-2022 and 12-2022.

Two South Londonderry Township residents, Pat Krebs and Sherry Lehr, made public comments Tuesday advocating for pedestrian safety.

A public hearing had been scheduled Tuesday for Ordinance 222-2022, a rezoning text amendment concerning Northside Crossing.

The proposed amendment increased the max units per acre from four to ten units. However, a representative of Northside Crossing conveyed that they had made an error and requested 10 rather than 12 units per acre, and asked that the township cancel the public hearing to make this change.

As they were fine with increasing the max units per acre to 12 (as is the upper limit for surrounding apartments), the board unanimously opted to cancel the public hearing and modify the amendment, to be advertised at a later date. Northside Crossing has agreed to cover the advertising fees.

At last month’s meeting, the board agreed to formally request bids for the Campbelltown Park Pavilion, which the Campbelltown Community Association (CCA) had initially sought informally.

Tuesday, the board unanimously accepted a bid from Pine Creek for $39,338 for the pavilion. This is the same contractor the CCA had initially planned to work with.

In other news, the board:

  • Unanimously approved a Stormwater O&M Agreement with the owners of 207 Bell Road.
  • Heard a public comment from Nikos Phelps about the May 21 Got the Nerve Triathlon thanking the municipality for its assistance, as well as presenting a donation of $500 to the police department, one of $2,500 to Campbelltown Fire Company, and one of $2,500 to Lawn Fire Company.
  • Acknowledged an Ag Security Area Application for 219 Long Road. No further action was required.
  • Unanimously approved to end the probationary period for employee Sam Blauch.
  • Unanimously approved to hire a new maintenance technician, under the stipulation that they comply with pre-employment screenings detailed earlier.
  • Unanimously agreed to a financial security reduction of the RV Storage Center at Hinkle Road by $145,000.
  • Heard reports from the township manager, Palmyra Library, police department, and more. The township manager’s report noted that the township is accepting letters of interest for the planning commission, in which a spot recently opened up, and for the historic commission, which has three slots that have been open for several months.
  • Unanimously approved the minutes for the May 10 meeting and the May 25 workshop.

South Londonderry Township supervisors meet at 27 W. Market St. on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. The next meeting will be held July 12. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.

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Emily Bixler was born and raised in Lebanon and now reports on local government. In her free time, she enjoys playing piano and going for hikes.