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Plans to replace a bridge in Bethel Township can proceed now that supervisors have confirmed that it’s owned by the municipality.
Bethel Township solicitor Andrew Morrow told supervisors at their July 11 meeting that he had received confirmation from PennDOT that the bridge over Monroe Creek on Camp Strause Road is a township bridge.
Morrow was also asked by the two firms designing the new bridge to ensure that state law was still the same concerning the right-of-way dimensions.
Morrow said an engineering firm and a land surveyor who are working on a sketch had asked him to confirm right-of-way dimensions of 33 feet for the road, which was originally owned by the state. “I did not find anything in the statute that would change that presumption,” he said.
Morrow said he and the land surveyor both researched whether a 1998 township resolution designating Camp Strause Road as a township entity had been recorded with the state.
“No one here now would have been there at that time, so I decided that I wanted to make sure that the turnback from the state to the township was definitely official,” said Morrow. “You don’t want to be working on this and all of a sudden a year from now realize that, ‘Uh-oh, the township doesn’t own this road.’ That’s a major problem.”
Morrow said he contacted PennDOT to ensure the turnback from the commonwealth to the township was official. PennDOT confirmed that it was, noting that the township had been receiving funds from the state liquid fuel tax for roadway maintenance.
“He confirmed that they looked high and low and that the resolution was not recorded,” said Morrow. “But at this point he said, ‘No harm, no foul. This is not the first time that’s ever happened, that a township did not record the resolution.’ But he said, ‘We have an official record of this, it’s on record, and no further action is required by the township since the state has nothing to do with this road anymore. It officially belongs to the township.’”
Morrow noted that the state would provide the township with guidelines to follow if ownership questions were to arise again in the future concerning other pieces of infrastructure.
In the meantime, Morrow said approval has been given to the land surveyor to resume sketching the new bridge for a project that’s still in the early stages.
In other business, supervisors approved a land development plan waiver request by Bell and Evans Realty LLC for Esther’s Restaurant, which the chicken processing company has owned since April 2020. In waiving the land development plan, the company will submit a stormwater management plan instead for the 2.56-acre property at 2957 State Route 22. The restaurant sits adjacent to the company’s Plant 2 and trucks wait in the restaurant’s lot before entering the plant facilities.
Since Bell and Evans Realty requested a land use waiver, the supervisors are uncertain what the poultry producer’s plans are for the restaurant that’s been a Lebanon County landmark for many years.
In an unrelated but similar request, supervisors voted to approve a waiver request of a land development plan and require a stormwater management plan for the John Halterman farm.
Township engineer Matthew Mack said Halterman plans to add a heifer barn but will not be adding more cows to his property nor will the facility have utilities or a driveway. Mack recommended and the supervisors agreed to waive the land development plan and require Halterman to file a stormwater plan with the township for the additional barn.
In other township business, the supervisors agreed to:
- Accept the roadmaster and financial reports. No recreation report was submitted since the committee does not meet in July.
- Pay township invoices.
- Issue bid request for the Treeline Avenue pipe replacement project.
- Rent two bounce houses from Bounce House Rentals for Kids Fall Fun Day activities on Sept. 7 for $835.
- Sign an agreement with Union Township for a $3,000 automated external defibrillator to be kept at Fredericksburg Pool. The agreement still needs approval from Union Township officials.
- Grant a time extension request to Nov. 15 for the Weaver minor subdivision plan and sign off on a non-building declaration for the construction of any new buildings for this plan. No buildings can be constructed until a land-use plan has been submitted and approved by the township’s planning commission.
- Approve the minutes of their June 13 meeting.
The next township supervisor meeting is on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. at the municipal building at 3015 S. Pine Grove Street, Fredericksburg.
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