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Bethel Township supervisors unanimously approved a stormwater management plan for Bell & Evans’ Plant 2 and Esther’s Restaurant in Fredericksburg at their monthly meeting on Thursday, Sept. 12.
The plan is part of a move to improve traffic safety on plant property following a fatality there in October 2023. Bell & Evans and the lot occupied by Esther’s Restaurant are both owned by the Scott Sechler family. The real estate is held through Bell & Evans Realty LLC.
Plan approval comes with several caveats as recommended by township solicitor Andrew Morrow.
Those conditions are:
- The stormwater management plan has to be recorded by Bell & Evans officials.
- The access easement agreement that was drafted needs to be filed and recorded by Bell & Evans.
- Payment totaling $4,008.90 must occur. It was announced by Morrow that a check in that amount would be delivered to the township on Friday.
After the fatal accident, Bell & Evans officials had their engineering firm design a plan beginning last fall to change the traffic flow at the plant and on Esther’s Restaurant’s property.
Read More: Traffic fatality at Bell & Evans plant spurs traffic pattern changes at nearby diner
The first plan drafted would have necessitated the filing of a land management plan to reconfigure traffic flow for the plant and on Esther’s property, but that would have required involving the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, township engineer Matthew Mack told supervisors Thursday.
The decision to avoid involving PennDOT led to a stormwater management plan being developed and filed instead. The township planning commission reviewed the stormwater management plan on Aug. 20.
“This basically meets the intent of what we’re looking for,” Mack told supervisors. “They aren’t putting any buildings up or anything. It’s adding the driveway off of their parking lot where the employees park so as not to mix with truck traffic. We had meetings with PennDOT, and PennDOT said if you mix traffic with Esther’s traffic, you’ll have to have our involvement. If not, we’re not involved.”
Mack said the new solution is to erect Jersey barriers at Plant 2 that separate truck routes from those used by other vehicles.
“It will isolate traffic and they will basically go back out the same way they come in,” added Mack. “It’s just that it (employee traffic) won’t be mixed with the truck traffic.”
Traffic engineer Alex Kinzey, of Steckbeck Engineering and Surveying Inc., said the barriers are a way to “bypass the whole loading area and where they’re moving trailers around.” Steckbeck is Bell & Evans’ engineering firm.
In reviewing the plan and before giving his advice to supervisors to approve it, Morrow said it will actually add 411 feet of pervious area, it doesn’t require the creation of a new stormwater facility and it won’t interfere with “anything that is currently there now.”
Morrow said he reviewed the company’s 2013 plan for the Plant 2 project and their agreements for that facility and had no issues between this new plan and existing ones already filed with the township.
“It’s obvious that they took care to design and try to be careful to minimize disruption and really it’s for safety purposes anyhow,” he said.
In other business in what was an action-oriented agenda, supervisors learned that a conditional-use hearing for four solar farms proposed for two land parcels near Northern Lebanon High School along Route 22 is scheduled for early October.
The public hearing will occur on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. at the township building at 3015 S. Pine Grove St., Fredericksburg.
Read More: California-based developer proposes 4 solar farms on 2 Bethel Township sites
“This is going to be exactly like … a zoning hearing,” said Morrow. “This is a special exemption conditional use, so it is going to run like that. So the three of you (supervisors) are like the zoning hearing board, for a lack of a better term. There will be a stenographer present and people from the community obviously will be able to come and express their opinions.”
Morrow noted that evidence will be presented about the proposals and there also will be a chance for individuals to contradict that evidence.
In a separate matter, supervisors voted unanimously to approve the purchase of no parking signs for snow removal for seven roads in the township. They are Creek, Elizabeth, Horizon, Shirk, Village, Vista and Weaverland drives.
As part of the motion, Morrow was directed to write an ordinance concerning the no parking signs during snow removal so the rule can be enforced. The ordinance will have to be approved by supervisors at a future meeting.
Supervisors also took action concerning several escrow accounts for projects occurring in the township.
They agreed to release $41,557.80 and continue to hold $17,175 until the work is completed at Arlin Zimmerman Greenhouses, 712 Shirksville Road. Mack noted there is some landscaping that must be completed, stone placed at the entrance and work involving a basin, adding that otherwise “the project looks pretty good.”
Supervisors voted unanimously to release $2,500 to Weaver Distribution and close out that escrow account now that basin drainage work is complete. The project involved a stormwater plan for a parking area at the facility, according to board chairman Richard Rudy.
Supervisors also voted to release $45,728.75 and continue to hold $371.25, which is 10 percent of the landscaping costs, for the James and Frances Hoover Greenview Tractor project. The remaining funds are to ensure that new trees survive for a year.
During informational discussion, Morrow told supervisors that a review of the township’s zoning ordinances continues and that he believes that suggested changes to the document should be ready for approval in 2025.
It was announced during the roadmaster report that mowing and other landscape maintenance work continues, and the community pool has closed for the season. Several maintenance vehicles were inspected since the board’s August meeting.
During public comment, Kinzey presented a proposal to run a pipeline from Bell & Evans’ Plant 1 to the new Plant 3. He said they would like to know what information the board needs to consider the project.
Mack noted that PennDOT would have to be involved to issue permits for any state roads and asked Kinzey if others were public or private. Kinzey replied they all are public.
Mack also asked if they envisioned having stations along the line route, and Kinzey said there would probably be three air-release valves required to keep the lines safe. Nearly everything would be underground, and Kinzey said the air releases would be in convenient locations, meaning they will not cause obstructions.
In other township business, supervisors unanimously voted to:
- Approve Trunk or Treat Night on Oct. 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the community park and pool at 124 Lions Drive and set Trick or Treat night for Oct. 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.
- Meet their 2025 minimum municipal obligation for the township pension plan in the amount of $45,206.
- Accept the resignation of Kenneth “Jay” Rhoads from the recreation board and appoint Lauren Snader to replace him.
- Approve the Weaver lot addition final subdivision plan for minor annexation of the property, along with two waiver requests.
- Have Mack and Morrow review the temporary construction easement as presented by Wilson Consulting Group for the Camp Strause Road Bridge construction project.
- Approve the Chris Lantz stormwater management plan.
- Grant a time extension to Dec. 30 for the Hoover/Brubaker project.
- Sign the Viking Baseball Club 10u baseball field agreement and honor a request from the organization to use the large pavilion for an event at no charge to the group.
- Increase the wages of part-time employee Shawn Hernley by $1.50 per hour.
- Accept the financial report and pay monthly bills in the following categories: liquid fuels, $363,246.06 to Ronnie Folk Paving Inc., for the 2024 base repair project; street lights, $3,241.22; parks and recreation, $56,851.38; and general, $99,485.84.
- Approve the minutes of their Aug. 8 meeting.
Rudy announced that supervisors had an executive session to cover personnel matters prior to the meeting. Supervisors returned to executive session once the public meeting was adjourned to discuss matters pertaining to Spruce and Beech avenues.
Bethel Township supervisors meet the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the municipal building at 3015 S. Pine Grove St., Fredericksburg.
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