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The Union Township Board of Supervisors approved several purchases and contracts at the Feb. 12 meeting, including several inlet box purchases for culvert projects, a street sweeping contract, and the cost to upgrade the township building’s alarm system.
In the first new business of the night, supervisors unanimously voted to purchase three type-M inlet boxes for culverts on Ridge Road.
“From the erosion of the water, the amount of water coming in is creating a huge gully and starting to take away some of the macadam,” township manager Brent McFeaters said. “What we’re going to do is take those pipes out, replace the pipes, we going to make the pipes bigger, we’re going to put new boxes in, sump them a little bit so the water will go into the box and will not erode the holes and create the holes that are already there.”
The Type-M boxes have a flat top with grates. The holes are small, so bicycles will not have any problems riding over them.
McFeaters said it’s “kind of a safety hazard” at the moment because drivers could hit the edge of the macadam, which he said is starting to collapse.
Engineer Steve Sherk said the road crews will install the boxes themselves, saving labor costs.
McFeaters said they will go in when the winter weather breaks, which he expects to be around April or May. He said it will require some road closures so the crews can get into the area and work safely, and the township will give residents a heads-up so they know when areas will be inaccessible once the project is scheduled.
“We put signs out like a week before to let them know, and then we close the street down to make it easier for them, and we can get in and get out and be the least intrusive to everybody,” McFeaters said.
Sherk discussed another culvert project — this one on Campmeeting Road — following a Jan. 28 special meeting to award bids.
He said the township received a $69,514 grant for culvert replacements on Campmeeting Road, and supervisors approved Arthur “Pat” Aungst of Pine Grove’s low bid of $44,489.
Sherk said the grant funding can help cover any unexpected costs that might arise, so the township will not have to pay out-of-pocket.
“There’s a possibility there might be a change order,” he said. “I hope there’s not, but if we need more money for something like unforeseen conditions, we’ll have extra.”
In-stream work will have to be substantially completed by March 31 and the remainder of the work by April 30 because of potential bog turtle habitat and related U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services regulations.
Supervisors also voted unanimously to work with Martin Paving to street-sweet the development, Jonestown Road, and the other street intersections.
The estimate is close in price to 2024, but McFeaters said he expects this year to take a little more time, bringing costs up a few hundred dollars.
Communications between the township and Martin Paving shows several rates. It is $165 per hour for the sweeper, $163 per hour for equipment move in, $74 per hour for labor, and $91 per hour for travel.
Street sweeping last year took around a day and a half, but the township expects this year to take around two full days because of the late snow storms. McFeaters said he expects the final price tag to be between $1,500 and $2,000 — more likely toward $1,800.
Residents should expect street sweeping on April 28 and 29, starting between 6 and 7 a.m.
Supervisors also approved Berkshire Systems Group to upgrade the township building’s alarm system for $2,565. The old system was analog and would regularly go offline. McFeaters said supervisors would often get calls in the middle of the night and would have to check on the building because the alarm would go off when there wasn’t an emergency.
“When that phone line goes out, obviously the alarm goes on, and it seems like it was happening every weekend, not working hours, but all the weekends,” he said. “So I talked to our IT department. Since the system was put in place 12 years ago, there is a system, now that works off of cellular.”
He said the cellular system will be less maintenance and should decrease the number of false alarm phone calls.
There might still be an issue when the power goes out, even though the building has a generator that kicks on after several seconds.
McFeaters said in that case, a false alarm phone call could still go out and supervisors would have to handle it.
In other business, supervisors:
- Unanimously approved several 90-day time extensions for various projects, as suggested by the planning commission. These include Axis Jonestown Storage 1 LLC preliminary/final land development plan, 181 Ridge Road final subdivision plan, Lebanon Newswanger Solar Farm preliminary land development plan, Jono Ace Hardware preliminary/final land development plan, and Marlin Champ stormwater management plan.
- Voted to update the employee handbook. McFeaters said they normally update the handbook every several years to keep it up to date, and the last update was in 2020.
Union Township Board of Supervisors will have its next regular monthly meeting at 3111 PA-72 on March 12 following the 6:30 p.m. sewer meeting.
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