Annville Twp. board ratifies $385,200 CDBG request for street improvements

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The Annville Township Board of Commissioners on Tuesday ratified a Community Development Block Grant funding request of $385,200 for street improvements to North Railroad Street, North Ulrich Street, College Street, and Sheridan Avenue.

The township’s request for CDBG funds, filed with Lebanon County in time for a Sept. 5 deadline, would pay for the milling and repaving of those streets and for addition of an Americans with Disabilities Act curb ramp.

This is the township’s first federal CDBG request since fiscal year 2020, when it was awarded a $92,000 grant for the milling and overlay of a section of West Church Street. Those improvements were made in the summer of 2023, Lebanon County Housing & Redevelopment Authorities executive director Dan Lyons told LebTown in an email last month.

The board also approved by voice vote a 31,700-square-foot paint room expansion of BlueScope Building North America’s manufacturing facility to allow the company to tweak its method for painting and drying materials.

“The plan is to remove that covering, or partial external building, and to encompass that area with a new building expansion. They’re going to tweak the way they paint and store their materials as they dry so it’s all enclosed into the same building,” Michael Lusaitis of Steckbeck Engineering and Surveying Inc., a consulting engineer representing BlueScope, told commissioners.

“As a secondary portion of the project, there’s a fire suppression system proposed. It’s an external above ground tank about 34 feet in diameter and a pump house associated with that. It’s all stand-by at all times so that in case of a fire, they can supplement the existing water and more importantly the pressure to be able to suppress the fire with sprinklers,” Lusaitis said.

Commissioner Tom Embich asked Lusaitis about safeguards for potential discharge of flammable liquids from BlueScope’s expanded paint facility into municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) that are the township’s responsibility.

“I do believe they have some sort of requirement for containment protocol,” Lusaitis replied.

“It’s building code,” township manager Candie Johnson added.

In other action, the board:

• Voted to exempt 2323 Properties LLC, owner of property at 150 W. Sheridan St., from having to replace sidewalk on King Street. The property owner is required to repair and replace its sidewalk on Sheridan Street, but the adjacent King Street sidewalk does not extend past the property, and “goes nowhere,” Johnson said.
• Approved a stop sign at North Chestnut and West New streets, at the request of Police Chief Andrew Winters.
• Approved handicapped parking space requests for 49 S. King St., 111 W. Sheridan Ave. and 712 Maple St.
• Heard a report from Annville-Cleona Fire Department representative Dustin Sider on the department’s first electrical vehicle fire, at an auto salvage yard in North Annville. Fighting the fire required a high quantity of water and took a toll on the fire department’s equipment, Sider said.
• Heard that planning progresses apace for Annville Township’s Pumpkin Walk, to be held 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Quittie Creek Nature Park on Bachman Road.