During their meeting on September 27, the Allen Township Board of Supervisors authorized the advertisement of a Parks and Recreation Board Ordinance. This ordinance would establish a permanent Parks and Recreation Board consisting of nine members serving one to five-year terms.
The ordinance language, said township solicitor Lincoln Treadwell, is “pretty standard.” All spending would need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.
Currently, the township has an ad hoc committee, consisting of four members and two supervisors. After reviewing ordinances from neighboring municipalities, they have helped establish this draft ordinance.
In other news, supervisors continued their discussion of the proposed Route 329 elementary school sewer plan. During their previous meeting, the board asked to review maps of where a proposed manhole would be placed.
Engineer Andrea Martin explained that the last manhole owned by the township is roughly 100 feet outside township property on Seemsville Road. Plans from the Northampton Area School District are proposing a gravity line from that manhole, stretching 159 feet to a manhole on school property in East Allen Township.
Because the line runs beneath a PennDOT road, a municipality must take ownership, not the school district. This leaves Allen Township or East Allen Township as the only options.
The board’s concern at this meeting and their last was maintaining sewer lines and manholes outside their municipal boundaries.
“If Allen Township does decide to accept the gravity portion…we could figure out what a reasonable surcharge would be…that would cover any maintenance concerns,” said Martin.
“There have to be serious negotiations with this whole thing,” said Supervisor Dale Hassler. “I don’t want to see our township taking over a lot of piping that we won’t be using.”
Martin explained that precedent dictates the township owns up to the first manhole outside their municipal boundary, as they do with a manhole in Northampton Borough and the manhole on Seemsville Road. In this case, supervisors said East Allen Township and the school district should do the same, thereby taking ownership of the 159 feet of gravity line and the manhole on school property.
East Allen Township owns no sewer lines within its boundaries, according to Martin. This would mean Allen Township still may be needed to assist with maintenance, as their neighboring township may not have the resources in an emergency.
In this case, Allen Township should be charging for time and materials like any contractor, said Treadwell.
Martin will take these recommendations back to the school district planners and East Allen Township. No official action can be taken until an inter-municipal agreement between Northampton Borough, the school district, East Allen, and Allen is established.
Finally, supervisors also authorized the advertisement of the township’s 2023 budget. No tax increase is proposed.
The next Board of Supervisors meeting will be Tuesday, October 11 at 7 p.m.
