Townships eye possible separation from COG
Published: October 7, 2009
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share thisDimock Township Supervisors met Monday night at the township building, and the most urgent item on their agenda was to decide whether to adopt an ordinance terminating their membership with the Susquehanna County Council of Governments.
Supervisor George Baker had stated that several other municipalities, including Springville and Jessup Townships, might be pulling out, and Auburn and Rush townships were also contemplating doing so.
At the September 14 meeting, Supervisor Ed Bunnell made the motion to advertise for the adoption of an ordinance for the township to leave the Susquehanna COG. This came up for a vote at the Oct. 5 meeting, and after considerable discussion, the ordinance was tabled for the time being.
Baker said that the township has been affiliated with the COG for about four years, and that it does perform valuable services, like building inspections, that save the township considerable time.
Several residents, including Mike Andrejack, voiced concerns.
Andrejack, a local excavator, stated that there was no alternate SEO available when he needed one. Supervisor Baker agreed that there were problems with building inspector availability, and that the COG was having to cut back financially. On inspector was on salary, while another was paid by the hour, creating a problem of having to pay overtime. The decision to remain in the COG was based on the point that the COG must provide an inspector within 72 hours after one is requested, which is considerably faster than the township can do, most of the time.
In other matters, resident Elwin Lewis voiced a concern whether Hallstead Sanitary Service is dumping solid waste from tank trucks onto property owned by Elk Lake School District. Lewis said there is a great deal of traffic from these red tank trucks, and he complained about this at the Sept. 14 meeting.
Supervisor George Baker said he would investigate. Baker said at the Oct. 5 meeting that he had called the Department of Environmental Protection, and it was reported back to him that a DEP officer who specializes exclusively in dumping of wastes, spreading, pits and ponds went and checked around said area and found absolutely nothing.
Elwin Ellis said that he thought maybe they were getting rid of the tanks of waste in the district's sewage disposal lagoon, which has a permit. Other attendees said they thought the waste was from gas well pads, because the portapotties and trailers at gas well sites are frequently pumped out, and the larger sites have tank trucks waiting to haul away human waste daily.
Ellis said "all the people on Hunsinger Road are upset about the trucks." He asked if they could pump the waste into the "lagoon" for the school district, and said, "It should be disposed of properly."
Brian Birtch of the Hallstead Sanitary Service in a phone conversation Tuesday morning denied dumping or otherwise disposing of waste anywhere near the Elk Lake School District property, and says it has permits with the Montrose sewage plant and other plants in the area. The sanitary service has never had a contract with Cabot Gas and Oil or other gas drilling companies to haul away human waste from well pads. "I've noticed a lot of similar looking tank trucks on the roads, all over, but I don't know where they are coming from," Birtch said. "We only deal with residential waste."
