Warriors Mark Township Supervisors held their very busy March meeting earlier this week at the Warriors Mark Fire Hall.
It was the first meeting for Township Supervisor Mark Brown, who was appointed to the position on February 22.
The meeting was called to order by Supervisor Chairman Stewart Neff at 7 p.m.
Sgt. Philip Harcheck, the commander for the Pennsylvania State Police Huntingdon barracks, was present to ask what the Huntingdon State Police can do to serve the Township better.
Sgt. Harcheck mentioned that with the Township so close to several metropolitan areas, suspects often come from those areas to commit crimes in communities like Warriors Mark.
Neff commented that just the presence of a State Police cruiser in the township is a big help, to reassure people that there is police protection in the township.
Brown asked what can be done about four wheelers on the highways. Harcheck said this can be difficult to enforce. He said the best thing is to have a good witness.
Solicitor W. Lee Oswalt presented the resolution for changing the property line for the Cox and Eyer properties which was signed and unanimously approved by the Supervisors.
The Township Engineer, Zoning Officer, and SEO had no report Tuesday night.
The supervisors unanimously approved the minutes for the February 6 meeting, the February 22 special meeting and to pay the bills presented before them last night.
Township supervisors voted to not continue with the community park project. This was due to time constraints with the state grant and the restrictions placed upon them if they use this grant. However, the idea of a community park will not be eliminated completely.
Brown stressed that the township should do something. Neff said that the township should offer other recreation options for the children, other than baseball. Neff said he has absolutely nothing against baseball, but there is no recreation opportunities for children who aren’t interested in baseball. Supervisor Rodney Marshall mentioned that he agreed with Brown, that he didn’t like the time constraint or restrictions either. Supervisors agreed that the township will do the project themselves, in phases so there will be no restrictions on what they can do.
Also present at Tuesday night’s meeting were individuals representing John Gilliland, a local developer. An engineer from ELA, asked supervisors to approve the storm water runoff plan for the Gilbrook Farms and Arbutus developments near Dry Hollow Road. However, Gilliland did not get written consent for this plan from the adjacent land owners of the downstream properties. In order for the supervisors to approve this plan, Gilliland’s group needed written consent from adjacent land owners of the downstream properties. This is due to a township ordinance.
The township solicitor said this ordinance was designed to protect the land owners of the downstream properties in situations like this.
Tom Scott, counsel for Gilliland, criticized this ordinance. He said they received written consent form PennDOT, but did not receive written consent from the land owners and felt they shouldn’t have to.
Scott continued by stating the land owners will probably not give their written consent anyway.
Township Engineer Mark Haefner questioned the runoff plan since they are completely changing the characteristics on how storm water will discharge from this area, stating, “You are concentrating a discharge and discharging it onto a neighbor.”
He disagreed with Gilliland’s group that the amount of storm water runoff will be less with the runoff plan Gilliland’s group presented and will not affect the land owners of adjacent properties. The topography for the plans was presented by the engineer representing Gilliland.
When asked if this information was compiled by an aerial survey, Gilliland’s group said that it was. Oswalt questioned how accurate it was since there is a margin of error in an aerial survey. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that the Township Solicitor and Engineer will meet with Gilliland’s group to try to resolve this situation.
The Warriors Mark Township Supervisors will hold their next meeting on Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m.
