North Union officials urge tornado victims to take advantage of donations
North Union Township and Fayette County Community Action officials are hoping more victims from the recent tornado in Uniontown and North Union Township will step forward to take advantage of donations that are ready to be distributed.
At the North Union Township meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Rob Kovach said that as of last Friday, there were still a lot of building materials left for those who might need to replace their roof on their damaged homes.
“There were over 100 sheets of OSB (wooden sheeting) and 96 bundles of shingles still available,” he said. “There is just so much stuff available at Community Action, but there just haven’t been a lot of people responding yet.”
Kovach said Community Action also has gift cards available and will help to pay the security deposit and first month’s rent at a new place for those who were renting homes that are no longer livable due to the tornado.
“You just need to take a valid driver’s license to Community Action so they can make sure your address is where the damage occurred,” he said.
He also announced that a benefit concert will be held at 2 p.m. April 15 at the State Theatre Center for the Arts on Main Street in Uniontown to raise money for those affected by the tornado.
The doors for the event will open at 1:30 p.m. and there will be a $20 donation asked for at the door. Performers include Blended Reality Band, Todd Jones, Marshall Lowry and Devon Johnson from Ruff Creek.
In other township business, resident Doug Yost questioned whether the township can prevent the Franklin Business Park from creating an entrance onto Old Route 51 as part of their expansion plans into North Union Township.
Solicitor Don McCue said the township cannot prevent anyone from using a township road. The only thing the supervisors can do is to set weight limits, which has currently been set to have a 10-ton limit.
Yost said there is no way that the trucks will abide by the 10-ton limit and added that he moved to the country for quiet, not to have commercial trucks running up and down the road in front of his house all day long.
Supervisor Curtis Matthews asked McCue if there was any way the township could design a sharp bend in the road that would prevent big trucks from making the turn to try and deter big trucks from accessing the road.
McCue said that if the township could get an engineer to verify there’s a good reason to put in a road entrance with a curve that’s too tight for big trucks to make the turn, it might be doable.
Supervisors told Yost they would look into whether or not the creation of an entrance from the business park onto Old Route 51 can be prevented and will update him at next month’s meeting.
Supervisors had hoped to put a trussed roof on their storage garage but was told by some contractors that overhead wires would make a truss roof impossible.
Supervisor Rob Tupta said they will extend the deadline for bids until April 17 and will allow an alternate bid for a flat roof system.
Tupta said they are still hoping to do a truss roof unless the bids are too high. Bids will be opened at 10:05 a.m. April 17.
A resolution was passed to include North Union Township Recreation Center in the township’s Young Lungs at Play resolution that was approved in 2008 and included Eberly, Phillips and Mt. Braddock parks.
This will mean that smoking will not be allowed on the grounds, both indoors and outdoors.
It was announced that grass, leaves, trees and any limbs under three inches in diameter are being accepted at the compost site from 7 a.m. to dusk on Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to dusk on Saturday.
This service is for residents only and not businesses. All waste must be removed from any bags that might be used for transporting it to the site.
A hard-to-recycle day is scheduled for May 5 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fayette County fairgrounds. There will be no charge for old televisions or other electronics, but there will be a $2 charge for each appliance or tire.
A paints and chemicals recycling day is scheduled for June 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., also at the fairgrounds. A charge of $3 per gallon will apply.