Yetsconish steps down as chairman of Washington Twp. supervisors
WASHINGTON TWP. – After almost a year of serving as the chairman of the township supervisors, John Yetsconish has decided to step down, announcing his resignation from the position at a meeting Wednesday. “I just don’t have the time to devote to it right now,” said Yetsconish.
The supervisors decided to have Melvin Weiss finish the term as chairman.
In his first meeting as the new chairman, Weiss and the other supervisors were faced with many of the same issues that were brought to their attention at their meeting last month.
“At the last meeting, I brought up the issue of the spewing of acid throughout the township,” said local resident Chuck Yetsconish, in reference to the haze of fumes that was reported to be coming from the Amrox Corp. in Washington County.
Supervisor Joann Lutkanich said the problem has been referred to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“They have no findings yet, but they did stress to me that they are following up on the complaint. They will notify us when they find anything,” she said.
Chuck Yetsconish and Joseph Malaspina, another local resident, both said they could not understand why it is taking so long for the DEP to set up a monitoring system so that they could correct the problem. Malaspina expressed concern that the fumes could be contaminating the air.
The supervisors explained that the amount of time it takes the DEP to act on the issue is beyond their control.
“They are giving their assistance,” said Weiss. “We can ask them to develop a monitoring system, and we will do that. But whether they do it or not is up to them. We don’t have control over the DEP.”
“We can’t guarantee that they will listen to us,” said John Yetsconish.
“I believe the DEP are qualified people who know what they are doing,” said Lutkanich. “They did send a letter to the township saying that they would take care of the situation, and I am confident in the DEP.
Local resident Bud Leeper followed up on the issue of the animal control officer, which was also brought to the supervisors’ attention before. Many citizens at the last meeting were concerned that if they lost their pets, the animals could be picked up and disposed of before their owners had a chance to find them.
Lutkanich reassured the residents that if they call the township or the police immediately after losing their dogs, they should be able to get their pets back. Leeper then raised the issue of how it can be proven that the animal control officer has really picked up the dogs in Washington Township, and not somewhere else.
“To my knowledge, these dogs are coming from our community only,” said Lutkanich.
“That is a very good point,” said Weiss. “Giving the location that he picked them up at might be the only way.”
One new issue that Chuck Yetsconish discussed with the supervisors was that of brush on people’s property and weeds in the area that he said have grown up so much that he feels they are damaging to vehicles passing by.
“They are so bad that cars get scraped going through,” he said.
Weiss said the township would be happy to correct the problem.
“We only have three men that work on things like that. You can only expect so much from them,” said Weiss. “But the weeds should be cut, and we will get to them. All we need is a call to notify us about these problems. If you help us, we will help you.”