Cumberland supports forming agency
CUMBERLAND TWP. – The township supervisors adopted an ordinance Monday, making the township the first in Greene County to sign on to the establishment of a multi-municipal local agency to administrate the state Sewage Facilities Act. Supervisors in each of the county’s 20 townships are being asked to adopt the ordinance, which creates the Greene County Sanitary Committee to handle the enforcement and administration of the Act and its regulations.
According to the ordinance, the supervisors allow the committee to act on the township’s behalf to issue, deny or revoke permits, to conduct inspections, to abate nuisances and health hazards arising from malfunctioning on-lot disposal systems, to conduct hearings, to prosecute violators and apply for operating grants from the Department of Environmental Protection or other agency.
The ordinance goes into effect five days after the supervisors approve it and requires the township to use the committee for at least two years. After that time, the supervisors may withdraw from the committee and repeal the ordinance by giving the committee 90 days notice of that action.
Ann Bargerstock, county director of planning and development, said that each of the townships has been asked to join in the committee and would like to see that all 20 join in the process. Each township will have to pass the same ordinance before the committee handles administration and enforcement of the Act, she said.
The boroughs in the county are not included in the committee because all of them have public sewers, Bargerstock noted.
Meanwhile, the supervisors adopted a property maintenance ordinance that forces property owners to perform routine maintenance to their properties or risk a fine of up to $1,000. The ordinance applies to all occupied and unoccupied structures in the township and all properties shall be “safe, sound, sanitary and secure” and do not present a health and/or safety hazard to surrounding properties and to the general populace.
Grounds and buildings should be free or insect, vermin and rodent infestation and proper methods must be used for the collection and disposal of garbage, according to the ordinance.
It also lists stipulations for pet ownership and confinement, yards and vacant land and other miscellaneous provisions.
If an inspection reveals that a property owner has violated the ordinance, the ordinance states the owner or occupant will receive a written notice from the township asking that the violation be corrected within 30 days. The township supervisors may also grant extensions if the owner or occupant has shown that one is warranted.
If convicted, a person in violation of the ordinance could pay up to $1,000 in fines and/or a prison term of up to 90 days, the ordinance states.
The supervisors also adopted ordinances increasing the township’s contribution to the uniformed and non-uniformed pension plans from $2,400 per employee to $2,700 per employee and voted to enter into a heavy hauling agreement with R&J Lumber Co. for a five-tenths of a mile stretch of Groves Road.