Supervisors to back initiative with conditions
CUMBERLAND TWP. – The township supervisors voted Monday to rescind a resolution adopted last month in opposition to a Rendell administration initiative to improve agricultural and environmental stewardship, and adopted a new resolution in support of the plan, but only if several conditions are met. The supervisors were opposed to the Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment initiative, better known as ACRE, and drafted the resolution last month to that effect.
According to the state Department of Agriculture, ACRE includes changes to farm-management regulations to strengthen key water quality requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations, concentrated animal operations and manure-importing farms, and requires odor mitigation.
The new resolution adopted Monday notes the supervisors’ support for ACRE, but only if six conditions are met, including preservation of township regulatory power, permission for voluntary reviews of ordinances and allowing people to appeal decisions made by the Agriculture Review Board, which would be created under ACRE.
Supervisor William Groves said the supervisors will endorse ACRE if and when those six conditions are granted.
“Before, we were opposed to it, but we’ll be in favor if those criteria are met,” he said, noting the criteria need to be included in bills working their way through the state House of Representatives and Senate.
In other matters, the supervisors voted to increase the salary of the township tax collector from $5,000 annually to $7,500 annually starting in 2006. The current tax collector, Andrea Eitner, made the request noting that the position is up for election next year. Supervisors said it has been nearly a decade since the salary was last increased.
The supervisors awarded a $41,789.25 contract to Pompei & Sons Inc. to pave roads in Cumberland Village that were recently torn up when new water lines were installed. Groves said the money for the work came from Community Development Block Grant funding and work is expected to begin shortly.
They announced that ditches and pipes will be installed along Liveasy Road where needed, voted to increase the fee for zoning hearing board hearings to $250 and recessed the meeting until Nov. 8, when the 2005 tentative township budget will be adopted.