May 8, 2007 The meeting of the Supervisors of Franklin Township, held in the Township office, was called to order by Chairman John Sachar at 1900 hours with the Pledge of Allegiance. Present were Sachar, Gary Truitt, David Henderson, Christopher Lovell and Attorney Gary Eiben of Coaxial Cable TV, Hugh Crandall, Joe Szymanowicz and Reporter Audrey Scruton. VISITORS/PUBLIC COMMENT Richard and Navonne Crandall Subdivision, West Stancliff Road – M/M Crandall are subdividing a 49.125 net acre parcel just west of the property located at 7024 West Stancliff Road. The property has 1578.77 ft. of frontage and no existing buildings. It is open fields and woods and has not been approved for septic. Sachar moved to approve the Crandall subdivision as presented. Truitt seconded. Carried. Mylar was signed. Joseph and Alice Szymanowicz Conditional Use Request for Side-Yard Relief – M/M Szymanowicz would like to add a 2-car garage to the existing house at 8244 Crane Road. They are requesting side-yard relief from 30 ft. to 15 ft. They also own the adjacent property. Henderson moved to advertise a public hearing on June 12, 2007 at 7 p.m. to consider the Szymanowicz conditional use request. Truitt seconded. Carried. Coaxial Cable Television Franchise Agreement Renewal/Attorney Gary Eiben and Manager Christopher Lovell – Mr. Eiben stated that the franchise agreement is due to expire in December of 2009. Eiben – we would like to just extend the agreement as it stands. Because the industry changes so quickly, we are suggesting three consecutive five year terms. Each is renewable at the end of the five-year period. We would wait until the end of the third five-year period instead of at the end of each five-year period. Sachar – can you supply a map of your penetration into the Township? Lovell – we’ll send a map. We feel it has been a good relationship so far. Eiben – there is no expansion planned from the original construction but that can change quickly. Review the agreement and let us know if you have any questions. Discussion was held on the various services/packages available. Szymanowicz – are you planning on expanding onto Fry Road? Lovell – as areas are cost effective. We are always ready to build out. Mr. Lovell and Mr. Eiben left the meeting at 1927 hours. MINUTES Truitt moved to approve the minutes of April 10 and April 25, 2007 as presented. Henderson seconded. Carried. REPORTS Roadmaster – Dave reported that the roads have been graded twice and the tanker is back in service. There were extra expenses involved with the tanker including brake drums and other unexpected items. The repair job is approximately $1,500 over budget with parts and labor. The crew is hoping to brine again to help with dust control. Several cross-pipes were replaced. Agility – no word yet from PennDOT. We hope to use seal coat as our project. PennDOT may not provide seal coating anymore. If not, we will reevaluate continuing with the program. Francis Road Pipe – nothing. Fire Ponds – Dave reported that we are still in the grant round but time to do the work this year will soon run out. Gravel Costs and How to Apply It – discussion on application methods. Dave said the choices are: 1. tailgate; 2. bulldozer pushed spreader box; 3. paver. Henderson – tailgating is not a very efficient method. You end up with uneven distribution. Using the spreader box method, we estimated the cost at $75,250. It will be closer to $95,058, $15,000 over budget. We would not be able to do all the roads that we had planned. Russell Standard’s paver is $257/hr. for the paver, roller and labor. You continue to pay the hourly rate even if the paver is sitting waiting for trucks to deliver. A big problem is the lack of available trucks. Tucci can give us four trucks, we need nine. The spreader box is the best deal because of the time lag in delivery. I recommend the bull-dozer spreader box. Sachar – I’d recommend the tailgate method for this year. Henderson – the over-budget cost could be made up by cutting out a road and moving it to the following year. Truitt – what road would you eliminate to make up $15,000? Discussion on how to switch roads around in the schedule. Henderson – we have a lot of work to do this summer. We need to conserve our labor force. We need to do the best we can and reevaluate next year possibly using McKean’s paver. Sachar moved to use the bull-dozer pushed spreader box method for spreading gravel this year. Truitt seconded. Carried. Dirt and Gravel Roads Projects – Dave reported that the Silverthorn road project has started with tree removal. He asked the Soil Conservation District if we could lengthen the geo-cell material to 120 ft. For the Mohawk road project, REA will lay the trees over and the neighbor wants the wood. Washington Township’s wood chipper will be used. When this is done, we will wait until the first week of June to start the ditching. Merritt Overweight Permit – no word from him. He needs to pay the permit cost in lieu of a bond. The permit fee is $300. His fine from PSP would have been in the $2,000 range. Discussion. Sachar – sent a follow up letter stating that we expect him to pay the $300 permit fee or we will go back to the PSP and charge him for the weight violation. Cross-pipe Inventory – there are 183 cross-pipes in the Township, 36 are in poor or fair condition. Henderson – the liability issue is for those 36 pipes. When a cross-pipe fails, the road is closed. FINANCIAL AND TAXES Bills – Sachar moved to pay the bills as listed totaling $7,671.07 general fund and $5,149.88 state fund. Truitt seconded. Carried. Payroll – Henderson moved to approve payroll #9-07, #9-07A as presented. Truitt seconded. Carried. Henderson moved to pay the two Community National Bank invoices for the truck and anti-skid loans when received. Sachar seconded. Carried. Procurement Cards – Henderson and Bernhardt took an on-line training class. Tax Sale Letter from the County – discussion was held on the County changing law firms to handle the tax sales and on several abandoned mobile homes within the Township. Henderson – the county is going through the tax sale process again. I suggest we pre-approve this even without the details. They say time is of the essence. Sachar moved to approve the County’s lien free tax sale. Henderson seconded. Carried. Truitt – can we buy the mobile home for a dollar? Can we put a lien on the property to get it removed? Henderson – we’ll ask our Attorney. PLANNING, ZONING, RECREATION, SAFETY, SANITATION/RECYCLING, HEALTH AND THE COMMON GOOD Planning Commission Minutes – reviewed. Terry and Nancy Rea Subdivision – M/M Rea are subdividing their property at 8084 Clair Wright Road. Lot 1 has 5.361 net acres (5.919 total), 433.58 ft. of frontage on Clair Wright and 562.80 ft. of frontage on Mohawk. Lot 2, the residue, has 39.873 net acres (40.221 total) with 599.52 ft. of frontage on Clair Wright. Lot 2 has an irregular shape. Neither lot has existing buildings. Both will be serviced by one small flow treatment facility. Truitt moved to approve the Rea Subdivision as presented. Sachar seconded. Carried. Mylar was signed. Joint Comprehensive Plan, Industrial Park/KOZ, Stormwater Management Ordinance, Storage Trailers, History Grant, Soil Conservation Letter on Wetlands, Ordinance Compliance, Recycling, Shooting Range, Edinboro Lake Watershed, Fire Department Hydrant on Old State, Elizabeth Davis Childcare Facility – nothing new to report. Removal of Trailer from Chivari Property – the semi-tractor trailer has not been removed. Final notice of violation has been sent, deadline has passed. We have had no word from Mr. Chivari. Three trailers have been moved onto the property since reassessment. The next action is to file charges at the District Justice. Truitt moved to file charges against Stephen ux Donna J. Chivari, 10374 Mohawk Road, for violation of the Zoning Ordinance. Henderson seconded. Carried. Tavern Parking Letter – Sachar moved to send the new owners a letter concerning ingress and egress from their parking lot. Henderson seconded. Carried. Rep. Hornaman Town Meeting – Dave reported that around 30 people attended. Discussion was generally on roads and how under-funded municipalities are. Sachar – we’re under-funded because costs are so high. Henderson – we discussed the cost of paving Fry road. It was proposed that Fry be considered a parallel State road to Rt. 99 and that PennDOT pay for repairs. There are substantial improvements needed to Route 99 because of the level of use. Anything else would mean high costs to the Township with no benefits. There is no solution to the problem in the near future. I ordered a traffic study to be done at the corner of West Stancliff and Fry. Discussion. Henderson – the shooting range was also discussed. Rep. Hornaman said he would investigate the issue with Joe Weindorf, Erie Police Dept. and Rep. John Evans on getting funds to enclose the range. There was good discussion on State incentives for volunteer fire departments. Farmstead/Homestead List and the School District Ballot Question – information is posted on the Township’s website. SOLICITOR Vittorio – a letter was received from Attorney Schroeck saying that the Township is 7th on the list to receive money from Vittorio’s bankruptcy payment plan. Nuisance Ordinance Rewrite – John commented on parts of the draft that he does not agree with. Discussion was held on various aspects of the draft. John said that he would not vote for a property maintenance code. Supreme Court Ruling/UCC – nothing. Brown/Carver Property on Rt. 98 – see below. OLD BUSINESS Internet Broadband, Verizon FIOS, Elk Creek Boundary Road Agreement – nothing. NEW BUSINESS None. CORRESPONDENCE Henderson moved to allow the employees to attend the Walsh Equipment open house. Sachar seconded. Carried. John felt that it should be held to a ˝ day. FTVFD Request for Reflective Signs – Henderson moved to purchase the requested signs with payment coming from the Fire Department Fund. Truitt seconded. Carried. Brown/Carver Property on Rt. 98 – an executive session was held to discuss this issue. Session began at 2105 hours and ended at 2115 hours. ADJOURN Sachar called the meeting adjourned at 2116 hours. Bonnie J. Bernhardt, Secretary