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With two of the the three in attendance, the Old Lycoming Township Supervisors took up several measures and approved their budget for 2025 at their December meeting, at which Justin Kastner was absent.
The budget for the new year does not include a tax increase, supervisor John Eck said.
In other matters, the supervisors rescinded an earlier approval for the purchase and utilization of Blackbaud/Zobrio software to be used for general accounting for the township. The initial approval was never acted upon, it was noted; and approved a new Public Works Collective Bargaining Agreement with the public works department, who are part of the AFSCME. The two year contract will take effect on Jan. 1.
Eck and fellow supervisor Richard Metz also gave approval for a subdivision plan for 442 Kinley Road, contingent upon the approval of the planning commission, as well as a road maintenance agreement for a 50' private right of way along a shared driveway, which is utilized by multiple users.
The current plan is for a single 10-acre division off of a 141.34-acre parcel for a family member.
An attempt was made to fill a vacancy on the Planning Commission when Eck put forward Linda Mazzullo for a vote, noting that she is knowledgeable about the ordinance and had already agreed to serve.
The attempt, however, came up short when, after nearly a minute of consideration, Metz simply stated, "I can't agree with that."
The pair subsequently approved Bill Doebler for another five year term on the Old Lycoming Area Authority.
Ongoing efforts to get the township's past financial statements in order were addressed as the supervisors approved an agreement with Zelenkofske Axelrod LLC, Harrisburg, to audit the township's 2022 financial information as compiled by Larson & Kellett. If all goes as planned, the effort is expected to be finished by the end of March, Eck said.
Asked about the cost of the auditing efforts and the possibility of holding prior administrations responsible for the delinquencies of the township's past financial statements, Eck stated that the most important thing was to focus on the lessons that can be learned moving forward.
"Don't worry too much concerning the dollar amount, although it is a factor, The most important thing is to find out what happened and why," he said.
"Every time I come in here for the last three weeks, there's something new that I find out from back in the day. Now, we're approaching 2023 and we have gotten to 2024 yet," he said.
While staffing issues in years past were not as much of an issue, it has become apparent that the current workload may be more than the township's current workforce is capable of.
"There's a number of things or omissions in how people are trained and what their responsibilities are," Eck said.
"We are down to two people now. We used to have more people in the administrative office. When I was here in 2017, there were 16 people on staff. We're down to six, trying to do almost the same amount of work, and it's not getting done because there's not enough hours in the work week," he said.
"It isn't like we're hurting for money. We're hurting for people," Eck continued.
Reflecting on his appointment to the board, Eck stressed that it will take time to rectify the past issues the township has faced.
"I've been asked to help Rick Metz and Justin Kastner right the ship, but it's not going to happen overnight," he said.
"I'm saying six to 12 months, maybe longer, because you just can't pull people off the street, to drive the truck, plow snow, to dig ditches, put pipes in the ground. You've got to get people who know what they're doing, otherwise you're going to be covering all of them constantly," he said, noting the same is true of the sewer department and the administrative office.
"The unfortunate thing is that the people that are here in this office, in my opinion, don't have a governmental background to fall back on, so they're still learning," he said.
The setting of a date for the conditional use hearing for the solar ordinance was tabled due to the absence of Kastner, Metz said.
"That's Justin's wheelhouse. He's the expert on that, and we're also looking at some minor changes to it," Metz said, adding that they have received additional information from the State Association of Township Supervisors, as well as Eck, himself.
The next township meeting is scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14.