May 14, 2002 Northern Berks Police Meeting:
A brief synopsis of the police meeting will go here. Hit your browser refresh button if it is after 5/16/02 and you still see this sentence.
May 9, 2002 Maidencreek Meeting:
Length of Meetings:
This meeting ended just before midnight. I suppose this is due to the many issues before the board. Hopefully, the meetings will become shorter. Sometimes I, as chairman, allow the public comment to flow into areas that are not always productive. I do not want to squelch public comment. Often members of the public offer good ideas that the board adopts. The public comment is valuable to good government. I am thinking about getting a little more formal, and asking people to stay on the topic. My concern is while public comment gives us good ideas and leads to better decisions, a tired board at the tail end of the meeting can make some bad decisions.
The Solicitor:
Rich Orwig was not present at the meeting. The township received a resignation letter from Rich. The board voted to accept Rich's resignation with thanks for his many years of service to Maidencreek. The Board voted to appoint the law firm of Orlando & Strahn to serve in Rich's place for the balance of 2002. This law firm will have to do yeomen's work to get up to speed on the issues. Gene Orlando is especially strong in the areas of zoning and land use. Several items were tabled until next month when the new solicitor will be present.
Speeding on Faith Drive (in Maidencreek Estates):
The police took some data on the speeding. The table shows a summary.
|
Date |
Time |
Number of Cars |
Highest Speed |
2nd Highest |
3rd Highest |
Average |
Number Cars > 35 mph |
|
Tues. 4/23/02 |
13:38-14:17 |
25 |
42 |
38 |
36 |
29.2 |
3 |
|
Fri. 5/3/02 |
09:08-10:08 |
59 |
40 |
39 |
39 |
29.6 |
8 |
|
Fri. 5/3/02 |
15:15-15:45 |
54 |
44 |
39 |
39 |
30.7 |
9 |
|
Sun. 5/5/02 |
11:15-11:45 |
18 |
30 |
29 |
28 |
23.81 |
0 |
|
Mon. 5/6/02 |
7:39-8:39 |
33 |
45 |
37 |
37 |
29.94 |
4 |
Several things are clear from this data.
We do have a problem here. The Friday 3PM 5/3/02 data shows 9 speeders in a half hour. That's about one speeder every 3 minutes.
While many of the people are speeding, the great majority are going a reasonable speed (less than 35 mph).
The fastest car is often a good 10% to 20% faster than the rest.
People are less anxious to break the law on their way to church than on their way to work :-)
A big thank you to the police for gathering this information. The signs discussed at the last meeting have been ordered.
Traffic:
The board asked the engineer to study the data PennDOT took on their 222 survey to see if the data shows any benefit to timing the lights at 73 and Tamarack. If we can improve the back up at the lights on 222, we can reduce the cut through speeding traffic shown in the table above. It may be that since the light at Tamarack triggers on demand, cut through traffic may make the back up worse. Timing the light will increase the time to leave the development making cut through less desirable, but this is only speculation. Hopefully, the data will give clear direction on how to improve this.
Treasurer's Report:
Gloria found several errors in the treasurer's report. On several funds the starting balance this month did not agree with the ending balance from last month. This type of error had occurred in previous months as well. I spoke to the treasurer. She has indicated the source of the errors is transcription of the numbers from the accounting software into a spreadsheet.
Bedrock Stone and Mulch:
On 4/9/02 the solicitor sent the cease letter requested by the board in the February meeting. There has been some off loading of materials at Bedrock, however, it seems this activity is due to Bedrock not notifying their suppliers of the situation at this property.
Martin Retirement Village:
The Water Authority Solicitor and the bank continue to trade drafts of the Letters of Credit. The bank is willing to loan the money. It is just a matter of time before the LOCs are acceptable. The board did vote to "pull the trigger" on the ultimatum, but before the solicitor filed the injunction the LOCs were received and then marked up for revision by the Water Authority. If this is not resolved soon, I am hopeful the new solicitor will have some creative advice on how to solve this. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes looking at a problem is helpful.
Bids:
The bids on the phase I construction of the tot lot in Treetops were evaluated. Smith & Smith Gen. Contractors of Pottsville was the lowest bidder, with a bid of $55,739. Park and Rec. recommended Smith & Smith. The board awarded the contract to Smith & Smith contingent upon proof of insurance.
paid for by Roy Timpe