Lower Towamensing prepares for summer road repairs

In preparation for upcoming road repairs this summer, the Lower Towamensing Township supervisors accepted the bid for stone at their Tuesday evening meeting, but tabled selecting a company to provide the blacktop.

The supervisors opted to hold off on selecting a company for blacktop until they can calculate out the correct number of miles they will need to cover. The price quote provided was for 22 miles and didn’t take into account the detours, which will increase the number of miles.

The supervisors also decided to hold off on purchasing cold patch from Lehigh Hanson Inc. with an office in Allentown.

“We’re not doing the cold patch,” said Brent Green, chairman of the supervisors.

He said he doesn’t like the material they use for cold patch.

The supervisors did decide to purchase some stone from Hanson, which included 800 tons of PennDOT 2A stone at $14 per ton and 800 tons of dirt and gravel. From Lehigh Asphalt Paving and Construction in Andreas, they decided to purchase 200 tons #2B stone at $16.40 a ton, 200 tons of #4 stone at $16.10 per ton, and 1,000 tons of anti-skid at $17.90 per ton from Lehigh Asphalt.

In other business, the supervisors discussed the issue of mounting garbage bills that haven’t been paid by residents for several years. To date, there is $81,527 in unpaid garbage bills as reported to them by their collection company Creditech.

“That’s a lot of money and people are still getting their garbage picked up,” said Supervisor Ron Walbert.

“We don’t put on liens,” Green said. “Some of these homes have been sold, so it’s with the old owner.”

James Nanovic, the township’s solicitor, told the supervisors they could go back three years and sue in small claims court.

“I think some of the big tickets should get a lien,” Walbert said.

Green made a motion to pursue liens on the unpaid garbage bills from 2015 and 2016, which was approved. He suggested that they review the unpaid 2017 bills and send out another notice to those residents and former residents before pursing liens.

The supervisors also approved offering long-term and short-term disability insurance to the township employees. For five employees, the long-term insurance will cost $3,228 per year and the short-term will cost $1,740 per year.