The Richland Township Water Authority (RTWA), chartered as independent from Richland Township, might be starting to provide a periodic operations report to the township board of supervisors.
The possibility emerged, as a motion to that effect, by Supervisor Rick Orloff at the Oct. 8 public supervisors meeting, following the regular quarterly report from the township roadmaster.
While Orloff’s notion of perhaps a similar presentation by the RTWA, on an annual basis, at first received sufficient support to move forward, from board Vice Chair Tim Ritter, the motion was withdrawn, pending Ritter contacting the RTWA board chair to discuss how such a periodic report might shape up. Ritter said he preferred that procedure to simply advising the RTWA that supervisors had acted to request it.
Board Chair Tim Arnold, who also serves as RTWA executive director, had declared he was abstaining from any voting on the motion. Orloff has long been critical of the RTWA, and has called for more accountability for it. Critics of Orloff’s campaign have maintained it lacks substance, a position that has often been taken by Ritter.
The critics have also characterized the effort as a personal vendetta against Arnold. The motion to establish a periodic report from RTWA might be re-introduced at the next board of supervisors meeting, on Nov. 12.
Meanwhile, in his regular quarterly roadmaster report, Jim Benner said that the Mine Road bridge project, which has necessitated closing the road, had experienced delays due to the weather, as well as “unforeseen large boulders.” But he said footers could finally be placed, possibly as soon as the week of Oct. 15, and that he was targeting re-opening the road by mid-to-late November.
Also at the Oct. 8 supervisors meeting, supervisors entertained a presentation from Richlandtown Borough Mayor Jim Dunn, and several of his fellow residents, requesting assistance from Richland Township with truck traffic and car speeding problems in their borough.
They received agreement, in principle, for cooperation toward establishing new truck regulations, and additional speed limit postings, given sharing of expenses such as for township traffic engineering studies and police overtime, and given that any changes affecting the particular roads in question, especially Route 212, were all subject to PennDOT approval.
The next prescription drug takeback, at the township police station on California Road, is scheduled for Oct. 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the next shredding event there will be Nov. 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
