RAVEN RUN — The Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah board decided to table an idea to add GPS units to authority vehicles until after a new distribution manager is hired.
The board discussed the issue at its March 29 special meeting. Board Chairwoman Donna Gawrylik said adding GPS devices to vehicles had been raised before without any action.
“The GPSs were discussed a couple of years back and nothing materialized with it, so what we’re doing now is discussing it for security, safety and insurance purposes so we know where our men are at all times,” Gawrylik said. “With the spring approaching and the work that has to get done, we really need to know.”
Authority manager Mary Lou Jaskierski said asked for proposals and received one from the state’s COSTARS program. She is awaiting another proposal. Jaskierski said COSTARS proposal would cost the authority $134.75 per month for five vehicles through a lease agreement for 36 months, after which the authority own the equipment and will cost the authority $18.95 per vehicle ($94.75 total per month) for the service.
Board member Donald E. Segal asked whether the existing cellphones have GPS service, to which Jaskierski said the cellphones do not have data plans, which is needed for GPS, and that the phones are basic flip phones.
Chief clerk Jennifer Hepler said data plans on new phones would cost $40 a month per phone.
Board member Joseph Rosselli questioned the need for a system to keep track of employees in the field.
“I have an issue with this. The town is approximately one square mile, and we are in the process of hiring a distribution manager who will be in charge of knowing where his employees are,” Rosselli said. “I just think we have a better use for $135.”
“It’s going to be his responsibility of knowing where his men are,” Segal said. “If the men are working at the reservoirs, the distribution manager will report that to Mary Lou.”
In addition to Shenandoah Borough, the water authority services customers in West Mahanoy and Butler townships and has reservoirs in West Mahanoy and Union townships. Jaskierski said the employees do travel out of the borough at times, giving an example of going to the Girardville area for water samples or to the reservoirs.
Gawrylik asked Jaskierski where the street employees were at the time, with Jaskierski replying that they were on East Centre Street in the borough for a water leak.
“My suggestion is let’s see how this distribution manager supervises the crew and how he handles assignments,” Rosselli said.
Gawrylik agreed to Rosselli’s suggestion to wait and allow the yet-to-be-hired distribution manager to direct employees and keep Jaskierski apprised of where and when employees are assigned, noting that accountability is an important aspect of keeping track of employees.
“Being the manager, he’s going to have to have a work schedule every day, and that schedule takes place between he and Mary Lou.”
“We’ve put the process in place. We just have to implement it,” Rosselli said.
The board took no action on the GPS discussion.
During the public portion, Glenn R. Hetherington, owner of farmland in Union Township near Reservoir No. 5, asked the board about purchasing a 10.3-acre parcel of authority land in the township.
“It’s on the opposite side of Reservoir Road and No. 5 reservoir,” Hetherington said. “The property is watershed to the reservoir as a vast majority of the land slopes away from the reservoir. It is adjacent to the property that I own. It was farmed up to approximately 20 years ago, but is now grown up with trees and bushes. My intention is to clear it and annex it to my farm. The farm is presently high on the waiting list to be entered into the agriculture preservation program.”
According to the Schuylkill Conservation District website, the “Agricultural Land Preservation” program is designed to preserve the most productive farmland by means of a perpetual agricultural conservation easement, which is a way of preventing development on the farmland permanently. Through this program, the landowners sell the development right on the farm to the state and/or county. The landowner is fairly compensated for selling this right. In turn, the state and/or county is able to prevent further development, and would only own this one specific right to the farm, which the landowner would retain all other property rights and is still the owner of the farm.
“When accepted into the program for agricultural preservation, this land can never be developed,” Hetherington said.
Rosselli has been reviewing the request and the program and had a few questions for Hetherington.
“Are you going to farm this land once it’s cleared?” Rosselli asked, to which Hetherington said it would be.
“I want to recommend to the board that we get the conservation people involved to see that if you are farming it, that any chemical herbicides or whatever you would use would not run into our reservoir through ground seepage or runoff,” Rosselli said. “You must understand that we have to protect that reservoir.”
Rosselli said the authority must also investigate the value of the property and to research the deed.
“When that property was given to us, and I don’t know if it came from Girard Estate or if we bought it, we need to look into that,” Rosselli said. “If we got it from Girard Estate, then we need to look at that deed to make sure we can sell it. So, there is work involved.”
Gawrylik told Hetherington that the authority will look into the points that Rosselli raised and the board could possibly make a decision at a near future meeting.