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Health & Fitness

Updates from Newtown Twp's Municipal Authority Meeting

No agenda for the meeting until you arrive, no clear Financial Report and Minutes from the last meeting that rewrite history.

On Monday, March 4, Newtown Township's Municipal Authority held their regularly scheduled meeting. It is unfortunate, I think, that like other public meetings, the Municipal Authority does not televise their meetings.  Since even digital recording of their meetings seems to be hit or miss and are not available after the meetings, I try to record all their meetings.

In advance of this and other meetings, the Municipal Authority does not publish their agenda. Residents may have thought that the meeting was either cancelled or had so little business that it was not important to attend.  That did not prove to be the case, in my view.  The meeting had many items on the agenda and at least one item that, in my view, should have been on the agenda, but was noticeably absent.  Municipal Authority Board member Jack DiPompeo spoke with me after the meeting to say that starting with next month’s meeting, the agenda will be posted on the township website before the meeting.  We’ll see if this proves to be true as Chairperson Sweeney previously said that copies of both meeting minutes and Municipal Authority Financial Information would be available at all meetings.  Unfortunately, neither have been consistently provided.

Items on the agenda included updates of both the Terrazza Development of the Somerset Tract and an update of the Ashford(Liseter) Development.  As part of the Terrazza/Somerset Tract, it is my understanding based on the Municipal Authority Engineer’s report that the developer will now be building a sewer line extending  to the homes in the Dogwood Lane Area neighborhood.   Then whenever the township finally has an approved township-wide plan(also known as a 537 plan)and that plan includes these homes, then these homes can connect to public sewer. It was not clear to me from the discussion last night whether these homes would also be charged the estimated $6,000 tap-in fee once the line was in place or if that fee would be required after the 537 plan was approved.

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The meeting also included approval of an amendment to the financial agreement related to the Liseter Development's sewage facilities. It was not clear if this change to this agreement will now cause the township’s estimated $6,000 tap-in fee (originally $4,500-6,000) for those areas included in the proposed 537 plan to be increased. Again, all on the Municipal Authority voted to approve this change without asking a question about it.

As their previous treasurer had resigned, Linda Gabell provided the Municipal Authority’s current financial report.   In January, the Municipal Authority paid their solicitor, Mike Sheridan, $1176.00.  This month, they paid him $1750.  Linda provided no detail of these payments as part of the financial report. 

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It is unclear, in my view, how the Municipal Authority can be incurring so many charges for general legal work.  It would be great, if along with the request for payment, the Municipal Authority had all invoices available for residents to review at their meetings.  It would also be great if the Municipal Authority provided residents with a status of their financials.  There was no update of their debt status and only a status of current deposits and payments.  As they were previously more than $500,000 in debt, it would be valuable for a report to taxpayers on this debt.

It was also reported that the Municipal Authority did not send out their required 1099 tax forms which are now past due such that the Board may now be subject to IRS filing penalties. Is this because Larry Fischer resigned as treasurer without letting the Board know of this requirement? In January, the Board of Supervisors appointed George Chittenden to a five-year term on the Municipal Authority. At their prior Municipal Authority meeting, it was discussed that Mr. Chittenden was appointed to the Authority and it was suggested he would become treasurer.  Now, at the March meeting, no mention is made of Mr. Chittenden.  And, there is no mention in the Municipal Authority minutes that he resigned. The Municipal Authority, it would appear, does not want to explain what happened in this case. And with no treasurer on the Board, maybe this is why required tax filings have not been done.  Again, no one on the Municipal Authority asks a question and there is still no treasurer for the Board.

Finally, the Municipal Authority spent time at previous meetings working out a process and the accompanying forms to ensure that requests for connection where there already is public sewer available would be followed.  Then, last night, Municipal Authority member Mark Caldwell, asked for approval of a connection that had not already processed the required paperwork nor paid all the appropriate fees.   All the work to finally get a good process for requested connections and Caldwell and the other Board members, all voted to approve this request pending the paperwork being complete.

This Municipal Authority would be responsible for any construction of new public sewage facilities proposed in the township's 537 plan and yet this was another Municipal Authority meeting with legal and engineering updates that no one on the Municipal Authority questioned, a Board Member is appointed and then does not show up, processes that the Municipal Authority board created that they decided not to follow, no on-going plan to deal with their existing debt and the inability to even complete the simplest bookkeeping.  

 

 

 

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