CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners have yet to come out as a group to speak either for or against the Boggs Township Landfill, but Tuesday morning, they approved sending a letter to the supervisors.
The correspondence will ask that the supervisors not change an ordinance already in place that limits the hours of operation for landfills within the municipality. The commissioners approved sending the letter 3-0.
Clearfield County Commissioner Rex Read said he was at the last meeting of the Boggs Township Supervisors, held two weeks ago. He said the vast majority of residents of Boggs and neighboring townships were not comfortable the engineering firm paid to review contracts and plans. Read also claimed that the representative from the firm traveled to Boggs Township from Harrisburg in the same vehicle as representatives from PA Waste LLC, the landfill company.
PA Waste plans to submit paperwork to the Department of Environmental Protection later this month, and a local input meeting will be held at that time.
The commissioners said they would like to hire their own engineer to look over the documents to protect the interests of county residents and other municipalities in the county.
“I think we do feel compelled to step up here,” McCracken said, and Read noted that citizens in areas other than Boggs Township are not being represented by the Boggs Township engineers.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any authority in this, but I do think we have a responsibility to our citizens,” Lytle said. The county will be able to provide input only at a Local Municipality Involvement Process meeting to be held within 30 days of the permits being submitted to DEP.
All three commissioners expressed their concern for residents within other areas of the county, but only Read specifically took a stand against the landfill.
“I’ve been relatively outspoken as to being against the landfill,” Read said.
McCracken said, “I think we feel compelled to step up here. … Step up for the people of Boggs Township who don’t think they’re being well represented and those in Lawrence Township, Clearfield Borough, Woodward Township and Decatur Township.”
They did so by deciding to send the letter to the Boggs Township Supervisors.
In entertaining the motion, McCracken said, “PA Waste knew coming into the Boggs Township community that the ordinance was in place. They knew what the hours of operation were.”