DUBOIS – A public hearing was held prior to the start of the regularly scheduled Sandy Township meeting on Monday night.
The hearing was for the supervisors to receive evidence regarding whether the Treasure Lake residence at Section 15, Lot 465, owned by Sue Woodland at 1865 Basse Terra Rd., should be declared a dangerous and dilapidated building.
If declared dangerous and dilapidated, the building would then be ordered repaired, vacated or demolished in accordance with the Sandy Township Dangerous or Dilapidated Building Ordinance.
Township Manager Dave Monella testified during the hearing and confirmed notice of the hearing was advertised twice. He also confirmed exhibit two as a copy of a letter to the property owner who does not reside in the local area and the property mortgagee.
Building Inspector Bill Kulbacki then testified that he started doing inspections of the property in 2009. During his testimony, Kulbacki stated “…there has been absolutely no improvement whatsoever to this house…and it actually is beginning to worsen.”
When asked if there was anything the property owner could do to rehabilitate the property, Kulbacki gave his opinion that “the house is just so structurally unsound; there is so much damage to the structure…I don’t believe it could be cost efficient.”
The public hearing ended with a request from Township Solicitor Greg Kruk to enter the exhibits presented during the hearing to the record.
During the regularly scheduled meeting, a subdivision/lot consolidation requested was voted on and passed unanimously.
The request was made by Shirley Ogershok to subdivide .81 acres of land from her property and consolidate it with the neighboring land owned by the Adrian Sandy Fire Company.
The 2015 proposed budget was presented to the supervisors by Dave Monella. The budget included no tax increase, and proposed a total budget of $8,912,938.
A break-down of the budget is available for public inspection from 8:3o a.m. to 4 p.m., starting Nov. 18 at the Township Municipal Building. Final adoption is scheduled for the Dec. 15 Sandy Township meeting.
Vice Chairman Dave Sylvis made a motion for Sandy Township to “…join the DuBois School District and the county in the fight against the Wal-Mart appeal to lower their taxes.” Kruk elaborated that the assessed value of Wal-Mart’s property went down. He explained that the lowered property value would result in a loss of approximately $15,000 a year to the township. The motion passed unanimously.