CLEARFIELD – Several items of business were addressed by the Lawrence Township Supervisors on Tuesday.
After some discussion, the supervisors voted to purchase a Ford F550 cab and chassis at a cost of $40,000 as an initial step towards acquiring a new truck to replace an older truck in the fleet. More action will be taken at a later meeting regarding the truck.
The supervisors also voted on a dirt roller from Bradco. It is a 2019 Bomag 66-inch with only five hours for $7,500.
Secretary Treasurer Barb Shaffner reported that the Good Street project was $24,607.87 over budget and a balance of $2,229 is owed to DJ Wisor and Sons.
The state Department of Community and Economic Development will not provide any more money because of the overage and so the township will have to make up the difference.
Supervisor Jeremy Ruffner asked how this happened and who was responsible. Shaffner couldn’t say with any certainty with whom the responsibility lay, but she did say the county warned the township that the engineering costs were getting out of hand.
During the reorganizational meeting, the township did not reappoint Stiffler McGraw as the township engineer, according to a previous report.
It was noted that Stiffler McGraw gave the township a quote for engineering costs for work on the new building, including architectural and mechanical changes.
The supervisors thought the amount was too much and searched for other quotes, accepting one from Hughes Engineering for $17,500, which Ruffner said was considerably less than the quote from Stiffler McGraw.
The supervisors also discussed concerns raised by the safety committee. Shaffner said that members of the committee who are also firefighters take requests from the committee to address issues back to their companies only to be told the committee doesn’t have any authority.
Shaffner asked what authority the township has in that regard and the supervisors noted that while the township does not own the buildings, the township does pay the workers compensation insurance for the fire companies, and the issues the committee is concerned about are safety issues.
The matter will be brought up at the next chief’s meeting.
