Supervisors Look to Establish Employee Duties, Will Research the Addition of a Township Manager
CLEARFIELD – Lawrence Township Supervisor Jeremy Ruffner proposed a handful of agenda items Tuesday night that would hopefully “put to bed some of the issues that they (the supervisors) have been having.”
Ruffner proposed a carbon work/job order form. He’s hopeful that the order forms will help keep the supervisor time sheets more orderly. The form was subsequently approved by the board.
A motion was also made to firmly establish a chain of command. For example: the roadmaster delegates to the road crew and reports back to the supervisors instead of the supervisors delegating to the road crew themselves.
Another topic that came up was job duties, and the supervisors will look to establish the duties of township employees including but not limited to township supervisor, roadmaster and road crew.
This will be discussed at a later meeting with the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.
Their Web site is www.psats.org. The state organization teaches and instructs surrounding townships as well as the supervisors.
Ruffner also proposed to hire a township manager since Lawrence Township is quite big and that’s usually what other larger municipalities do.
This township manager would help over see the finances as well as supervise other employees. The supervisors decided to do some research on the subject and reach out to PSAT for further advisement.
The supervisors also discussed the idea of ACT 91, an act that was written in 2016 and revised in 2020 to give volunteer fire and various volunteer emergency crews a tax break.
Concerned citizen Bill Ogden stood up and asked the supervisors how could they pass an ordinance that would give two out of three supervisors a tax break. Ruffner said more research had to be done before anything else.
Director Lisa Coval and Board Member Marianne Herres of the Joseph & Elizabeth Shaw Public Library gave an update to the supervisors.
They reported that there are many programs and services that are available at the library for babies and toddlers to elementary school age and teens as well as adults.
Programs include a Lego Club for kids that started on Sept. 19 as well as an upcoming Chess Club and much more. The library plans to apply for a Keystone Grant to help expand the library.
The grant would help the Shaw Library be able to add on a space for children to read, a family bathroom as well as a nursing room for mothers.
Go to www.shawlibrary.org for more information on the programs as well as upcoming events like the Veterans Day celebration planned for Nov. 9.
Residents Jim Collins and his wife, Sherry, owners of the local Rainbow Car Wash, encouraged the supervisors to consider installing a boat ramp behind Rainbow Car Wash 2 in Hyde.
Collins reported that the area behind the car wash is pretty busy during the summer months for people to launch canoes and tubes onto the river, and it was especially busy this Labor Day weekend.
According to Collins, plans were already proposed and drawn up years ago to construct a boat ramp behind his car wash, and he would donate the land to do so, but those plans fell through with two state entities backing out of the project.
The township would incur the cost to build and maintain the road. The supervisors will take the Collins’ idea under consideration.
Residents are asked to be careful and mindful at the compost site. The road crew has been working on putting up a temporary barricade close to the bank. There is still plenty of room to dump various grass clippings and compost, however.
The supervisors voted to approve advertisement for stone bids, as well as to distribute pension funds to Barb Shaffner when she decides to take them.
The supervisors also approved to distribute the Volunteer Fire Allocation, which was $41,817.95.
The Lawrence Park Rec Park’s Dog Park will officially open on Sunday, Septe. 24 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. All residents are encouraged to attend.
