Officials eliminate ‘free rides’ on sewage pump stations

KENNETT TOWNSHIP >> The revision of an 18-year-old sewer-services agreement with Kennett Square means no more free ride on maintaining Kennett Township’s pump stations. Lisa Moore told the township board of supervisors this week that the agreement with Kennett Square, which provides the township with its public sewer services, had not been updated since 2000 and no longer reflected the actual situation.

Township staff worked on a new agreement with the borough’s manager and public works director, Moore said, and the borough approved the new agreement Monday night. The most substantial change in the new agreement, Moore said, is that the borough asked the township to begin paying for the maintenance of pump stations in the township, which currently number eight.

The borough said that for management, maintenance, general oversight and labor and equipment rental, each of the eight pump stations would require a fee of $5,500 a year from the township. “We’ve really been getting that service in essence for free” since 2000, Moore said.

Moore said it would be cheaper for the township to pay the borough than to try maintaining the pump stations itself. The work requires a trained and licensed crew, which the borough has in place. Supervisor

Richard Leff asked if the new agreement would mean a rise in sewer fees for households.

Moore said the township would have to look into that, because the current fees only cover what the township was already paying the borough About 1,000 township residents use public sewer services, she said. The supervisors voted to adopt the revised agreement.

Moore also asked the supervisors to authorize her to sign stormwater management agreements with property owners without waiting for a public meeting to get signatures from the supervisors themselves. This would save property owners time in the development process, Moore said, but the state Department of Environmental Protection required a vote to authorize her to do so. The agreement essentially tells the owners what they must do to maintain stormwater management structures and control stormwater properly in general. The supervisors approved the request.

The supervisors also revised their rental ordinance

to change the definition of the word “tenant.” The change was made because in some cases the old definition did not take into account scenarios like tenants who might occupy a house owned by an employer.

The supervisors approved the revision. Moore said the Clifton Mill bridge on Route 82, closed since this summer, is on PennDOT’s “funded” list but there was no estimated date for construction yet. Township police department Chief Lydell Nolt said drivers should be aware it was the time of year when deer are more active. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday there will be only one supervisors’ meeting on November 7, Moore said.

During the public comment section resident Bill Hewton said he supported the idea of regional police forces as a way to keep expenses for police services down. The supervisors and Nolt discussed the subject with him, saying they had examined the possibility and remained open to it. But it was not necessarily beneficial for every municipality when all the factors were weighed, they said.