Greene Township Board of Supervisor’s Statement for the press:
Greene Township Supervisors held their monthly public meeting on June 4, 2024. Nicholas Meat LLC presented the Board with a letter dated May 29, 2024, formally requesting that Greene Township waive certain financial security requirements of the Greene Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO) for Nicholas Meat’s Sustainable Resource Facility project (SRF).
Supervisor Robert Bressler noted that the Township had received the letter of May 29, 2024, and carefully and thoroughly reviewed the request. Mr. Bressler presented the Township’s position by stating “Nicholas Meat’s situation is not about financial security for the SRF Project, which is what you told the public. The situation is your domestic sewage. This problem goes back six years to 2018. In 2018 it was shown by DEP and the Township Sewage Enforcement Officer that the domestic sewage for Nicholas Meat at that time was found to be inadequate for the number of employees. So, everyone in this room can understand, at that time Nicholas Meat was permitted a 20,000-gallon domestic holding tank for the overflow of sewage and at that time, DEP instructed the Township not to issue any building permits that would include restrooms and increase the flow of domestic sewage. The holding tank was termed to be temporary. The question is what is “temporary” and how long does temporary last? Just look across the road to the new construction site. The Township has compromised and done everything in its power to assist you to complete your Sustainable Resource Facility Project. Your problem at present is not with the Township, but rather with PADEP. Your sewage planning module was approved by DEP in January of 2023. The next step that has to be done is you must have a design and an application submitted to DEP to obtain your sewage permit. It has been 17 months and there has been no design, no permit application, nothing submitted to DEP, which is the next step in the process to obtain a permit. The gentlemen at DEP responsible for sewage are Tom Randis and Rob Everett. They have stated that they would never hold the Township responsible to complete your project of domestic sewage, however, neither one of them has put that in writing and neither one of them will. We as Township Supervisors can offer you a couple of options, but the first thing is you must do is to complete your design and application to PADEP. The ball is in your court not ours. The issue is between you and DEP, and you have thrown the Township under the bus, and we are not staying there. You can go back and look at all the Township meeting agendas into last year including this one tonight, Under Unfinished Business, Nicholas Meat LLC Sewage Disposal Plan. Nicholas Meat has not communicated with DEP. DEP has told us repeatedly that they have not heard from you. When your design is submitted with your application to DEP, DEP has to do a review. We understand that the Review process with no revisions could take as long as 9 months to be approved. If DEP proposes revisions, it will take longer. PADEP Act 537 deals with the Planning modules that Nicholas Meat has completed and also the construction of the domestic sewage facility. There is no reason to be here asking for a waiver for financial security at this time because there is no design, there is no estimate and you have done some site work which changes the scope of your project. You must get your design, your application and your permit from DEP for your domestic sewage before anything can move forward.
Again, I refer to our agendas for the past year where Nicholas Meat has not made application to DEP. There is no need for Nicholas Meat to come back and be on the agenda with the Township and asking for waivers from the Township for financial security. There is no design in front of us; there is no estimate of what this facility would cost. If you choose to go the route of not obtaining the equipment and getting it on site, then the Township can be held responsible for finishing the project. As long as that possibility exists, however remote it may be, this Board of Supervisors or any Board of Supervisors would be completely out of line to expect the taxpayers and residents of Greene Township to assume that bill. I use the word potentially and I use the word possibly and I use the word remotely, but they exist and we are not going to put the residents of the Township in that position.
The Township Solicitor, Scott T. Williams commented that this is the first waiver letter ever to be presented to the Township. “As far as the Domestic Sewage Facilities, there is a potential liability to the Township should DEP enforce implementation of the 537 Plan”.
On the issue of bonding roads for over-posted weight usage, it was noted that the Township adopted a Weight Limit Ordinance on July 6, 2021. Section 5(B) the Ordinance states that local traffic, as defined herein, may be exempted from the restrictions imposed under Section A. However, if the Board of Supervisors determines that any local traffic is likely to damage the road, the Board of Supervisors will so notify the registrants of the motor vehicle or combination by certified mail, return receipt requested and will also notify the Pennsylvania State Police. In total there are sixteen (16) Township Roads for a total of 22 miles.
Schrack Farms uses tractor trailers to haul liquid manure. Nicholas Farms uses tractor trailers to haul FPR (Food Product Residue). The Township has asked Nicholas Meat to bond Brungard Road and Snook Road for a total of 1.83 miles. The Township has asked Schrack Farms to bond Rockey Road, Pine-Loganton Road and Fourth Gap Road for a total of 6 miles.
Supervisor Rodney Weaver reviewed the PennDOT Publication 221 Posting and Bonding of Municipal Roads that reads if the Board of Supervisors determine that local traffic is likely to damage the road, the Supervisors may ask the hauler to bond the road.
Mr. Weaver was approached by Jim Harbach questioning bonding for hauling liquid manure with a tanker trailer (80,000lb.) with as many as 100 loads. The Township’s position was that a road bond would be required. The reason for the Township’s position is based upon road damage was done in 2022 with the same type of tractor trailer trucks using the road multiple times a day for a week or more. Since that time, the Township has looked into the weight of a 4-axle manure spreader with a gross weight of 130,000lbs and an estimated 9,500 lbs. capacity. The Township maintains the need for a road bond for potential damages due to the number of trips and excessive weight of equipment.
Scott T. Williams explained that while the Township Ordinance makes an exception for local deliveries, there is also an exception to the exception allowing the Board of Supervisors to determine that local traffic could damage the road and that is what the Board of Supervisors has determined.
The Excess Maintenance Agreement Application for a road bond clarifies the name of the road to be bonded, the distance of the road to be bonded, and the vehicles that are going to be on that road. The Excess Maintenance Agreement requires an inspection of the road before the use of the overweight vehicles and an inspection before the bond is released. The state sets the dollar amount at $12,500 for paved roads and $6,000 for dirt roads. The dollar amount is reflected in the Ordinance. There are three types of Bonds that could be used: 1. Cash bond. A cash bond could be put into an interest-bearing account 2. An Irrevocable Line of Credit from a bank to the Township. 3. Surety Bond: A surety bond is issued by a bonding company. They charge a fee, and the fee is based on or around, 3% of the bond. The Township uses Tom Lyons of Municipal Solutions for their road bonding applications. Tom videos the road before an application is accepted, and videos the road prior to release of the bond. Again, the Township is trying to be consistent. Presently, it costs the Township $102,000 to pave one mile of road. To replace a bridge is around $200,000. The farming equipment weight has increased over the past 30 years bringing the farming community within the scope of the Ordinance. Supervisor Rodney Weaver stated, “Is it fair for the residents of the Township to have to pay for fixing a road damaged by a farmer, or any overweight vehicle?”
Ms. Meyers quoted the Lancaster Farmer stating that if damage is done to the Township roads, it is likely caused by truck traffic that is diverted from I-80. The Township maintains that the truck traffic that is diverted from I-80 very seldom, if ever, would travel on a Township road as we have State Roads running parallel through Greene Township.
Stormwater:
The Second Class Township Code, and where applicable, Act 167 (The Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Act of October 4, 1978) empowers Greene Township to enact a stormwater management ordinance. The State statute requires municipalities to adopt a stormwater ordinance. In 2007, Greene Township Supervisors adopted Fishing Creek/Cedar Run Watershed Act 167 Stormwater Management Ordinance.
Part of the requirement of the previous Stormwater Ordinance was that construction greater than 1,000 sq. Ft. was subject to that Ordinance. The Stormwater Ordinance that is in place now was increased to 5,000 sq. Ft. The Township records show that there were over 50 Zoning Permits issued in 2023. Of that number, two applicants needed to do stormwater in order to build. The Township Engineer, Todd Pysher reviews the application and, in the past, has made recommendations/suggestions to the applicant so that exemptions are possible simply by changing the Plan.
The Township maintains that the Stormwater Ordinance adopted on October 4, 2022 will be enforced as mandated by the State of Pennsylvania.
Some residents, through media have targeted the Township as not “friendly” to agriculture and that is simply not true. What is true is that there are many State statutes that the Township has no control over than to adopt the ordinances. Another problem is that the Zoning Ordinance and SALDO were adopted in 2007 but not enforced in the past. This Board of Supervisors is enforcing the Ordinances that were in place when they took office.
Coreena Meyers maintains that our Stormwater Ordinance is not necessary. Our Township does not need stormwater regulation. The Township encouraged her to send her complaint to the Attorney General’s Office as only a farmer could file a complaint with that office. Due to some confusion in her request, the Office of Attorney General is working on her case. Rob Willig, Senior Deputy Attorney General forwarded a letter to the Township on December 27, 2023, setting forth needed changes in our Ordinances regarding ACRE.
Recommendation 1: Stormwater Ordinance Remove the Timber Harvest portion and replace it with Penn State’s model Timber Harvest Ordinance as a standalone ordinance.
Recommendation 2: CAO & CAFO definitions in our Ordinance. The definitions for CAO & CAFO are reversed and need to be amended. This Board did not write them (2007 Board did). Those recommendations are with our Township Solicitor to proceed with the changes per the Sunshine Law.
The rest of Coreena’s complaint is with Mr. Willig.
Two more ACRE complaints have been given to the Office of Attorney General. 1. Jim Harbach complained about his zoning process. Mr. Willig replied with a letter dated May 23, 2024 stating that Mr. Harbach was able to build his barn with Township approval prior to filing his ACRE request with the Office. Accordingly, this matter is moot. 2. Gene Nicholas’ complaint regarding Bonding of Roads. Mr. Willig has not responded to that as of June 4, 2024.
To address some of these matters, the Board added two summary pages to their Zoning application that will help determine stormwater or land development when applying for a zoning permit.
End of statement.
[date correction: 2nd paragraph: “May 29”, not “May 9”]