BLACK LICK--It's high time Burrell Township had its own subdivision and land development ordinance as well as a storm water management ordinance, the supervisors believe.
So they want $10,000 from this year's Indiana County community development block grant program to help develop the legal documents.
A draft of the block grant application was approved for submission at Wednesday's meeting of the supervisors.
Reading the draft, Supervisors Chairman Les Henry noted the township "defers to the county and its ordinance when plans for a subdivision are submitted...We want to develop our own ordinance to work with the county's."
Fellow Supervisor Tony Distefano added, "We need to recodify all our land development ordinances into one ordinance" to better serve those who come to the township office with a development request.
He noted the township and its planning commission have been working to refine ordinances on enterprises such as trailer courts and junkyards and "other businesses we're allowed...to regulate."
Distefano said the township's desire for its own subdivision ordinance is "not a direct result" of a disputed case which came before the county planning commission last week.
In that case, the supervisors agree with a Pittsburgh developer which wants to add a Wal-Mart and other stores to the Resort Plaza along Rt. 22 while still maintaining an access road as a private road.
A clause in the county subdivision ordinance would let the commission ignore a normal limit on the number of parcels served by a private road.
But commission members balked at making such an exception without more study.
Burrell also is lacking a comprehensive storm water management plan. Over the years, the supervisors have sometimes struggled to correct a flooding problem for one property-owner without creating a new problem for a neighbor.
Traditionally, Indiana County has given block grant priority to water and sewer projects.
But there is at least one other municipality seeking planning assistance in this year's competition for a grant pot of $395,000. Homer City has requested some of that money to study the feasibility of developing a community center or senior citizen center.
All projects which receive funding must benefit at least 51 percent low- and moderate-income residents.
This past weekend storm and its aftermath were "very peaceful," Ray Mazzaferro, Burrell's emergency management coordinator and ordinance enforcement officer noted.
Still, he said, snow emergencies and floods are the primary disasters to be addressed in the township, in a new emergency management action plan which must be completed to comply with state mandates.
"We don't have any big chemical plants in the township," Mazzaferro said.
However, he noted a rail or highway wreck could just as easily release hazardous chemicals.
Among other things, the new plan will include a 20-page list of rescue/recovery equipment which may be needed in disasters, with sources in the area which can provide them.
Mazzaferro planned to meet Tuesday with the supervisors and Black Lick Fire Dept. to review a draft of the plan.
Henry said he would contact Sandi Dill, executive director of the Indiana County Community Action Program (ICCAP), in hopes of clearing up what he described as a misunderstanding regarding the township's continued role in ICCAP's monthly food distribution.
In a lengthy letter to the township, Dill asked the supervisor to reconsider a decision to no longer use township trucks to haul food from ICCAP's central warehouse near Indiana to Black Lick.
Distributions are now held from 4 to 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Black Lick fire hall. (Formerly they were at the Pathway shelter.)
Dill said 157 people received food in December but the aid be "in jeopardy" without the township's support.
Henry said on one recent distribution date, the supervisors were in a bind to make the food delivery on time since they were busy clearing snow.
But, in later communications between the ICCAP and township offices about the deliveries, Henry said, the supervisors understood "that (ICCAP staff) would rather do it themselves."
The supervisors agreed to continue providing township vehicles for the distribution.
Responding to a complaint from Patrick and Kathleen Murray, the supervisors agreed to erect road name signs at both ends of Penn Drive--a three-tenths mile road which is located in The Colony development off Strangford Road next to Chestnut Ridge Golf Course.
There are now six homes along Penn Drive. The road was dedicated in a plan of lots when the subdivision was approved in 1998 and it was constructed to then-current township specifications but was never officially adopted into the Burrell road system.
He suggested asking the township solicitor to confer with the attorney for the developer, the estate of the late Martin Bearer, in hopes of resolving the road's status.
Burrell Township agreed to donate $75 to the Blairsville Elementary Basketball Tournament being held today through Sunday and Feb. 28 through March 2.
