MIDDLESEX TWP — Supervisors held a regular meeting in-person Wednesday night to address some township business.

The meeting was the first since the supervisors' March 4 work session.

Township manager Travis Cavanaugh said the township has not declared a state of emergency and has no immediate plans to do so. While most township administrative staff are working from home, Cavanaugh said official township business continues to be conducted publicly and in-person.

There were no visitors at Wednesday's meeting. Before the meeting, the township invited residents to submit any questions through email in an attempt to adhere to social distancing regulations.

With township solicitor Michael Hnath and engineer Jeff Mikesic present via speaker phone, supervisors Michael Spreng and Donald Marshall discussed several items of business.

Supervisor Robert Brash was absent from the proceedings.

Road contracts

Cavanaugh presented supervisors with bids gathered for road paving and sealing projects that will be completed this summer.

“March 18, we had our road opening bids,” Cavanaugh said.

The township received three bids for the paving and two bids for the seal programs, according to Cavanaugh.

Paving bids came from Shields Asphalt for $347,560; Least Asphalt at $370,961; and Youngblood Paving for $375,360.

Spreng and Marshall noted road repair costs have dropped over the last month due to economic limitations induced by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Just think if you bid it now,” Spreng said. “I wish we could.”

Supervisors approved Shields' bid.

Cavanaugh said the township received two bids for double seal work. Suit-Kote bid $148,215 and Russell Standard bid $167,346.

Going with the lowest bid, supervisors voted to accept Suit-Kote.

“I have to be up-front here,” Spreng said. “I wish they wouldn't have got it.”

Spreng said the township has had problems with past projects completed by the road company. Though Suit-Kote has followed-up on roads the township said were insufficiently completed, Spreng said township officials should be mindful of the work conducted this summer.

“We got to watch,” Spreng said.

New defibrillators

Cavanaugh said the township police department needs to replace two automated external defibrillators or AEDs, portable devices used to treat people having cardiac arrests.

“Both of ours are expired,” Cavanaugh said. “Or at least, one's expired and one's about to be expired.”

Cavanaugh said officials researched opportunities to trade-in old devices for new ones, but the AEDs are too old.

“When we got the first one, that was in the early '90s,” said Randy Davison, officer-in-charge for the Middlesex Police Department. “And then we got one several years later.”

Cavanaugh suggested the township go with a Physio AED because it matches the defibrillation pads on the AEDs used by Quality EMS. The Physio device is $1,745.

“We can put our pads on the patient and we can use our AED,” Davison said. “Soon as the ambulance gets there, we just unplug it, and they plug it right into their defibrillator.”

“And this is a machine that we still have,” Cavanaugh said. “There is a possibility that a couple pads we still have we would be able to use as backup.”

Spreng asked if the township should buy one or two AEDs. Davison said if two were purchased, officers could mostly leave them in police vehicles instead of carrying them back and forth.

“If we're changing (one AED) from car-to-car-to-car, it's going to get beat-up,” Davison said.

Supervisors voted to buy two AEDs.

Police calls

First responders across the state have reported fewer calls since COVID-19 emerged in Pennsylvania. Davison said Middlesex Police Department is no exception.

“For February, we responded to 202 calls,” Davison said. “In March, it went down to 157. April should be even worse.”

Davison said in February and March combined, officers answered 18 alarms, conducted two felony and 11 misdemeanor arrests and had five non-reportable and seven reportable crashes.

“This month, we might have had one,” Davison said.

Marshall asked if the department has seen an increase in theft since many citizens have been laid off or experienced pay cuts. Davison said for the most part, the department hasn't seen many thefts.

“There is a group or a person going around multicounty (and) stealing catalytic convertors,” Davison said. “Talking with the state police, it's all over.”

Davison said vehicles that are higher off the ground are being especially targeted. Residents should be vigilant, he warned.