CLINTON TWP — During an agenda-setting meeting Monday, township supervisors created a new investment account for the township’s farmland preservation money in order to obtain a better interest rate.

That money now is in a Northwest Bank account.

The township has two Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust (PLGIT) accounts that both have an interest rate of more than 4%. The Northwest account is earning an interest rate of less than 1%, supervisors learned.

“We’re getting three-tenths of a cent in a checking account and we put it into PLGIT. I think they’re paying 2.75% interest right now,” said William Duncan, supervisor vice chairman. “They’re paying more.”

The Farmland Preservation Program was established in Butler County in 1994. The program allows farmers to apply for their land to be bought by the government under the condition that the land not be developed and remain farmed even if the owners in the program have left the farm.

There are approximately 500 acres of farmland in the area that are in the program. Various requirements for the program, such as size of the farm and soil quality, can be checked online. Application for the program occurs every January.

Supervisors also unanimously agreed to recognize April as Pennsylvania Safe Digging Month. The purpose is to raise awareness on the dangers of digging on one’s property without telling the local government where the intention is to dig.

“It’s reaffirming to anyone who digs in the township that they really need to call 811 before they dig,” said Kathy Allen, board of supervisors chairwoman. “Otherwise what happens is people run into lines, gas lines, electrical lines, fiber optics line.”

The township recommends calling 811 before digging so that utilities can mark where the underground utilities are on the property to prevent digging into a line. This is at no cost to the property owner, although the township has to pay the cost of sending utilities to the property.

While the supervisors didn’t say that there is a current issue of property owners digging into lines on their own, they did say that twice last year utilities marked the wrong location which led to two gas lines being dug into. If that happens, the utility is responsible for paying to fix the error.