CENTER TWP — A wet, new dilemma arose in the township's pursuit of a drainage fix at the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center.

Several neighboring landowners and elected officials want to stop water runoff from the VA building onto adjacent properties. But if the water is to cease flowing there, it'll have to go somewhere else.

Township supervisors have long heard complaints from members of the Herold family, a group of siblings with sections of farmland in the area. Raymond Heichel, who married into the family and owns land directly adjacent to the VA with his wife, Judy, spoke with supervisors Monday. He hopes planned revisions fix flooding on his land, but he's worried about the quality of those revisions.

“I hope their calculations are better than they were before,” Heichel said.

The building developers, Cambridge Healthcare, and contractor Stantec are actively working on revisions, according to township staff. They're first going to take a revised plan to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Once DEP approves a plan, the township intends to take a look and make its own call.

The township's engineer, David Heath of Gateway Engineers, briefly summarized the two solutions that have been floated. Both would involve improving the often overflowing ponds by the VA, and then routing whatever excess water remains somewhere else. One plan takes it behind neighboring properties, the other goes along North Duffy Road.

Where the water is rerouted is of concern to some members of the Herold family. Heichel noted that Dale Herold, his neighbor, is concerned about water getting channeled through his land into a creek only to flood someone else's property downstream.

Supervisors do not believe anyone but the VA's owners would be liable. Solicitor Michael Gallagher noted that they weren't offering a legal opinion. Board Chairman Ron Flatt said he is hoping that a revised system won't involve much excess run-off, so such fears ought to be assuaged.

For the time being, local officials and residents must wait on the DEP and developers. Said work, as described by all involved, appears to be moving quickly.

Clearview Mall money

A request for donated fencing was met coldly by the township board.

Clearview Mall's ownership, according to township secretary Anthony Amendolea, solicited a donation of fencing for the back of its parking lot to limit “debris” from flowing off the lot.

The mall recently made it out of a property reassessment hearing process with a lower tax bill. Center Township is among the taxing entities that will get fewer tax dollars from the property at the finalized value.

“They want us to supply fences to control their litter?” asked Supervisor Phil Wulff. “And they just won their appeal, and we lost $13,000 a year in taxes?”

The board didn't vote, but the request was informally rejected.

Road repaving

The board approved a $525,000 road repaving contract with Wiest Asphalt Products and Paving. Work is scheduled to begin immediately after school closes for the year.

North View Drive, Brown Road and roads in Windward Heights will be repaved. Base repairs on Mercer Road and Duffy Road are also scheduled.

Fracking

Representatives for PennEnergy were present to finalize some terms for a new natural gas drilling site. The group will route related traffic from Route 308 onto Holyoke Road to the drilling site.

Supervisors didn't have a dollar amount for the site, but the township stands to gather impact fees dependent on the amount of drilling done.

Center Township collected $142,000 in impact fees in July 2018. The fees are collected annually.

Construction of the new site, which might be the last that can be fit into Center Township, should be completed by June 2020, according to unofficial meeting minutes. Gas production is slated to start in August 2020.