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RICE TWP. — Two township liability issues dominated the supervisors meeting Tuesday at the Rice Township Municipal Building.
On the agenda for the evening was a vote on a lease with the Ice House Pub for use of land for parking.
Supervisor Rick Arnold asked to table to motion because he hadn’t had a chance to read the lease before the meeting. The land was previously owned by the Rice Township Fire Company, which went defunct in 2013. The lease would be $1 a year, have a liability clause and a hold-harmless agreement, Chad Sweigart, a lawyer for the township, confirmed.
“I want to make an intelligent vote,” Arnold said on why he wanted to table the motion.
Chairwoman Marcia Thomas and Supervisor Bob Pipech both agreed on going ahead with the vote because the solicitor had agreed to the terms and conditions.
Sweigart told the packed room that with a passing vote, a change can’t be made to the agreement unless a 30-day notice is given to the pub. It runs until the middle of February 2017. If the motion didn’t pass, the township would have had to barricade the parking lot to keep people from parking there.
“I’m concerned with (what would happen) not having a lease,” Thomas said.
Eventually the supervisors went ahead and passed the vote with Arnold abstaining on grounds he wanted to understand the one-page lease better.
Also, during the recent rain, a patch of road on Laurel Drive, near the Laurel Lakes, had eroded, uncovering a pipe. Township engineers and Pipech went to check out the road last week and “it doesn’t look good.” The township had put barriers up to keep cars and people off the stretch of road but the next day, the barriers were moved.
“There is no emergency money (to fix the road),” Pipech said. “The township is going to have liability (should something happen).”
Pipech assured it wasn’t going to be a “rush job” and the “township will do it correctly” but it will take time to fix.
In other news, council:
• Voted to resume recycling center summer hours; open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays beginning April 6.
• Voted to advertise the sale of Mountain TOP COG stickers which are available for $10 from the township secretary
• Voted to make a payment of $8,765.45 to the Wright Township Volunteer Fire Department for the 2016 first quarter.
• Named Alicia Stier the township’s open records officer for 2016.
The township offices will be closed Friday as the supervisors voted to allow Stier, who is also the township’s secretary, to attend a Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System seminar.
The next meeting will be held 7 p.m. April 5 at the municipal building.