Boggs Township’s October was a varied bag of treats
Steven McDole
WEST DECATUR – While muted compared to last month, citizens and officials of Boggs Township debated on an assorted set of goods during Monday’s meeting.
An early and large concern of this month’s meeting seemed to be over the testing of water. John Deacon was the first public citizen to approach the stand during public comment, presenting a petition signed by 215 people requesting that the Boggs Township supervisors reject any more water quality tests at the Camp Hope landfill site by the Concerned Citizens Fighting Boggs Township Dump that would require citizens of Boggs Township to foot the bill.
A supporter of the CCFBTD protested the petition on the grounds that she believed Deacon’s wording implied he was supporting the CCFBTD when he asked her to sign it, and she had to read what the petition was about to realize her error. On these grounds, she asked the supervisors to disregard the petition because nobody could know how many others who would normally support the CCFBTD might have signed it accidentally.
Deacon defended himself by giving his word that he had done the best of his ability to make sure the people knew what they were signing. He pointed out one example where a CCFBTD supporter had signed, but after asking the person to reread the petition to be sure, the supporter crossed out their name. After the meeting, Deacon stated he one person spent half and hour with one person to make sure they knew what they were signing and going so far to carry multiple copies of the petition’s text with differing font sizes to accommodated varying levels of eye sight quality.
The supervisors could only state they weren’t there, weren’t involved and the only action they could promise for the time being would only check to make sure the addresses of those who signed it were both correct and citizens of Boggs Township.
“We can only hope that everyone who did sign this read what it says here and understood what it was they were signing,” added Supervisor Bill Dickson.
Frank Norris continued inquires into the activities of the supervisors at the supervisors convention in Hershey both in person at the meeting and in correspondence from the prior month. Bringing up the topic of sludge from last month, Norris stated that Supervisor Gary Straw mentioned last month that sludge was being applied to the Kaufman property and on the west side of Clearfield Creek. The queries were: how many tons were applied, the type, how much did Boggs Township receive per ton and how many acres on the west side of the creek fell under Boggs Township’s jurisdiction.
Another citizen expressed concerned over four anonymous letters, that he stated he knew of, received by members of the CCFBTD, and brought the matter to the supervisors. He vaguely accused the supervisors of sending them, repeating several times that the CCFBTD couldn’t have sent them as it was CCFBTD members who received them. Stating they had no idea what the letters contained, the citizen agreed to show the letters to the supervisors after the meeting. An executive session was originally requested, but such a reason is not an acceptable one under Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.