Correspondent
CANTON — The Canton Township Supervisors held a special meeting Feb. 11 to discuss recovery of the recent fire at the municipal building.
Supervisors had met with the insurance adjusters that day to go over the damage caused by the fire that occurred Feb. 5 and file an official insurance report. Future meetings should be able to resume at the office area of the building that was not damaged by the fire.
First on the old business agenda was discussion of the township applying for grants to the Bradford County Conservation District for funds to work on Williams Hollow Road. Supervisors voted to apply for the grant, which needs to be in by the end of April.
Next on the agenda was the fire business. The township called the attorney Harold Caldwell to make sure they could invoke the clause in the township charter allowing for emergency allocation of new equipment without going through a public bidding process.
Attorney Caldwell assured the Supervisors replacing the lost equipment would fall under the clause as the process of replacing the vehicles needed started in a timely fashion but encouraged them to bid out the construction contract for a new building.
In the meantime, Road Foreman Bob Petrowski offered his equipment shed for the Township to use. Petrowski would ask that the township pay to insulate the building as a substitute for rent payments and pay the utilities while they used it. Attorney Caldwell assured everyone that would be acceptable for up to a 24 month lease.
Replacing equipment was next on the agenda. Secretary Elnor Blaney informed the board they could afford down payments on any equipment using funds from the Liquid Fuels CD in anticipation of getting paid back for the purchases by the eventual insurance settlement. A representative from Stephenson Equipment Inc. or SEI in Harrisburg brought invoices with prices on them regarding new equipment.
The loader that had been destroyed in the fire was still under warranty meaning replacing it should be less costly.
The board voted to purchase an SEI demonstration model 437 John Deere off their lot for $161,500.
The salesman stated they could either come to a lease agreement which would entail annual payments but would penalize early payments or they could finance the loader for 60 months, paying monthly, but could choose to pay it off at any point in that term. The board voted to finance the loader and pay $10,000 down.
Also in need of replacement were the Township excavator and backhoe. Those would have to be ordered through SEI and would be built and arrive “around June.” The Township voted to pay $10,000 down on each of the pieces.
After the SEI representative was done Jeff Pepper of Watson Diesel discussed a replacement dump truck for the Township. Pepper and the township talked about a Western Star dump truck currently at Sherwood Grove that cost $225,000.
The township voted to move forward with purchasing the truck on a 5-year finance plan.
Finally, after equipment matters were settled for the time being, Rich Bardo of Bardo Cox and Miller Inc. talked to the board about constructing a new building.
Bardo helped the supervisors plan out what they would need from a new building.
The current, burned, building is 40 feet wide by 100 feet long. Supervisor Mark McMurray expressed interest that the new building be a little bigger in order to better accommodate the equipment, somewhere around 60 feet by 140.
The new building would necessitate five overhead doors of 14 feet by 14. In order to better facilitate maintenance in the building Petrowski and Cale Holmes indicated they would need about 20 feet of clearance from the floor to the rafters so they could raise the truck box.
The new building would also require a 20 foot concrete “apron” on the outside so mud isn’t tracked into the garage as much.
McMurray also indicated a 14 foot by 60 foot area at one end of the building would be converted into the new office space, as it would better accommodate township meetings and voters during election cycles.
Bardo took these specifications down and promised to get back to them with bids.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:40 to reconvene on Feb. 23 and March 1, in order to keep up with any new developments.
The hope was that the municipal building would be opened up and the meeting could take place their at 8 p.m. in its usual location.