Carroll Valley & Hamiltonban News Briefs

(12/1) Carroll Valley News Briefs

After rejecting all of the previous bids in October, Carroll Valley Borough will be putting its municipal building project back out to bid after the first of the year, according borough officials.

Borough Manager Dave Hazlett said after the board voted at last month's meeting to reject several project bids from contractors who responded to the board's request for proposal (RFP) for the new building, "the borough continues to work with the project architect to come up with a list of options to reduce the scope of the work in an effort to procure bids at a lower cost than we had initially received."

With only a handful of bids received for the building project, the highest bid coming in at $4.4 million and the lowest being just over $3.8 million. Both bids were much higher than the board's had estimated and rejected all of them. "Right now, we feel like the best course of action is to put the project back out for bid around the first of the year," Hazlett said, going on to say, "that seems to be one of the best times of the year to bid a project. So that's our short-term goal."

In the planning stages for years, the new building will replace the tired structure that will include the mayor’s office, the borough offices, Carroll Valley Police Department, at least two conference rooms, a meeting room, a space for a branch of the Adams County Library, and an outdoor stage.

In other news, two of the borough's newest officials were in attendance at the November borough council meeting. Councilman-elect Bruce Carr, who won a seat on the borough council with a total of 172 votes as a write-in candidate in the November elections and Constable-elect Tyler Hollinger, who won his six-year term with a total of 116 write-in votes, were both present at the meeting.

Carr, who ran on a platform of bringing public information to the residents of Carroll Valley in a timely manner and protecting Carroll Valley's beauty against cluster housing said "I resisted running for a number of years, but I think it was time for me to step up and do something."

Carr intends "to get the people of the borough informed on a regular basis. People don't know what ordinances are for, and I want to get that out on social media so people can start to learn. "I want to provide good services for valued money," he added. "Basically, I just want to be in service."

Hollinger said he was "ecstatic" to have won his position as constable, particularly because of his age. "Younger people aren't volunteering because they're too busy driving out of the county for work," he commented. "I've only been in Adams County for three years, so I don't know a lot of people, so it was surprising that I won, but I'm glad they elected me. I'm looking forward to dealing with what comes with the job."

Hamiltonban Area News

Reids Bridge is moving quickly toward replacement, according to a schedule released by the Hamiltonban Supervisors. The bridge, which carries Mount Hope Road traffic over Tom's Creek at Gum Springs Road, has been closed since mid-April, when the township Roadmaster discovered several of the support beams had been rusted away. "We're still on track for completion by the end of December," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Gordon. Construction workers were slated to begin prep work of the existing bridge in November.

A precast box and wing walls, which will act as support for the new bridge and channel Tom's Creek, is scheduled for installation by early December. Guardrails will be installed right after Christmas. Between the listed steps, workers will provide erosion control, clear brush and waterproof the installed portions.

It should be noted that until the bridge is replaced, drivers, including school buses and trash collectors, must detour approximately 11 miles via Mount Hope and Iron Springs roads.

In other news, the two state-funded grants that were submitted in early spring have gone dormant for the proposed joint Hamiltonban-Fairfield playground. Hamiltonban’s Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Terry Scripture suggested that because of the current budget impasse between the governor and the legislature, the grant applications have basically taken a back seat. Scripture said, "We anticipated knowing about both of them by now, but unfortunately this impasse is stalling their approval."

In limbo are a $53,000 grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and a $90,000 grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development. Scripture said money from the township capital reserve fund would be used to jump start the project, with that money being replaced by cash from area organizations and private donors. An application for a $33,000 grant from Wellspan could be submitted in April.

In November, Hamiltonban supervisors approved advertising the proposed 2016 township budget. The final budget is slated for approval at the Dec. 1 supervisors' regular meeting. The general fund budget has been "in the neighborhood of $600,000 for a long time," Supervisor Robert Gordon pointed out. "There've been no tax increases in nine years." This year the general fund is balanced at $604,216 income and expenses. "The majority of the money comes in from real estate taxes, per capita taxes and earned income taxes," Gordon explained.

Other items on the budget include loans and grants for such projects as road maintenance and other capital improvements, as well as revenues such as sewer fees. The proposed budget may be viewed online at http://www.hamiltonban.com/ or at the township office at 23 Carroll's Tract Road. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.