Bradford Township Supervisor Jim Erwin retained the chairman of the board position for 2018. Erwin was elected by a majority at the reorganizational meeting held Tuesday evening. Supervisor Gayle Bauer was elected vice-chairwoman. Supervisor Steve Mascho abstained from voting during the reorganizational meeting, stating that he wasn’t in favor of the current method of voting for nominations.
“I’ve been here longer than (Bauer and Erwin) and back then, we used go line by line and vote on each individual candidate,” Mascho said in a conversation with The Era following the meeting. “Now we just vote on the whole list.”
He added that he believes it wouldn’t have mattered had he decided to vote because “the other two are always in agreement and run the whole show.”
Bauer responded to Mascho’s comments, stating that the reorganization meetings have always voted on nominations all in one vote, and never line by line.
“I can’t control whether he votes yes, no or abstains, so we just continue on,” Bauer said.
Erwin shared similar sentiments to Bauer in response to Mascho’s statements.
“(Mascho) didn’t even fill out the sheet for his recommendations for nominations,” Erwin said. “He so he abstained from the entire process. We handed in our sheets, he didn’t. We can’t control that.”
Also during the reorganizational meeting, the supervisors announced regular meetings would take place at 7 p.m. the second Monday of each month in 2017 at the township municipal building, 136 Hemlock St., and any work sessions will be held at 6:30 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month. Any extra or special meetings will be advertised.
The supervisors accepted a number of other appointments, too, at the organization meeting.
Susan Gibiser was elected township secretary/treasurer, and Robb Shipman will remain chief of police.
Mascho, Bauer and Gibiser will be the voting delegates to the state and county conventions, and Erwin will be the alternate delegate to the conventions. All three supervisors will serve as road masters, while Erwin will be superintendent of roads and the garbage department, Bauer will serve as superintendent of the sewer department and as police commissioner and Mascho will serve as office supervisor.
Jack Carns remains the zoning officer, George Corignani remains the code enforcement officer, Todd Fantaskey remains the sewage enforcement officer and Nick Melnick remains the alternate sewage enforcement officer. Stapleford & Byham LLC will remain the solicitor.
E&M Engineering will be serving as the engineering firm.
Dan Burkhouse remains chief of the Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department, and Jay Bradish remains the municipal emergency management coordinator. The position for the assistant management coordinator remained vacant. Serving as township-appointed auditors are Steve Pettinato and Robert Burrell.
Following the organization meeting, Mascho abstained from voting on a motion during the regular meeting to advertise to accept sealed bids for the Owens Way Sewer Line project.
“What they want to do is replace everything when we can go in there and fix them for a fraction of the cost,” Mascho said after the meeting. “Kerry Roslinksi, of Pipe-Eye (Sewer Services Inc.), is both willing and able to do it. But Bauer and Erwin wouldn’t budge.”
Also after the meeting, Erwin stated that the option to fix the line was reviewed by E&M and himself, and they were all in agreement that replacing the line is the best option.
“It’s not feasible to fix,” Erwin said. “There are too many issues that we face with it to simply go in and fix. It’s hazardous, and it requires full replacement.”
