Aug 6, 2015 By David Singer 3 min read

Cecil Township supervisors voted Aug. 3 to approve authorization for the township engineer to receive and sign off on emergency bids to repair Southpointe Boulevard after authorities noticed the road giving way in mid-June. The winning bidder cannot exceed $200,000.

“We’re running into some concerns with runoff, with the sanitary sewer system, and the fact the earth is moving a little more quickly than these things usually do because of heavy rains through the summer season,” said township engineer Dan Deiseroth, explaining only two options are viable due to limited space and traffic.

“A retaining wall could be done with partial closures of one lane on the road, or we could have soil nails installed into the ground,” Deiseroth said, explaining the latter process is proprietary work done solely by GeoStablization International, based in Colorado.

“The soil nails, you criss-cross these beams into the earth almost like a layer cake. It’s very sound, and we’ve (Gateway Engineers) worked with them before,” he said.

Deiseroth said he expects the bidding process to last up to a week, and repair work to start within three weeks.

In other business, the board announced that due to construction on Route 50, the parade on Aug. 8 has been canceled, but that the Cecil Carnival will carry on that day beginning at 6 p.m.

The board also voted to hire three new public works employees, including a laborer, an administrative assistant and a new full-time permits manager, Ranato Ruzzini, hired at a salary of $48,000 a year.

“Due to some mandates from the state Department of Environmental Protection, we’ve had to pay closer attention to things with monitoring and upkeep – with utilities, encroachments, all that – but we only had someone part-time doing the work before,” said manager Don Gennuso.

After a motion from Supervisor Elizabeth Cowden, the board then voted to move the entire $311,843 in 2015 Act 13 natural gas drilling impact fee reimbursements to a certificate of deposit at Slovenian Savings and Loan. Gennuso said the township will seek upward of 2 percent in interest on the CD.

Cowden also said during the public comment portion of the meeting that residents have told her they want to investigate revising ordinances to allow residents to keep animals like chickens and goats.

“The price of eggs is skyrocketing; some people in Pittsburgh have been using goats for lawn care … and some residents are telling me they’d like to investigate these things,” Cowden said.

“Well, let’s get a look at a model ordinance and we’ll go from there,” said board Chairman Tom Casciola.

Ralph Bush of Woodside Drive said he disagreed with any proposal to revise ordinances allowing livestock in the township.

“There’s a guy on my road who has five chickens; one of them a rooster. That thing is up and crowing at 3:30 every morning,” he said.

“Any ordinance we would potentially revise would not allow roosters,” Cowden said.

“Well, until there’s a new ordinance, you should be enforcing the current ones,” Bush said.