Grant helps finance purchase of recycling equipment in Peters Township
Peters Township is poised to receive money toward the purchase of recycling equipment.
On Monday, township council authorized a grant agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection by which the municipality will receive $51,996 toward the purchase of $57,774 worth of recycling equipment, representing 90% of the cost.
The acquisitions are two roll-off containers for glass recycling, two more for use with cardboard compactors, and remote monitoring equipment to keep track of the containers’ capacity. Also included is reimbursement for the prior purchase of residential recycling containers.
Starting in 2019, the township’s contracted hauler, Waste Management, no longer picked up glass among recycled materials. The township eventually placed a receptacle for use by Peters residents only, and it often exceeds capacity.
“We have to get a sign that says you can’t leave glass outside of the container,” Peters Township Councilman Jim Berquist said.
The contractor that transports the receptacle for emptying does not pick up materials from the ground, township manager Paul Lauer said, and that task often falls to municipal employees.
Supplying the container now on site are the Pennsylvania Resources Council, a nonprofit environmentally focused organization, and CAP Glass of Connellsville, which specializes in recycling.
The township purchasing its own containers should result in costs savings with regard to the hauling process, Lauer said, especially with capacity monitoring in place.
He credited assistant township manager Ryan Jeroski as being instrumental in securing the grant from the DEP’s 902 Municipal Recycling Program, instituted under state Act 101 of 1988, the law that lays the groundwork for a robust recycling infrastructure across Pennsylvania.
In other Peters Township Council business:
- Council approved a letter of support for a proposed change to Peters Creek Sanitary Authority bylaws with regard to board membership.
Lauer said the authority, which serves the eastern part of Peters Township, “has been having a problem with their meetings being fairly contentious.”
“One of the things that they’re suggesting that might help is if there is a prohibition in their membership against public officials, whether they be elected or appointed, serving as representatives to the sanitary authority,” he said. “Rather than all of the authority, they have a situation where they have individuals representing simply the interests of their own municipality, to the detriment of the whole.”
A draft of the letter states, “To avoid an appearance of any conflict of interest and to promote accountability, authority board members shall not also be a public official, public employee, candidate, nominee or a relative of a public official, public employee, candidate or nominee for any of the townships or boroughs that the Peters Creek Sanitary Authority represents.”
Clarification is sought for what constitutes a “relative.”
Along with roughly half of Peters Township, the independent authority also provides public sanitary sewer service in Finleyville Borough, and Union and Nottingham townships.
- Councilman Robert Lewis offered compliments to Peters Township School District administrators, teachers and other staff members at the conclusion of an academic year marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the district’s new high school opening in January.
“I think they’ve done a phenomenal accomplishment this year,” he said, with the transition, “the shifting of the students and the maintaining of a relatively steady classroom presence.”
- Although Peters Township Community Day is not taking place in 2021, summer fireworks are returning.
Lauer announced that a display is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. June 30, following a 7 p.m. concert at Peterswood Park Amphitheater featuring Totally ’80s.