RS Library Agrees to Purchase Eldon Inn

The Roaring Spring Borough Council held its regular monthly meeting on Monday evening, Aug. 12.

Council announced that the Roaring Spring Community Library Board has agreed to purchase the Eldon Inn for $1 and have the deed transferred out of the borough's name.

The library has been in talks with the borough since last October when council informed the library board that it wanted out from under the aged building.

Council cited liability concerns as the main reason for wanting to rid itself of ownership of the building.

The library had been leasing the building from the borough but when that lease expired, council permitted the library to remain in the Eldon Inn on a month-to-month lease while the library board explored its options.

In the end, it appears the board decided the best course of action was to remain in the Eldon Inn and assume ownership. The sale will be complete once an agreement is written and signed.

In other action Monday, council received two bids for paving selected borough streets. The low bid of $209,725.65 was submitted by New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co. Work is anticipated to begin once formal approval is granted and scheduled.

Borough Solicitor Larry Lashinsky, at the request of council, sent a letter to Penelec expressing concern over ongoing power outages in the borough. The most recent outage occurred on July 5, and lasted nearly seven hours.

As Lashinsky pointed out in his letter, numerous outages have affected portions of the borough over the last several years and borough residents have been expressing their frustration with the situation to council.

Lashinsky said the outages have not only affected Penelec's residential customers, but local businesses have been inconvenienced when the outages force an interruption to their normal business practices.

Lashinsky said the borough expects its residents to receive electricity in a consistent and reliable fashion and asks Penelec to perform any repairs or upgrades to the electrical system promptly so residents and businesses no longer experience frequent outages.

Another consequence of the power outages is the loss of traffic lights, which cause an obvious hazard and which tie up a police officer if he has to direct traffic through the outage.

Borough Manager Lisa Peel said that she will mail a copy of the letter sent to Penelec to all Roaring Spring municipal authority customers along with their water bill and post a copy on the borough's website.

Council held a special meeting Monday, Aug. 5, and entered into a temporary mutual-aid agreement with the Freedom Township Police Department to provide police assistance to the borough.

A similar agreement was reached earlier with the Martinsburg Police Department.

The agreement enables responding officers from the other municipalities to make arrests and perform all other police duties in the borough of Roaring Spring.

The next regular meeting of the Roaring Spring Borough Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 9 at the borough building.