RS Council Sets 2023 Staff, Appointments

The final meeting of 2022 of the Roaring Spring Borough Council set the table for 2023 with the passing of the budget with no tax increase along with employee and outside firm appointments.

Borough Manager Lisa Peel will retain her title and position with Michelle Bowser and Shari Lanzendorfer continuing as office staff.

Employee appointments remain the same with Wyatt Simington reappointed as maintenance supervisor and Richard Feltenberger once again tapped as sewer treatment plant operator.

Greg Wyandt was again named chief of police with Lt. Travis Clowson being retained. The only change to the police department was the resignation of Lance Morris. Council President Rodney Green said Wyandt and Clowson have stepped up and put together a workable schedule to cover the borough on short notice and pledged the full support of council. Councilman James Musselman, who is also the chief of Friendship Volunteer Fire Co., said the fire company is available for assistance any time they are needed.

The council voted to continue its relationships with Rea, Rea & Lashinsky as borough solicitor, Keller Engineers as borough engineer and Attorney Daniel Stants as zoning hearing attorney.

Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer Thomas Holsinger will continue in that capacity. Mayor Dennis Igou was named emergency management coordinator and Councilman James Musselman was named fire marshal.

In his capacity as fire marshal, Musselman told the council that 2022 was a “bad year” for house fires in the area and is concerned that there are more to come. Musselman said that with high fuel prices, more people are using alternative heating methods such as space heaters and fears electrical fires may increase. Musselman said the fire company has had fire prevention classes and is asking people to use caution when heating their houses.

Musselman asked the council to investigate having “something in place” regarding hoarding. Musselman said the fire company was recently called out at 2 a.m. to assist ambulance personnel in removing a patient from their home but they first had to remove about 30 bags of personal belongings to make a path to remove the person from the home. Musselman said hoarding is getting more prevalent and is not only a danger to the patient, but to firefighters as well.

In other action, council authorized the borough manager, at a cost of up to $2,000, to take care of a few trees on the Nason Woods property, specifically on Locust Street down to the turn on Hueston Street, that are arching out onto the street and onto wires.

With the high cost of heating oil, Peel told council that there are borough residents struggling to afford heat and asked if there was a way for the Nason Ross Trust Fund Board to set up a fund that could be used to help borough residents in need pay for heating oil. Peel said she is seeing families struggling and the trust is to be used for the community.

Green said it is worth discussing and suggested someone let the trust’s board know that there are residents in need due to the cost of heating oil.

Green said he met with two members of the ownership group that recently purchased the Appvion Paper site and they told him about the need to preserve historical records from the mill.

Green said there are about 30 boxes of historical documents that he wants to see put into a conservatorship so they don’t get lost. Green said the new owners have already contacted other organizations but were told they didn’t have any interest or the capacity to store the boxes. Green said he would like the borough to preserve the historical records.

Green said one of the new owners is a metal broker and his interest in the site is to demolish and scrap most of the structures on the site, except for the newest addition that was constructed for paper finish.

Green said there will be a full environmental remediation completed and part of the site, especially the Halter Creek area, will be restored to a natural area and that no industrial development is planned for that area.

The Roaring Spring Borough Council meets the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. at the borough building.