Cr ————— ————— | | 6 Dallas Post Dallas, PA Friday, May 9, 2003 rd Are you satisfied with the town- ship’s cur- rent plan- ning and zoning regula- tions and controls? If not, what would you like to see happen? Do you support the Coun- cil of Gov- ernments with other Back Mountain communi- ties? If so, what would you like to see the COG involved in? What can the town- ship do to better manage its bud- get? What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the township? Neil Allen Republican “Our decision was already made that we're going to review all zoning ordi- nances. We're going to take time to go through them bit by bit. We're going to be comprehensive and up to date.” He said the future review is needed be- cause they have “ap- parent contradictions and inconsistencies.” Allen said he was happy with the “for- ward thinking 50/50 plan. It will establish green areas.” “Whole heartedly.” “For Public safety, such as on Route 309. We need barri- ers. It's a suicide ran.” Allen said the COG would also be useful for grant purposes. “The COG is work- ing very closely with the Dallas Visioning Committee.” “As of the . begin- ning of last year, our township board was decimated. We inher- ited that. We started a program of control- ling costs. Our objec- tive is to maximize revenues and control ‘costs. “We raised ques- tions with the tax collector and are not satisfied with an- swers so we hired a public accounting firm to do a review of practices and proce- dures and receipt of money gotten from earned income tax collection agency.” “Public safety. The Route 309 corridor is an absolute disas- ter.” « Allen said another aspect of concern under public safety is the news that came last month that the Luzerne County Housing Authority won't be able to pay $18,000 over the next six months for township police to patrol the Meadow- crest housing devel- opment in Trucksville. In fact, the authority won't be able to pay any- thing - over the next year; an amount typ- ically around $36,000. “We'll still provide coverage whether we get the income or not.” Finish paving the last .8 of a mile of Green Road. Allen said the paving is the last in the township. Jeff Box Republican “The current land use ordinances are not bad relative to many other munici- palities in the coun- ty. If the current board would enforce the ordinances as written, obviously the result would be bet- ter.” Box cited the Windsor Farms de- velopment as an ex- ample of how the board is waiving or- dinances.“Rule num- ber one is that exist- ing ordinances : shouldn’t be waived.” “Land use should be included in any revision. The creation of open space Tre- quirements. “I proposed the creation of ‘a COG about 10 years ago. The concept is not new. Any COG is only as good as its participants. Any COG has to have a mission. [ haven't seen that yet with this one.” “Yes I support it. I think any way the Back Mountain can work together bene- fits all of us. We will pursue any intergov- ernmental coopera- tive opportunities.” “The first issue is the expenditure side. In reviewing their budget in for last fall, it was clear to me a spending spree start- ed mid-last year. It looked like expendi- tures were not ade- quately controlled given current eco- nomic conditions.” “Our township is more susceptible to revenue loss because 75% comes from earned Income tax. When the economy turned sour, rev- enues shrank. You can't cure that kind of issue with one or two line items — it has to be watched weekly and monthly.” “I think there are two. The biggest challenge is manag- ing the growth. When new developments are approved in ad- joining municipali- ties, it affects Kingston Township.” “The, second chal- lenge facing the township is a general lack of leadership and direction. I think. its very important that Kingston Town- ship which has al- ways been respected as a progressive mu- nicipality, work very hard to restore that reputation.” . people moving Editor's Note: The Dallas Post posed three questions about the present state of Kingston Township and each candidate’s opinion on pressing issues. The questions were asked in the same order for each lenges in the future. Their responses, edited for space and brevity, appear below, separated by lines. Chris Concert Democrat “Yes. The problem with zoning ordi- nances is they need to be enforced equal- ly. They're letting them build too many buildings up here. We need to save our wildlife and environ- mental surround- . ings.” “If we keep letting them build and build, we're going to end up like Kingston or Wilkes-Barre. Peo- ple move out here for the country life. We need to save what we have.” “Yes. As long as it's going to help us, fine. The Back Mountain is a community; we need to work as one.” Concert said he is against police region- alization. “When we have something good, let's keep it.” “Watch what they spend. If you only have a dollar, can’t spend two.” Concert said he is against the township giving donations to any group unless it is going to give to all groups. Referring to the time earlier in the year when the township decided to not give a donation to the Raiders foot- ball program, but then gave money to the Dallas School District he said, “They play favorites. If we don’t have it, none of them should get it.” “We need to take accountability for the budget. People didn't want to take ac- countability for the budget.” Concert said he doesn’t believe su- pervisors should be paid for special meet- ings needed because supervisors have made errors. “The road situation needs to be fixed. I support Mr. Balavage in his quest to fix it. A barrier up the mid- dle needs to happen.” “Rental units. Something needs to be done with them. They're unsafe. Something needs to be done about the zoning. They should be inspected prior to tenant occupancy to make sure they're safe.” He said he thinks into the area should reg- ister to live in the township so the township knows who is living in it. Jerry Fritzges Republican departments. “As a citizen I don’t know the current rules and regula- tions. Naturally I'm not as informed as a sitting supervisor.” “I am. in full agree- ment with the 50/50 . That is a fantastic compromise. Rather that having homes built right on top of each other, 50 per- cent has to go to the land. I think that is a great idea.” “I support it, but from past experi- ences I don’t know if it would work. Years ago we tried to re- gionalize the police That didn’t last very long. I believe it is a good idea, but I am hesi- tant.” “We have to get ac- curate figures from the two collecting agencies, there was a mistake there. In previous years it was fine.” “There are - cost cutting measures that have not been looked at.” “There are income getting procedures out there.” “Traffic and acci- dents. I would like to see the median barri- ers put in. I know they're ugly but if they're going to save lives, any life saved is worth the ugliness and the cost of the barriers.” Dave Jenkins Republican “I believe the land use ordinances re- quire a 'top to bottom review. Through the review you will im- prove on how develop- ments will fit into the township. Then you get into matters. of aesthetics — road width, tree lawns, easements, the im- pact on traffic flow and existing neigh- borhoods. “we also have to make changes relative to zoning mat- ters such as commer- cial sign ordinances. Whether it's land use or zoning it can be looked at and modi- fied by utilizing land planning specialists. They did that in Williamsport and Lancaster — you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” “A lot has to be done to get those up to current standards in other communi- ties.” “I support the idea. The difficulty is’ the up front money to get it up and running.” Jenkins feels it would be advanta- geous if through the COG, communities could share things, for example fire equipment and recre- ational facilities. “In "other years we've had sound bud- gets. One has to very carefully watch ex- penses. I'm familiar with working with budgets; I am the treasurer of our church.” “You have to make sure youre not get- ting ahead on the ex- pense side versus in- come.” “Land development against natural re- sources. We have one development after an- other. There's a lack of easements be- tween. People should be able to move be- tween one develop- ment and another.” “Traffic issues. Peo- ple still have the abili- ty to make jug han- dled turns. It takes time and work to roll up our sleeves to get involved in this. I'm not opposed (to barri- ers) if it's a recom- mendation from Pen- nDOT.” “The town park is 30 years old. It has one basketball court and one tennis court.” Jenkins is in favor of a second recreation center with fields for soccer, baseball, bas- ketball and walking areas for seniors. Sean McAndrew Republican “Essentially we need to have an over- haul of planning and zoning ordinances as they are now.” McAndrew said it would be good to have an independent planning consultant, experienced in plan- ning and zoning ordi- nances, do the over- haul. : “One of the things in particular I'm con- cerned about . are land use ordi- nances.” “I haven't directly been involved with the COG. I would support the concept however. My ques- tion would be what resources are needed to move forward — human resources and financial.” “My concerns are how is it going to work, who's going to head it up, and how much is it going to cost’ the involved to townships.” “We need to look at it like any other bud- get. What are wants and what are needs.” “How much are our needs going to cost? You don’t want to go beyond into negative numbers unless it's an absolute necessi- “The budget needs to be closely main- tained and watched going into the fu- ture.” “Land develop- ment. Safety — in terms of more and more people moving in. Fire, police and ambulance. As the population is grow- ing, need to make sure those three ar- eas have enough re- sources. (They) need to increase propor- tionally to the popu- lation increasing.” McAndrew said “a big issue-not press- ing- is recreation.” The population has doubled, but (the township) hasn’t added any more parks. I am a young father with children, we should have places to go.” “Preserving natural resources, in terms of preserving green areas and all of our natural resources. As developments are be- ing proposed, the concept of preserving greenspace can be made into an ordi- nance.” John ‘Versari Republican ‘I'm happy with any ordinance that’s been changed or added since I've been supervisor. We just passed a couple ordi- nances about: the 50/50 and keeping the township green- er.” “I want to create an ordinance where (the number of) vend- ing = machines are limited outside of businesses.” “I want to upgrade ordinances so we don’t have problems with x-rated dance clubs. “Increase permit fee amount for out- side vendors coming in (like those selling flowers around Moth- ers Day) because we want to take care of our merchants in the Back Mountain. I want to make it big enough where it's go- ing to discourage them (the vendors).” “Yes. I'd like to see the COG involved in an aquifer study, in traffic, cooperative purchasing.” Versari added he would like to see limiting of overdevelopment be undertaken by the COG as well. “It was in red from last year. The current supervisor board in- herited it in the red.” “We take a hard look at it every month. Any areas that are over budget are addressed right away.” He said su- pervisors on the . board with a finan- cial and business background should continue to review it monthly. Versari said most important was not increasing taxes. “One of the biggest problems is traffic on 309, but overdevel- opment of Kingston Township; also con- servation and the water. Water's going to run out if we keep developing.” Referring to the in- cident with the Don Wilkinson Agency in which the company, in = error, deposited over $113,000 in township accounts, Versari said getting one tax collecting agency was impor- tant. “We've had to have a forensic audit by a CPA because there were discrepancies in the method of collec- tion in reimbursing the township.” .Yankovich Chris Yankovich Republican “The planning and zoning regulations that are in place are not bad.” “Some changes we'd all like to see.” Overall we have some decent planning and zoning regulations.” Yankovich said while he was on the board, the board brought about the 50/50 ordinancgal which, if passed nl) i = law, requires devel- opers to save 50 per- cent of the devel- opable land as green space. “I know there's some objections to it, but in reality you have to save some lands. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but you don’t want to end up with another Kingston.” “At this time I de- cline to answer.” “Controlling spend- ing is the top thing. One of the things we are looking at is ho to cut costs.” “If we're trying to | save money to bal- ance our budget, you don’t take out a $500,000 loan.” said referring to a loan the board voted to take out last year. “Really right now - we don’t have any big problems. Our roads are in good shape. We're in pretty good shape.” Candidates respond to questions about Kingston Township now and in the future candidate. Candidates were also given the opportunity to identify what they saw as the greatest chal- — A Rev. Bealla —— (continued from page 1) said. “To come to this church at the near completion of the new addition to the administra- tion building is very exciting. It was a little difficult to walk in ‘at the end of the project, but a capable group of lay people has helped me with my learning curve and has brought the pro- ject this far.” Six hundred square feet of the new space will house the Back Mountain Food Pantry, which is a community ministry for Dallas, Trucksville, Shaver- town and the surrounding area. “Sharing this resource with the community is efficient and it takes the load off the individual churches to provide this ser- vice,” Bealla said. “It will be at ground level which will make it easier for people to donate and pick up food. We thank the township for the use of their basement storage area that served this purpose for so many years.” Bealla has another vision for this new wing. “We want it to become a learning center as we find ways to open our doors to those who want to teach and to those who want to learn. We hope that the community will come for Bible study and stay for church services.” With the dedication of the ¥ ARE § “We've taught people how to build, and have bake sales and chicken dinners. It's time to really focus and help them grow spiritually as Christians.” Rev. Mike Bealla Trucksville United Methodist new wing being planned for Pentecost Sunday, June 8, and the ribbon cutting for the food pantry to be held at noon on Tuesday, June 10, Bealla finds himself asking the question, “Where do we go from here? With all of the demands on this new generation, we must find new ways of being the church,” he said. “We must present the church in a new way with new energy or we will be left be- ‘ hind.” Bealla has helped author Faith Quest, a Bible study pro- gram for the 21st century, and is a national trainer of the pro- gram. “It is a journey toward a movement away from the church as an institution to re- creating the church as a com- Y munity of faith,” he said. “Church membership is declin- ing. People no longer want to join a church even though they may come on a regular basis. “In the 1950s and 60s we built one Methodist church a day in this country. There are more than 39,500 churches to- day. That's more than the num- ber of post offices in existence,” Bealla said. “We've taught peo- ple how to build, and have bake sales and chicken din- ners. It's time to really focus and help them grow spiritually as Christians. By 2008, 40 per- cent of the population will be under 19 years old. If we don’t reach them, what's going to happen?” Bealla was born in Wilkes- Barre and graduated from Coughlin High School. He at- tended Penn State and gradu- ated from College Misericordia. He received his Masters of Di- vinity from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey in 1982. He was ordained in 1984. Beal- la. has served Methodist churches in Kunkle, Alderson, Skinners Eddy, Laceyville, Fac- toryville, Nicholson, Dallas and Endwell, NY. He is the son of Andrew Beal- la and the late Arlene Be He is married to Bonnie Si abeer and has four children, Wesley, Jeremy, Scott and Ami.
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