TREVORTON - Michael Schwartz was re-elected chairman of the Zerbe Township Board of Supervisors during the board's reorganization meeting Monday.
Mike Mazer was named secretary/treasurer, while Gene Geise was named roadmaster.
Each appointment vote was 2-0 with the person being nominated abstaining.
Other positions and committees named at the reorganization meeting were:
Wiest, Muolo, Noon and Swinehart, solicitor; Berkheimer Associates, earned income tax collectors; Union Bank and Trust, depository; William F. Hill and Associates Inc. and URS, engineers; Douglas Parker, CPA, auditor; Ellen Troutman, clerk and open records officer; Jerome Bulchie, maintenance; Edwin Reed, sewer operator; William Breinich, laborer; Robert John, police chief; Brad Hair and Brad Slack, part-time police officers; George Renn, vacancy board; Ronald Lesher, zoning officer; Donna Reed, part-time assistant clerk and recycling assistant; Dean Sampsell and David Miller, zoning board of appeals (one seat open remains); Craig Scott, David Miller, Angela Wilkinson and Melissa Tharp, recreation committee; James Sanders, primary sewage enforcement officer, and Kenneth Young, alternate sewage enforcement officer. Two seats are open on the planning committee.
Township employees were also given 3 percent pay raises for 2013. All union employee raises will be based on the average hourly rate, while non-union employees will receive a 3 percent raise in their own hourly rate.
The appointments and raises were approved on a 3-0 vote.
Civil matters
During the public comment portion of the regular meeting that followed reorganization, supervisors heard complaints from citizens that have been expressed at past meetings. One was from the neighbor of a residence where alpacas are raised, while another asked what the township will do about a burned-out building still standing next to his property on Tenth Street.
Solicitor Roger Wiest stopped both discussions.
"We have tried our remedies, and if either of you are not satisfied with how we handled these matters, which really are private civil complaints you have with the owners, you certainly have an option to take them to court yourselves to make them move quicker," he said.
The township has already received a zoning violation judgment against the alpacas' owner, Carol Whary, and directed zoning board solicitor Todd Kerstetter to file another civil complaint to bring her before Magisterial District Judge John Gembic III to answer why she has not complied with the order.
"We didn't have to do that, because this really is a private matter, and I've told the supervisors that," Wiest said. "But they directed me to work on it, and I did with what I could do within our means."
In other business
Supervisors announced they received an anonymous donation of new playground equipment. The equipment was delivered Monday and will be installed in the spring.
Christmas trees will be picked up by township employees until the end of January. Residents wanting to get rid of their trees need to place them at the curb, without tree stands.
The township received a right-to-know request from David Kaleta, of Shamokin, pertaining to timbering or mining projects being done on Northumberland County land in Zerbe Township. Supervisors said Kaleta was told the township does not have that kind of information and that he should contact the township's court-appointed permanent receiver.
Twenty-five delinquent sewer accounts were submitted for collection to Central Credit Audit Inc. The amount owed is $43,264.15
Schwartz and the rest of supervisors complimented the three township employees for the job they did clearing streets during recent snow storms. To give them a little help, John Reidinger and Douglas Snyder were hired as part-time snow plowers on an as-needed basis.
Supervisors will take some time to study the Alternate Land Use Ordinance recently created by Coal Township, which seeks a 25 percent share of revenue from coal land owners who sell access permits to their land. They'll also study some revisions Schwartz has proposed to the township trailer/RV parking ordinance.