Berlin Township chair resigns; No way to deal with nuisances

LINDA DROLLINGER
Posted 8/21/12

BEACH LAKE, PA —The February 16 Berlin Township board of supervisors meeting started with quiet routine and few spectators. There was nothing unusual in that. Wild winter weather and a fire at …

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Berlin Township chair resigns; No way to deal with nuisances

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BEACH LAKE, PA —The February 16 Berlin Township board of supervisors meeting started with quiet routine and few spectators. There was nothing unusual in that. Wild winter weather and a fire at Cochecton Mills had occupied many township residents for most of the day. It wasn’t until the reading of correspondence that something out of the ordinary happened.

Chair Cathy Hunt introduced a letter to fellow supervisors Rob Mahon and Charles Gries, saying only that it was about lack of communication and accountability. By way of explanation to spectators, she said that she was resigning the office of board chair to which she had been elected on January 4 by Mahon and Gries.

Vice Chair Gries asked Hunt if the resignation was effective immediately, or if she would continue to chair the current meeting. When Hunt replied that it was effective immediately, Gries began presiding.

Former supervisors’ chair Paul Henry, present as a spectator, then asked Hunt why she was relinquishing her office. Hunt said she was getting no cooperation from fellow roadmaster Gries and highway department employees, and that she never knew who was working, where they were, and what hours they had worked.

Mahon hinted that technology might be at least partially responsible for the lack of communication to which Hunt referred, saying that some two-way radios in highway department trucks might not be in working order.

But Hunt said that her resignation was a formal protest against what she considered to be a deliberate lack of accountability. Hunt will keep her job as supervisor, but will no longer be the board’s chair; that job now is Gries’ responsibility.

“I don’t even know if this will solve the problem,” said Hunt.

Another matter addressed at the meeting was an anonymous written complaint about a nuisance property. The supervisors talked among themselves before turning to Henry for clarification of board policy with regard to anonymous complaints.

“Are you asking me what your policy is?” asked Henry.

When Mahon and Gries nodded, Henry said that the board had decided last year not to investigate unsigned nuisance complaints. “Unless you have since reversed that policy, it should still be in effect,” said Henry.

Because no action was taken, the supervisors did not reveal the property owner named in the complaint letter.

That prompted Henry to ask questions about both letters. “Where is the property located?” he asked.

Initially reluctant to reveal any details, the supervisors finally said that it was on Bavarian Hill Road.

“I know the place. It’s a real s---hole,” said Henry. “But we could never do anything about it, because we didn’t have a nuisance abatement ordinance. And you can’t do anything about it either, for the same reason.”

Last March, in the face of public outcry, the board dropped plans to adopt a proposed nuisance abatement ordinance. Henry, chief proponent of the ordinance, decided not to seek re-election.

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