Atapco ready to dedicate first road

Antrim Township supervisors and Atapco came to an agreement Sept. 13 on dedication of roads in Antrim Business Park. Pat Coggins, vice president of development, said he and development manager Tim Hogan were present to clarify what both sides had agreed to on July 26. With no construction underway, Antrim typically did not accept a road, though Armada Drive was ready to go. The township had wanted the usual 18-month maintenance bond to cover the property until it was completed. Atapco was open to an extended bond until 75 percent buildout, and to cover construction damages for the final 25 percent. It had submitted materials over the past two weeks.

"We're waiting for feedback from the township," said Coggins.

Board chairman Sam Miller was concerned that Antrim had already given Atapco a waiver from ordinance standards for the roads. On March 8 it made allowances on cross slope, cul-de-sac size and paving thickness. He said Armada, according to Antrim's engineer, had been built to last 10 years. "Freezing and thawing will bust the road up," Miller predicted. He wanted its repairs covered in the bond so taxpayers didn't foot the bill.

Hogan said their engineer and geo-tech disagreed, and that the road was constructed within parameters set by PennDOT. Atapco had also replaced a poorly-built existing Antrim road "on our own nickel. We're here for the duration. We put a very good road in."

Coggins said the issue was not the purpose of the meeting. The board approved a 10 percent maintenance bond that would be good for 75 percent of the 309 acres, and Atapco would take care of construction damage until the project was complete.

Looking ahead

Administrator Brad Graham presented a list of spending proposals for 2012. The roads prioritized for improvements were Wingerton/State Line, Sportsman, Hollowell Church, Colonial, north Antrim Church, Lehman, Trolley and Rogers/Roberts. The level of attention ranged from reconstruction to patching.

He also recommended four vehicle purchases: replace a 1999 F350 with an F550 with snowplow equipment for $73,000; add a similar truck for faster plowing; replace a pickup with a used one for $20,000; and get a bat-wing mowing deck for park fields. He thought an old truck could be kept if a new bed was installed.

While a joint meeting with the Borough of Greencastle and the G-A School District was tentatively set for Sept. 20, the other two bodies had no agenda items. Antrim's only one was to discuss incentives for commercial development. Graham was going to check if it was worth meeting.

The board also reviewed changes to the lease agreement for Antrim Township Municipal Authority, which took effect when the township refinanced two of ATMA's bonds last spring. At that time the leaseback agreement for the sewer plant was changed to a simple lease agreement. The latest changes included defining how current debt would be repaid to the landfill fund, keeping money in the sewer revenue fund if it was needed for operating expenses (rather than transferring to the capital improvement fund), paying the auditor from the sewer revenue account, changing the lease year back to calendar rather than fiscal year for easier audits, and establishing what percent of the salaries of Graham, secretary Mary Klein and public works director Carl Rundquist should come from the sewer fund.