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AG Shapiro sues student lender with office in Hanover Township

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Wilkes’ Sordoni Art Gallery reopens Friday, featuring Andy Warhol’s work

<p>DALLAS TWP. &#8212; The township&#8217;s 2018 preliminary budget contains no tax increase, says Supervisor William Grant.</p><p>The biggest hurdle was to cover a nearly 12 percent, or $38,168, increase in health care, which threatened the projected $31,660 surplus expected from the $3.3 million preliminary budget.</p><p>&#8220;My fellow supervisors authorized me to go back to our broker and request to see if we could somehow change our plan, not significantly, basically around some co-pays,&#8221; Grant said. &#8220;The small changes in the co-pays basically eliminated the increase of the 11-12 percent.&#8221;</p><p>The new health care plan will be presented to the township&#8217;s unionized road department and the police force, which has a collective bargaining agreement, for their approval, he said.</p><p>If the revised plan is not approved, Grant said supervisors will review the budget and look for other areas that can be tightened up to break even.</p><p>In other news this week:</p><p>&#8226; Supervisors approved an ordinance to participate in a cooperation agreement with Dallas Borough, Kingston Township, and the Dallas Area Municipal Authority to implement a stormwater management and pollution reduction program known as MS4.</p><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires municipalities that drain stormwater into the Susquehanna River as well as other waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay to reduce sediment by 10 percent, phosphorus by 5 percent and nitrogen by 3 percent over the next five years.</p><p>&#8226; Supervisors also passed a motion to allow DAMA to start a sewer lateral and sump pump inspection program.</p><p>The program is part of the authority&#8217;s Corrective Action Plan to meet the state Department of Environmental Protection&#8217;s requirements to lift a sewer hook-up moratorium issued in June.</p><p>The moratorium was put in place due to numerous overflow discharges of untreated sewage into Toby Creek by DAMA, according to the state.</p><p>The authority had unpermitted discharges of untreated or inadequately treated sewage March 5 and 20, 2008; Feb. 25 and 28, 2011; March 6 to March 15, 2011; April 28 to May 3, 2011; July 1, 2015; and March 27 to April 13, 2017, DEP reported.</p><p>The inspection, which would be required before a property is sold or transferred to any third-party buyer, is designed to find any defective or illegal sewer connections.</p><p>The property seller would need to pay a projected $500 inspection fee along with the cost of repairs, DAMA solicitor Benjamin Jones III told supervisors in August.</p><p>This week, Jones said the $500 fee is an estimate, and DAMA was waiting to receive supervisors&#8217; approval to research the cost further.</p><p>&#8226; The next township meeting is set for 7 p.m. Nov. 8 in the municipal building.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Grant </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_Grant.jpg</photo0><caption0>Grant </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Eileen Godin</p><p>egodin@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Eileen Godin at 570-991-6387 or on Twitter @TLNews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Dallas Township projects no tax increases in 2018