South Whitehall Commissioners Pass 3 Resolutions in 13 Minute Meeting

It was a brief agenda Wednesday night and South Whitehall Commissioners made quick work of the resolutions laid out before them.

• In a resolution that expands the South Whitehall Township Pension Committee to include a second commissioner, Commissioner Dale Daubert nominated Commissioner Glenn Block. The vote was unanimous and Block will join Police Chief Thomas Toth, Township Manager Jon Hammer, community member Clare Miller, Township Finance Manager Lenore Horos and Commissioner Tom Johns.

• Commissioners voted unanimously to reappoint Jon Hammer as Township Manager. Hammer started as township manager in August 2010. As a matter of protocol, commissioners must reappoint him to his position every other year.

• A resolution that increases the current rate schedule for the township engineering company by 2.5 percent passed with only one commissioner -- Tom Johns -- dissenting. Assistant Township Engineer J. Ralph Russek Jr. explained at the last meeting: "Our rates have been in place since 2010. We’ve been asked twice over the past two years to hold. With sensitivity to the economy we’ve kept it to 2.5 percent, so if we were to have the same scope of work we did in 2012, then 2.5 percent would amount to about $1,000."

Township Administration Director Tony Ganguzza told commissioners he expects the increase will fall well under the $60,000 budgeted for miscellaneous engineering costs in the 2013 budget.

"We know we won’t go over our budget based on what we spent last year," Ganguzza said.