Geoff Dean, township engineer with Keystone Consulting Engineers, provided supervisors with an update on the Buckery Road Bridge project at the Heidelberg Township Board of Supervisors June 19 meeting.

Dean said during his monthly report he has three updates on three different things for the board this evening, the first is our Buckery Road Bridge construction project.

“The contractors have been out there for about three weeks now or so. It’s full of water at the moment. They’ve been stuck in a bad cycle of trying to dewater and get it dry enough to get concrete poured for footers and it’s just not happening at the moment.” Dean stated. “We’re going to have to kind of wait for a little bit until things dry out and then we’ll get it moving forward again. It should move pretty quickly once we can get the concrete poured and start going vertical. The weather has made it a nightmare for them so we are on hold at the moment.”

He said the second item he had to discuss with the board was the Department of Environmental Protection approved pollutant reduction program.

“I was up here with another one of my colleagues last week and we met with Dawn Didra (township manager), Katie Fabian (administrative assistant) and Kevin Huber (road superintendent) to talk about the MS4 program. You may recall that the township has a DEP approved pollutant reduction program. A project that we agreed to do several years ago when Chris Noll (former township engineer) was sitting here,” he said. “It was a stream bank restoration project and that is due to be completed by the end of 2026.”

He said even though the completion date is still a year away they are investigating if there would be an option to possibly meet those program requirements with a less potential price to get that project done.

Dean added he may be back to the board in the next month or two with the suggestion or proposal to kind of swap out the mechanism for how to meet those requirements.

He said lastly is the new public works building.

“The only update I really have for you there is I’ve met with some of my colleagues and it turns out that we do in fact have some in-house expertise and we can probably provide some preliminary floor planning or interior layout that could form the basis for a grant application.” Dean said. “So I’ll be trying to move that forward over the next few weeks as well.”

The board also discussed options for a bridge loan.

David Fink, board chairman, began the discussion.

“We have two options one from Neffs National Bank and one from New Tripoli Bank,” he stated. “From what I saw The Neffs was lower but there was some additional fees. It looks like the lower interest rate would outweigh any of the fees.”

Didra comments on the two options.

“New Tripoli Bank didn’t give me that detail so we’re waiting,” she said. “I would think that they would have the same fees that we would have to pay, but they didn’t give me that information.”

After Fink and Didra further discussed how soon the township needs the loan, Fink stated this would be a $600,000 bridge loan for the bridge but it’s also a bridge loan to carry us through until we can get the Local Share Account grant.

The board approved to accept the proposal from The Neffs National Bank.

Another item Fink discussed with the board was the new public works building.

“I’ve been doing a little research,” Fink stated. “It’s not necessary for us to hire an engineer or an architect. In the request for proposal we can make that a requirement of the contractor to provide the stamped plans so we just need to incorporate that in the RFP.

He said currently they are looking at a 50-by-120-foot building, so we need specifics.

Didra offered a suggestion.

“Geoff had put out a 136-by-50 foot building,” she stated. “If we’re going to go for a grant to get this we should do the maximum that we possibly can because that’s going to be at least another bay you’re going to add on.

Didra said the township needs as many specifics as they can get.

“We have to get the specifics maybe Geoff can get us the specifics for the wash bay because like I said if we’re going to go for a grant they’re not going to give us a grant for a shell. They want to give us a grant for showing them that we have a plan to finish it and what it’s going to be when it’s done,” Didra explained. “We need that before we go for the grant and put the RFP out.”

Fink said the contractor can give them all that information.

“That has to be within the RFP everything all-inclusive, because you want an all-inclusive number with detail,” he stated.

Fink said during the meeting there will be a postcard going out next month in regard to a public meeting that will be held in August where the township is going to be inviting the public and representatives from the county to explain to the citizens the Farmland Preservation program.