The brakes have been put on for an ordinance to stop maintenance of public or private alleys in Salisbury Township.

The proposed ordinance is expected to be discussed at a workshop immediately following the next board of commissioners’ meeting, 7 p.m. July 24, in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 at the July 10 meeting to table an ordinance to remove maintenance requirements of a previously-approved authorized directive to maintain public or private alleys and cartways by the public works department.

Township Commissioner Alex Karol made the motion, seconded by board of commissioners Vice President Rodney Conn, to bring the ordinance to a vote.

“Our public works director has said there have been some issues to maintain public alleys. There has been some damage to equipment,” Attorney Jason A. Ulrich, partner, Gross McGinley, LLP, township solicitor firm, said before the vote.

“There are some private alleys that we’ve been [snow] plowing for years. We really shouldn’t be. It’s a matter of getting out of private property,” Jim Levernier, director, Salisbury Township Public Works Department, said before the vote.

“Every year, we’re blowing tires and bending rims,” Levernier said.

Levernier and Stan G. Wojciechowski, department head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., township consulting engineering firm, reviewed township public streets and private alleys.

“Anything that’s public, we will continue maintaining,” Levernier said.

At least seven township residents among the estimated 35 persons at the July 10 township meeting spoke at the podium to express concerns about the proposed streets maintenance ordinance.

Some residents said streets, or parts of streets, were public and should continue to be maintained.

“They’ve been doing our drive for 50 years,” Roger J. Moyer, a 43-year Salisbury Township public works roads employee who retired in 2016, said.

“My question is: Why did it ever start in the first place?” board of commissioners President Debra J. Brinton asked before the vote.

“Someone chose to live on the mountain. That’s their choice. We shouldn’t be plowing their road,” Brinton said.

“Public roads are dedicated and the township must maintain them,” Ulrich said.

The proposed ordinance states, in part:

“Alleys are defined as a street designed as a secondary access to properties, with a maximum width of 20 feet;

“Previous township policies required the public works department to maintain and plow specific alleys and other areas not defined as streets;

“The board rescinded said policy and did so due to the inability of the public works staff to effectively maintain these alleys without causing damage to municipal property;

“It is the board’s intention to continue to keep clear and maintain lawfully designated streets and roads within the township but remove the previously held standard of maintaining and plowing alleys both private and public,” and

“The Township of Salisbury will no longer maintain public and private alleys not defined as official streets in the public highway system of the Township of Salisbury.”

The Salisbury Township meeting schedule in the municipal building includes: 7 p.m. July 23, planning commission and 7 p.m. July 24, board of commissioners.