An erosion problem at Summit Township's Gibson Park will soon be put to rest as plans are currently in the works to fix the area in question as soon as possible.

The topic began at the Township September 2009 meeting, when Supervisor Harry McGrath imparted some details about a water and erosion situation at the park.

During that meeting he had stated that a grant had been used to remedy a problem of water being taken from one side of the road via pipe and ending up in the recreation area.

This was a type of experiment carried out through a Dirt and Gravel Road Project and it worked for a while until leaves and other sediment gathered in the area and caused problems.

Due to this, Porter Consulting Engineers had been directed at the September ‘09 meeting to gather some preliminary sketches and plans so that the township could apply for another grant through Soil and Conservation.

Jason Dickey of Porter Consulting did that very thing and went over the particulars with the board during the October ‘09 meeting. Dickey had sketches, aerial photos and a cost estimate on hand, which he handed out to supervisors.

The board and Dickey had bantered about some ideas and Dickey indicated that it was basically a conceptual layout which would be used in the grant application process.

At that time, Secretary Cindy McCoy gave Dickey the application for his perusal.

This brings us to the July 6, 2010 meeting of the Summit Township Supervisors at which Dickey was in attendance.

He told the board that the project plans had been submitted to Maria Anderson of Crawford County Soil and Conservation. Dickey said that she didn't find the plans to be problematic in any way.

Dickey described the project as a gravel rock infiltration region that will collect runoff from Gibson Road and will act as a treatment area for such.

There was some discussion as to whether parking would be permitted on the area in question, which is located near the ball field. McGrath said he was under the impression that it would not be allowed.

No one really saw that as detrimental because of the location of the region in question and also due to the ball fields not being used as much these days as they used to be.

A motion was made for Porter Consulting Engineers to prepare the documents for the project and to advertise it for bids as soon as possible.

Moving along to another hot topic during the meeting, Dickey and the board discussed the problem with the Route 618 Bridge. Soon after the bridge was revamped, the north end began to settle. This caused anyone traveling over the bridge to be jolted due to the dip that was caused when it settled. At previous meetings, it had been determined that although the dip might cause some discomfort to drivers, it wasn't a traffic hazard, per se.

Basically the parties involved are still in the process of determining what exactly caused the problem. Back in February, they had discussed a few scenarios that might had led to the settling including traffic, construction or design.

The next move is to get some boring samples which is, essentially, a core study of the soils etc., around the troubled area.

That will be underway with Porter marking the area in which the bores will take place. Dickey just wanted to be certain that the supervisors wanted Porter Consulting to mark the area before he went ahead with it.

In some brief Conneaut Lake Park news, Secretary McCoy reported that Park Restoration LLC had applied for the amusement tax permit but no notice of collections for the 2010 year had been submitted. The same was true for Lisko Entertainment.

She said they are giving them the benefit of the doubt since the amount was, more than likely, small, and they hoped to have something submitted by July 10.

When contacted for comment Greg Sutterlin, of Park Restoration LLC, said that he would get something turned in soon and he thought it would amount to around $40.

The board discussed House Bill 2431 which, if adopted, would change the Pennsylvania State Constitution and establish the county as the basic level of local government.

Evidently, municipalities would still exist but would be under the jurisdiction of the county. The county would also determine what kind of responsibilities the local municipalities would have.

Secretary McCoy said that municipalities have been encouraged to adopt “a resolution to thwart that.”

She said that the State Association offered them a sample resolution which basically states that they will fight to remain intact.

With that, a motion was made to pass Resolution 2010-4, opposing the elimination of townships. The motion was seconded and carried.

The next Summit Township Supervisor meeting will take place on August 3, at 7 PM. The meetings are held at the township building in Harmonsburg and the public is encouraged and invited to attend.