(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
Despite the time of the meeting running under 30 minutes, the Beaver County Commissioners managed to provide and receive many different updates at their March 29 work session.
Public Works director Dan Colville announced that there was no major damage done to any of the major parks in Beaver County following the series of harsh winds over the weekend. “Just a couple trees, nothing that interfered with operations,” Colville said. He also added that cleanup crews were out on Monday collecting whatever minor debris had made its way into those areas.
Parks and Recreation director Tony Caltury announced that the opening of trout season will be this Saturday (April 1), and that camping for the weekend will be allowed from 3 PM on Friday with evacuation set for Sunday at noon. He also notified the Commissioners that the inspection of the infrastructure at county pools is set to take place this coming Tuesday, “with the anticipation of the pool agreement being on the next resolution without any major infrastructure issues.”
Commissioner Tony Amadio spoke about the board’s meeting with the National Transportation Safety board in Darlington recently, with both him and Commissioner Jack Manning praising the conversation they had with NTSB chairperson Jennifer Homendy in regards to the eventual report that will come from the East Palestine train derailment. “I have complete confidence that they will eventually come up with a very good summary report of everything that happened,” Manning added.
Perhaps the biggest topic of discussion throughout the week leading up to the meeting was the release of reassessment values for properties throughout Beaver County, with an expected mill rate drop from around 26 to an estimated 3.5857. “We’re not raising county taxes,” Manning reaffirmed. “We’re still going to collect only 57 and a half million dollars in taxes.”
Commissioner Dan Camp stated that the possible tax increases may come from school taxes following their reactions to the reassessment of their properties. “The county will set those tentative values for the municipality for the schools and what their millage rate will be,” Camp mentioned, noting that the schools will then take two votes following the rates being set. One will be to accept the values, and the second will be to raise the values–“which will virtually be a tax increase,” per Camp.
The Beaver County Historical Landmarks & Research Foundation finally received bids for the restoration of the Vicary Mansion in Freedom, where the BCHLRF is headquartered. Executive director Brenda Applegate presented the bids to the County Commissioners at the work session, and the Commissioners chose Landmarks SGA as the contractors as their preference for the restoration of the porch for the building. Applegate stated that the foundation is also seeking a DCED grant through State Representative Rob Matzie.
The next Commissioners’ work session is scheduled for April 5 at 10:00 AM.