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Issue 4— Thursday, August 22, 2019
 

 
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EMS Provider
Reaches Out To
Boro & Westfall

 

By Dakota Hendricks

MATAMORAS — Matamoras Borough received a notice from Westfall Township Secretary Jodi Manheim about whether or not the council would be interested in setting up a meeting with a new EMS company.
An EMS service provider called Samaritan Emergency Medical Services contacted Westfall inquiring as to whether they could be of service to the community, and Manheim has offered to coordinate between interested parties.
The Council will contact Westfall Township if they are interested. Fire and EMS service providers have been struggling with a lack of volunteers for years, and the situation has only grown worse since the abrupt departure of the previous ALS service provider.
The Council approved an amendment to the Eastern Pike Regional Act 537 Sewage Plan, adding Matamoras Borough to the list of participating municipalities. All members of the Borough Council signed the agreement Dayne Losee.
The Council approved a joint venture with Milford Borough to apply for an LSA grant to buy a garbage truck. The Council approved Kelley Weber as the grant writer for an additional $1,500, Council President Joseph Sain asked the Board to consider whether the Borough needs to create separate compensation rates dependent upon the monetary value of the grant. ....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.


 
Official Paper More Than
Forty Years

MILFORD — Although it has been publishing much, much longer, the Pike County Dispatch has been the newspaper of record for the County of Pike for more than 40 years. That means the Dispatch is the place to go to find out about public meetings, estate notices, bids, public hearings, real estate sales and transactions, and Sheriff sales.

The Pike County Commissioners listed the Dispatch as an official newspaper for legal notices during their opening meeting of 2014, and once again, during their annual reorganization meetings on the first business day of the New Year, most of the other municipalities in Pike County followed suit. So far, Milford and Matamoras Boroughs, and Westfall, Dingman, Delaware, Shohola, Blooming Grove. Milford and Lehman Townships have made it their business to have the Dispatch as an official newspaper.

So make it your business to keep up with all the news in Pike to print, including official business and legal notices from your town.

To find out where to buy your copy of the county’s official newspaper or to subscribe for home mail delivery, click here.

The Voice Of Pike County
Since 1826

The Pike County Dispatch is not only Pike County's largest circulation weekly newspaper, it is also the oldest.

Founded as the Eagle of the North, it has been in continuous operation reporting news and covering local events since 1826. It is, and always has been, the mainstay in keeping the local citizenry informed. Today, subscribers are as far afield as California and Florida

The Dispatch has covered the historic events that have shaped Pike County for almost as long as that history has been in the making.

Over the years, hometown news has shared pages with national and world events, and world events were sometimes right here in Pike County, Pennsylvania.

Its pages carry news of joy and sorrow, homespun advice, births, deaths, marriages, spats, feuds, political controversy, scandals, murders, heists, social affairs, dedications--in short, all the news in Pike to print.

Look for the Pike County Dispatch at local news dealers, and read all about it!

 

 

Strub Hosts Sestak Stumping In Iowa

 


OKOBOJI, Iowa — Milford Borough Mayor Sean Strub, a native Iowan, visits his family every August at a lake in northwest Iowa, and since Admiral Joe Sestak is currently campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in the Hawkeye State, Strub recently put together a gathering to give his friends and neighbors a chance to meet and hear him.
On Tuesday morning the mayor sent the Dispatch the following account of the gathering: "Admiral Sestak is a candidate of great integrity with a track record of bringing people together and getting things accomplished. While there are a lot of good Democratic candidates in the race for president, I am partial to Joe because he is the most knowledgeable about foreign policy issues, maintains civility in his discourse – 'disagreeing well' as he puts it – and has a history of effectively building support across party lines while standing strongly for progressive ideals.
"He entered the race late, compared to the other two dozen Democratic candidates, but that is because his daughter's cancer had returned and he wouldn't run until she was in a 'safe harbor, as he puts it. And late is relative; Bill Clinton didn't enter the 1992 race for President until around October of 1991.
The Iowa precinct caucuses are an unusual process that frequently operates independently of the conventional wisdoms held by national pundits and media. At this point in the 1976 or 2008 races, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama barely registered in the Iowa polling, if at all.
"Having a large number of candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination ensures that a diversity of ideas and priorities will be discussed, it allows the Democratic 'bench' to be displayed and vetted before the broader public, and allows voters to get to know the leaders who are likely to populate the cabinet and senior positions in the next Democratic presidential administration.
"I'll probably organize another event this fall, in Iowa City, when the University of Iowa football team plays Penn State. I know a lot of Sestak supporters from Pennsylvania will be in Iowa then."
Sestak represented Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 2010. A three-star vice admiral, he was the highest-ranking military official ever elected to the United States Congress at the time of his election.

 


 

Three-Lane Mixed-Use Developer
Gets Mixed Response At Meeting

 

By Jessica Cohen


MILFORD — Douglas Olmstead, development manager for Legend Properties Real Estate, appeared at the Milford Township supervisors meeting on Monday and offered to do a second presentation on the company's controversial plan for mixed use development, commercial and residential, on the 20-acre Santos Farm parcel on three-lane Route 6-209 in the township.
However, Fred Weber, planning board chair, said, "A second presentation would be bad optics. There's no proposal in front of us."
"Don't make a zoning change based on a proposal," said Amy Eisenberg. "They can make their money and leave town."
"I made the offer because people at meetings are bringing up the project," said Olmstead. "We're not forcing ourselves on the township."
However, meeting attendees had questions for Olmstead. One asked whether the company anticipated pursuing tax increment financing (TIF), which is public financing as a redevelopment subsidy for infrastructure. The mixed use plan, with up to 100 units on 20 acres, would depend on a zoning change and central sewage.
"We don't anticipate using TIF," he said. "It's not financially feasible."
Outside after the meeting, Olmstead, of Pocono Township, explained his company's strategy for their plan. The commercial aspect aims for "market-driven" small retail businesses, including a restaurant and gas station, he said. Current zoning does not allow the combination of residential and commercial development on the same property, and residential would not be possible without central sewage, he said.
"Once there's a pipeline down the three-lane, we would submit land development plans to the township, county planning commission and then state review and Penn DOT," said Olmstead.
Olmstead noted that he had made "informal presentations" to the township supervisors and planning board.
"They said an ordinance change would have to take place to entertain a formal proposal, but no spot zoning would be allowed," Olmstead said. ...For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.

 

 

 

 

DV Supervisor Gets New Five-Year Contract

By Wayne Witkowski

WESTFALL — John Bell, heading into the final year of a five-year contract as Delaware Valley School District superintendent, got a new five-year contract from the district's Board of Directors last week.
Bell for the upcoming school year is making $193,751. The contract calls for a $3,000 increase for a earning a doctorate, then a 2 percent increase per year.
The first year of the new contract (2020-2021) is $200,686. The following four years pay $204,700 for 2021-2022, $208,794 for 2022-2023, $212,970 for 2023-2024 and $217,229 for 2024-2025.
Bell has headed the district for the past seven years, serving under a three-year contract when he first came to the district from New York State.
He has been Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) treasurer the last two years, will be president-elect for this new school year and president in 2020-21.
Bell was selected Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) 2019 Superintendent of the Year. He is an adjunct professor at East Stroudsburg University's graduate school of education.
"I'm thrilled the board voted me (for a contract) for another five years," Bell said after the meeting. "I love my job and I love D.V."
The contract rollover is an affirmation of his many achievements, including shepherding an $11 million Career & Technical Education Addition and Renovations Project that he showed in a PowerPoint presentation early in the meeting before his contract was approved. The project should be virtually completed by the start of the school year next week.
"We've seen this project along the way and I can't believe what it looks like now from the last time we saw it," said board Vice President Cory Homer as other board members expressed similar sentiments for the project in the thought process and in development for many years....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.

Lackawaxen Township Drafting
Short-Term Rental Ordinance

By Dakota Hendricks


LACKAWAXEN — The Lackawaxen Township Solicitor said he has been drafting an ordinance to tackle short-term rental properties.
A Tink Wig Mountain Lake Estates representative said short-term rental properties and the clientele they attract frequently cause damage and don't abide by Association bylaws.
Solicitor Tom Farley said about four months have passed since the state Supreme Court ruled that short-term rental properties do not meet the requirements for single-family dwellings and municipalities are still working out how to regulate them. Farley said he is considering a clause in the upcoming ordinance that would allow homeowner associations to determine whether they would allow short-term rental properties; however, he is still working on how to make the ordinance fair to those not living in an association. ....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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