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Each year municipalities and organizations request letters of support as part of their application for various grant funding. Favorable comment was generated on the following Letters of Support throughout Wayne County:
The Wayne County Historical Society is currently working on submitting grant applications to PennDOT and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to help in the funding of their Towpath to Trail Project located in Palmyra Township. Sally Talaga, a representative of the Historical Society, presented the Planning Commission Board members with slides of the area to be restored. This area includes a canal era lock house and the remains of a canal lock. The Historical Society plans to create a living history museum depicting canal life along the D & H Canal. A letter of support was approved and sent to the Historical Society.
Lacawac Sanctuary is submitting a grant application to the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Community Conservation Partnership. This grant will be used to help purchase an adjacent 18-acre parcel of land to the east of the Sanctuary. Ms. Janice Poppich, a representative of Lacawac Sanctuary, spoke to the Planning Commission Board members giving them some background history on Lacawac Sanctuary and explaining the educational programs offered there. The requested letter of support was approved by the Planning Commission and will be included with the grant application.
Dreher Township is currently in the process of preparing a grant application to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to help in the preparation of a Master Site Plan for the Carlton Drake Memorial Park. A letter of support was requested and granted to Dreher Township by the Wayne County Planning Commission.
Lakeland Colony Corporation is applying to the United States Department of Agriculture for funding to upgrade their current water supply and distribution system. Lakeland Colony Corporation operates a water supply and distribution system for their residential community located in Paupack Township, Wayne County. The system’s ability to meet peak demand is insufficient and additional storage is needed. The Planning Department supplied a letter of support to be sent with the grant application.
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With final subdivision approval granted by the Wayne County Planning Commission, the planning for this major residential development was completed during the year of 2001. This residential development, which provides housing for qualified low-income families, is located off Township road 467 (Szostowski Rd.) on the east side of Lake Ladore in Canaan Township. It consists of eight (8) building lots ranging in size from one (1) to nearly three (3) acres. The planning involved the construction of a new private drive with a linear length of nearly 1200 feet, underground utilities and stormwater management facilities. The non-profit volunteer organization, headed by Mel and May Rutherford, Albert Chaffee and Paul Hartung, has completed the construction of the second residential house during the 2001 construction season. It is anticipated, through the financial assistance of local businesses and volunteer labor provided by both groups and individuals, that at least one (1) home can be completed each year for a family in need. The development of Canaan Meadows will continue to help meet the needs of qualified families since there are a total of six (6) remaining lots to be built upon in years to come.
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One of the responsibilities of the Planning Department is to work with other transportation related organizations to develop a Twelve-Year Transportation Program. Involvement in this effort is important in that this is the method to keep the transportation needs of Wayne County in the forefront of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. This program is actually a function of the State Transportation Committee (STC). This is the organization that eventually gives final approval to the program developed by the state Department of Transportation, counties and local governments.
Transportation projects including state highway projects, county bridges and local township and borough bridges must be included on the Twelve-Year Transportation Program in order to be eligible for federal and state transportation funding. This program is a cooperative effort between the county, state and local governments. Each time the program is updated the County Planning Department solicits candidate projects to be proposed to the State Transportation Committee. These projects are processed through the County to the State Department of Transportation and eventually to the State Transportation Committee.
The State Transportation Committee met on October 11, 2001. Planning Director, Edward Coar presented the county’s proposed projects. Wayne County’s projects were consistent with the Department of Transportation’s efforts of trying to make the existing transportation system work better. It was noted that the existing TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan) should continue as it exists now and remain as part of the 12-year program. Some items needed to be advanced to earlier periods of the program in order to begin some preliminary work on design.
There were three projects being proposed as new projects to the 12-year plan. The first project was widening and reconstruction of State Routes 196 and 296 south of Varden in South Canaan, Lake and Salem Townships. These two state routes are used extensively by the Western Wayne School District for the busing of children to the high school and the middle school located in Varden. Routes 196 and 296 are narrow with a number of curves that need attention for the safety of the school children using these roads.
The next project proposed was a climbing lane project along Route 652 in Berlin Township. It would be approximately 1 mile in length starting at SR 2011 near the former Indian Orchard Grange and continue to the east to the vicinity of the Wayne County Recycling Center. This area of SR 652 is steep and contains heavy truck traffic using the waste transfer station in Beach Lake.
The third project proposed was a climbing lane along Route 191 in Honesdale Borough, Texas Township and Cherry Ridge Township. This is approximately 3 miles in length, starting at the intersection with Terrace Street in Honesdale Borough and continuing south through Texas Township ending in Cherry Ridge Township near the intersection with SR 3028. This area is also steep with several stretches of highway where large trucks have a tendency to slow traffic and create congestion.
Bridge construction that will need to be advanced as design is completed include, Kellam’s Bridge in Buckingham Township, Keens Pond Bridge in Canaan Township, Ax Factory Bridge in Honesdale Borough and the Fortenia Bridge in Texas Township. The continued support of these projects by the State Transportation Commission by including them in the 12-year highway program will be important in improving the transportation network in Wayne County.
The Cummings Bridge has been delayed due to new environmental studies. During the presentation to the State Transportation Committee, Mr. Coar advised that while we need to be environmentally sensitive, we also need to see more efficiency in how we address these issues. The current system effectively impedes PennDOT employees from making timely progress in any construction project and demands too much money in the process. For example, when Interstate 81 was constructed in the 1960s between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton it cost one million dollars a mile. When the Lackawanna Valley Industrial Highway was constructed between Dunmore and Carbondale in the 1990s it cost one million dollars a mile just for the cultural studies. This demonstrates why there is not enough money and time available to complete the transportation projects that need to be done. Too much transportation money is spent on non-transportation issues. Until this problem is addressed, we will continue to see all transportation projects take longer and cost more money to complete.
It was suggested that it might be appropriate for the State Transportation Commission to encourage a more efficient stream-lined process that would better serve the goal of a better transportation system in Pennsylvania.
The charts on the following pages are a complete list of those projects suggested for inclusion in the Transportation Program.
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On July 10, 2001 a workshop was held in adjoining Pike County discussing various approaches to “better site design” and the positive effects that can result to the associated watershed. The full day course was sponsored by the Center for Watershed Protection.
More than 1.5 million acres of land are developed each year in the United States. Most of this development is the result of individual projects built over a period of time. The cumulative effect of land development can redefine the landscape within an existing watershed. Development alters the surface of the land, by replacing natural cover with rooftops, roads, parking lots, driveways and sidewalks. These hard surfaces are impermeable to rainfall and are collectively known as impervious cover.
Communities have long struggled to achieve the goal of sustainable development – economic growth that also protects the local environment. Many municipalities are finding that their own development codes and site requirements are actually working against sustainable development. As an example, local codes and standards often create needless impervious cover in the form of wide streets, expansive parking lots and large-lot subdivisions. Also, many local codes often give developers little or no incentive to conserve natural areas that are so important for watershed protection. Therefore, model land development principles have been documented to benefit both the natural environment and the community. The development principles are divided into the three (3) following areas:
1) Residential Streets and Parking Lots (Habitat for Cars)
2) Lot Development (Habitat for People)
3) Conservation of Natural Areas (Habitat for Nature)
By applying model development principles, municipalities have realized the benefits to both the natural environment and their surrounding community such as:
Protects the quality of local streams, lakes and estuaries
Generates smaller loads of stormwater pollutants
Helps reduce soil erosion during construction
Increases local property values
Provides open space for recreation
Protects sensitive forests, wetlands and habitats from clearing
Results in a more attractive landscape
Increases local property tax revenues
Provides wildlife habitat through natural area preservation
Allows for more sensible locations for stormwater facilities
Makes compliance with wetland and other regulations easier
The site design workshop was thought provoking and ideas presented will be valuable to the staff as it reviews changes to land use ordinances and reviews of subdivision and land development applications.