KANE — Kane Area School District school director Keith Hastings and Forest Area School District superintendent Amanda Hetrick joined Jack Hedlund of the Allegheny Forest Alliance in a presentation to Kane’s school board on Thursday.
Hedlund, a retired principal of Kane Area High School, described working with the alliance as “sort of a passion of mine,” saying he jumped into it upon retirement.
According to a PowerPoint presentation brought in by the alliance, there are 517,000 acres in the Allegheny National Forest, 137,000 acres of which are located in McKean County. One particular slide showed the amount of land within McKean, Elk, Forest and Warren counties which are either owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Commonwealth for state game lands. Hastings, the school district’s alliance representative, thought the slide described the distribution of publicly owned land against privately owned land.
“The slide shows how much land is not being taxed,” said Hastings. “It shows how much is being absorbed by taxpayers.”
The presentation also quoted the Organic Administration Act of 1897. The act states, “No public forest reservation shall be established, except to improve and protect the forest within the reservation, or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States.”
According to the alliance, the U.S Forest Service is not following this act, as the supply of timber is diminishing, not continuous.
Hedlund also noted that the forest service is not managing the forest as per their own mission statement, which includes providing a supply of wood. He said that if the forest service intended to preserve the forest, not manage them, then the Allegheny National Forest should be a national park instead.
The U.S. Forest Service is in the Department of Agriculture, while the National Park Service falls under the Department of the Interior, according to Hedlund.
The alliance then stated that the estimated established harvest is 37.9 million board feet, and at an average price of $621 per million board feet, the expected yield should be approximately $23.5 million. Doubling the harvest would yield $47 million, of which the Kane district would receive $589,900. The presentation went on to point out that if the national forest was privately held, and had to pay taxes, the school district would receive $478,000 at a rate of $4.50 per acre.
“Clearly, the forest service is not pulling their weight,” said Hastings.
Hedlund said that Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., is holding a forum at the national forest office in Warren at 2 p.m. on Aug. 21.
In other news, the school board approved an amendment to the employment contract between the school district and superintendent Bob Gaetano, adjusting his salary to $110,000 effective July 1. The board also changed the salary of board secretary Susan Grolemund to $3,000.
The school board also cast their vote for the Pennsylvania School Board Association’s annual elections. The board cast their vote for Mary Birks of the Mount Lebanon School District in Allegheny County for president, and Robert Schwartz of Wallenpaupack Area School District in Pike County. Grolemund said that the board usually votes for candidates from rural school districts.
Cheyenne Johnston of the Kane Area High School Trap Team addressed the board about her sport. Johnston said that the team costs nothing to the district as it is funded through outside grant money, they compete against other schools, and it is the only sport some students participate in all year long.
Ed Sleeman, the coach of the trap team, said that it was Johnston who asked him why trap shooting was not a letter sport. Sleeman said that the team, taking a model from schools in Warren County, came up with criteria to earn a letter. The criteria included both academic and performance achievements, according to Sleeman. He presented the school board with the first two letters for the Kane Area High School trap team, to be presented to Taylor Holt and Ricky Grundstrom on Aug. 27 at the Kane Fish and Game Club.
Hastings thanked the trap team for taking the proper channels in establishing the varsity letter. Gaetano said that it was “amazing on the job they do and how serious they are” in their sport.
The next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10.
