The Bradford Township Supervisors approved a resolution
approving the purchase of the second of two large garbage trucks
delivered to the township May 17, during a special meeting
Tuesday.

It was announced at the last regular meeting Aug. 21 that
residents would continue to foot the bill for interest on the truck
until it was paid for at 11.25 percent or about $2,300 a month.

Supervisor Don Cummins said Tuesday while he had reservations
about the events leading up to the purchase of the truck, present
circumstances could not be ignored, and the township’s priority
should be eliminating the high interest charges currently facing
its residents the longer the bill for the truck goes unpaid.

He went on to say that through negotiations with A&H
Equipment, who sold the township the two large packers, the
township was able to reduce the amount of interest owed from about
$6,600 to a little more than $2,800. In addition to the interest,
the balance to be paid on the second large truck, after trade-in
was taken into consideration, was $117,747, he said.

Although Vickery made a motion during the Aug. 21 meeting to pay
for the second large truck out right, instead of leasing it as was
reportedly originally agreed to by Vickery and former supervisor
Cary Frigo, Vickery voted against the resolution to buy the truck
on Tuesday.

Both Cummins and Supervisor Steve Mascho voted in favor of the
measure; the resolution was approved.

Vickery said after the resolution was approved that he voted
against it because he only found out about Tuesday’s special
meeting on Friday, after the legal advertisement for the meeting
had already been sent to local media for publication on Saturday.
Vickery detailed his version of a telephone conversation he said
took place between himself and Cummins that Friday, during which
Vickery said he asked about the meeting and whether Cummins was
interested in sharing information about the garbage truck
issue.

He implied Cummins was rude and unreceptive and told him to
“just go to the meeting.”

Vickery also took issue with several points outlined by Cummins
in a personal statement at the end of the resolution. He addressed
some of the statement, saying among other things that a copy of the
resolution -ðwhich never came to fruition since he and Mascho
deadlocked on the issue in August -ðwould have been delivered to
PACC only after a purchase took place, not before.

He went on to say that Bradford Township Secretary Annette
Auteri attended a conference on township governments recently,
where she had “picked up a few legal tid-bits,” and started a “ball
game” over the garbage truck issue because it was her opinion that
the purchase of the two large trucks was illegal or improper.
Regarding ethics in the situation, Vickery said that if there was
“fault found, it would not be with me.”

Mascho defended Auteri, saying “You can’t blame Annette.”

Era reports indicate the conference Vickery referred to probably
happened some time prior to the May 15 meeting, as Frigo talked
about attending the same conference at that meeting. Era reports
also say Vickery and Mascho publicly faced off about the garbage
truck issue during the March meeting, however, and have disputed it
since that time at nearly every regular or special meeting.

The meeting deteriorated shortly after that point, with Cummins
calling Vickery’s remarks “inflammatory,” and Vickery shooting back
a remark about “the Cummins fiasco at the last (special)
meeting.”

Vickery pointed at Mascho and yelled “You sit there and shut
your mouth,” and then turned to Cummins to ask heatedly, “Do you
know what your problem is?”

Cummins abruptly adjourned the meeting, and some township
residents sat for minutes after, seemingly wondering what had just
happened.

As the officials stood from the table, more heated words were
exchanged, with Vickery shouting at Cummins, “You’re a big mouth
piece of sh-.”

“We’re not going to have this anymore,” Cummins said as he left
the table.

“That’s not how you conduct a meeting,” Mascho added.