The Bradford Township Supervisors approved a resolution Monday
to advertise for bids on the demolition of the Langner
property.

The township has been dealing with problems with the property,
located at 43 Sullivan Road and owned by Lucille and Karl J.
Langner. The supervisors approved bidding out the project during
November’s meeting after a presentation on the condition of the
property in which various township officials labeled it as
“dangerous.”

Township officials decided that township crews were going to
demolish the property themselves during the October meeting, but
after visiting the property they discovered it was too dangerous
and would take months to clean-up, keeping the crews from tending
to their duties throughout the township.

The township will pay for the demolition work up front, but will
recover the money spent from the Langners, Supervisor Don Cummins
explained.

The government will have to pay first, but may end up owning the
property, township solicitor Greg Henry said.

The township crews had their work cut out for them over the past
week, and Cummins made sure to thank them during the meeting.

“They did a great job,” he said.

The road crew finally received the second plow truck last week,
Cummins said.

“It came at the right time,” Supervisor Steve Mascho said, as
the truck got some use during the two storms.

A mechanic will be coming in this week to check over the truck,
Cummins explained, as the crews are still working the quarks out of
the new equipment.

One road the new truck won’t be seen on in the township is
Pennbrook Lane, the road running through the Vickery
subdivision.

The six property owners on Pennbrook Lane submitted a joint
letter to the township, asking the township to intervene with the
owner of the road, Tom Vickery.

Three of the owners were present at the meeting, hoping to push
the township into action to get their road taken care of like they
were told it would be when they purchased their houses in the
subdivision.

Cummins read the letter, which pointed out the road was to be
brought up to county codes, paved and then turned over to the
township. The letter cited negligence in upkeep and construction of
the road over the past 14 years.

The letter also pointed out that a garbage truck had previously
gotten stuck on the road during the winter, as no one is currently
maintaining the road, and the residents are concerned that fire or
emergency medical service vehicles would not be able to make it to
their destination.

Cummins explained that he had gone out there with a group of
officials, and the road was in “deplorable” condition.

“That’s terrible to have these kind of conditions with the homes
out there,” Mascho added.

One of the contingencies on the approval of the plat in the
township’s file was that “an asphalt road will be constructed to
township specifications,” Cummins read. A plat is a map of a
subdivision that has the contingencies listed on it.

The road is currently nothing but mud, with no drainage or
maintenance of any kind, he explained.

Henry said he would have to look at the file, which is roughly
four inches thick, and become familiar with the minutes from the
planning meetings as well as the conditions of the plat. He also
said that the copy of the plat would have to be compared to the one
on file with the county to make sure it was accurate.

Henry said the decisions were up to the supervisors rather than
the planning commission and there were multiple remedies to the
situation.

“The tools are available to do the job. We just need to become
familiar with the history of the case,” Henry said.

The residents asked if the township would be able to at least
plow the road for now, but the supervisors decided against the
request because the road is private property and, with its current
condition, it would damage the plow.

Cummins did sympathize with the residents and said the township
“will work to expedite the process.”

The supervisors will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. Dec. 27 to
consider accepting the proposed 2008 budget. The township’s
re-organizational meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7 and will
take the place of the January supervisors meeting.