Juniata Terrace shares disappointment with council over MABL
Municipality’s letter published in full
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JUNIATA TERRACE -- Juniata Terrace Borough Council has composed a letter, which it sent to both Lewistown Borough Council and the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Lewistown. A copy of the letter was sent to The Sentinel for publication.
The full text of the letter, dated Feb 10, appears below in italics.
The Borough of Juniata Terrace is reaching out to state our disappointment from the recent actions that have taken place on behalf of the Lewistown Borough Council and the Water Authority (MABL). It was our impression that a Memorandum of Understanding had been brokered to transfer the assets of MABL to create the Mifflin County Water Authority, which by doing so would have benefitted each of our municipalities that offer the services of the Water Authority to our residents. We were understanding of the profit that Lewistown Borough would gain from this agreement, and showed full support of this plan due to it being an essential resource, while also allowing stakeholders to be represented by each municipality, including Borough of Juniata Terrace.
After reviewing the actions taken by LBC, we have discovered that all community representation on the MABL board have been silenced and or replaced by members appointed by LBC without consulting the other stakeholders. We feel that this decision was unfairly made due to the fact that these individuals either live in or work for the Borough of Lewistown. It has been brought to our attention as well, that there are members of this board who do not use the resource that they are to be representing. With that being stated we ask, how can they have the best interest of any customers of MABL when they are not using this resource? The assets of MABL's were created by all the ratepayers, only 32% being actual Lewistown Borough residents. The other 68% is created by the rest of the Municipalities in Mifflin County. We do not feel that assets are to be used as a funding source for anything other than the water authority, with the best interest of all rate payers in mind.
We are a very small community, and we do depend on our neighboring communities for assistance on some matters, as we do not have our own Police force, Fire Company or EMS. We are very thankful for the support we get from PSP (Pennsylvania State Police), Junction Fire Company, as well as Fame EMS. However, we feel our residents still deserve fair representation during any decision being made in regards to MABL.
As members of the Board of MABL, we kindly remind you that it is a community asset for Mifflin County, not just an asset of Lewistown Borough. It is our hope that the LBC and MABL will be open to dialogue with the Borough of Juniata Terrace and the other affected municipalities to return to the path of creating a Mifflin County Water Authority for all of us who live in this county. We are stronger as a whole than we are divided. All of our residences who are customers of MABL deserve the best resources we can provide them. We thank you for your attention on this matter.
Sincerely,
Juniata Terrace Borough Council
Eric Rhodes, President
Fred McMillin, Vice President
David Bolger, Councilman
Nancy Youtzy, Councilwoman
Mandy Hartzler, Councilwoman
John Wagner, Mayor