Update: Full text of Derry message
Derry adopts letter to local municipalites at regular meeting
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YEAGERTOWN -- At their meeting Monday evening, the Derry Township Board of Supervisors adopted a letter to be sent to Lewistown Borough Council regarding the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Lewistown, which services Derry Township residents.
The letter was shared with The Sentinel and the text in its entirety is included below.
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BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
DERRY TOWNSHIP
To: MABL and LBC
Date: Feb. 1, 2021
As elected members of the Board of Supervisors, we are charged to be the voice of the residents and businesses of Derry Township.
Derry Township is disappointed by the recent actions of the Lewistown Borough Council (LBC) in relation to the Water Authority (MABL). We were under the impression that a Memorandum of Understanding had been brokered to transfer the assets of MABL to a county water authority. Although we were not happy with the amount of money that Lewistown Borough was to profit from this agreement, we were willing to support this plan to allow this vital county-wide resource to be managed by a group that had the interests of all stakeholders represented including the approximately 25% that is contributed by Derry Township. Instead through the actions of LBC, allcommunity voices to the MABL board have been silenced and replaced by members appointed by LBC that either live in or work for the Borough of Lewistown. MABL's assets were built by all the ratepayers in the system of which approximately 68% are currently outside of the Borough of Lewistown. Framers of the original agreement to form MABL would not have intended their assets to be used as a funding source for anything other than the mission of the water authority. Any actions by the LBC to divert monies through leases or other mechanisms from MABL are nothing more than "de-facto taxes" imposed on all the MABL ratepayers for the profit of Lewistown Borough and will not be warmly received by the silenced majority who will receive no benefit.
As members of the Board of MABL, we believe that you have an obligation to be stewards of this vital community asset and act with the best interest of all stakeholders, not just the 32% (there or thereabouts) from Lewistown Borough. It is our hope that the LBC and MABL will be open to dialogue with Derry Township and the other affected municipalities to return to the path of creating a County Water Authority that represents all stakeholders.
Derry Township Board of Supervisors
Ronald Napikoski
Don Warntz
John Sipe