Board of Supervisors Talk Rough Roads

According to Lower Southampton Board of Supervisors Chairman John McMenamin, the township has a limited amount of funds for street paving.

“We’re going to try to repair or pave the worst roadways,” McMenamin said Wednesday.

During the board’s April 27 workshop session, Charles Bosco, director of public works, presented the board with a color-coded map of roads that need to be paved.

The map showed roads that should have been paved in 2008 and 2009 that have not yet been paved. According to Bosco, these roads haven’t been paved because the “paving can only go as far as funding will allow.”

In the Oakford section, Phillips Place, Wood Road and Marshal Avenue were supposed to be paved in 2008, but haven’t. However, Bosco told the board not to paved these roads year because the area has a “major drainage problem” that needs to be addressed first. He said that there needs to be capital project set aside for drainage in this area before paving takes place.

Currently, Bosco said that there is $200,000 to pave roads with. Instead of the public works department paving, he suggested that the township bid the entire project out. Other townships have been doing the same thing and are “getting roads paved fairly reasonably,” Bosco said.

Though there are many roads in the township that need to be paved, Bosco told the board his first choice road to be paved is Pennsylvania Avenue.

His reasoning was that Pennsylvania Avenue is a “major thruway” for businesses and the project would utilize the whole $200,000. However, Bosco said that was just his recommendation and that it is up to the board which roads get paved.

“I think we need to take care of the residents first rather than the businesses,” McMenamin said. He added that he would like to see roads done that are the worst.

In order to chose the roads to be paved, the board will be going out as a group to look at the roads as well as the pump stations.

McMenamin announced this road tour at Wednesday’s board meeting and said that a date will be chosen and announced to the public at the next meeting. He also said that the public is welcome to join them on the tour.