Dingman weighs open space grant and donation

DINGMAN — Supervisors' Chair Tom Mincer said Tuesday that he had unofficial confirmation regarding a Pennsylvania $506,000 Gaming Funds Grant which is going to be awarded to Dingman Township. The grant money will be for completion of the new town park on Log Tavern Road.

Mincer earnestly thanked Township Secretary Karen Kleist for her efforts in getting all the paperwork completed in a timely fashion as required by Gaming Funds Grant Commission. He also thanked the area's state legislators for their help.

So far the township has received almost $1,000,000 in grant money from the state, Mincer said. "This will move the park forward at a quicker pace. We'll be able to complete the concession stand and bathrooms as well as finish up some other projects which have been facing a need for funding."

Bridge Preserve He also reported an executive session, meeting held before the regular meeting. It included the township supervisors, township Solicitor, John Klemeyer, and bank officials, regarding property and money left to the township by the late Charlie Bridge for the Bridge Preserve Project. Bridge left a large parcel of land and almost $800,000 for a land development project and park with hiking trails. The project will not cost the taxpayers any money.

Other business Sean Strub, the Milford owner of the recently closed Muir House Restaurant, sent a letter of intent informing the supervisors he intends to turn the Muir House into an apartment rental complex.

Township Code Enforcement Officer Chris Wood said it had been an apartment house in the past but since then ordinances have changed and Wood didn't feel it was feasible with current ordinance restrictions especially regarding "open space" requirements.

Kyle Wright of Pike County Advanced Life Support (Pike ALS) gave his year end report and stated Pike ALS made 1780 responses in 2011. They replaced one ambulance which had 110,000 miles on it. Their medical technicians use over 37 different medications and over 11 different intravenous medications. They have been testing a new type of cardiac monitoring unit for six months and have decided to lease two of them on a five year basis. The cost of the two units would have been over $41,000. Wright said they intend to focus on fundraising for 2012. They started this two years ago with just two volunteers helping and now have over 30 volunteers participating in the project. Their response time from dispatch has been a monthly average of 40 seconds and to arrive at the emergency scene has been an average 13 minutes, 10 seconds.

—Jerry Goldberg