Milford doesn't need ordinance to fix other people's problems

MILFORD — Don Quick is a home-rule kind of guy who believes in taking care of his own business. Given his beliefs, the Milford Township Supervisors’ chair said he was skeptical after attending a workshop about a new model stormwater ordinance that several county planners are preparing. “What it will result in is a county-wide ordinance that we’ll be forced to reproduce locally,” he told his fellow supervisors Monday. Quick said the decision was similar to the state’s past handling of septic issues. “It’s the same sort of thing that happened 25 years ago when the (Department of Environmental Protection) decided turkey mound (septic systems) were ideal for every township in the state.” That decision did not reflect local needs and was “forced down our throat,” he said. The stormwater ordinance is being based on surveys of flooding problems around Pike County. Township Secretary-Treasurer Viola Canouse said Milford received a request to complete a survey of its flooding problems, but “we didn’t have any,” she recalled. The ordinance is being developed based on the Bushkill Creek and Lackawaxen River. Quick says these two intercounty watersheds are not representative of stormwater problems in much of the county. “It should have been based on the impacts of one- and two-acre home development like problems already existing on the Raymondskill, so you can predict what might happen on the Dwarfkill,” he said. “How do lead and mercury pollution in the Bushkill and Lackawaxen relate to us? Salt runoff — that’s the problem in Pike County,” he said. Quick promised a more in-depth report at the board’s April 7 meeting. In other business, the supervisors discussed but made no decision on Roadmaster Gary Williams’ proposal for summer paving on Independence Drive and the Old Milford Road. Given the increase in oil prices, they questioned whether both projects could completed with budgeted funds. In a related note Canouse said that she received a $2,400 estimate for sealing the pavement on the township building parking lot. That job was quoted at $1,275 in 2006, she said. “It doesn’t matter,” Quick said of the paving, “By summer nobody will be able to afford to drive.”