Too much water or too little at sewage plant
Lake Adventure provides a new engineering report DINGMAN Lake Adventure Recreational Park handed Dingman Township Supervisors a new engineer’s report about the park at the start of the regular meeting on Tuesday Sep 7. While a ruling on ordinances issues troubling Lake Adventure property owners may have been forthcoming, the new report again tabled the issue until Sept. 21. “We need to have our engineer review this,” said Supervisors Chair Thomas Mincer. Township Solicitor John Klemeyer agreed. Later in the meeting the town Sewage and Zoning Enforcement Officer Chris Wood commented on the current Lake Adventure sewage treatment monitoring report, and concluded that problem areas remained. After the month of July, a drought month, he “noticed that on several days, the amount of sewage delivered to the plant was less than the DEP estimate for the population. All year, the sewage delivered has been far greater than the estimate. This could be further evidence of pipe breaks and other leakage in the system.” There have been disagreements between the township and Lake Adventure over sewage treatment and plant upgrades that the town said were not authorized. Bridges are a problem Bridge repairs in the county are an ongoing concern and the Log Tavern Road bridge project again came under scrutiny. “With winter approaching, we need more material at the west approach to the bridge,” said Mincer, who uses the bridge six days a week. “There’s a steep hill down, and now there are traffic lights suddenly at the bottom. We’re going to have problems with snow when you hit the brakes,” he added. The construction crews have been alerted about the issue. Shale gas not a problem Donald Minasian of Dwarfskill Court had come to the meeting after attending an information meeting about the gas drilling in Marcellus Shale bordering on Dingman Township. “Are there any known gas drilling leases in Dingman?” he asked. “To my knowledge, no,” said Mincer, continuing, “Nothing whatsoever here. We’re not in the zone, and we’re prohibited from dealing with it at this level.” “What about horizontal drilling where they can go under your property horizontally?” insisted Minasian, but Mincer insisted that Dingman was not in the Marcellus Shale Zone. Minasian said he was very concerned over the possible effects of drilling in the nearby Lackawaxen tributary to the Delaware River, adding, “I live here because it’s so beautiful. This is right on our borders, and the effects will be felt even here if there are problems from the drilling affecting water and other environment.” In other business, the National Park Service got praise over their quick response to the letter requesting “no parking” signs at the old entrance to Hackers Falls in Cliff Park off Route 2001. Vice chairman, Dennis Brink asked the Fire Chief Bill Mikulak about the possibility of large fires in the township after seeing TV coverage from other areas - and if they needed help with it. “We’re ok,” replied Mikulak. “It’s nice to see the next generation of firemen coming through,” commented Brink, after Mikulak’s report on a recent Fire Department Day, when 300 people turned out, including several young possible new recruits.