SAINT CLAIR - An upcoming date in the litigation over the Blythe Recycling and Demolition Site landfill was announced Tuesday night during April's borough council meeting.
Borough engineer Brian Baldwin of Alfred Benesch & Co., Pottsville, said that the hearing before the state Environmental Hearing Board is scheduled for Sept. 4 and there will be pre-hearing requirements as well.
His report also said that the engineering firm is continuing to work with the borough council's special environmental consultant team to appeal the state Department of Environmental Protection issuing a permit July 13, 2012, to allow Blythe Township to construct and operate the municipal waste facility on 252 acres along Burma Road.
The proposed site is 2,400 feet from Wolf Creek Reservoir, the drinking water source for Pottsville, Mechanicsville, Palo Alto, Port Carbon, Saint Clair and parts of Blythe, East Norwegian, New Castle and Norwegian townships.
The landfill proposed will only accept construction and demolition waste and have a 1,500-ton daily volume.
Since their work involves active litigation, detailed discussions were asked to be reserved for executive session.
At the March meeting, Baldwin's report gave hearing-related activities that stated the borough's expert reports were served to the township either on or before March 11, the expert reports from the township were going to be served to the borough by March 25 and any dispositive motions, meaning either party disposing of any claims, will be filed by April 24.
In other business, while the borough council approved a motion Tuesday night to divide the Aspen Dental land development project at Coal Creek Commerce Center into two phases, it also agreed to pass a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act or LERTA ordinance for the property that gives more incentive for the developer to develop the land.
The first phase of the project includes the development of the land for Aspen Dental at Coal Creek Commerce Center, 400 Terry Rich Blvd., with access to and from the property at Sherman Street in the borough, while the second phase will be the reconstruction of the old railroad bridge that connects the property with Terry Rich Boulevard.
The project was split into two projects because the borough and Coal Creek couldn't come to an agreement about the old railroad bridge, which the borough wanted plans for its reconstruction before the project could start and the commerce center didn't think it needed to submit plans and wanted conditional approval for the rest of the project and said the bridge would meet state Department of Transportation standards.
Borough solicitor Edward Brennan said Tuesday night that plans were needed before any construction could begin so they should just do it now, while the commerce center said they had already spent a substantial amount of money, so if they did get these plans, they had no guarantee the borough would approve it after.
Coal Creek can now start the construction of the building and will be able to do the bridge project separately, hiring a contractor to design the bridge.
Baldwin said that as required by PennDOT, the bridge should have some sort of access for pedestrians, this would be accomplished by making the platform bigger, even if it's not legal for them to cross. In the current plan, there is no access for pedestrians, only 26 feet for two lanes for automobiles.
Aspen Dental, has more than 340 practices in 22 states and offers patients a full range of dental and denture services, plans to come into Schuylkill County by the end of the year with a dental practice at Coal Creek Commerce Center and the proposed area to be developed is to the right of Terry Rich Boulevard when coming from Route 61.
According to the state General Assembly website, a LERTA authorizes local taxing authorities to provide for tax exemption for certain deteriorated industrial, commercial and other business property and for new construction in deteriorated areas of economically depressed communities.
Brennan said that the borough would fashion an ordinance that the tax rates would be gradually phased in.
He gave an example that if the property is originally worth $1,000 because it's barren land and Coal Creek spends the money to build on the property then it's assessed at $1 million, their new tax bill would be phased in.
The tax bill could be 10 percent the first year, 20 percent the second year and would go up to 100 percent at some point.