SAINT CLAIR - The borough council cleared the way Tuesday night for the Saint Clair Area School District land development plan to proceed.
Borough engineer Brian Baldwin said the planning commission unanimously passed a motion to recommend the borough council grant conditional final plan approval, which it did with a unanimous vote.
"There are some things they need to clean up before we actually sign the plan, but that doesn't prevent you from granting them the conditional final plan approval tonight," Baldwin said.
The proposed project will add six classrooms, two special education rooms, a music room, a large instruction room and complete renovation to its elementary/middle school, a play yard on the building's roof and 23 more on-site parking spaces, including spaces for the handicapped, which the district currently doesn't have.
"I just wanted to thank the council and all the committees involved on behalf of the district for really helping us with the project and our transition," Superintendent Kendy Hinkel said during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Solicitor Edward Brennan said Baldwin went through the plan "point by point" with the school district's engineer to make sure everything matched up, also ensuring that all of the storm drains that come back into the borough property are covered.
In other business, Brennan said he received a letter from the lawyer representing Verizon that stated the company got a zoning variance from the borough zoning board and wants to construct a cell phone tower in the borough, but wants to use power from PPL.
The tower is planned for a hill overlooking the borough, which is still borough property.
"I dictated a letter saying 'no,' " Brennan said Tuesday, during the meeting in reference to using PPL power.
On Wednesday he said that since the borough supplies its own electricity, Verizon must use power supplied from the borough.
Saint Clair belongs to a consortium, along with Schuylkill Haven and other municipalities outside the county, that buy electricity in bulk and resell it to their residents who can not choose their electricity provider.
With Verizon close to beginning the project, since they already have a zoning variance, Brennan said next the company will need to get a building permit.
