Greetings everyone! We hope that you all had an enjoyable and happy summer season!<\/p>\n
As we reflect on the summer season past, we are pleased with the pro\u00adgress made throughout the Township. PennDot completed their road sur\u00adface paving project on a portion of Route 50, the railroad bridge roadway, and on Cross Creek<\/p>\n
Road. They also began, and are currently reha\u00adbilitating and replacing the concrete composite decking on the bridge located near the Avella Motor and Body Com\u00adpany. Estimated comple\u00adtion of this project is No\u00advember 2016. The street curb and gutter replace\u00adment project in down\u00adtown Avella has also been completed. The In\u00addependence Township Public Works Depart\u00adment has had a very active and productive summer season ad\u00addressing upgrades, im\u00adprovements, and repairs to the Township’s roads. We are very pleased with all that our Public Works Department has accom\u00adplished this past sum\u00admer season, as well as their quality of work.<\/p>\n
Additionally, throughout the summer months, we dedicated our focus and efforts to\u00adward improving the In\u00addependence Township Community Center (Community Center). New rental rates and expanded hours were established for the Com\u00admunity Center and we encourage residents to take advantage in using the facility for hosting events. The Community Center was full of activ\u00adity throughout the sum\u00admer months hosting sports practices for vol\u00adleyball, basketball, and cheerleading, as well as hosting the Avella Area Public Library’s Summer Reading Program and a wedding reception. In July 2016 the termite treatment was com\u00adpleted and we approved the contracting of a structural engineer to prepare the structural design and construction specifications that will be needed for contrac\u00adtors to bid on the struc\u00adtural floor repair project at the Community Cen\u00adter. Additionally, in Au\u00adgust 2016, we approved the development of a Short Term Master Plan\u00a0by an architectural firm that specializes in recreation cen\u00adters and community centers. This Short Term Master Plan will consist of a Schematic De\u00adsign that will establish an overall conceptual design for the Community Center and will further provide the needed support documentation to be used by the Township to apply for grant monies for repairs, upgrades, and renovations at the Community Center. Re\u00adcently, we have applied for the Local Share Account (LSA) grant for the purpose of fund\u00ading renovations at the Com\u00admunity Center. We should know by the end of this year or by the beginning of 2017 if we have been awarded this grant. Furthermore, we are pleased to announce that the Intergovernmental Coopera\u00adtion agreement between Inde\u00adpendence Township and Hope\u00adwell Township to work to\u00adgether to administer, main\u00adtain, and operate the Commu\u00adnity Center for the collective benefit of our respective resi\u00addents has been approved and adopted. The Community Center is an asset that jointly we hope to develop into a fa\u00adcility that offers a wide range\u00a0of activities to better serve both Townships’ residents.<\/p>\n
During the past summer months we have also continued our focus on the development of the Independence Township Community Park (Community Park). At our August 2016 Town\u00adship monthly meeting bids were opened for the Phase I construc\u00adtion project of the Community Park. The bids were reviewed by the landscape architect of the Community Park, Pashek Associ\u00adates. After the review process, which included the evaluation of all bid values, Pashek Associates determined that the bids came in too high for the amount of work required, and recommended clarifications and minor changes to bid specifications and that the Township rebid for the Phase I construction of the Community Park. Therefore, based upon the above mentioned recommenda\u00adtion, there will be a delay in the beginning of Phase I construc\u00adtion. In our continued efforts to consistently acquire funding for the Community Park develop\u00adment, we have applied for a De\u00adpartment of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) grant and a Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program grant. We are currently waiting to hear if the Township has been awarded these grants.<\/p>\n
As we enter the final months of the 2016 year, we will con\u00adtinue our commitment to serve our residents to the best of our abilities\u2014to serve with dedica\u00adtion to improve the Township and to improve the quality of life of all residents.<\/p>\n
We hope that everyone takes time to enjoy the visual splendor of the autumn foliage, as well as the special events and festivals that are unique to the autumn season. Since this is the last quarterly newsletter of the 2016 year, we also at this time, extend to everyone our warmest wishes for a most joyous and blessed Thanksgiv\u00ading and Christmas holidays, and close this message with the fol\u00adlowing quote by philosophical essayist, novelist, poet, and artist, Khalil Gibran:<\/p>\n
Giving of Ourselves<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “You give but little when you give of your posses\u00adsions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Cordially yours,<\/p>\n Thomas Jennings, Chairman<\/p>\n Louis Brandenburg, Jr., Vice-Chairman<\/p>\n Joyce McKenzie<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greetings everyone! We hope that you all had an enjoyable and happy summer season! As we reflect on the summer season past, we are pleased with the pro\u00adgress made throughout the Township. PennDot completed their road sur\u00adface paving project on a portion of Route 50, the railroad bridge roadway, and on Cross Creek Road. They […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-message-from-the-supervisors"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bb78e1f1d0a12db72e4f4531328c9b26.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8LDPu-fv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/independence.patownship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}