UPPER MT. BETHEL TWP., Pa. — Upper Mount Bethel Township Board of Supervisors on Monday stepped toward a protracted legal fight to disband the township Municipal Authority.
In a 5-0 vote, the board instructed one of its solicitors to “take any action necessary in dissolving the authority.”
Supervisors also made non-binding plans to explore alternatives to a municipal authority in a future study, likely to cost $5,000 to $10,000 and take about two months.
“They're asking us to take certain actions, and if the board chooses not to take those actions, then we haven't dissolved.”Gary Asteak, Upper Mt. Bethel Twp. Municipal Authority Solicitor
In March, township supervisors adopted resolution 2024-07, their second directing the authority to sell its assets and dissolve itself.
Last week, the authority voted unanimously to ignore it.
“They haven't killed us," municipal authority solicitor Gary Asteak said. "They haven't terminated us, and we do not deem resolution number 2024-07 as having any legal significance other than a mere request that we simply commit suicide.
“They're asking us to take certain actions, and if the board chooses not to take those actions, then we haven't dissolved.”
Additionally weakening the resolution, he said, is a state statute cited in it doesn't exist.
A system needed for River Pointe
Upper Mount Bethel’s municipal authority was established last September to operate a water and sewer system needed to serve River Pointe, aplanned 800-acre industrial park to include more than 5.8 million square feet of large-scale buildings.
The township currently has no municipal water and sewer infrastructure; residents use on-lot septic systems and wells.
To meet the new demand River Pointe eventually would generate, developers agreed to build a new wastewater treatment plant and freshwater well system at their expense.
Any excess treatment capacity would be available to connected township residents.
At first, developers project the industrial park will use about 85% of the system’s treatment capacity and all 101,000 gallons of water available per day.
To offer water lines to township residents, the authority would have to build wells of its own.
Once it is built and put into use, the infrastructure becomes the municipal authority’s property and financial responsibility.
River Pointe would cover an expected funding shortfall in the system’s first years of operation.
