In a 31-minute meeting Wednesday, the Kennett Township Supervisors approved the 2025 budget, adopted three revised resolutions for KACS, and authorized a pump station project and the sale of public works equipment.
The supervisors unanimously approved the township’s 2025 budgets for the general, open space, sewer, liquid fuels, and capital funds. The general fund includes a 0.1 mill real estate tax increase, which is expected to raise about $82,500 and represent an average $22 per year increase to taxpayers. (A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.)
“The philosophy we’ve adopted is, as opposed to kicking the can down the road and having a great increase in three to four years, it’s better to have modest increases,” said supervisors’ Chairman Geoff Gamble.
“Alison [S. Dobbins, the township manager] and the team have been doing a masterful job of finding ways to save money and cut expenses so that we’re still doing quality work,” said Supervisor Pat Mueller.
Dobbins explained the tax increase as the responsible action for the board to take.
“The reality though is that many of our expenses are actually increasing greater than our revenue is growing,” she said at the meeting. “The team effort across the board of the township staff is really making sure what’s going into the budget is really necessary and continues to provide the high-quality services this community expects. The responsible thing to do is to make sure we’re thinking ahead.”
Township Finance Manager Amy Heinrich has been presenting the township’s financial forecast at five different meetings, gathering public and board input and breaking down where costs are higher and how revenue is expected to be next year.
Wednesday’s vote finalizes the budget. A copy can be found on the township website at kennett.pa.us.
Force main
The supervisors also unanimously approved awarding a bid to Barrasso Excavation Inc. for $217,844 to replace the sanitary sewer force main at the Rosedale Road pump station. That represents the company’s bid to replace the main, as well as a 10 percent contingency in case of overage, Kennett Public Works Director Theodore D. Otteni said.
He explained that a developer is rebuilding the Rosedale Road pump station as part of a neighboring development plan. The improvements would necessitate a larger force main coming out of the station.
“The Rosedale Road pump station has reached the end of its useful service and is also working at its maximum capacity,” he wrote in a briefing to the supervisors. “In conjunction with an adjacent development project, the pump station will be replaced. Due to the increased capacity of the new pump station, a larger force main is required.”
Ten companies submitted bids, ranging from Barrasso’s low bid of $198,040 to E2 Landscape & Construction’s high bid of $321,675.
Otteni estimated that work on the force main would start in March and finish by July.
KACS grants
The supervisors approved three amended resolutions that they first acted on in November, all relating to local share account grants that the township had applied for with Kennett Area Community Service.
The grants are for solar panels, a walk-in freezer, and tenant space for the new food distribution and resource center that KACS is building. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development offers the grants for projects of “public interest,” using money from gaming revenue, according to the DCED website (dced.pa.gov).
At the Nov. 20 supervisors’ meeting, Dobbins explained that Kennett Township would be the eligible organization for the grant applications, and KACS would be the beneficiary.
“There is no financial impact to the township,” Dobbins said at the time.
Equipment sale
The supervisors voted to allow Otteni to advertise three pieces of public works equipment for sale on Municibid, an online government auction. The items are a grader with a starting price of $700, six tires with a starting price of $725, and a Vermeer brush chipper with a starting price of $9,075.
Municibid auctions items from local governments and other agencies, according to its website (municibid.com).
Next meeting
The supervisors are next scheduled to meet on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. In January, the board will hold its annual reorganizational meeting.
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies.
She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field.
But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard.
Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
