Jefferson Township supervisors Lois Rankin and John Cypher interact during a township meeting on Monday, Sept. 4. William Pitts/Butler Eagle
JEFFERSON TWP — A routine discussion over an intergovernmental agreement between Jefferson Township and Saxonburg escalated into a shouting match between township supervisors at a meeting Monday night, Sept. 9.
During the meeting, Supervisor John Cypher reported on concerns one Butler County resident brought up at last month’s township meeting regarding road safety matters on Constitution Avenue. During public comment at the Aug. 12 meeting, the resident mentioned a problem that had developed with construction workers parking their vehicles on the roadway, among other issues.
The road is shared by Jefferson Township and Saxonburg. This led township supervisors to look into their intergovernmental cooperation agreement with Saxonburg, which was first signed in 1991.
The citizen who spoke at the August meeting is a resident of Saxonburg, not Jefferson Township. This led to some debate at the time, as under the rules, only residents of Jefferson Township are allowed to comment at township meetings. However, according to the draft minutes from the August meeting, Cypher agreed to take the matter into consideration, as it does affect the township in some way.
“If you go in and get one of our sign-in papers, it says that only people from our township or a property owner can speak in our meetings,” said Supervisor Lois Rankin. “(John Cypher) answered questions from someone that lived in Saxonburg.”
Cypher also mentioned a line that states that Saxonburg would agree to “furnish occasional police enforcement and traffic control on boundary line roads” between the two municipalities if possible, which includes Constitution Avenue.
In the middle of the discussion Monday night, Rankin brought up her suggestion that the township could potentially change the wording on its sign-up sheets so that nonresidents could speak on township matters.
This eventually led to a shouting match between Cypher and Rankin, as each one tried to make themselves heard over the other. It culminated in a heated exchange in which Rankin accused Cypher of attempting to strike her in the face with a piece of paper.
“He threw a paper at me,” Rankin said after the meeting. “I moved and it didn’t touch me.”
Eventually, tensions eased, and all three supervisors were able to proceed with the remainder of the meeting without incident. The discussions resulted in all three supervisors voting on a motion to put items on each other’s upcoming agendas to discuss maintaining the intergovernmental agreement with Saxonburg.
Cypher declined to speak to the Butler Eagle after the meeting.
Note: this story has been updated to reflect the fact that, according to Rankin, Cypher only attempted to throw a piece of paper at her but did not make contact.
