Sewer, water authorities again topic at Adams meeting
ADAMS TWP — A packed room of upward of 80 residents attended a township meeting Monday to address the Adams Township board of supervisors and to express opposition to an ongoing evaluation and potential sale of the Municipal Water Authority of Adams Township and Breakneck Creek Regional Authority to Pennsylvania American Water Company.
Township supervisors in Adams and Mars, the two founding municipalities for the Breakneck authority, signed a confidentiality agreement earlier the year, the first paragraph of which refers to Penn American’s “interest in discussing the potential acquisition of the wastewater system assets of the Breakneck Creek Regional Authority by Pennsylvania American Water Company, using the Act 12 fair market value approach.”
Members of the Breakneck Creek Regional Authority and Municipal Water Authority of Adams Township boards were asked to sign the agreement, but some declined.
On Monday, more than a dozen residents — a number of whom had been alerted about the water and sewer authorities through a private Facebook group or through flyers and signs posted around the township — asked board members why they would consider selling the authorities, why the discussion was being held confidentially, when the supervisors’ elected terms would be up and when the confidentiality agreement would expire.
“I believe in openness and transparency, and I want to know what is going on,” said Mars resident Robert Koleno. “I trust the people I voted for will listen to my concerns and talk to me and my neighborhood about why you are making the decisions you are making. All of a sudden, I hear that you might sell the water authority and the sewer authority. It might be a great deal, but I have no clue what it’s all about. Why is there secrecy about it? That bothers me a whole lot.”
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