By Amanda Ensinger
Staff Writer
As a local township looks for creative ways to expand its office, one solution has stood above the rest.
At a recent Franklin Township meeting, the board approved moving forward with purchasing a modular building for the police department. Currently, the entire township staff is being housed in Township Hall, 2193 Frank Road, which is causing space constraints.
Previously, select township staff were operating out of the additional township property at 963 Harrisburg Pike. However, due to mold issues all staff had to immediately evacuate the premise.
According to Franklin Township Road Superintendent Jim Stevens the mold issue in the house on Harrisburg Pike is due to water coming into the basement.
In an effort to fix these space constraints, the trustees agreed to spend up to $30,000 on a modular property for the police department. This will include the price of the trailer, delivery and any improvements needed on the trailer.
“This modular is in great shape and is about 20-foot-wide and 64-foot-long, which will be plenty of space for us,” said Lt. David Ratliff of the Franklin Township Police Department. “We need to do a few small things to it, but overall it is in really good shape.”
The township plans to lay rocks for a base or foundation for the modular trailer and then build steps and potentially a ramp to make it handicap accessible.
“We purchased the property next door to build our new salt barn and we can put this modular there as well,” said John Fleshman, township trustee. “If we end up building a new building for the police department in the future, we can sell this modular.”
The township plans to hook up water, sewer, electric and internet to the modular to make it a freestanding office building. They also plan to build walls within the modular to create offices for staff.
In other news, the board discussed a new procedure they will be following for speakers at meetings. At the meetings, residents will now have to fill out a special card and identify the topic they would like to discuss.
“We will now have a speaker card and if you have a special topic you want to address you need to fill out this card,” Fleshman said. “If you don’t have a special topic, you can speak at the end of meeting when we take questions from the audience.”
Previously, residents just had to sign up to speak at the end of the meeting, however leadership hope this new process will make the meeting move more smoothly and efficiently.
The trustees also gave an update on the new logo for the township.
The board agreed to allow people to submit logos for the next month or so and then if no logos resonate they will pursue working with a graphic designer to create the logo.
“We have been talking about this for a year, so we need to get something created,” Fleshman said. “We need to have a logo created before the I-270 Interchange project is complete so we can have our logo on the sign for the township, so we need to move on this sooner than later.”
