September
4th at 7:30 p.m. Township
Supervisors
August
21 and 28 at 7:00 p.m. Benner
Township Planning Commission
September
16 at 6:30 p.m. Benner
Township Water Authority
Meetings will be held in the meeting room
at the Municipal Building (unless noted otherwise)
Click here to
view Spring 2008 Crossroads newsletter.
Tuesday,
July 15, 2008
2009
Gypsy Moth Program Application Opens
When you signed up for the newsletter, we promised that you would be
among the first to know when
Centre
County
begins taking requests for the 2009 Spray Program. The County
officially announced this morning that it has begun taking requests
from County residents who want to have their properties sprayed for
gypsy moths in 2009.
As
in 2008, we will be participating in the state program,
administering it at the County level. The anticipated homeowner
cost-share will be $21/acre, up from $17/acre in 2008, largely due
to the increase in the cost of fuel and the Bt pesticide.
County
residents may request spraying on their properties until
SEPTEMBER
15, 2008.
After that date, it will not be possible to sign up for
the spray program.
As
in previous years, the state program is a forested residential
program spraying a 500ft area around residences and cabins. It is
NOT a program to spray landowners’ forest stands. (Those
landowners should contact the PA Bureau of Forestry to find out
about the Forest Stewardship program or arrange such spraying
privately.)
The
DCNR has many rules on who qualifies for the state spray program. As
participants in the state program, we have to follow their rules.
Two fundamental rules are that there must be not less than 20 acres
of forest in the minimum-size 23 acre spray block (1,000ft x
1,000ft) and that at least 50% of the spray block area must be
occupied by tree canopies.
Additionally, there must be new
egg masses present (at least 250/acre). These are being laid now.
Inclusion
in the Spray Program
If you live in a rural area, you must
request participation in the spray program in
order to be considered for gypsy moth spraying. The situation is
somewhat different for residents in 'urban' areas that have denser
housing (such as Park Forest in Patton Township or Linnwood in Rush
Township). Some urban municipalities may request the County to
include their forested urban areas and will cover the homeowner
costs. Others will require homeowners to pay cost-shares but in such
cases, requests by around 10% of the homeowners in the area will
ensure that the whole area will be evaluated for spraying. If you
are a forested urban area resident and have a strong desire to be
sprayed next year, then please sign up, whether or not your
municipality has done that for you.
To
sign up, just click on 'Request Spraying in 2009' on the front page
of the Centre County Gypsy Moth web site and follow the
instructions. If you have several parcels which you would like
included in the spray program, you will get a chance to enter them
during the sign up process.
www.co.centre.pa.us/gypsymoth
Important!
Please
forward this email newsletter to all your neighbors, friends and
family who you think would wish to sign up for the spray program in
2009. A good idea would be to keep this newsletter available in your
email program so that when you come across somebody who you think
would benefit from the spray program, you'll be able to forward it
to them.
Karl
Mierzejewski
Centre
County
Gypsy Moth Coordinator
Spring
Creek Canyon Land Transfers
We've added a new section
to our web site, dedicated to the proposed land divestment of
Rockview Lands north of Interstate 99.
Benner Township Fall Festival
Mark your
calendars-Saturday-September 13th 9 to 4
The
Benner Township Fall Festival is scheduled for Saturday, September
13th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
at the Buffalo Run Community Park. Pumpkins will
be our theme again this year.
Our festival will include: best pumpkin recipe, most unusual
pumpkin, and the largest pumpkin with cash prizes to be awarded.
We will also have a pumpkin piling contest, pumpkin
decorating, and a pumpkin boat float.
The Festival will still have everyone’s favorite CRAFT,
RETAIL
and FOOD
VENDORS along with
children’s games and entertainment.
We
will have 95.3 3WZ do a live action broadcast at the Festival in the
morning and in the afternoon, come and listen to the Blue Grass
musicians Laura Orshaw & George Wood with Special Guest Cory
Kodish. Laura Orshaw, fiddle and singer, has been traveling the
Northeast festival and concert circuit for 7 years. Bluegrass
Unlimited magazine quoted: "Laura Orshaw has firmly established
herself as a significant emerging artist in the arena of traditional
American music." Her respect for the fiddle-banjo tradition in
America music compelled her to collaborate with George Wood, another
talented young musician with an appreciation of Bluegrass and Old
Time music. Wood is a self-taught musician that has been
playing music professionally for four years. His traditional
Scruggs-style banjo playing greatly augments the duo’s musical
style. This performance will feature special guest, Cory
Kodish. Kodish is one of the finest guitar flat pickers in the
area and his recent work with State College based Bluegrass band,
Sweetwater, has brought him to the forefront of the Pennsylvania
Bluegrass music scene. For more information about the group
please visit: www.lauraorshaw.com.
For a vendor
registration form click here.
Real Estate Taxes
Benner Township's real estate tax collector is
Janet Houser. Janet will have
office hours each Wednesday evening from 5 to 7 in her home.
Her address is 1101 Valley View Road, Bellefonte, PA
16823. The tax office phone number is (814) 355-2441
Earned Income Taxes
Need earned income
tax forms? You can download them at www.basd.net
Go to tax office and then forms. Pay careful attention to
whether you need Benner Township or Benner Independent forms.
The school district tax office acts as the tax collector for this
tax. Their office can be reached at 355-4814 extension
3014.
Occupational
Privilege Taxes
Benner Township's
Occupational Privilege tax remains at $10. (This
is the tax that most of the surrounding townships have raised to
$52.) Five of the ten dollars is retained by the Bellefonte Area
School District. The school district tax office acts as the tax
collector for this tax. Their office can be reached at
355-4814 extension 3014.
Looking for a unique gift?
There are still a number of the Benner Township History Books
available. This hard bound book titled:
Benner
Township 150 Years of Families, Forging, Farming, Fishing and Flying
is now available at the cost of $15.00. This book
is filled with pictures and lots of stories about the families that
settled here in Benner Township and the industries that
followed. Stop by the office during regular business hours or
call 355-1419 for a list of evening hours for your copy.
