West Penn Township will spend $10,500 for a traffic and engineering study on four roads, and if warranted, will post the roads with weight restrictions in anticipation of a water extraction business coming to the township.

Trucks which exceed the posted limits must post a bond to travel the roads; overweight trucks which haven't posted a bond would be fined.The township supervisors took the action during their meeting Monday, directing Jeff DeAngelo of Alfred Benesch & Company, the township's engineering firm, to conduct the study on Blue Mountain Drive and Kepner's, Retreat and Dorset roads in the township.Benesch estimates that field work, which would involve taking core samples of the roads to determine their condition, would cost $4,500.Traffic counting and developing a plan based on the field work adds $6,000 to the bill.The action comes in anticipation of a water extraction business planned for a property located on the corner of Fort Franklin and Blue Mountain roads.A water extraction company called MC Resource Development Co. currently operates in neighboring East Brunswick Township, and some tanker trucks from that operation use West Penn Township roads.Jay Land manages MC Resource Development Co., and he also would manage another water extraction venture at 1 Fort Franklin Road, called Ringgold Acquisition Group II LLC.For several months, residents have been attending township meetings to voice their opposition to the project, and they also held their own organizational meeting earlier this month. Although they supported the supervisors' action to approve the engineering work as a precursor to posting the roads, they disagreed on who should pick up the tab."Why is the township doing the road study?" asked Ted Luhowy, who lives on Fort Franklin Road. "We're undertaking the expense, to benefit a private individual."Chairman Jim Akins disagreed."We're doing this for the benefit of West Penn Township," he said. "I don't see it as a benefit for any developer."Supervisor Ted Bogosh said that the study will give the township valuable information."Our roads are deteriorating, and this study will limit vehicle traffic to the weight limit that the roads are capable of sustaining," Bogosh said. "It (posting, and requiring bonding) will allow the township to recoup money to pay for damages to the roads."Later in the meeting, as they reviewed correspondence, the supervisors accepted a $6,000 donation from MC Resource Development Co., to be used for road improvement.The supervisors also viewed a draft of an ordinance, prepared by solicitor Gretchen Stearns, which would spell out guidelines to regulate water extraction.The ordinance has the same language contained in the ordinance called Eastern Schuylkill Regional Planning, which includes Walker, Rush and Schuylkill townships, and Tamaqua. West Penn was a part of the original group, but opted out.The draft prepared by Stearns would have changed the required lot size for water extraction, as described in the ESRP ordinance, from 100 acres to 25 acres. After some discussion, the supervisors decided to stay with the 100-acre requirement.The draft of the new ordinance for water extraction will be reviewed by the planning commission for comment, then returned to the supervisors for vote.Land, who attended the meeting, asked the supervisors to table the engineering study for 30 days. Land said that other trucks, such as farm vehicles or other haulers, could be negatively affected by posted roads.Dennis Resch, who lives on Blue Mountain Road, said he didn't think the main issue should be the condition of the road."Why use Blue Mountain Drive as a main thoroughfare?" he asked. "Forget about what the road can handle or not it's not good for heavy truck traffic, and public safety is what we should be talking about."Akins said he agreed."It's gut check time," he said. "How much do we want to do to stop it?"