Collegeville Council Votes to Dissolve Public Works

Collegeville Borough Council voted unanimously last night to dissolve the Collegeville-Trappe Joint Public Works (CTJPW) and transfer the assets into the Collegeville-Trappe Municipaly Authority (CTMA), which will run water, sewer and public works for the boroughs of Collegeville and Trappe.

The vote occurred one day after , on the same resolution.

Currently, CTJPW controls the water and the public works for the boroughs, and the CTMA controls the sewer system.

“There were a bunch of questions last night [at the Trappe Meeting],” said Collegeville Borough Council President Terrie Stagliano.  “I thought that last October, the questions that were brought up by Trappe were addressed – ”

Stagliano said that most joint committees have been creating legislation to move to authorities, and that is in the best interest of ratepayers in Collegeville and Trappe.

“It keeps politics – which is exactly what is going on right now – out of the decision making,” Trappe said.

Councilman Arnold Mann said that the committee structure makes it very difficult to get things accomplished.

“Every time you want to do something, it takes three of four months instead of one,” Mann said.  “The committee has to agree on it, you have to recommend it to the boroughs, the boroughs have to vote on it, then it has to come back, if they don’t quite agree, you have to do it again.”

Trappe Borough is currently run by a seven-member board that is split nearly down the middle, making many decisions of the board acrimonious.

“If it doesn’t happen now, CTMA and public works will be in a deadlock for the next four years and Trappe will continuously want to disband CTMA to get their hands on the money,” said Councilman Rowan Keenan.

At Tuesday’s Trappe meeting, the board failed to vote on the resolution after solicitor David Onorato said they were putting “the cart before the horse,” deciding to disband public works before the terms and negotiations were ironed out between the two boroughs and with CTMA.

Trappe requested a joint meeting with Collegeville, Trappe, and the CTMA.