Berlin Township joins UDC

Will Manchester follow?

By TOM KANE

BEACH LAKE, PA - “It’s 20 years overdue” was the reaction of Paul Henry, chairman of the Berlin Township Board of Supervisors, when the vote to join the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) was finally passed last week. It was unanimous.

The UDC is an oversight body of representatives from towns along both sides of the river with the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of the River Management Plan, whose aim is to protect and preserve the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a federal designation established 30 years ago.

The meeting was the second time the council heard arguments from Bill Douglass, UDC executive director, and George Fluhr, the Shohola Township UDC representative, who served for 31 years on the Shohola Township Board, filling six consecutive six-year terms as supervisor. Fluhr was the chairman of the UDC in the stormy days when the arrival of the National Park Service in the river valley was strongly opposed by many residents.

“Some folks missed the first meeting when we discussed joining, so we scheduled a second time to listen to the reasons to join,” Henry said.

One of the main arguments against joining was expressed by a local resident who claimed it would be another level of government in the township if it joined, Henry said.

“Douglass and Fluhr proved to the satisfaction of the other two supervisors and most of the people that it was not another level of government but was a group of towns getting together to talk things over and make plans,” Henry said.

Another objection came from a man who mistook the UDC for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), Henry said. “He thought the DRBC was against drilling for gas and confused that group with the UDC,” Henry said. “When people heard just exactly what the UDC was and what it did, they accepted it.”

The DRBC is not against gas drilling, Henry told the man, but is charged to regulate how water is taken out of rivers and streams in the whole of the Delaware watershed.

Douglass and Fluhr have been invited to talk at the next monthly meeting of Manchester Township on December 15 at 7:00 p.m., according to Steve Macey, chairman of Manchester Township Board.

“We always consider things,” Macey said. “We will listen to them and discuss it further if the board wishes.”

There has been no such invitation from Buckingham Township, the other Pennsylvania township that has not joined, Douglass said.

While Pennsylvania townships in the Upper Delaware historically had qualms about joining, that was not the case for towns in New York. Every New York town along the river joined the organization when it was first established, as did the Pennsylvania townships of Lackawaxen, Shohola and Westfall.