HONESDALE, PA — Mt. Pleasant voters will not need to travel a mile down the road to a new polling place this fall. The decision came following a county election board hearing in the sparsely populated township last month and a new recommendation from the Wayne County Director of Elections Cindy Furman.

With Furman’s recommendation, the Wayne County Commissioners, again meeting as the board of elections on June 26 decided, rather than moving the township polls from the community center to a new township office, that with installation of a rubber ramp, the polls could be easily moved to another part of the building, into the community center gym.

Furman came to the commissioners in March, reporting that a new polling site was available and needed, since the existing Mt. Pleasant location in the community center was not handicapped accessible in accordance with federal law.

Wayne has four such non-compliant voting locations.

In April, Bill Woodward, who chairs the board of the community center, provided opposition to the proposed move. “I’ve heard a lot of public concerns. People don’t want it moved. I’ve gotten lots of phone calls,” Woodward then said.

The commissioners arranged a June 4 joint meeting with township supervisors at the community center.

Commissioner Wendell Kay, who chairs the election board, characterized that meeting as “fairly well attended,” and said, “everyone left with a greater understanding of the issues.”

Furman said the June meeting gave her a chance to look over the center, and discover its gymnasium, which with the installation of a rubber ramp at its entrance does meet accessibility standards. “I thought the move to the other room was the best solution,” she reported.

With her recommendation, the election board voted unanimously to retain the gym as the new polling place.

That problem solved, Furman noted Wayne still has three non-compliant voting sites, those being in Scott and Buckingham townships and at the Waymart Borough Hall.

In other business, the commissioners reappointed Doug Rickard to the county housing authority and Lawrence Caruth to the county redevelopment authority for five-year terms. They also approved a $29,000 re-occurring grant application for administrative and operations funding for hazardous materials responses; a letter of support for Preston Township’s $20,000 Growing Greener watershed protection grant for Equinunk Creek; a letter of support for Sterling Township’s state recreation and greenways grant for a 10-acre purchase of land to be developed for recreation; and a $440,000 program for emergency housing solutions, to be half state funded and half county funded.

With Smith abstaining, they approved a tax rebate of $88.79 for Commissioner Brian Smith, whose barn was lost to a fire earlier this year.

At the close of the meeting, Smith announced that a new barn kit has been ordered and that there will be a barn raising at his Damascus dairy farm when it arrives.