Exeter hires firm as Interim Township Manager
Kafferlin Strategies will perform the service for a minimum of $5,000 a week
With no comment or questions from anyone but Dave Hughes, the Exeter Supervisors hired Kafferlin Strategies to act as Interim Township Manager in a 4-1 vote. Kafferlin is also performing the search for a permanent township manager. Firm partner Lisa Hagberg will be their representative.
The terms of the deal call for Kafferlin to be paid $5,000 per week and provide for Exeter to reimburse Kafferlin for travel expenses including mileage, and meals, and a lodging expense of up to $2,000 per month.
For this compensation Exeter will have Hagberg for “20-30 hours per week” to manage the affairs of the township.
In her remarks to the board, Hagberg listed her qualifications:
Twenty years of public accounting experience, much of it in government auditing
Served as a municipal manager in a small community in Warren County for eleven years
She was the Director of Finance and Admin for Warren County
The cost to Exeter Township could be quite steep. Using the rough mileage from Exeter to Warren County of 284 miles one way, with one round trip per week at 65.5 cents per mile (the IRS allowance for mileage), $2,000 per month lodging, and $75 per day meal allowance for three days a week, the total would come to just under $50,000 for the 60 calendar day period, in unbudgeted expenses.
As mentioned, the only Supervisor that spoke against the expenditure was Hughes, who detailed his issues with the contract ranging from the pricing, to the listed duties, things like being able to hire and fire personnel, and all duties outlined in the township ordinance for powers of a manager. Hughes also objected to indemnification of Hagberg, letting Kafferlin off the hook for any problems caused by them, giving us no recourse to compensation under such an occurence.
Hagberg will replace Larry Piersol who had the interim role for roughly the last year.
Three new Exeter police officers were sworn in tonight. Jacob Moyer
Dallas Henry
Nick Stolz
Welcome to Exeter, gentlemen! Go out there and do a great job for us.
In a 5-0 vote, the Supervisors agreed to end Exeter’s lease of Happy Landings (Exeter Community Park) behind the school administration building. The park is owned by the school district, but under the 25 year lease, Exeter took care of maintenance of the park, which is located in St. Lawrence Boro. The onus for maintenance will now fall to the school district once again, as of February 2025.
Approval was given by a 4-1 vote to purchase a John Deere tractor with a mower attachment for $190,560, to be paid for with the liquid fuels tax from the state.
In three 5-0 votes, Parks and Recreation was given approval to hold three events for families.
A motion to move $205,000 from reserves to the Golf Fund was tabled after Hughes explained the reason why it wasn’t needed.
In a public comment on non-agenda items, resident Don Spatz presented the case of a family that has their home on Shelbourne Rd constantly shelled by golf balls from the Reading Country Club (RCC). The owners of the property, Nick and Valerie Sterner, have had to put a net over their yard to protect their young children from the barrage of badly batted balls from duffers at the RCC. Spatz detailed having his car’s windshield pelted with a ball on Shelbourne, for which he’ll have to pay, as well as neighbors of the Sterner’s who said they see fifty balls a week on Shelbourne, just between Rugby and the jug handle, and another who gets sixty or so a year golf balls in his yard.
The coup de grace of the commentary was when Spatz called the Sterner’s daughter into focus. Young Nadia had sat patiently all night, quiet and well behaved until the end. Spatz asked her if she’d been collecting golf balls, and invited her to show the Supervisors her collection. She then trotted out her toy shopping cart which had many golf balls in it, and paraded the cart around to all of the Supervisors.
Chair Jack Piho promised to get action on the issue from the board, and now once again Public Works Director Larry Piersol said to Mrs. Sterner that she’d probably see him tomorrow so that he can make an assessment.
A suggestion was made to put netting along the road. A similar issue was remedied (mostly) at the high school baseball field with the installation of netting that cost somewhere in the area of $150,000. This netting could be considerably more expensive.
The next Supervisors meeting will be on July 22nd at the township building at 7 PM.