Council hires contractor to repair slide on Hidden Valley Road

The slide along Hidden Valley Road in Peters is one step closer to being repaired.

Council on Monday unanimously approved a $290,302 bid from Domenic Bioni to fix the slide that’s been ongoing for several months and is near the only access to Valley Brook Country Club.

The township will also have to pay $25,000 to $30,000 to relocate two telephone poles in the area and about $45,000 in engineering fees for the project.

“This is less than we thought it would be,” township manager Paul Lauer said.

The administration had estimated the repair would be in the range of $500,000.

The repair was not included in the current year’s budget.

Mr. Lauer said he will present a budget amendment to council at an upcoming meeting to pay for the work.

One possibility is to delay a $200,000 repair to the storm sewer on Sugar Camp Road and a $100,000 streetscape project for the McMurray Town Center area.

Also on Monday, council voted down a traffic-calming plan for Bower Hill Road but approved adding stop signs at Bower Hill and Snyder roads due to safety concerns.

Earlier this year, Bower Hill Road residents voted on a traffic-calming plan that would have included speed humps and/or rumble strips along a portion of the road. Of the 137 property owners eligible to vote, 74, or 54 percent, voted, with 53 percent in favor of the plan.

One resident, Mike Grasso, spoke against the measures, saying he was concerned about noise that speed humps or rumble strips could create and that speed humps could cause wear and tear on his car.

Council also came to a consensus that a traffic circle would be the best way to control traffic flow to the Rolling Hills Country Club site, which is now owned by the township and the Peters Township School District.

“The school district is moving ahead with the design of a new high school,” Mr. Lauer said.

The school district recently hired Hayes Design Group of Robinson as the architect for the project for about $4.5 million.

Mr. Lauer said that a “critical item” is how the property will be accessed from East McMurray Road.

He presented council with two options: a traffic circle or a turning lane, which would have to be long enough to handle traffic along East McMurray. Council agreed the traffic circle was the best option because residents living in that area would have difficulty getting out of their driveways with the turning lane there.