Health insurance cost savings touted
Trajectory shows savings of $200K over 4 years
WEST ROCKHILL » The difference between what the township would have paid this year for medical and dental health insurance if no changes had been made and what it actually is paying is $93,860, information presented at the Feb. 19 West Rockhill Township Board of Supervisors meeting shows.
“That’s $93,000 we can put back into the township,” board Chairman Jim Miller said, receiving applause from residents at the meeting.
The calculation was made anticipating costs according to a trend line starting in 2016.
In January of this year, the board voted to end the practice of allowing the township supervisors to have their health insurance paid by the municipality. The change goes into effect when new board members are elected or current ones are re-elected, but two of the three board members — Miller and newly-elected David Collingwood — have chosen to not have the township cover their health insurance as of this year. In addition to that, a full-time employee has retired and been replaced by a part-time position, Miller said.
That means the township, which was paying for insurance coverage for the families of five employees and three supervisors in 2016 is now paying for four employees and one supervisor, he said. In 2016, the cost was $182,940, a graph displayed at the meeting shows. “There’s been about a five percent increase per year since then,” Miller said.
At that rate, the costs would have increased to $222,365 this year, the graph showed.
The actual cost this year, though, assuming there are no changes in township personnel, will be $128,505, the information showed.
The payments for the supervisors’ insurance coverage was a
The payments for the supervisors’ insurance coverage was a hot issue in last year’s election, in which David Collingwood defeated longtime board member Don Duvall.
hot issue in last year’s election, in which Collingwood defeated longtime board member Don Duvall.
Prior to the reduction in the number of people covered by the township insurance, there was a change that added the option for those who were on Medicare to get supplemental Medicare through the township, rather than the full primary care, Miller said. That accounted for savings in some of the years, he said.
Figures for each of the years between 2016 and 2020 were shown on the graph.
“If you take everything between those two lines, because that’s really the cumulative total of how much money we haven’t spent, that is $212,000,” Miller said.
The township could add a third insurance option to the primary coverage and Medicare supplemental now being offered, he said.
“I’m looking at other plans to see if there’s something we can add that would take
that insurance down and be something that would be favorable for the employees and that they may want to move to,” he said.
In other matters at the Feb. 19 meeting:
• Miller said the township had received a notice that the amount of time the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has to respond to the township’s request for a rehearing of FERC’s approval of the Adelphia Gateway pipeline plans to convert an existing pipeline from oil to natural gas has been extended.
The plans include a compressor station on Rich Hill Road in West Rockhill. Safety and environmental concerns about the plans have been raised by residents.
If there had not been an extension of the amount of time for FERC to respond, the rehearing request would have been deemed denied because it would have passed the deadline, Miller said.
“They’ve extended it because they want to take a much better look at what’s going on and all the information that we sent them from the township, so that’s good news, but we’ll see where it goes,” he said.
• Security cameras have been installed around the outside of the township building, along with a camera being installed in the lobby, Miller said.
“We do have a lot more security than we’ve ever had before,” he said.
There will be an upgrade to the building’s front doors in March, including handicapped accessibility, he said.
The board also approved having the tax collector’s office moved to the front of the building.
• The board discussed the deteriorating barn on the James Memorial Park property.
“The can gets kicked down the road every year and I think it’s time to at least get serious about what we’re gonna do with this barn,” Collingwood said.
The most immediate problem is replacing the roof, the board members said. Township Manager Greg Lippincott said he is getting price quotes for roof repairs.
The discussion is tabled until those price quotes are received, Miller said.
• Board member Jay Keyser said an ordinance from a Pike County municipality for short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, is being reviewed by the board members as West Rockhill looks into adopting similar regulations.
“We do need to have something done here. This is not a knee jerk reaction. We’ve been discussing this and looking at this issue for I’d say over a year, maybe a couple years,” Keyser said.
In West Rockhill, there have been complaints about short term rentals being used as a “party house,” noise and parking issues, particularly on Tower Road, which is narrow and has only one way in and out. There are also residents who defend the short-term rentals.
Miller said the board will probably have more discussion of the issue in March.
“We’re not gonna rush to judgment,” Keyser said.
“We have been looking into other townships, and some other townships have been taking some action and I think that we need to do something here for sure, but I wanna make sure that we feel comfortable when we do take action, of what we do,” he said, “because I know that there’s gonna be some people in this room that’re not gonna be happy with what we decide and there’s gonna be some that’re gonna be very happy if we decide on something.”