BY PAT FARNELLI

 Dimock Township Supervisors heard a special report from tax collector Esther Rayias on Monday, July 2, about a major change in county tax collection.

Rayias said that the Susquehanna County TCC met on Thursday do discuss problems with Centax, a central tax bureau hired by the county to collect taxes countywide for this year.

Rayias said that about $775,000 in taxes should have been collected from January to the first disbursement, but the company seemed plagued with problems, and telephone calls and messages were going unanswered. The first disbursement was $54,959.55, grossly short of what was expected.

In June, Centax admitted that its computer system could not handle the data. On Thursday, the TCC voted to terminate Centax and hire Berkheimer, Rayias said.

Berkheimer will handle the second disbursement, and the township’s quarterly report should be sent there at the end of this month.

Rayias said that Centax has a $500,000 indemnity bond posted, and that two payments of approximately $177,000 and $172,000 have been received in the last few weeks.

In other business, the supervisors thanked Mike Faillace and several boy scouts from Troup 154 for painting the township building after new windows were installed. Mark Zayleskie, Clark Fuller and Jesse Borosh were the Dimock boy scouts who helped paint the interior of the township building, including the meeting hall and the new secretary office.

Borosh, a 2012 graduate, joined the Air Force after commencement.

The township adopted a list of rules for agenda creation and conduct in public meetings recently. The new rules, based upon those recently adopted by Montrose Borough Council, require that agenda requests be filed no later than 3 p.m. of the third business day before the scheduled meeting. For a Monday meeting, this would require that an agenda item be submitted no later than 3 p.m. on the previous Wednesday.

Agenda items shall be limited to matters of legitimate township business or concerns directly impacting the residents and/or taxpayers of the township.

The rules also state that public comment at open meetings shall be limited to township residents and/or township taxpayers. The limit of time to speak was set for three minutes per authorized speaker. Video recording devices on tripods shall be located in the back of the township meeting room behind the last row of chairs. Handheld video and audio equipment will be allowed in the seating area, and must be visible. The user must remain seated.

A large stack of gas drilling permits was received by the supervisors, and were available for view after the meeting. The Peterson 1-9 gas well permits comprised much of the volume. They included two access road permits.

Permits for Cabot Oil & Gas to reclaim the A. Warner pad and the Gesford 3 and 9 pad were received. Both projects have already commenced, according to supervisors.

Permits were received for the Heitsman 2 and 3 well pads.

Pipeline permits were also received from Williams.

Gas well permits were received for the late Edwin Bunnell’s property, for wells 2,5,6  and 10. Cabot is currently drilling there. A Chief gas well permit was received for the Hannon property, in nearby Brooklyn Township.

At last month’s meeting, Don Simpson asked if the supervisors could mark his driveway. The work was done by Supervisor Gerald Ellis, it was reported.

Kevin Mitchell asked if calcium requested for Hunsinger Road had been applied, and was told it has not been yet. He said that the large volume of traffic going in and out of the Shields compressor station is not doing the dusty road a bit of good.

Dimock Township supervisors meet on the first Monday of the month at 7 p.m.