Taxes will be going up again this year in Cumru Township after commissioners approved an $11.1 million 2023 budget.
The vote to adopt the budget passed unanimously without debate or public discussion at Tuesday’s meeting.
The budget will raise the township’s tax rate to 7.47 from the current rate of 6.85, increasing the annual tax by $62 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
The largest portion of the increase was to the township’s general tax rate, which rose from 4.65 mills in 2022 to 5.045 for 2023.
Township manager Jeanne Johnston said much of the tax increase comes from the township’s impending loss of roughly $500,000 in tax revenue from the Western Berks Landfill, which is slated to close by 2024.
Johnston said increased expenses, largely due to inflation, also prompted the tax rise.
The 2022 budget also included an increase of 0.36 mills to the township’s debt service tax.
In addition, commissioners voted to increase annual trash collection fees to $275 from $225 for a home with two or more adults, and to $255 from $210 for single adult homes.
Municipalities have faced steep spikes in trash collection costs when bidding contracts, Johnston said, and Cumru’s trash contract is up for bid in 2023.
“We have to have a little cushion in the (trash) fund at the end of 2023 to pay the hauler and dumping fees at the beginning of 2024,” Johnston said.
Also at the meeting, supervisors granted conditional use and final plan approval to a project to turn an 11.4-acre property that includes the BK Trading Post and the former Giant building at Lancaster Pike and Route 724 into a Budget Store and Lock Self Storage facility.
The first phase of the project will involve placing drive-up storage units in the existing parking lot area, developers said.
A black iron fence will encircle those units, and security cameras will be located throughout the property.
For the second phase, the BK Trading Post and the Giant building will be combined into a single climate-controlled facility with interior storage and a modernized brick facade, said project engineer Scott Miller of SSM Group Inc., Reading.
Project engineers said the building will be manned during business hours and allow after-hours access via keypad.
The facility will have a total of 600 to 700 storage units, developers said.
Engineers said the storage facility will generate much less traffic than a retail store and the use is consistent with township zoning rules and the Gov. Mifflin Area Joint Comprehensive Plan.
Developers said they’re anticipating starting construction on the first phase in April.
Budget Store and Lock operates 17 storage facilities throughout the greater Lehigh Valley area, according to its website.
In addition, commissioners:
• Approved moving the 2023 Community Days to the area of the Gov. Mifflin Intermediate School in Cumru Township.
The event is usually centered along South Waverly Street in Shillington, between Gov. Mifflin High School and the district’s athletic fields, but ongoing construction of a new athletic complex will make that impossible next year, township officials said.
• Noted that a hearing on a legal challenge to the zoning change that enabled construction of warehouses on a 171-acre plot at Freemansville Road and Route 10 in Cumru Township is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. in the Gov. Mifflin Intermediate School cafeteria.
Source: Berkshire mont
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