(This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com)

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or its Board of Auditors. 

After I was appointed auditor in November 2018, I requested a copy of the previous year’s CPA audit from Pam Gardsy (Barrett Township Secretary/Treasurer, who replaced Rick Scrudato in 2015).  Pam emailed a copy of the auditor’s report, but it did not include the cover letter.  I wound up filing two Right-To-Know requests to obtain the following information:  

(This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com)

Disclaimer:  The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or the Board of Auditors.

Earlier this year I filed a Right-to-Know request as a private citizen to view the township’s pension plan.

Why should residents care?

Well, for starters, township residents were taxed $55,000 in 2017 to fund the plan which has around $1 million in assets.  In the same year, the State of Pennsylvania contributed an additional $32,000 to the pension fund.  

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or the Board of Auditors.

Please note that this article has been updated to include details about the $148,270 grant that was used to renovate the Barrett Firehouse.

Earlier this year, I filed a right to know request with Barrett Township requesting "documentation of all moneys received related to the Mount Airy Casino since 2014."

The response from the township was as follows:

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

I attended the supervisor meeting on June 22, 2010 to express my displeasure as a member of the community about the Blue Ridge Communications franchise fee. My concern was with an exclusive franchise agreement in place, our service would suffer, as there is (and was) no other choice of TV / Internet service provider.  What will motivate Blue Ridge to improve their services with no competition?

However, the meeting minutes indicate the exact opposite:

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

A few months ago, I filed a right-to-know request asking for an asset inventory of the township maintenance department of any item valued at $500 or above. 

I reached out to York Rake, the manufacturer, asking for information about our town’s 1987 HTR Street Broom.  

One would be forgiven for thinking our town's equipment being too old to get parts for anymore, or that we loaned it to another township.  I learned not only does Barrett Township actually own a street sweeper, but it’s even a current model.  Below is a transcript of my email thread with York Rake.

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

Update 5/20/20 @ 10:30:
I did some more research on the 2020 Census and it seems the driver in our area is likely part of the "Update Leave" part of the census, where they send drivers to areas without postal service.  However, the strange part is our area ALSO received those postcards.  Not sure why this happened, it should only be one or the other during this phase of the census.  FYI, the actual "Door knocking" part of the census begins on August 11, 2020.  

(related)

Update 5/19/20 @ 8:40am - Message from neighbor:
Nate: This Census dude actually is a big question mark. I filed a police report on him. He dropped off somebody else's census on my porch. I drove around the neighborhood until I found the house it belonged to, and delivered it. He came back THE NEXT DAY and was attempting to come up my driveway to drop off another packet. I chased him off, but then grew suspicious. He has been wandering around the area for several days now. Since you obtained a picture of his car, I'm turning it over to the police to investigate.

Original Article:

Why are Census workers driving around, against "social distancing" orders, not wearing masks, in a "red county"?  

I was surprised, let's say, when this 2020 Census worker pulled into my driveway on Saturday May 16, around 4pm. 

Further, we had already completed the census online, on April 2nd!  He had no reason to even pull in. 

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com 

Question:
Did we save money by switching from Barrett Township to Pocono Mountain Regional police?

Answer:
I'm going through the "Public Safety - Police" total expense lines for years available to me and here is what I have:

[Updated 1/7/21 to include 2020's budget]

2010: $552,000 (When Barrett had 6 officers)
2011: ?
2012: ?
2013: ? (+ $100,000*)
2014: ?
2015: $709,000 (The year that Barrett police disbanded. Had 5 officers)
2016: $520,000 (Regional)
2017: $520,000 (Regional)
2018: $578,000 (Regional)
2019: $551,000 (Regional)
2020: $575,048 (Regional)

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

My opinion is that the Local Services tax should be repealed because it drives away business and makes it harder to attract workers in Barrett Township:

Background - State Level:

• The Local Tax Enabling Act of 1965 allowed Second Class Townships to collect Occupational Privilege Taxes
• In 2004, the Local Tax Enabling Act was amended to allow for collecting "Emergency and Municipal Services Taxes"

Background - Locally:

• In 2005, ordinance 141 was passed, known as "Emergency and Municipal Services Tax"
• In 2007 it was renamed "Local Services Tax" when ordinance #155 was passed.