Penn Forest Township is considering buying another truck to reduce the need to pay for contracted services.

Last year the current supervisors, with the exception of Supervisor Judy Knappenberger, voted to sell off the township's snow removal trucks and go with a contractor for the majority of its snow removal on the 26 miles of roads it owns.At that time the township sold off the trucks it owned and replaced them with one Chevrolet 2500 dump truck with a plow and spreader."This winter we spent $42,191 on snow removal," Chairman Warren Reiner said. "That last snow, 2 foot, that cost us about $9,000 of that."Reiner told the other supervisors that if the township had a second truck with the same specifications as the current vehicle that they would probably have saved about $15,000 over the winter.Reiner added that the township has $53,438 in liquid fuels money available for the purchase and asked for approval to get quotes on a second truck.The board approved his request.Reiner also asked the board to bring on two part-time employees as full-time. Reiner said that the two have proved themselves versatile working at just about any job.Tony Jacobacci and Shannon Meckes both work at the transfer station, snow removal and mowing and weed whacking at the park.Reiner said it took 12 hours just to cut the grass at the park last week and there just aren't enough people to handle it all.Supervisor Christine Fazio disagreed with Reiner on hiring the two full-time."When we built the park we said we would hire part-time, seasonal employees to handle the work," Fazio said. "Full-time means we have to provide them with benefits."The motion to increase both employees to full-time passed, with Fazio being the only no vote.Jacobacci and Meckes will earn $15.04 per hour as full-time employees. The change in their status will take place at the beginning of the next pay period.Also regarding the park, the recreation committee has come up with a sponsor for two of the three scoreboards needed for the ball fields.The board approved an agreement with Mauch Chunk Trust for exclusive rights to be advertised on the boards. The cost to MCT is $7,715 and does not include the wireless controllers.There is still one board available for purchase, and the controllers will cost the township $2,900.The committee has also sold 14 outfield advertising banners. All money raised by the committee is turned over to the township for the running of the park.The committee is working on a number of programs for this year including a "Massing of the Colors," which is planned for June 17.The township will be holding a special meeting at 5 p.m. May 17 to open bids for the new concessions building at the park.The township paid $85,591 in general fund bills for the month, of that $26,544 was for the release of a fire escrow. The amount of $14,122 was paid out of the liquid fuels account, and $26,485 was paid out of the transfer station account. The township has a remaining balance of $6,911,729 on account.