North Huntingdon again denies Norwin's request to waive $15K permit fee

The North Huntingdon commissioners reaffirmed their decision to deny a request from the Norwin School District to waive a $15,755 building permit fee needed to make necessary repairs to a school roof.

The commissioners voted 6-1 to deny the district’s request as it is facing $1 million in needed roof repairs at Hillcrest Intermediate School. Only Commissioner Lyndsay Wengrzyn voted in favor of granting the waiver.

Last month’s vote was the second in recent weeks by the township to nix the request from the school, but the decision is inconsistent with some previous rulings by the board.

North Huntingdon waived a building permit fee in 2018 for the township municipal authority for work on its administration building and laboratory/personnel building. The township last month waived bonding requirements for the authority related to monuments, markers, street trees, landscaping and tree preservation.

The commissioners previously waived a building permit fee for the Circleville Fire Department, but the project was never started, said Harry Faulk, township manager.

During the debate over the school waiver, commissioners brought up recent budget discussions in the district. Norwin school officials did not provide a line-item account of the 2022-2023 budget to board members who sought the information in an attempt to find possible cost-cutting moves. The board in June approved a budget that raised real estate taxes by one mill.

North Huntingdon Commissioner Ronald Zona said the township has asked the leaders of its various departments to cut costs “to the bone and all have done that,” at the same time “they (school district) are not being fiscally responsible.”

“They need to go look at themselves to be more fiscally responsible,” Zona said of the school board.

Norwin Superintendent Jeff Taylor could not be reached for comment. Darlene Ciocca, president of the Norwin School Board, declined to comment.

It was the second time this summer that the commissioners rejected the district’s request.

At its June 9 meeting, the commissioners voted 4-3 to deny the request for the waiver, with commissioners Jason Atwood, Eric Gass, Virginia Stump and Zona opposing it, while Richard Gray, Zachary Haigis and Wengrzyn supported the request.

Haigis said after the meeting he still was in favor of granting the waiver, but the direction of the other commissioners indicated the request would be rejected.

Gass complained about the district raising real estate taxes and some opponents said they were against the waiver because there was no proof that the district is providing programs to benefit the entire community, rather than just those of school age.

A few years ago, the township agreed to pay the $15,000 cost of the school crossing guards in return for the district providing programs for the entire community.

This story was updated Aug. 2 correct a factual error regarging the municipal authority waiver.