Lower Nazareth Property Taxes to Hold Steady in 2012

The Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to maintain the township’s millage rate, meaning there won't be a property tax increase in 2012. The current millage rate is 4.15 mills.

Timm Tenges, the township's manager, said revenue dropped in 2011, but so did expenses.

Chairman Eric Nagle pointed out that there was "a 4 percent drop in revenue over 2011."

Tenges noted that the millage rate could remain steady "without depleting any of our reserves.”

In other business, Tenges reported that cross pipes will be installed in the turns on Christian Springs Road, and he expects some interruption in traffic flow as machinery is moved. For example, the road may be closed in 20-minute increments during construction, he explained, but the work will only take about two or three days.

“We may not have to close the road at all,” Tenges said, adding that a date for the construction has yet to be set.

An issue with a landscaping berm on the Christian Springs Road property of David and Dawn Rasmussen seems to be resolvable, according to Albert Kortze, the township's engineer. There was an issue with water -- possibly -- being dammed up on a neighbor’s property.

Kortze said he went to the property at 4348 Christian Springs Road and took measurements and pictures of the berm. It is 105 feet long and 5 feet wide at the base, he said, and is 12 inches high.

One way to resolve any potential ponding is for the Rasmussens to cut a 12-inch notch in the berm, Kortze said. This should allow any water to spill through.

“They were agreeable to that,” Kortze said.

Supervisors agreed to accept Kortze’s suggestion to give the Rasmussens until spring 2012 to put in the notch.

“It sounds like a positive outcome,” Nagle said.