The other issue that has recently developed as a result of the Marcellus Shale play stems from the installation of pipelines or transmission lines from the wells. Some municipalities havve been approached by companies to use the municipality’s right of way to install transmission lines. This creates a serious problem as there is no legal…

I was fortunate enough to speak to one of our Councils of Government meetings last evening. My topic was some of the impacts being felt by rural communities from the exploration/ extraction of gas from the Marcellus Shale in our region. I thoght I’d share some of that in this Blog Post.One of the biggest…

I’m spending today and tomorrow in Hershey PA for continuing legal education dealing with municipal law

Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced its decision in several cases which had been consolidated on the appeal. The cases involved the use of third party agencies to administer and enforce the provisions of the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act in those municipalities which opted in to the enforcement of the Act. I posted on…

If you have followed my blog back in February, I posted about losing a case involving the township auditors in a surcharge action. I spent last week preparing my appellate brief for the Commonwealth Court and just sent it out yesterday. The issues on appeal are whether the auditors proved by a preponderance of the…

Back in February, I had posted about the Buckwalter case which upheld an ordinance that changed the compensation of the Borough Council. On September 3, 2008 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted allocatur and will hear the appeal from the Commonwealth Court’s decision. Thank you to all of you readers that sent the link to me…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the Commonwealth Court’s ruling that road milling and resurfacing projects fall under the definition of “public work” in the Prevailing Wage Act. Now, Townships will now be required to pay the prevailing wage for some projects that were previously considered to be routine maintenance work, which is exempt from the…