First Posted: 2/9/2015

CLARKS GREEN — The Abington Council of Governments discussed the proposed Keystone Landfill expansion, a hotly debated topic in the county, at its regular meeting Feb. 5, and plans to continue the conversation next month.

The Friends of Lackawanna, a group of which ACOG Secretary Marnie O’Dea Palmer is a member, and which recently filed a lawsuit against the landfill, will give a presentation regarding the topic at the next ACOG meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5 at the Clarks Green Municipal Building.

Palmer said some municipalities in the region, such as Dickson City, stand opposed to the expansion, and she personally believes others should as well.

“This is going to affect all of us in this whole area,” she said. “It’s going to affect real estate values. …So, I’m just throwing this out there so you can go back to your municipalities and talk about this.”

At the meeting, the council also discussed the possibility of raising municipal membership dues, but members were in agreement that an increase is not necessary at this time. They concluded if the organization decides to host an event or send representatives to a conference, it would first ask assistance of the member municipalities anyway.

“As long as we can keep our head above water,” said Dennis Macheska, ACOG representative from Ransom Township, during the discussion, “and we have a little extra in there, if something came up that we really had to, we’d just go back to the municipalities.”

Brief municipal reports were given, but there was no treasurers report, no votes were made and the 2015 reorganization and election of officers was not held, due to an absence of quorum.