Unity auditors raise pay for supervisors/roadmasters to $31.40

Unity supervisors are planning an aggressive road paving program this year, and they will be earning more as they oversee that work in their dual roles as roadmasters.

Township auditors Ed Saxton and Gus Matta on Tuesday granted the three supervisor/roadmasters a raise of $2.40, bringing their hourly pay to $31.40 — matching the wage of Unity’s union road crew.

Supervisors appointed Saxton to a two-year term as auditor after Matta won his choice in November’s election and opted for a six-year term.

Mike O’Barto, who was elected chairman of the supervisors at their Monday reorganization meeting, pointed out the raise was just the second the roadmasters have received over the past dozen years. The previous $2 hike increased their pay to $29 per hour.

“We did a significant amount of paving last year, and I think we’re going to do so this year,” O’Barto said of expectations for the 2022 road improvement program.

In 2021, the supervisors drew about $2 million from the township’s recent $8 million bond issue to help pay for an expanded paving program including many roads that hadn’t been resurfaced in four decades.

Recreation enhancements also will be prominent in Unity this year, thanks to matching state grants recently announced for updates of two township playgrounds. Totaling $248,000, the grants from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will help fund improvements at the playground in Pleasant Unity and another next to the township municipal building on Beatty County Road.

“We’re very happy we were able to get the money for those two great projects,” O’Barto said.

The play equipment at Pleasant Unity dates from 1999, O’Barto said. “We found out a lot of the equipment is inadequate and it’s not up to the safety specs that are in place today.”

Handicapped-accessible apparatus will be among new additions.

“Kids who aren’t able to use regular playground equipment, they’re going to have equipment that will facilitate their needs,” O’Barto said. “We’re going to keep all the (play) equipment together so that everybody blends in and has fun with each other.”

O’Barto said the supervisors have yet to select specific types of apparatus for the playground upgrades, and there is no set timeline for those projects.

He said the township is planning this spring to proceed with naming the township’s lakeside park, on the opposite side of the municipal building from the playground, for the late Robert Evancho, a Vietnam veteran and former township maintenance worker. The honor for Evancho was proposed in September.

“Talk about a nice guy,” O’Barto said. “He was so popular, people have been calling up and asking when we’re going to do the dedication.”

O’Barto is beginning his 21st year as chairman of the supervisors. Supervisor John Mylant, reelected in November, served as chairman the previous four years, after O’Barto stepped away from township government for a partial term on the Greater Latrobe School Board.

Ed Poponick is vice chairman of the supervisors.

“We have a lot of good things going on now,” Poponick said.

Tom Schultheis was reappointed as the township’s emergency management coordinator and also was selected to fill a vacancy on the planning commission, resulting from Richard Donati’s resignation.

The supervisors will continue to hold regular monthly meetings at 4:30 p.m. on the second Thursday.