Lower Alsace Eyes Firefighter Tax Break, $39,740 Paving Bid

Lower Alsace Township's supervisors meet Wednesday night with a $39,740 paving contract to award, a first draft of the township's 2027 budget to discuss, and a proposal to give volunteer firefighters a tax break starting next year. The agenda, posted Tuesday afternoon on the township website, also carries a grant application for new road equipment and a boundary change for property owners on Petsch Road.

How to attend

The Board of Supervisors meets Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lower Alsace Township Municipal Building, 1200 Carsonia Ave. The agenda sets aside two chances to speak: a public comment period on agenda items near the start, listed as "None scheduled," and a final public comment period before adjournment. The agenda sets the next monthly meeting for Nov. 11. The township office can be reached at 610-779-6400. To find the schedule for your own town, see our guide to township and borough meetings in Berks County.

Lower Alsace posts each agenda as a web post the day before the meeting. Its meetings page links minutes for the 2024 meetings through October but none after that, none for any 2025 or 2026 meeting, and says earlier minutes are available on request, so the agenda is the only public record so far of what the board will take up this year.

A $39,740 paving award

Under the engineer's report, the board is set to approve "an award of bid for the 2026 Road Paving Project List to Weikel Construction LLC as the lowest qualified bidder in the amount of $39,740.00." The agenda says the award follows a letter of recommendation from Great Valley Consultants, which the agenda also lists as the township's building code officer. The agenda does not list the roads on the paving list, the other bidders, or their prices.

Two related road items sit beside the award. The board will "discuss the bids received for the road repair project on Cornell Street," with no bid amounts on the agenda. The road foreman reports that the 2026 road repair list "has been closed" and that a new list of work is being prepared for 2027. The engineer will also give an update on the Carsonia Avenue Multimodal Grant and project, which was an update item on the Sept. 9 agenda as well. Neither agenda gives a dollar figure or scope for that grant.

A first look at the 2027 budget

The treasurer's report includes "Discussion on the first draft of the 2027 Lower Alsace Township Budget." The agenda does not attach the draft or give a total, a tax rate, or a proposed change to either. Lower Alsace's township property tax is 11 mills, and its combined county, township and school rate of 73.813 mills is the second-highest in Berks County, behind only Mount Penn, according to our guide to property tax rates by municipality.

Several other items on the agenda are being pushed into that budget. Staffing of the township road crew "will be discussed as part of the 2027 budget review and approval process." A problem with "an area in the rear of the homes along Filbert Street," which the agenda does not describe, "is still being researched and will be looked at for the 2027 budget year." And the volunteer firefighter tax incentive is "to be discussed as part of the budget process."

A tax break for volunteer firefighters

Under new business, the board will take up "a proposal to create a tax incentive for volunteer fire personnel for calendar year 2027." The same sentence appeared, word for word, on the board's Sept. 9 agenda. The agenda gives no detail on the size of the incentive, who would qualify, or what it would cost the township.

Pennsylvania's Act 172 of 2016 lets a municipality that levies an earned income tax adopt, by ordinance or resolution, a credit against that tax for certified active volunteers of a fire company or nonprofit emergency medical services agency. A municipality may also grant a credit against the property tax on a volunteer's owner-occupied home; a 2020 amendment, Act 91, raised the cap on that credit from 20 percent to 100 percent of the volunteer's tax bill. The law requires at least 30 days of public notice and at least one public hearing before adoption. The agenda lists Wednesday's item as a discussion. The agenda does not say whether the township is using Act 172 or which form the incentive would take.

The township is served by the Lower Alsace Township Fire Company and the Lower Alsace Ambulance Association, both of which file monthly reports to the board. Supervisor Todd Weikel is the board's liaison to both.

Grant money for a backhoe and paving equipment

The road foreman and township manager "have prepared the application for a Local Share Account (LSA) Grant as per the conditions approved at the September Township Supervisors' meeting." The board's Sept. 25 special meeting agenda listed "the submission of a Local Share Assessment Grant application to provide funding for public works equipment for the total amount of $241,927.82": a 420 backhoe loader for $152,000, a Caterpillar CB2.7 asphalt compaction unit for $69,750, and a 24-inch high-flow planer for $20,177.82. The Sept. 25 agenda calls the program a "Local Share Assessment" grant; the Oct. 14 agenda calls it a "Local Share Account" grant.

An application is a request, not an award. Because the township has not posted minutes for any 2025 or 2026 meeting, the Sept. 25 vote itself is not documented online; Wednesday's agenda describes the conditions as "approved."

What else is on the agenda

• Representatives of property owners on Petsch Road will present "a subdivision application for a lot line adjustment." The agenda gives no address or further detail.
• The road foreman will update the board on replacing the salt shed roof and repairing the municipal building roof. No cost is listed.
• Under old business, an update on the "review and update to the Joint Zoning Ordinance" with Hawk Valley Associates. The agenda does not name the other municipalities that share the ordinance.
• The township manager "is working on developing a proposal" with a representative of the Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust. The agenda does not say what the proposal covers.
• The status of an insurance settlement for damage to a wall on List Road. The Sept. 9 agenda listed "discussion and approval" of the settlement; the Oct. 14 agenda lists only its status, and neither gives an amount.
• A road foreman update on "the Park Street issue," which the agenda does not describe.
• The Planning Commission last met Aug. 5 and the Zoning Hearing Board last met June 29; neither has a future meeting scheduled.
• Routine items: approval of the Sept. 9 minutes, the Sept. 30 treasurer's reports, the list of bills, and September reports from the Central Berks Police Department, Central Berks Regional Codes, the building code officer, the sewage enforcement officer, the fire company and the ambulance association.

Not on the agenda

The Sept. 9 agenda carried two items on the Mount Penn water dispute: "Update on the status of the Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority Termination" and "Discussion of current status of Water Authority and Borough negotiations." Neither appears on the Oct. 14 agenda. Lower Alsace makes up about 37 percent of the water system that the Borough of Mount Penn is moving to take over, by the borough's own rate study. See our report on Mount Penn's move to take over its water authority and our story on St. Lawrence's plan to create its own municipal authority.

Sources and contact

• Lower Alsace Township Board of Supervisors agenda, Oct. 14, 2026
• Lower Alsace Township Board of Supervisors special meeting agenda, Sept. 25, 2026
• Lower Alsace Township Board of Supervisors agenda, Sept. 9, 2026
• Act 172 of 2016, incentives for municipal volunteers of fire companies and nonprofit EMS agencies
• Lower Alsace Township homepage

Supervisors John Theodossiou (chair), Todd Weikel (vice chair) and Ann Sellers; Manager/Secretary-Treasurer Don Pottiger; Solicitor Kelsey Frankowski; Road Foreman Carl Weikel. Township office: 1200 Carsonia Ave., Reading, 610-779-6400.