South Heidelberg Weighs 2027 Budget and $1M Krick Lane Loan

South Heidelberg Township's supervisors review the 2027 budget on Tuesday before it goes on public display, along with an ordinance for borrowing up to $1 million for the Krick Lane Extension, a two-year renewal of the Casella trash contract and a proposed short-term rental ordinance. The Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, according to the township calendar, which lists it as a "Workshop and General Business Meeting."

The one-page agenda puts everything under "Workshop Items for Review," with no motions and no dollar figures: items to discuss, not votes the agenda promises. A workshop meeting is a working session with the manager, engineer and solicitor before the board acts.

The 2027 budget, before it is advertised

The first item is "2027 Proposed Budget Final Review," with two sub-items: "Review 2027 SHTWP Workshop Budget Packet" and "Review Budget Advertisement & Adoption." The packet is not online: the township's Finance page carries only 2026 documents, and nothing for 2027 had posted as of Sunday night. Manager Sean McKee told the board Aug. 18 that the 2027 budget "will be presented to the Board as part of the October 2026 Workshop Meeting" and that the initial draft was complete, per the Aug. 18 minutes, so Tuesday appears to be both the board's first look and what the agenda calls the final review.

Under Section 3202 of the Second Class Township Code, the board must give public notice "once in one newspaper of general circulation" that the proposed budget is available for inspection, leave it on display for 20 days, and adopt a final budget "not later then the thirty-first day of December."

The township's posted 2026 budget, which the site labels "proposed" and whose page footers are headed Workshop Meeting 10/21/2025, shows general fund revenues of $9,666,692 and spending of $8,834,555; no adopted 2026 budget is posted. The township's Budget at a Glance puts the township's general tax at 3.90 mills, or $585 a year on a $150,000 assessment, plus a 1.50-mill fire and ambulance tax ($225). The county's 2026 rate table, which says it excludes fire and EMS levies, lists the 3.90, as does our guide to property tax rates by municipality. The Aug. 18 minutes record Western Berks Ambulance's Anthony Tucci discussing a "new taxing structure based on mill" with the board.

The Krick Lane loan

The solicitor's list includes "Berks IDA Ordinance RE: Township Loan Krick Lane Extension." On Sept. 22, the board had on its agenda the award of the Krick Lane Extension contract to CH & N Site Construction Inc. for $2,366,843.26, and Resolution 15-2026 authorizing a loan application to the Berks Industrial Development Authority's infrastructure loan fund for $1,000,000 "to finance a portion" of the project, according to the Sept. 22 agenda, which Berks Beat previewed. The version now posted was amended the morning after the meeting, at 7:49 a.m. Sept. 23 per the Agenda Center, and adds two action items the original did not have: a PennDOT support letter for a flashing yellow arrow for westbound Route 422 drivers turning onto Krick Lane, and forms for new traffic signals on Route 422 at Krick Lane and two other points. How any of those votes went is not on the record: the Agenda Center lists no Sept. 22 minutes; the newest posted are from Aug. 25.

The agenda does not give the ordinance's contents, the loan terms, or the law it falls under. Pennsylvania's Local Government Unit Debt Act applies "to all local government units" and requires a debt ordinance to be advertised in a newspaper three to 30 days before enactment, but the agenda does not name that law or the BerksIDA program. In December 2022 the county put $5 million into an Infrastructure Investment Fund that BerksIDA runs as a revolving loan fund "to lend money to local taxing bodies" for infrastructure that helps businesses expand or move in.

The township's 2026 Budget at a Glance listed a "$1.65M Krick Lane Extension Project," an extension with turn lanes and a four-way traffic signal, as the year's largest capital item; the September bid award was about $717,000 above that, by our arithmetic. The agenda does not say what the road serves. Krick Lane runs through the corridor where Ethos Development won final approval July 28 for its Ethos West warehouse, 1,031,444 square feet per our Ethos report, with the smaller Ethos East plan still at the preliminary stage in that report; the July 28 minutes also record a quitclaim deed from the project "to convey land for the purposes of widening Krick Lane." The agenda lists "Ethos Warehouse West Updates" separately and draws no link between the two.

Trash: a two-year Casella renewal

The manager's list includes "Casella Trash/Recycling Contract 2 Year Renewal." The township's 2026 rebate form says the trash and recycling bid "was awarded to Casella-GFL and began on April 1, 2024," and that the yearly charge on the 2026 spring tax bill is $355. Neither the agenda nor the township's trash pages give the renewal price, the current contract's end date, or whether the $355 fee would change. The 2026 budget counts $869,975 in sanitation revenue against $766,780 for municipal waste collection.

Short-term rentals, and a neighbor's zoning changes

The solicitor also brings a "Short Term Rental Ordinance." It began as Lower Heidelberg's proposal: solicitor Andrew George told the board Aug. 18 that Lower Heidelberg "has presented another zoning amendment relating to short term rentals," forwarded to the manager and engineer for review, with discussion to come at the Joint Planning Commission, per the Aug. 18 minutes. No draft is posted on the township site, and the township's eCode360 public documents hold only the June 30 data-center zoning draft. What it would require of Airbnb-style rentals is not public.

A third item is a Southwestern Berks Joint Planning Commission meeting on "Lower Heidelberg Township Proposed Amendments." South Heidelberg shares the Southwestern Berks County Zoning Ordinance of 2004 with Lower Heidelberg Township and Wernersville Borough, per the county planning commission and the township's Aug. 25 minutes. The Aug. 18 minutes identify the amendment as a "Lower Heidelberg Township Zoning Amendment C-2 District," with a joint planning meeting scheduled for Aug. 26 in Lower Heidelberg and Supervisor Vida and Planning Commission Chairman Behling to attend; no record of that meeting has been posted. Lower Heidelberg's planning commission minutes from July 13 describe it as a map amendment and a text amendment "to add hospital as use via conditional use in C-2," which the commission recommended unanimously. South Heidelberg's own change to the shared code is on the books: the Aug. 25 minutes record a unanimous vote to adopt Ordinance 296, the data-center amendment we previewed, and eCode360's New Laws page now posts the executed text, which shows all three municipalities enacted it: South Heidelberg Aug. 25, Wernersville Sept. 2 and Lower Heidelberg Sept. 15, each certifying a Reading Eagle advertisement. See our report on the ordinance.

Grants, the police station and two closed sessions

The manager's updates cover the township building renovation, backed by the $1 million state RACP grant in our report on the police-station grant, and "HRW Park Renovation Project Update/Grants/Path." The park grant carries two numbers. DCNR's Oct. 7 grant list shows $350,000 for Heidelberg Run West Park, while the township's July 28 minutes record the manager reporting $250,000. The township has not explained the $100,000 difference.

Two items are marked for executive session, the closed-door part of a meeting: "2027 Proposed Employee Salaries" and "Police Services Contracts." The department's website lists Wernersville Borough, Robesonia Borough and Heidelberg Township alongside South Heidelberg as the municipalities it serves, the 2026 budget counts $1,069,117 in revenue from intermunicipal police services, and the Aug. 25 minutes record Chief J. Matthew Hook referencing "the upcoming meeting with members of Wernersville Borough to discuss the police services contract."

Also listed: crack sealing, pipe replacements and leaf collection, which runs Oct. 26 through Dec. 11, and declaring Saturday, Oct. 31, 6 to 9 p.m., trick-or-treat night.

How to attend or comment

The meeting is at 9 a.m. Tuesday, per the calendar, at the Township Building, 555A Mountain Home Road, Sinking Spring, PA 19608, per the board's page. The agenda sets public comment before and after the workshop items; the township office is 610-678-9652.

What happens next

If the board clears the budget Tuesday, the next step is the newspaper notice and 20-day display the Township Code requires, which puts adoption at a later meeting. The board's page lists general business meetings at 7 p.m. on Oct. 27 and Nov. 24 and a 9 a.m. workshop Nov. 17; the Oct. 27 meeting is on the calendar. No source names the adoption date, and the agenda lists no vote on the loan ordinance, the Casella renewal or the rental ordinance.