Rostraver Township may refund mechanical device taxes

By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com

Rostraver businesses with mechanical devices including various types of vending machines, may be seeing a refund of all or part of their mechanical device tax for 2020.
Rostraver police Sgt. Scott Sokol Wednesday reported there are about 25 businesses in the township that fall under the mechanical devices tax and a number of them were fully or partially closed last year because of the pandemic. Sokol said it was particularly hard on some of the private clubs, some of which are still closed entirely.
“Others were unaffected, outdoor machines like RedBox and some restaurants and bars that were able to remain open,” Sokol said. “I don’t think you can have a blanket rule because each of these businesses were impacted differently.”
Sokol said even businesses such as Walmart blocked off some of their machines to enforce social distancing.
Solicitor Tim Maatta said the commissioners could offer partial forgiveness to businesses that were partially impacted and full refunds to those which had to close.
In other matters, the commissioners discussed a wall along Collinsburg Road which is failing. It’s believed the wall may have been built by the Works Progress Administration after World War II, but a survey shows that it is not on the public right-of-way, so the township can’t undertake the repair.
Maatta reported that he has received a letter from the Marion Woodlands homeowners association saying there is an on-going problem with vehicles speeding through the development. The roads in the housing plan have not yet been turned over to the township, so legally, the township police can’t issue speeding tickets there, since it is considered private property.
“It’s out of our hands until the roads are taken over,” said commission President John Lorenzo.

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