The nine-member board for the Blair County Planning Commission has been cut to a handful of active members.

The Blair County commissioners sent letters dated Feb. 5 to commission members Nicola Ardizzone, Jim Dixon, Herb Shelow and Todd Lewis that they were going to be removed from the board.

Resignation letters were turned into the planning commission office by Shelow (Feb. 18), Dixon (Feb. 19) and Ardizzone (Feb. 20). Lewis plans to appeal the decision.

None of the four were willing to comment on the situation when contacted by the Mirror.

Lewis, who was elected president last Thursday, said, “I think you should ask the commissioners.”

None of the three commissioners responded to an email message seeking comment.

If Lewis is not retained, the only active members would be Rodney Green and Rodney Estep.

The terms of members Larry Carter and Ben Postles ended at the end of December, but solicitor Patrick Fanelli said they are still considered members until a replacement is named by the commissioners.

“I am not sure where I stand. My appointment expired at the end of 2025. I have been on the board for over ten years and thought it was time to move on,” said Postles, who has since been appointed to the Blair County Conservation District board. “I didn’t leave the planning commission with any ill will or bad intentions. Technically, I guess I am still on the board, but they were aware of my intentions. I asked not to be reappointed.”

Carter could not be reached for comment.

The commissioners have failed to fill Region 7 (Freedom, Greenfield and Juniata townships) and will need to fill the seat of Postles who represents Region 4 (Catharine Township, Williamsburg Borough and Woodbury Township). A replacement for Carter has also not been named.

Attendance issues

In recent times, the planning commission has been struggling to have a quorum to conduct their meetings.

The January meeting was canceled because of a lack of quorum. It also happened twice in 2025.

“The quorum requirement is based on the total fixed number of seats and not the number of actual serving members. As a result, for a nine-seat commission, the quorum requirement would be five,” Fanelli said.

“If we do not have a quorum, we are not serving the municipalities; we need to correct that. If you can’t make it to meetings, maybe you should not be on the board,” new member Rodney Estep said at the February meeting, which was moved from Feb. 26 to Feb. 19 because not enough members would be available for the regularly scheduled meeting.

Planning Director Dave McFarland said most of the commission’s tasks are automated due to already-

enacted policies, so the main things that would be disrupted due to a lack of quorum would be the “larger development reviews” done at meetings.

“If we go too long without members, it will impact the budget process, and some annual considerations that are done in conjunction with that process,” McFarland said.

Commission members briefly discussed and then tabled a proposal to address part of the problem.

The proposal would enable office staff members to handle certain reviews in the case of a meeting cancellation.

Specifically, in the case of development applications that will have a visible impact on the landscape, they would be presented to the planning commission at its regular meeting. All such applications would be reviewed with an outside staff-extension consultant.

The proposal reads “in the event that such meeting cannot be held in timely fashion, staff is authorized to send the recommendation letter without action so as not to impede the development review process.”

After a 70-minute execution session to discuss personnel, commission members appointed regional planner MacKenzie Caron as “interim assistant planning director.”

“The thinking with MacKenzie is to add a temporary level of redundancy to communications and to add a chain of command when Dave (McFarland, planning director) is not available or accessible. We will work out the details of a job description and pay issues relative to the new responsibilities in the coming weeks. This is just to stop the missed issues and failures to respond to important emails,” Estep said.

Lewis would not comment on how he feels about staff members handling the reviews as outlined in the proposal.

“We are responding to concerns from the municipalities related to communication and continuity. In collaboration with the director, she will have increased authority to communicate with the municipalities,” Lewis said.

“Until I know more about what my additional responsibilities entail, my feelings are pretty neutral. I am always looking forward to being able to best support my team and provide whatever leadership I can in the interim,” Caron said.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.