Peters Township Council was hit with upsetting news right at the beginning of its meeting on Monday night. Township Manager Paul Lauer relayed to council that Councilman James Berquist is suffering with Covid-19. Lauer stated that no matter how seriously one takes the virus, everyone is susceptible to contracting it. Berquist is recovering and hopes to be back for the next meeting in two weeks. Emergency Management Coordinator and Fire Chief Michael McLaughlin drove that point home by relaying numbers of Covid-19 cases in the two primary zip codes of Peters Township. Since June 22, the 15317 zip code has had an increase of 88 cases and the 15367 zip code has had an increase of 16 new cases. Most of these cases are occurring in the age group 25-49. McLaughlin also reported $12,200 in expenses related to Covid-19 and Lauer added an additional $7400 in costs from staff expenditures. Much of this expense will be refunded through the federal CARES Act. Traffic items were addressed as well. The realignment of E. McMurray Road to meet with the new Rolling Hills Drive is underway, and staff requested a report from their traffic engineer on the intersection of Center Church Road and Route 19. That intersection has been involved with two recent accidents, one of them causing a fatality. Staff is concerned that with the opening of the new high school, that intersection will be the site of more accidents because students will use Center Church Road as an alternate exit from the school. Michael Mudry of Traffic Planning and Design indicated that by PennDot Standards, nothing is called for. He did suggest traffic studies of the intersection now and once the new high school is open. Until then, options are temporary and very limited.