{"id":10563,"date":"2014-01-28T21:56:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T02:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10563"},"modified":"2014-01-28T21:58:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T02:58:22","slug":"new-garden-supervisors-grapple-with-myriad-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10563","title":{"rendered":"New Garden supervisors grapple with myriad issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

For one of them – Police Department’s future – chief suggests regional option<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>

New Garden Township Police Chief Gerald R. Simpson addresses the supervisors on the need to begin working on a permanent home for the department.<\/p><\/div>\n

The New Garden Township Supervisors tackled a crowded agenda during a 3-\u00bd -hour meeting on Monday night, running the gamut from fire and police protection to water and financial woes.<\/p>\n

Delivering the annual report of the Avondale Fire Company, President John Morris III said New Garden Township generated 736 emergency medical services calls and 283 fire calls in 2013, representing 56 percent of the company\u2019s responses. The mainly volunteer organization also serves Avondale Borough and portions of Franklin, London Britain, London Grove, and West Marlborough Townships.<\/p>\n

Supervisors\u2019 Chair Betty Gordon said the township is fortunate to have the company\u2019s services. \u201cI really appreciate you and all of your crew,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Several residents expressed concern about a letter they received last month from Artesian Water Company, which wants to construct a pump house on an easement it has near Broad Run and Newark Roads to access the Cockeysville Aquifer, a plan township officials believe runs afoul of New Garden ordinances.<\/p>\n

The residents said they received a letter from Artesian last month about testing it planned to conduct to measure the impact on neighbors of extracting 200 gallons of water per minute from the well and exporting it to Delaware. Vincent M. Pompo, the township solicitor, said Artesian received a letter from the township in response, advising the company that its plans would violate township ordinances.<\/p>\n

To date, Pompo said the township has not received any application from Artesian. The supervisors agreed that Artesian\u2019s plan offers no benefit and potential liabilities to the township.<\/p>\n

A motion to authorize Interim Township Manager Spence Andress to secure a proposal from National Penn Bank for a five-year, $186,000 loan for capital expenditures prompted some discussion before it passed. Supervisor Patrick Little questioned why money had not been set aside in the budget and said he wanted to hear more about the planned purchases. Andress explained that efforts were being made to build up a capital reserve fund, but in the meantime, some purchases should not be delayed.<\/p>\n

Two of them – police vehicles – were already postponed, said Police Chief Gerald R. Simpson, adding that he recognized that $96,000 for two Dodge Chargers represented \u201ca lot of money.\u201d\u00a0 However, he noted that the purchases were long overdue after placing them on a back burner a year ago.<\/p>\n

Updating the supervisors on the Police Department\u2019s facility, Simpson said, \u201cWe are making do with a bad situation.\u201d He explained that the department\u2019s temporary facility, a double-wide trailer, is \u201csubstandard,\u201d just like the previous one, and he urged the supervisors to authorize a professional needs assessment so that taxpayers\u2019 money would be used in \u201cthe right way\u201d to finance a permanent facility.<\/p>\n

Simpson pointed out that questions about the department’s location have gone unanswered for many years, accentuating the need to begin solving the problem. \u00a0The supervisors voted to pursue bids on a needs assessment study, not to exceed $30,000. The police chief\u00a0distributed an article that ran in PA Township News in September, which he said provided a good \u00a0analysis of the pros and cons of regional policing. \u201cI\u2019m asking the board to look at this material,\u201d he said. He added that he believes \u201cregional policing has some value\u201d and deserves inclusion in the mix of options for the township.<\/p>\n

In other police business, the supervisors agreed to permit Simpson to sell six out-of-service shotguns, which could be used for hunting, for $175 apiece to members of the department rather than just destroy them. Simpson also received authorization to hire two part-time officers, one to replace Pedro Melendez, who left to join the state police, and the second, which was included in the 2014 budget, to provide back-up coverage. The new officers are Jose Reyes, a retired state trooper, and Ryan Kushner, a recent graduate of the police academy.<\/p>\n

Delivering some distressing financial news, Andress said the township\u2019s health-insurance plan for employees was discontinued by Aetna, which offered a new plan that came with a 52 percent increase. Andress said he planned to look for alternatives, acknowledging that finding \u201ccomparable coverage at affordable costs\u201d could be a challenge.<\/p>\n

The next supervisors\u2019 meeting is scheduled for Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For one of them – Police Department’s future – chief suggests regional option By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times The New Garden Township Supervisors tackled a crowded agenda during a 3-\u00bd -hour meeting on Monday night, running the gamut from fire and police protection to water and financial woes. Delivering the annual report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[3932,1448,2786,686,2937,3931,3933],"class_list":["post-10563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-artesian-water-company","tag-avondale-fire-company","tag-interim-township-manager-spence-andress","tag-new-garden-township","tag-police-chief-gerald-simpson","tag-supervisors-chair-betty-gordon","tag-vince-pompo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}