Lower Southampton Township has completed a $1.1 million transaction purchasing the Meadowbrook Road property on which they originally intended to build the town’s disputed and unfunded community center. According to an article in the Bucks County Courier Times, the town supervisors are split as to whether to go forward with a community center on the land now that they own it.
Originally, only one of the five Supervisors, Connie Birrane, opposed using the land for a community center. After hearing from a large group of residents who opposed building the Center on the land at a recent town meeting, other Supervisors broke off from the plan. All agree that the property will be used for storm water management regardless of what else is done there.
Now only Chairman Michael Connelly remains publicly behind building the multi-million dollar center that residents don’t seem to want and that the town currently has no way to fund at the site.
In July, all but Supervisor Connie Birrane said they backed the community center being built on the Meadowbrook Road property when they voted to purchase the property. But the others flip-flopped the following month when dozens of residents showed up to voice their opposition to the plan. Connelly wasn’t at that meeting.
At that meeting, Supervisors John McMenamin and Keith Wesley suggested putting the community center’s fate on a referendum since the taxpayers would pay for its construction. Supervisor Mark Hopkins agreed.
Since that meeting, there has been no further action on the referendum proposal.
Does this mean that Hopkins, McMenamin and Wesley were paying lip service to the concerned residents who took time out of their schedule to attend the recent meeting?
According to their web site, the next scheduled meeting of the Township’s Board of Supervisors is Wednesday September 24.
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