Ford City Council President Carol Fenyes addressed concerns from the public over the sale of Fort Run Park
Ford City Borough Council approved the sale of Fort Run Park to Manor Township for $1 at last night’s public workshop.
“Manor Township approached us with the interest in purchasing the property,” Council President Carol Fenyes said.
“It’s a park we are blessed with, but not a park is necessarily used by the borough.”
She later addressed the location of the park and how it is not within Ford City limits.
“I can 100% confirm that park is in Manor Township. That park is not within [Ford City] borough limits. It’s in Manor Township,” council member Tyson Klukan said.
“They [Manor Township] do not have a park, from my understanding, within their township. They would like to have a park, and since the property sits within their township, they would like to purchase the property and utilize it as a park.”
“They cannot change it to townhouse complexes; they have to keep it recreational conservation.”
Ford City borough resident and former councilman Jerry Miklos expressed his disapproval of selling the park property for only one dollar.
Concerns were addressed by former councilman Jerry Miklos.
“Why are we doing this? Why this particular property?” Miklos asked
“You’re selling the property for $1, you’re essentially giving it away.”
Fenyes added that the town would benefit “by not having to pay to maintain the park and area.”
At the Manor Township meeting last week, supervisors approved paying approximately $9,000 in fees for grass cutting and lawn maintenance of the park, awarding the contract to Emminger Lawn Care. The contract will begin once the park has been deeded to Manor Township.
In other action, Gibson-Thomas Engineer Edward Schmitt was at the meeting to give an update on the storm water situation in Ford City.
“There’s water from heavy rains and the river that needs to be slowed down and collected within the storm water system. The system itself has to be big enough and clean enough to be able to handle some of that water.”
There is considerable damage to pipes and pump stations that would require maintenance possibly including fixing cracks within the pipes and repairing pump station building windows and doors. Repairing the damage, cleaning out the debris in the pies and updating some of the equipment would end up costing in the upwards of near $3 million.
“The entire cost of the project could be anywhere between $1.9 million and $3.1 million,” Schmitt said.
There was no vote on the project as Gibson-Thomas is currently seeking grant money to help offset the total cost from Ford City.
The next Ford City Council meeting will be on Monday, July 9.
Gibson-Thomas Engineer Edward Schmitt was at the meeting and addressed different issues and proposed fixes for flood issues in Ford City.