At last night’s public meeting, Manor Township Supervisor Chairman Don Palmer (right) demanded action be taken in order to settle the lease issue between the Township and the Fort Armstrong Horsemen’s Association.
by KP intern Kyle Predmore
During last night’s Manor Township supervisors’ meeting, the ongoing issue between the Township and the Fort Armstrong Horsemen’s Association escalated.
“They are not communicating with us now,” Supervisor Chairman Don Palmer said. “I’m hesitant to bring this up but I don’t want this going on any longer. We met with them back in late February or early March and gave them 60 days to come back with a solution to our lease agreement. at this moment, they are not satisfied with the lease agreement. After the 60 days expired, they became quiet. “We have a valid lease in place but they’re not happy with it and don’t want to comply with all of the stipulations in the agreement.”
According to Palmer, there is a 30 year agreement that was signed back in 2016. The previous lease was terminated when former horse park officials said they needed a long-term lease in order to build an arena where shows could be conducted year-round. However, those officials were voted out at the beginning of 2018 and the new board nixed the construction plans.
“They are not communicating with us after having our attorney requesting a meeting with them to get this resolved,” Palmer added.” I don’t know whets going on or what the issue is. We’ve given them an opportunity to give us another solution and we were willing to sit down and look at the agreement to get something in place but now they’re not responsive. we want to be able to work with hem, work out a solution and move forward. I think we need to have our solicitor send them a certified mail demanding that we have a meeting with them and get this out in the open with them and get this done.”
Palmer did not say what parts of agreement were not being met by the Association.
In other action, there is a road reconstruction project for both Boyd Road and Grant Street. The motion to award both road projects to Shield Asphalt Paving Inc. for the cost of $115,427.30 was passed.
“That amount presented is not coming out of township funds,” Secretary and Treasurer Jill Davis said. “It is road reconstruction. They are repaving the roads.”
There was also a motion to accept the lowest bid and award the Rosston Boat Ramp to Holbein Inc. at a cost of 36,752.50.
“Based on our experience with Holbein, it’s our opinion they are capable of completing this project.” Armstrong County Community Development Coordinator Kathy Heilman said.
In a previous interview in April, Palmer discussed the possibility of constructing an addition onto the existing municipal building, citing the growth of the police department as one of the reasons. Later, it was announced that an addition was not possible due to right-of-way issues. During last night’s meeting, further discussion on expansion was brought up.
“We took the garage space and are currently in the progress of converting that into office space for the police officers. We are at the point where we need to remove the current garage doors, put them into storage for future use and have the openings blocked in and insulated and built in from the inside.”
As of last night only one official bid for the project was made for $1,020. Supervisor Bob Southworth mentioned that he is awaiting a bid from a second company. A motion was passed to approve the project to the company with the lowest bid.
There was also a secondary expansion project where the Township was interested in property across the street. They got the approval and already know exactly what they will do with the plot of land.
“We brought the property across the street for two reasons,” Palmer said. “The primary reason is to be able to tear down he house and build a garage for the police department to store all their cars. The second reason is to provide excess overflow parking for here.”
The next supervisors meeting is set for Wednesday, July 18 at 6 p.m.