Township buying High St. property
LOWER POTTSGROVE » Township commissioners have entered into a contract to buy three parcels of property at the corner of South Pleasant View Road and East High Street for a combined cost of $377,000.
Commissioners President Bruce Foltz said the properties could be used for a new township “campus.”
“No decision has been made yet on that. That’s up to the board,” Foltz said.
Although he noted the new infrastructure committee met in December and recommended the township acquire property suitable “for creation of a campus” for township functions.
Foltz has been on the board of commissioners for 18 years and for almost all of them has argued the current township offices on Buchert Road, built in 1990, are too small to accommodate the needs of the growing township.
Township Manager Ed Wagner said the current building is 7,500 square feet.
If the infrastructure committee recommends going ahead new campus at this site to the full board, he would not only argue for a building that’s twice as big, but also one that accommodates police as well as township offices.
“I would argue against splitting up the police and the administrative offices,” he said when asked if the current building would be converted into a stand-alone police station of a new campus is built.
“I think we could sell this building for office space. It would make a great doctor’s office or dentist’s office,” Foltz said.
Although a purpose for the property has not been formally decided, Foltz said the price was too good to pass up.
In 2014, developers approached the commissioners about building a Family Dollar store on that parcel, but the commissioners indicated they would not support a store like that in Sanatoga’s “village district.”
Foltz said at the time the commissioners rejected the Family Dollar, there was no thought of the township buying the site. Rather, the board had been interested in a property on the opposite corner, a former drug store that closed shortly after it opened, as a possible new township complex.
“But the owner wanted more than $1 million for that, and we couldn’t afford that,” he said.
But the township could afford $377,000, which will be taken out of reserves when the closing occurs at the end of February, although Foltz said the township may seek out a grant or take out a loan to pay for the property ultimately.