Board debates fixing private road

PHOENIXVILLE >> In a test of its good neighbor policy, school officials in Phoenixville are debating whether to approve up to approximately $15,000 of taxpayer money to pay for a onetime paving of a private street.

Neighbors have asked the district if it would pave Gay Street between Pothouse Road and Hallowell Avenue, near the construction site of the incoming Phoenixville Early Learning Center and Manavon Elementary School. The street is in need of repair, but the district is under no obligation to pave it. The administration accepted a bid of $15,150 from Charlestown Paving to pave the roadway, leaving it to the board to decide whether it was willing to make repairs and if so, how much it would spend.

The board was split over the decision. The majority said they were willing to at least chip in a percentage of the cost if neighbors would pay a share, considering these neighbors have been among themost affected by the construction site. However, others said taking public money to pave a private street is unfair to taxpayers who wouldn’t stand to gain anything from it.

When Meadow Brook Golf Club owned the property, the owner would take care of the street and did chip in the last time it was paved, according to Stan Johnson, executive director of operations, during the

Sept. 8 school board workshop meeting.

“The previous owner was under no obligation but did it because a lot of the folks that did use his golf course came in that way,” Johnson said at the time. “So the neighbors are saying (to the) school district ‘you now own the property. Will you take care of the street?’ And that’s the question for the board.”

The district has made accommodations for other neighbors in that development in the past, board member Ken Butera said at the Sept. 8 meeting. Along with residents from Meadowbrook Lane, the Pickering Glen development, these neighbors have been among the most affected by construction.

On Thursday boardmember Joshua Gould suggested the district pay two-thirds of the cost, and neighbors can pay the rest. The district has made accommodations for other neighborhoods near the construction site that have been inconvenienced and “those were higher dollar amounts.”

“I think asking neighbors to cough up $5,000 is a decent deal and the district would toss in $10,000,” he said.

Butera expressed a concern about setting a precedent by approving the project, to which Gould replied that if the district were to move forward on the project it would have to be understood that this was a one time deal.

Board members Renee Pfender, Kevin Pattinson and Lisa Longo agreed with Gould’s percentage proposal, provided it was a one time special circumstance, because of where the project is located, and as Longo said, because of how the golf course owner treated neighbors in the past.

“I would go as much as 100 percent on this,” Longo said.

Board President Dan Cushing said he’d prefer the district paid of the cost and neighbors paid the rest.

Board Vice President Betsy Ruch and boardmembers Eric Daughtery and Michael Ellis III said they had trouble approving taxpayer dollars to fix a private street.

“I have trouble asking granny from the borough to pay for this,” Ruch said.

“I’d love to be a nice guy good neighbor,” Daughtery said. “I just have trouble wrapping my head around why we would take tax dollars out of somebody from East Pikeland or Schuylkill, who doesn’t live close to the school, take money out of their pocket and use it to pave somebody’s private road that just happens to live by the school. Albeit a road that’s in bad shape, but not by our doing.”

Daugherty said he’d be OK with spending $2,000$3,000 but not covering half to two-thirds of the cost.

He later responded to the majority by asking whether the district would agree to pay for other private issues from neighbors in the future.

“Are you going to do it the next time the next person down the road comes and says can you fix my driveway?” he said. “We’re not going to do it again for this taxpayer but where are we going to draw the line? You’re precedent-ing away a lot of money here.”