Trail study, soccer contracts approved
Regional Liberty Bell project pushes forward
UPPER GWYNEDD » A regional push to tackle portions of the Liberty Bell Trail project is moving ahead again.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners cast two votes in late November to take the next steps toward advancing the regional project.
“This Liberty Bell Trail will be a great asset to Upper Gwynedd. What we’re just working on now is a study, a feasibility study, to see if it’ll work — if our portion in Upper Gwynedd will work,” said Parks and Recreation Director Sarah Prebis.
In November 2019 the town
ship authorized a match of up to $15,000 to go toward a joint study being done to plan roughly ten miles of possible trail routes running through Franconia, Hatfield, and Upper Gwynedd Townships and Hatfield, Lansdale, North Wales, Souderton and Telford Boroughs. Since then, according to Prebis and Township Manager Sandra Brookley Zadell, the joint project has been awarded a grant totaling roughly $113,000 from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission for the project, meant to fill a link that is now largely missing from the regional network.
“When this whole entire project is done, it’ll be a 26-mile trail from Quakertown to East Norriton,” Prebis said.
“Upper Gwynedd has not done anything yet with this trail, so we’re going to try to step it up and get some of our portion done. We are working, right now, with six other municipalities to get all of our little sections done,” she said.
Two votes were requested from the commissioners during their Nov. 23 meeting: one to approve a contract with DVRPC confirming the township will put $12,000 toward the match, and a second motion authorizing the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to prepare a request for proposals for the feasibility study. Both actions were approved unanimously by the board, and Zadell said Prebis had taken the lead for the regional group in pushing the project ahead.
“Sarah’s really been taking a lead on it, and doing a great job coordinating the group, writing the RFP, and all of these documents,” Zadell said.
“Upper Gwynedd has really taken the lead amongst these communities, and they’re all really grateful for the work we’re doing on it. And Sarah’s doing the lion’s share of the work,” she said.
Soccer contract also gets OK: The board also voted unanimously on Nov. 23 to hire an outside firm to run the township’s youth soccer program in 2021.
“We have about 100 kids that registered for this league in the past, and so we’ve hired a soccer coordi
nator to help with this,” said commissioner Ruth Damsker.
“We have decided to outsource this soccer league, because they have a wonderful reputation, so we’re very excited about bringing them in,” she said.
According to Damsker and Prebis, in prior years the parks and rec department had three full-time employees to oversee and coordinate such programs, but that number is now down to two. A contract with Warminster-based Total Soccer is included in the board’s meeting materials for Nov. 23, and Dam
sker said the $5,000 cost was included in the draft 2021 township budget.
“Upper Gwynedd will advertise and take the registrations, but Total Soccer will be doing the rest,” she said.
Commissioners President Liz McNaney added that she hoped COVID-19 restrictions on youth events will be lifted by the spring and summer soccer seasons, and Damkser agreed: “We’re looking forward, certainly, to something that boys and girls can participate in.”
Verizon agreement updated: The board also
unanimously approved an updated cable franchise agreement with Verizon, which Zadell said has been modernized to reflect new developments in the wireless world.
“There are some changes in the agreement that are based on changes that happen in the world of cable law, and the way that operators operate, and even the
way that users utilize cable,” she said.
The new agreement lets the township assess a franchise fee of up to five percent of the company’s gross revenue from cable services in the township, but has a new definition of “gross revenue” with 22 listed revenue sources, which the manager said will have a budget impact still to be
determined but were negotiated as part of a Montgomery County-wide consortium agreement of several municipalities.
“These terms that you have before you are the terms that were the best possible terms to negotiate,” Zadell said. “It’s a fair agreement for both sides, and we won’t have to do this again for five more years.”