Pool could welcome food truck fundraiser
Swim team, management company could work out deal
TOWAMENCIN >> Visitors to the Towamencin pool complex could soon have a new option for snacks this summer.
The township supervisors have voted unanimously to allow the Towamencin Swim Team to arrange for a food truck to operate there during meets this season.
“They have arranged for a food vendor and ‘Kona Ice’ to share a portion of their profits with the swim team, in an effort to compensate for lost monies the team continues to endure as a result of the pandemic,” said supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson.
Georgia-based firm StandGuard Aquatics has operated the township’s Weikel Road pool complex since 2017, overseeing and managing memberships and use agreements with residents and groups like the swim team. After running for a full pool season in 2019, StandGuard and the pool were only open for a partial season starting in late June 2020 due to COVID-19, and the swim team and pool operator have both brought concerns to the board this spring about ways to make up lost revenues.
Allowing that food truck could be one way to do so, Wilson told the township supervisors on June 23. The food truck would be located “by the trash receptacle area, near the back of the pool premises,” and would not otherwise interfere with traffic or parking at the pool complex, he said.
Township codes currently prohibit any “vending or commercial activity in township parks unless the board approves,” Wilson said.
“StandGuard may have an exclusivity clause that could disallow the selling of food at the pool by another vendor,” he added.
Township staff have recommended that the swim team consult with StandGuard before making any arrangements, and the swim team submitted a request for the board for their approval. Supervisor Dan Littley asked when staff expected the swim team and StandGuard to have talked, and supervisor Laura Smith said that would be a next step.
“They need our approval, to then go to StandGuard,” Smith said.
Littley added that his main concerns were the impact on traffic and parking at the pool complex during meets, which the proposed location at the back of the pool premises should address.
Supervisor Dan Bell added that he had no problem allowing the swim team and StandGuard to make arrangements, so long as both agreed.
The board then voted unanimously to approve the request, contingent on the swim team securing approvals from StandGuard.
Sewer capital plan
The supervisors also heard a presentation on June 23 from township sewer engineer T.J. Figaniak on a draft long-term capital plan for the township’s sewer system.
“As requested, we have prepared a 10-year capital plan for the Towamencin Township sanitary sewer system, to just lay out any future projects and funding, and get a plan in action,” Figaniak said.
“This document is intended to be a working document: we can update it every year, we can update the costs, it will be a working document moving forward,” he said.
Four main projects are listed on the current draft of the plan, with by far the largest price tag attached to sanitary sewer line replacements in the Inglewood area of the township. That project is listed with an estimated cost of $8.2 million as of May 2021, of which roughly $7 million is construction costs, spread out as $1 million per year from 2024 through 2030.
“This project is generally on the southern side of Allentown Road: the northern side has been fully replaced already, many years ago,” he said.
“This is really the bigticket item on the list. We’re still seeing some minor issues when we have high rains, some issues down by the pool,” he said, calling the project “very intense: a lot of replacement, a lot of road (repaving), a lot of home connections over there.”
The next-largest price tag on the plan is the township’s Skippack Creek interceptor repair and rehabilitation project, with an estimated price tag of $500,000 spread over 2021 and 2022, a project that’s currently out to bid and partially offset by state grant funding.
That project will encompass around 7,100 linear feet of sewer lines to be evaluated and repaired, and a final price will be known when a bid is awarded, possibly as soon as the board’s July 28 meeting.
Third on the list is further work on the Towamencin Creek interceptor replacement, to expand current lines in the area of Sumneytown Pike, with an anticipated cost of roughly $300,000 plus any costs for easements and land acquisition, and targeted for 202426. The last item on the list is maintenance of sewer lines throughout the township, with roughly $150,000 allocated each year over the next decade to maintain sewer lines.
Wilson said he thought the plan should also include costs related to pump stations that propel sewer flow throughout the township, and suggested he contact the Towamencin Municipal Authority for data. Figaniak said he’d add that data to a revised draft and bring it back to the board, and add that updated plan to the virtual data room for firms preparing bids to purchase the township’s sewer system.
Sewer study timeline
Wilson also gave another update on the study of a possible sale of that system, and outlined a possible timeline for a decision. Outside firm PFM continues to prepare various documents requested by interested bidders, and held a call in early June “to discuss the various due diligence questions and requests for documents” from those firms.
“It’s the goal of the financing team to have a draft of the bidding documents available for the various bidders to review and comment, by late July,” Wilson said.
The bid terms should be publicized “sometime this summer” and responses due in by early fall, Wilson added, with presentations to the board “probably in the October, November time frame, and a decision, probably, by the end of December.”
If the board does decide to sell, state regulatory procedures could take up to a year before final settlement, “so you’re looking at the conclusion of this process at the very end of 2022, or early 2023, if we decide to move forward,” Wilson said.
Littley and Smith then sounded off, again, against chatter they’ve seen on social media claiming the board’s minds are made up.
“No decision has been made. There’s a lot of speculation on Facebook, by people who are not informed. No decision, by this board, has been made concerning the sewer authority,” Littley said.
“There are people that would want residents to believe it’s a done deal. It is not a done deal. It is not sealed in stone. We’re doing our due diligence,” Smith added.
“We have an asset. We need to know what it’s worth. (Sale) has worked in some areas, it has not worked in others. The media has not shown people where it works, but there are many communities where it does work, so our job, like it or not, is to examine: will it work for us?” she said.
Grant voted ahead
The board also authorized staff to sign for an $846,000 grant from the federal Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grant program to construct a new pedestrian and bicycle trail along the Towamencin Creek, from Trumbauer Road to Valley View Way.
“In order to administer this grant most efficiently, the township is required to designate an authorized signatory for associated documents,” Wilson said.
The board vote authorized the township manager to do so, and be registered in PennDOT systems to sign off where and whenever necessary to secure the grant. With the retirement of longtime Manager Rob Ford at the end of May, Finance Director Brooke Neve is acting as interim manager until the early August start date for Don Delamater as the next full-time manager.
Speeding complaint
Wilson also addressed a public comment made by resident Robert Artz of Newbury Way regarding traffic on Forty Foot Road, and a new signal planned for the intersection of Forty Foot and Newbury.
“Since the widening and resurfacing of Forty Foot Road, the volume of traffic has increased, and so has the speeding,” Artz said.
“Given the speed of the cars on Forty Foot, the township could make some extra income by asking the police department to set up speed traps. That would also have the result of slowing down traffic,” he said.
In May the township formally cut the ribbon on a new lane of Forty Foot Road, where a new lane has been added to Forty Foot over the past year to remove a bottleneck just south of a signal at Tomlinson Road.
As part of that project, infrastructure for a new signal on Forty Foot at Newbury was also installed, and Artz queried the board on when that new signal could go live.
“We were promised a traffic light at Forty Foot and Newbury upon the completion of the (widening) project. There has also been information that a traffic light will not be installed until development of the new shopping center” at Forty Foot and Allentown Roads, Artz asked.
Wilson answered that he has seen police patrols on that stretch of Forty Foot in recent weeks, and said the traffic signal activation is out of the township’s hands.
“The township traffic engineer has tried to get PennDOT to loosen up on this, and try to get the light put up now, even suggesting the light be put up and left on flashing.
“They have been adamant: they would not approve that, and so far have been adamant they are not going to change their position, that the shopping center needs to develop first,” he said.
Developer PSDC has said they could present plans for further development at that shopping center later this year, now that a new Planet Fitness gym has opened inside a former Sears store there, and Wilson said further talks could be held with PennDOT as those developments proceed.