The Kidder Township's special Wednesday meeting of the planning board witnessed the culmination of an often tense attempt to move a local development project forward. The project is for the construction of the Golden Oaks Village development, whose plans had to be altered due to a lack of funds.

The Planning Board failed to come to a resolution at its regularly scheduled meeting last Wednesday, August 4th. That meeting was characterized by angry outbursts from concerned residents against an agent of the projects bonding agency, Cashin, Spinelli, Ferretti of Farmington Connecticut, who did not have key numbers concerning the cost of the project. Because the agent did not have those numbers, the Planning Board declined to make a motion on a resolution to change the terms of the development plan, deciding instead to wait until the special meeting Wednesday.The changes to the plan, called re-phasing, entail abandoning completion of two portions of the Golden Oaks Village development until a later date. This is necessary because the developer, Golden Oaks, of Reading, Pennsylvania, lacks the sufficient funds to complete the project in its entirety.The new re-phasing for the project will allow development to continue. To do so, three portions of the project were removed from the plans. These portions center around three roads, Read Oak, White Oak and a portion of Keystone road, which are at the moment largely uncompleted and surrounded by undeveloped woodlands.If these portions were not dropped, the cost of the project would have been $1,470,000.00. This exceeds the current amount of the bond for construction, which is $511,000.00. Without the three portions, phase one of the development project can be completed for $330,000.00.Phase one of the project entails the completion of construction of roads in the development, entailing the laying down of base and final coats of asphault, completion of shoulders on the roads and cleaning up water retention basins.Six bids have been received for the work and if the Kidder Board of Supervisors approves the new plan, construction could begin around Labor Day and be finished before the end of the year."It's imperative that the township acts fast," said Cashin, Spinelli, Ferretti, regional manager Wayne Lambert, who was at the meeting to explain the needed changes, "asphalt plants close in October and if we're not ready to get supplies from then by then, the project will have to be put off until next year."