Penn Forest is looking to delegate more responsibility to the recreation board

Rick Tweed serves as an alternate on the Penn Forest recreation committee. Monday night he addressed the board of supervisors."We are looking for more input into the next phase of the park," Tweed said. "We believe that the current design for phase II is not adequate to address certain issues relative to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). In some instances, a family member with disabilities would be required to get more than 300 feet from the nearest handicap parking space to watch a sporting event."We think that some of what is in the plan needs to be rethought or redesigned," Tweed said.Chairman Warren Reiner addressed the issue of the plans for the next phase of the park."That's off the table for now. As you know we turned down the bid we received and will re-address it at another time," Reiner said.Supervisor Phil Shedaker addressed Tweed's concerns by saying that the board would be sending a member to attend the committee's meetings. Shedaker also said it is the township's goal to turn over more responsibility to the committee and let them make the recommendations to the board."Our plan is to have the recreation committee come to us with their recommendations, and we will discuss and vote on them. That's how it should be," Shedaker said. "This is just in its infancy, it's all new."Supervisor Christine Fazio expressed her concern with the cost of having the engineer redesign the park again."We say, 'go do that' and then I see the bill come in and wow, this is expensive," Fazio said. "Do we need the engineer to keep making changes? Can't we just look it over and decide what we want before they get involved?"Township records show that the engineering firm of Barry Isett and Associates, who are contracted by the township for not only engineering services, but for code enforcement and permitting, was paid over $19,000 for the months of June and July.The board agreed that either Reiner or Fazio, or both, would attend the recreation committee meetings in the future.Also with regard to the park, Reiner said the well has been completed at a cost of $4,098, actually coming in $400 under the estimate. The park sign has been ordered.Resident William Miller addressed the board and made a suggestion that since the sanitation fund is over $800,000 that the board might look into investing at least $500,000 of that in a fund that earns interest.The township is planning an electronics recycling event in September. The next meeting will be held on Sept. 8 and a special meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Aug. 17 to open sealed bids for line painting.