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The Abington Citizens Network
where Abington, PA residents can share
ideas and join forces to build a better community
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Memorial Field
Near Susquehanna and Old Huntingdon Pike Next to Sunrise At
Abington, Horace, Eckart, Guernsey etc
In a nutshell :
Memorial field properties will
be leased by Penn State and improved by Penn State to the tune
of about $5 million.
The School District
will
still own the property, but the District, Penn State
and the community will be able to use the fields. A great
deal of activity is planned on the fields. The community
will have limited use of the fields when they are not being used
by the schools.
1-14-14 A great number of changes:
the bids came in high nearer to the $7 million mark instead of
the anticipated $5 million mark that was budgeted. the bids were
all rejected and they will advertise for new ones but not before
making changes in the specs. the changes include that the lower
fields will not have a storage building with the bathroom that
was originally proposed and the perimeter fencing will
possiblybe less expensive .the upper field may not be getting
new bleachers sports lighting scoreboard or ticket booths.
And the walking track may be a less expensive one than
originally planned with a rubberized surface. also money will
be saved by using a less expensive option in the tennis
courts area.
5-9-13
7pm Ab Township
“Special Code
Enforcement Committee meeting “
The
issues at Memorial Field are not small. (
see grey highlighted area
below for one of the earlier run-downs ) Plans at that
property not only include features which cover more of the
pervious surface in a seriously flooding area, but there
are also plans in the wings for a possible school to be built
there . That feature, although part of a presentation to the
school community, is nowhere on the radar in this
presentation to the community. Artifical turf & parking
and a school building & parking --- add the impervious surface
up and talk to those downstream.
But the issue of having proper
processes that are not abused is an even greater one to address.
This item was withdrawn at the May Code Enforcement
meeting - but another meeting was set up and announced just days
in advance .
Multiple Fields & facilities for the fields will bring traffic
noise lights and constant activity - pervious surfaces that will
increase flooding, traffic, noise, etc ---- it
is being quickly set up for approval just minutes before
the final approval meeting at 8pm.
T his
will leave the publicwith
no time to research or to make calls.
In fact, they have up-ended the process entirely
by scheduling – perhaps as little as
days in advance (The Newspaper announcement was just 2
days prior in the Intelligencer)
a with
only a few select individuals properly notified . (There
was a newspaper adin hte Intelligencer - anyone get that? - It
ran May 7th for a May 9th meeting . Apparently that
legally suffices) The rest of the public
apparently were supposed to log on every day and surf all over
the website to try to see if there was anything new that might
"amend" the Code Enforcement meeting they thought had been
completed for this month.
Outrageous.
The “Special meeting “ was
not listed on the news page // The township email system
was not used – (and never is )
// my
Commissioner did not correctly inform us, saying it would be
“discussed” & information
would be presented for consideration –no reference
to a VOTE . Who knew they could do this ? But they can
....long as we allow it .
Can any applicant
who would like to hurry their
issue to completion do this ?
Can anyone forego the properly scheduled meetings and
pick a date convenient to themselves- even if to the detriment
of the public interest?
This would be a bad precedent to set and is reflective of
the way the WAWA
ordinance was just
jammed through. Rather than approving or denying
their request, the WAWA had their plan
“developed
for them “ on the spot" at meetings
to avoid them coming back through proper channels.
No one even knew what was being voted on (included the
confused voters)
Here we see that again. The public’s ability to respond properly
is removed.
The “Public”
has not been
notified ----- no
vote should take place.
Please use your voices
and email those in charge
.
9-3-12
WARD 7 -MEMORIAL FIELD - PSU to PUT $5
MILLION INTO FIELD
The development of the fields with future considerations of
possible buildings in addition to these changes:
Penn State Abington has
a 25-year lease agreement effective Sept 1st for Memorial
Field,
on Huntingdon Rd
at Susquehanna. About $5 million in upgrades, taking possibly up
to 4 years,
will be made
and PSU Abington
teams
will then be able to use the field which will get artificial
turf for soccer, lacrosse and field hockey games, an
"all-weather"
track,
fencing, renovated tennis courts, and bleachers.
Softball will move to
the lower field .
In addition, the school
district would use the complex for boys’ and girls’ soccer
teams, field hockey and possibly some
lacrosse with approx. 30
school district games per year.
Memorial Field is adjacent to
university owned
properties on Cloverly Lane.
Games, to be
early
afternoons or on weekends ,are expected to have
50 or fewer spectators so
parking was said to be
adequate.
The community would also be able to use the facilities, and it
is likely community groups, like the Abington Lacrosse Club, the
Abington YMCA
and Citizens and Police Together (CAPT) would be allowed
use. That folks -- is a
LOTTA traffic and activity.
What concerns me the most is that residents in this
area were not alerted and made part of the conversation in these
planning stations ( I did not say NONE were, and
I spoke to one resident who welcomed it - but none of the
ones I called had
received any
notice of the details or were told how their thoughts and
concerns might be taken into account in the intial draftings.
Perhaps a lease could contain a clause that gave neighbors an
opportunity each year to have grievances addressed. Agreements
are much harder to change AFTER the fact.
The process still
has to go through land development, so notification should be
given for those meetings, but our School District, ( and our
Township) when affecting properties and property values and
quality of life issues. Notice in a limited circulation parents
emailing is certain not to reach many affected.
There was apparently additional discussion that if
another school is needed, the lease could be terminated with
PSU, unless they were able to build
a school on the lower half of the area.
USE
THE TOOLS AVAILABLE TO YOU
Ask your Commissioners and your Township manager
(click here)
specifically to :
1)
...post a SINGLE webpage on this with links to find meetings,
updates & all the plans 2) ...tape all meetings on this topic & air them on our public
channel - the devil is really in
the details
-then you can review or catch up on a meeting you missed .
This is actually important . 3) ... post all
the taped meetings on-line with time reference points and
fast forward features 4) .. create an email list for all
updates and - invite ALL residents
via Township & Commissioners
lists to be on it so they can receive updates in their box if
they desire 5) ...provide a meeting space ( already paid by your taxes
) for neighbors to hold their own open discussions
whenever they choose - not called by or moderated by authorities.
6) ... provide residents a summary of all changes being proposed
in 2 column/compare style 7) Finally:
neighbors, please make
your
own
meetings open to all - if you try to limit transparency
hoping to benefit only your point of view, then you will find it limited for yourself --- you will
be part of the problem not the solution
Email me if you need
help contacting others. I also have a great deal of information about
how our processes work and what is happening elsewhere in the
Township that might be helpful to your situation.
__________
Our codebook is in 2 parts
Part 1
Township's
Codebook
except for zoning
Part 2
Zoning Portion of Township Codebook
or go to
http://www.abingtonpa.gov/info/newcodebook.htm
More Tools for residents
This site is a forum for information sharing and idea sharing.
Please feel free to
send your view and please be sure to tell us
about any information you believe to be incorrect - write
lel@abingtoncitizens.com
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Abington Township, with John Spiegelman in charge, revamped the entire Township website at the end of 2015
and broke all the links to the information we had archived on this site for you.
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