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rentalbarn.com |
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2212 Sullivan Trail Easton Pa 18040 610-258-2963 |
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Forks Township Verses Us 1990-2009
There are many challenges in running a small business. These include competition, theft, employee problems. The most challenging are all the restrictions from the municipality that the business operates in. After all the municipality benefits by our success with increased tax revenues and the jobs we provide. One would think the increased revenue would be a benefit to the community. For 15 years Forks Township has prevented us from upgrading and preserving our property.
This isn’t an isolated incident many small municipalities are run by elected officials who have anti business agendas. In our community our Township officials have mostly come from Recreation. What they don’t understand Business and Industrial development require less police and fire protection. They don’t require team uniforms, swimming pools, parks, or air conditioned basketball courts. Industrial and retail development can provide a community much of it’s operating budget along with jobs and services. In our community our Supervisors are more concerned with Basketball scores then minor problems like traffic safety |
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Rental Barn |
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What about the old garage On July 3 2003 Forks Township Supervisors voted to send Township employees onto our property and tear it down. “I totally resent what you wrote on that building” “It’s a hazard take it down or we will” Supervisor Holmgaard
Supervisor Holmgaard “I make a motion that this project be denied. Get it out of here”. Supervisor Miller seconds the motion. Supervisor Holmgaard |
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Meco Road Update June 2009 In addressing the traffic problems on Sullivan Trail at Meco Road Forks Township officials have spent 4 years and more then $70,000.00 in planning. This money was mostly wasted because plans submitted to PennDOT were incomplete. The plans were rejected by PennDOT because Forks Township failed to address our entrance. Even after PennDOT demanded our inclusion in the projects planning Chairman Howell and the Forks Township Supervisors still refused to meet with us.
In July of 2008 we were contacted by PennDOT to discuss our entrance. At this point we learned of Forks Townships antics. We worked out a plan with PennDOT engineers but Forks Township officials refused to accept the PennDOT approved plan or meet with us to discuss it.
Supervisors then engaged the Solicitor and Engineer to try to find a way to circumvent PennDOT rules. The Townships Engineer described the rule that prevented Forks Township from closing our entrance as “obscure”. We addressed Forks Township Supervisors 3 times to explain our position and PennDOT’s requirements but they continued to ignore us.
Forks Township officials then tried to bully us into accepting a plan that would have taken a storage building our 100+ year old stone corral and most of our mature trees for a unusable entrance. The plan they demanded we accept would have cost us more then $50,000.00 to construct.
Chairman Howell’s next plan was to trick us into signing a blank release of our property rights. (Supervisor Howell how stupid do you think we are)
When everything in Chairman Howell’s bag of tricks failed he ran to the press and blamed us for his own fiasco. When that failed to bring any sympathy to his cause Forks Township officials finally agreed to accept the entrance plan worked out in July of 2008. The Morning Call reported on March 15 2009 that an agreement had been worked out however to this date Forks Township has not put this agreement in writing as promised. Since March 15 this project has fallen off the radar screen. Yes there has been a few more accidents at our intersection but It seems that the Supervisors have taken this traffic light off the priority list.
It is spring and Forks Township priorities must be focused on new playground equipment and basketball, Apparently we can survive another year without a traffic light but we can’t survive another year without a band shell.
Was this project ever about traffic safety or was this just another feeble attempt by Forks Township to harass us. From an article in the Morning Call we learned that 2 million dollars browed to address traffic safety has been mostly spent on the Forks Township Municipal building. It seems much of what remained was paid to the Forks Township professional staff for incomplete plans, and still no help for the traffic on Sullivan Trail. |
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Last Summer when we were getting ready to defend our rights to our Sullivan Trail entrance. I realized that we have been fighting a loosing battle for the right to operate our business in Forks since the early 1990’s Back then it was Hanks, Miller and Fretz. In 2003 it was Holmgaard, Miller, Ackerman and Kline in 2009 it is Howell, Miller, Hay and Kline Hmmm.
In 2003 Chairman Ackerman had no problem demanding we give up our land without compensation, jump ahead to 2008 when Supervisors tried to take his land and his attitude changed quickly.
For 15 years we have tried to upgrade and expand our business. What our business could have been today is only visible on faded plans. The services we could have offered the jobs we could have created the taxes we would have paid, all thwarted by little dictators perched up in there million dollar meeting room.
15 years later and I am now 54 the opportunities that were are mostly gone. The independent Lawn Equipment dealer is a thing of the past. Forks Townships actions cost us our Toro Dealership, expansion of our Mower repair facilities, and the expansion of our Party Rentals. It is unlikely that anyone will step into this business when I decide to retire.
What is our project was In looking at the dilapidated condition of our property most people would assume that the dilapidated condition of our property was by our choosing. We have attempted on several occasions since the early 1990’a to upgrade some buildings and replace others. Our public battles with Forks Township in 1994 and 2003 happened before the current housing boom started. Many of the residents and our customers unaware why the old garage and the foundation of the farmhouse still remain.
The current showroom was an old shed we remolded in 1987. Removing the siding on the north side would reveal the original wall of the corn crib. The barn was re roofed and painted in 1985. It is one of the most solid Bank Barns in the Lehigh Valley but it is desperate need of new siding on. It is well understood that past and current Supervisors would prefer our business leave Forks Township and our valuable corner be used by a business that contributes more to the tax base and the recreation programs then a small independent rental business. Since it is unlikely that any Gas Station or Fast Food would save the barn we are reluctant to invest in new siding.
The design of our new showroom would have resembled a Horse Barn we attempted to preserve the rural character of our property. Not once in 15 years did any Township officials ever ask us about our plans there focus was getting us off this corner
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Our plan was to remove the old farmhouse, several other old sheds and build a new showroom and office. Some may remember seeing the farmhouse and garage. All that remains is the stone foundation. The farmhouse had been damaged by former tenants and we used it for our original office in 1985. We tore it down in 2002 to facilitate the new building we expected the Township to approve. The garage blew down in a storm in 2007
Our project languishing in the planning commission for almost a year. Plans were lost, rules that didn’t exist were added, and what was changed one month was changed back the next. Then there was the demand that we had to give Forks Township land they were not legally entitled to. It was clear that Forks Township was just trying to stop the project. At the time a Drug Store chain was looking at our property and I believe Supervisors were interested in the tax revenue possibilities of a Drug Store.
One evening the Chairman of the Planning Commission shook his finger at me and stated. “give us that land or your project is dead that is where the idea for the wall came from. |
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Farmland Preservation By definition would mean to preserve farmland but the last thing the residents of Forks Township want is Farms. They do not want the smells the equipment clogging the roads or the noise and dirt associated with Farming operations. Unlike Plainfield Township a farming community just to our north, Forks Township has taxed and regulated farms out of existence. Forks Township has acquired large tracts of farm land and has stripped them for soccer fields they call it Farmland Preservation. This is what the recreation focused Planners and Supervisors call Farmland Preservation. Today the Farmers who continued to farm as there neighbors gave up are being penalized by the residents who have not only restricted there farming operations but now prevent them from getting a fair price for there land. This is land they farmed for generations and you want to deprive them of there investment. If you live in Forks Township you live on farmland. How would you feel if Farmland Preservation started by turning your development back into Farmland. |
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Do we have any future plans One thing written in stone is Forks Township is very anti business. Until that focus changes there is no reason to look at any future expansion plans. If the Meco road intersection is ever built we may need to reconfigure our building. We still have the same offer to Forks Township. “let us use the square footage of the existing foundation and we will remove it”. We are still looking at offers for our property and if the right opportunity comes along we may move or liquidate.
Forks Township got greedy with development fees. They spent development fees faster then they came in. Officials were lax in overseeing developers and today many projects are incomplete. As developers pull out Forks Township is responsible to finish these projects with a dwindling escrow accounts. Officials never seen a time when development would stop but even before the current housing slump started Forks Township ran out of easily developable land. The Cash Cow is dead but spending still goes on. Supervisors are rushing to spent the last bit of recreation funds but when that account is gone there will be nothing left to maintain recreation except steep tax increases. It appears we still owe 8 million on the Municipal Complex and Supervisors want to spend another 4 million plus on a Township Garage. Tax increases last year didn’t fix the problem. |
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I have assembled this page with information I collected from my own dealings with Forks Township, The Express Times and The Morning Call, The Forks Township web site and local blogs. If there are mistakes, questions or omissions let me know |
