What you did not read this morning

Here is what the newspapers did not report about last night’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

1. Yes, there were supporters of the zoning change to allow for a “big box/supermarket” retail store who spoke before the Board. They were however outnumbered 4 to 1 and unlike the opponents to the change, none of these people received rousing amounts of continual applause.
2. Supervisor Howell is correct when he stated that we need new revenues, as new home construction revenue will eventually go away. But why did this happen in the first place? Perhaps this question should be posed to Supervisor’s Don Miller and David Hoff. Mr. Miller is in his 4th term (each term is 6 years) and Mr. Hoff who is completing his 2nd term. Under their “stewardship” all of this new housing was made possible and the fees charged to developers remained minimal compared to the revenues that they (Developers) derived from home sales.
3. With respect to Supervisor Howell’s report that there are 3.096 homes approved for construction in the pipeline, in light of our serious flooding issues, why isn’t Forks Township pursuing a moratorium on building similar to what New Jersey is doing so that the problem can be studied and addressed?
4. As for Supervisor Miller’s report that the people he spoke to want “choice” as it relates to a grocery store, we wonder if he told them that besides Giant, there are five other grocery stores within five miles of our township and that depending on where you live, some of them might actually be closer to you than the new store that will be built.
5. Supervisor Howell also reported that the new supermarket would employ approximately 200 people. How many of them will be full-time? If this store goes the trend of every other grocery store, very few. He also indicated that the township receives approximately $54,000 in mercantile taxes from Giant and $12,000 from CVS. So are we to believe that $42,000 will solve all of our financial worries?

Here are some good questions to pose to our elected leaders.

1. What are they doing to solicit new non-commercial businesses to our township?
2. Shouldn’t this be among the top five priorities and measurable goals of the new town manager?
3. Why is the Board of Supervisors so hesitant to dramatically raise fees charged to developers?
4. An oldie but a goodie. If our elected public servants are now so concerned with our fiscal future, why did we rack up $10-12 million in debt ($8-10 million w/o interest) to build a new municipal complex? Better still, how did a township with this much growth incur this much debt? Shouldn’t this have been all paid through higher fees charged to developers?