Amity Township’s Public Works Foreman Alistair Howell-Clarke said the three previously approved security cameras, monitor and phone line will be installed this week at Lake Drive Park.
The board approved in May the $1,000 expenditure that will provide the township and Amity Township Police with 330 feet of real-time, nighttime resolution monitoring at the park’s bathrooms.
‘The vandalism is getting worse,’ said Howell-Clarke on May 7. ‘They’re setting fires, breaking the door, and it’s becoming a weekly thing, mostly over the weekends.’
The cameras will also be directed toward two other areas of continued vandalism: the Skateboard Park and pavilion.
Board members unanimously approved on April 16 to submit a 50 percent matching grant application to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to rehabilitate and refurbish the pavilion. The estimated project cost is $31,500. Rehabilitation work would include installing a new one-inch waterline, new steel doors, a new A-frame roof (to prevent roof-climbing), ADA access (a $10,000 item), and to also create two new parking spaces.
Supervisor Paul R. Weller said then that cameras would be needed at the remotely-located pavilion to help prevent future vandalism.
‘We don’t want to put a lot of money into that and then [they] destroy that,’ said Weller on May 7.
The Skateboard Park opened in September 2006 after five years of planning and fundraising by local parents and youth.
The board has recently rejected requests from two residents asking for ordinance enforcement to resolve stormwater runoff from neighbors onto their properties.
Although township ordinances indicate that residents are prohibited from depositing stormwater onto neighboring properties, board members said it is a civil issue to resolve and not municipal.
A resident of Hillview Road told the board last month that the water on his property could be corrected by the township purchasing the right of way offered by the neighbor.
He said the township could then construct the necessary improvements.Township Manager Charles E. Lyon said the estimated 2011 costs to complete the project in-house are $45,000 and in excess of $152,000 if contracted.
‘I cannot support spending public money to alleviate a problem on personal property,’ said Supervisor Richard L. Gokey on June 4.Chairperson Kimberly J. McGrath agreed, stating that the water runoff that floods the road is a safety concern, but not the backyard flooding.
A resident of Redwood Drive said July 2 that her backyard has flooded after a neighbor recently installed a pipe that she said deposits stormwater onto her property.
‘You have to prove it’s that water that is creating the nuisance,’ said Supervisor Paul R. Weller and Code Enforcement Officer Steven Loomis.
