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Peters Township Council discusses borrowing for park development

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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A bond issue, with an accompanying tax increase, is the most likely scenario for covering the costs associated with launching the development of Rolling Hills Park in Peters Township.

During an Oct. 15 workshop session addressing the park’s future, township council members discussed the possibility of a .1-mill increase to offset the additional debt service that new borrowing would bring. According to figures presented at the meeting, the impact on the average residential property owner would be about $34 per year, and the median, $29.

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Construction at the future site of the new Peters Township High School

“We’ve purchased this property and spent a lot of money to acquire it, and I don’t think people have any anticipation that what they bought was a meadow,” township manager Paul Lauer said about the municipal half of the former Rolling Hills Country Club. Peters Township School District is in the process of constructing a high school on its portion.

The purchase will be completed with a $1,597,720 payment to former property owner Pinehurst Land Partners LLC, which council expected to authorize at its Oct. 22 meeting. Council approved an expenditure of $5,537,500 in October 2016.

The largest Rolling Hills-related expenditure on the horizon for the municipality involves construction of new access drive through the property and accompanying intersections with East McMurray and Center Church roads. The cost is to be split between the township and school district, about $3.7 million each.

A “loop road” to connect the access drive to the various amenities proposed for the park, carries an estimated price tag of $2.75 million. Developing a new trail system through the park and building a maintenance facility at the site bring the total projected capital cost at this point to $9,147,720.

Meanwhile, the township has more than $2 million in available resources to put toward that amount, meaning the additional funding needed slightly exceeds $7 million.

Source: Peters Township

At their workshop session, council members discussed $10 million as an option for a bond issue.

“One of the things that I would suggest to you is that we ought not to tailor the bond issue so tightly to an estimate so that we don’t have the funds available to provide the matches to grant applications,” Lauer said, referring to park-related projects for which the township could be eligible.

“We would want to go out, I think, as quickly as possible to get a financial adviser under contract,” he said. “What we’re seeing with the interest rates, they’re moving in the wrong direction right now.”

To that objective, council planned to vote Oct. 22 on authorizing proposals for an independent financial adviser.

“It gets us information that we would not get otherwise to begin the process,” Lauer explained.

In an issue not related to finance, he expressed concerns with regard to future maintenance of a high-profile park and all of its amenities.

“You certainly cannot maintain it with the existing staff,” he said. “They are struggling to be able to maintain it in its current condition and do everything else.”

Jay Mizia, park maintenance supervisor for the township, pointed out that the new park would be of a size similar to Peterswood Park, the current major site for local recreational activities.

“So where we’re struggling now with six guys to even keep up with the grass – let alone improvements, projects, benches, maintenance on playgrounds, whatnot – you’re going to be adding another facility which I would assume you’re going to want, at minimum, the service that’s been provided to Peterswood Park,” he said. “I think this park is going to be more front-and-center. It’s going to be more visible than Peterswood is. And it’s going to require manpower.”

Councilman Robert Lewis acknowledged that some residents would balk at the notion of a tax increase.

“But I also think that seeing the park up there idle,” he said, “without some improvements for it, is going to come back and haunt us.”

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