Exeter sidewalk plans under review

The Exeter Township Board of Supervisors has voted to approve spending at least $2,500 to cover the cost for an engineering review of the full plans for a sidewalk and crosswalk project near Lorane Elementary School. The vote Aug. 27 followed nearly one hour of discussion about the project and money the township has already spent on reviewing various components of the project.

The discussion is the result of a question that was asked earlier in Aug. about how much had been spent so far, and it was determined that an estimated $7,000 has already been paid to Great Valley Consultants for engineering reviews. The board had been on the record previously as saying they did not want the project to cost the township any money.

Supervisor Dona Starr voted against spending the additional money. Supervisor Gary Lloyd said there was only one choice.

“The only choice we have is to review it. If we were going to kill the project we should have killed it two years ago. We’re past that point,” he said.

As part of the discussion, it was explained that the full plans were not submitted to the township until about two weeks ago. Previously, issues were addressed as they came up. The $2,500 will cover the first review of the full set of plans.

“The purpose of the review is to see if there’s a safety concern, what issues we have and whether they can be addressed. This may not be a once and done process,” said township engineer Joseph Rogosky. He added that there might be issues discovered in that review, which will need to be addressed before a final vote is taken by the board on whether to allow the project to move forward.

The project was pursued by the Exeter Township School District, and would include a crosswalk from Apple Drive across Lorane Road and the construction of sidewalk along a portion of Lorane Road and then down Richards Place to make the school walkable for the Lorane Orchards neighborhood. The project would allow more students to walk to and from school and the school property.

The school district applied for and received grants for the engineering and construction of the project, as well as an historic walking tour of the area.

Before signing off on the grants in April, school board members James Brady and Joseph Staub appeared before the Board of Supervisors to discuss the project and to request approval of concept. At that time, according to the minutes from that meeting, “supervisors granted conditional approval subject to PennDOT’s safety analysis and final approval after meeting the township’s safety review.”