Two entities whose properties would be altered by a proposed roundabout on Route 934 in North Annville Township are not necessarily in support of the project.
Grace Life Church officials and Matt Bomgardner, owner of Blue Mt. View Farm, whose property is in the state’s farmland preservation program, told LebTown that they had not approved a deal with Exel Inc., which proposed the roundabout, because they have been waiting for more information to be supplied to them.
The church sits on the west side of state Route 934 along Clear Spring Road, while the preserved farm is on the east side of the highway.
This information is in stark contrast to what was told to Lebanon County officials, who were asked to take ownership of the roundabout project at a July 17 workshop by a DHL official and their legal counsel.
That request is still on the table, according to a county official.
In April 2022, a $3 million state Department of Transportation Multimodal Transportation Fund (MTF) was awarded to Exel Inc. for traffic improvements to Killinger Road and a new roundabout on Route 934 at Clear Spring Road. Exel Inc. is the DHL subsidiary developing a nearly 3 million-square-foot logistics park.
DHL paid for the Killinger Road improvements themselves to avoid delays in construction of their warehouse but was still in possession of the MTF for the proposed roundabout, projected at that time to cost $2.6 million before jumping to $2.9 million this spring.
After several years of little movement on the Route 934 roundabout, DHL official Kelli Post and Kathy Bruder, a Harrisburg-based attorney with Saxton & Stump, DHL’s legal counsel, approached Lebanon County about assuming the PennDOT grant.
As part of that deal, DHL was willing to provide $1.1 million in encumbered funds to the county toward potential change orders for the roundabout or however county officials wanted to spend it.
The DHL proposal to the county was first discussed at the mid-July commissioner workshop.
Near the end of that meeting, both Post and Bruder responded with affirmative answers when asked by Lebanon County administrator Jamie Wolgemuth if the preserved farm (Bomgardner’s property) that “had been dealt with.”
Both responded nearly simultaneously with “yes” and “yep” to that question.
Wolgemuth then said it appears the “planets were aligning” for a possible takeover of the project by the county, but he also enquired “if there were any loose ends to be tied up by us or anything else?” He asked, “If there are, what are they?”
“I think the only issue is the township not responding for the HOP (Highway Occupancy Permit)” answered Bruder. North Annville Township officials had been working with the company on the filing of the HOP permit prior to DHL approaching the county about the roundabout project.
Post, a senior director of incentives and site selection at DHL, expounded upon Bruder’s answer.
“Well, the HOP needs to be filed since we don’t have a resolution from the township authorizing to file the HOP on their behalf. We’re private, we can’t just go in and approve a public roadway,” said Post. “The HOP has been prepared and we have had lots of feedback from PennDOT, but it hasn’t been officially filed yet with them. Also, the same with NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) for stormwater. It’s prepared and ready to go with the ag board and PennDOT feedback, so we have to go through those filings and obviously get feedback.”
At the July 17 workshop and as reported by LebTown on Aug. 8, Post told commissioners that Bomgardner was willing to have his land used for the roundabout.
A follow-up letter sent to county commissioners in early August to summarize the proposals made by DHL to the county in mid-July noted that .6 acres of Bomgardner’s farm are needed for the project’s right-of-way.
Because the land is preserved, it would have to be removed via eminent domain proceedings from the farmland preservation program, which sets in motion some required procedures that must be met.
That had not occurred as previously told to LebTown by Craig Zemitis, farmland preservation specialist with the Lebanon County Conservation District, for this highway construction project.
Bomgardner wrote an email to LebTown on Aug. 14 expressing his views about what had – or hadn’t – happened by stating, “Someone (assuming DHL) lied about my willingness to give up land for the roundabout project. You want a good story, contact the landowners because I don’t know of one that likes the way DHL is handling this situation.”
LebTown had previously reported that Lebanon County senior transportation planner Jon Fitzkee had said private entities have no authority to initiate eminent domain proceedings since it is reserved as the government’s power to take private property for public use, with the owner’s consent and proper compensation.
“I was compelled enough and worked up enough to call Commissioner (Jo Ellen) Litz because I didn’t agree to anything,” said Bomgardner during an Aug. 14 telephone interview with LebTown.
Multiple email requests to Post requesting an interview for this article were not returned as of publication.
Bomgardner further explained that the only talks he had about his property was an initial conversation with Pittsburgh-based Keystone Acquisition Service Corporation officials, a right-of-way (ROW) acquisition firm, during an open house about the proposed roundabout held at the Union Water Works Fire Company last November.
That conversation also involved his cousin whose farm abuts Bomgardner’s property but is not in the state’s farmland preservation program.
During that polite conversation with the ROW officials, Bomgardner said, they mentioned coming to “walk his property line in January” to get the ROW acquisition process started. That never happened nor have there been any other discussions concerning financial compensation for his ROW and how much land would actually be required for the roundabout.
“Someone, I want to say from the Pennsylvania Historical Society, came out and took pictures to ensure there’s no historical significance to the farm,” said Bomgardner. “But I have not talked outright to anyone who has claimed to represent DHL. I’ve been pretty much waiting for the ball to get rolling and for someone to say, ‘This is what we’re going to take, this is what the steps need to be,’ and then we would negotiate a deal. But nothing like that has ever happened.”
Because eminent domain would be involved, Bomgardner said he was still in the information-gathering phase while also developing what he believed would be a fair price in his mind for his land.
“I feel that I was the most cooperative. The church, they came to me, and they were agitated, my cousin was agitated and a bunch of the other neighbors were agitated. But I was, ‘Hey, I’m there, I want to hear what they have to say.’”
Bomgardner said he did so to get details for the project.
“I’d rather make an informed decision, you know, once I have all of the facts,” he said. “With this roundabout, I feel I can’t stop it, especially if you can take away preserved farmland via eminent domain. And then when it came to what they wanted to pay, that’s when I would start to dig my heels in.”
Dave Cunningham, lead pastor at Grace Life Church, said while project discussions with DHL had been cordial, church leadership hasn’t made a final decision about its support for the roundabout project.
“In our minds it is premature to say we are agreeable to the project when we haven’t seen any proposal on how the church would be compensated or how this would benefit the church,” said Cunningham via a telephone interview. “We haven’t been in any discussions about anything definite.”
Cunningham said church leadership first learned about the proposed roundabout through media reports. Since that time, there had been some conversations, including a meeting held at the church with DHL officials, to address concerns raised by church leadership.
Cunningham said that meeting, which occurred about three or four months ago, involved approximately 12 to 15 people, including two church leaders besides himself. He was unable to give an exact date or say how many people attended since he was on vacation and didn’t have those meeting notes with him.
At the time of the meeting, however, church officials raised concerns about the roundabout moving the highway closer to their building and the additional noise generated by it, especially during services. Cunningham said the church stood to lose the most land to the roundabout.
Cunningham said DHL informed leadership that they would not generate noise on Sundays since their operations are closed that day of the week. However, Cunningham told LebTown that the church conducts services on Sundays and Wednesday evenings.
“We’re a house of worship and we know that the proposed roundabout would increase usage by big trucks, so we are concerned about the noise,” said Cunningham. “Secondly, we are concerned about water retention issues related to the roundabout.”
Another concern centered around DHL’s proposal to channel stormwater from the roundabout to an existing basin on the church property. The current basin is located between the building and Clear Spring Road near the intersection of Route 934.
The church’s stormwater drainage concerns were never further addressed by DHL prior to those company officials seeking to pass off the project to Lebanon County in mid-July.
“In their plan, they are proposing to use the church property as the collection point of the runoff for the roundabout. So our concern with that is who was going to maintain that retention area,” said Cunningham. “We have a retention area there currently, but they were proposing to rework that because they wanted to take that retention area now, move that retention area on the property. Part of that area would be used for the roundabout project, so they would have to reconfigure that area.”
One other interaction with DHL and the church was permission to conduct a percolation, or perc, test on their property. Cunningham said that although the test had occurred, church officials were never provided the results.
While they never received any other information about their concerns nor had given their approval for the roundabout project, Cunningham stressed that discussions with DHL officials had been cordial.
“We did a lot of listening, we did a lot of interacting and we shared the concerns that we had about the project,” he said. “But regardless of those concerns, we haven’t taken an official position on it.”
LebTown asked Cunningham if leadership negotiated a new entrance to the church via Clear Spring Road that is displayed on roundabout design plans.
“We didn’t propose the entrance to Clear Spring Road,” he answered. “We learned about it when they gave us the project site plan and that’s when we first saw there was a driveway that would come onto our property. That was not part of any negotiation.”
Both Bomgardner and Cunningham acknowledge that the intersection of Route 934 and Clear Spring Road is problematic.
Bomgardner told LebTown he had no comment whether he approves of a roundabout being constructed there, but said vehicles have “ditched” into his pasture when they are unable to avoid a potential accident with stopped traffic on Route 934 north attempting to turn left onto Clear Spring Road.
“I will say that something has to be done. A red light makes sense, but things go along with that. A lower speed limit would also help,” he added.
“We certainly recognize that it is a problematic intersection but we’ve never taken a public position on the roundabout at all,” said Cunningham.
Whether the county decides to take over the project from DHL is still unknown.
County Commissioner chairman Robert Phillips said that while he has concerns whether one needs to be built, given that North Annville Township passed an ordinance limiting the size of truck trailers on Clear Spring Road, he needed more information from the county’s transportation department.
Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz previously told LebTown she opposes any eminent domain proceedings, while Commissioner Mike Kuhn said he initially favored the project, given what was presented to commissioners in mid-July, but he now has reservations over some of the issues that have been raised.
However, he, like others, recognizes that the intersection is problematic and will only get worse over time.
Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
Free news isn’t cheap. If you value the journalism LebTown provides to the community, then help us make it sustainable by becoming a champion of local news. You can unlock additional coverage for the community by supporting our work with a one-time contribution, or joining as a monthly or annual member. You can cancel anytime.
More Top Stories
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
