Swatara Township supervisors delay land purchase decision

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The Swatara Township Board of Supervisors didn’t make a decision at the May 8 meeting about purchasing land west of 48 Supervisors Drive, opting after an executive session to wait and think about it further.

Supervisor Rick Kreitzer said it will be back on the agenda in June.

The township already owns 48 Supervisors Drive, and the neighboring church owns the .25 acres of property in question. Supervisors are now discussing possibly purchasing that land from its current owner.

A Swatara Township resident who lives near the wooded property attended the meeting to share his concerns. He said he wanted to buy the land, but its current owner told him the township was also interested.

“I want to expand my property — place for a garden, place for my kids to play, make my kids’ life a little bit better that they can go out in that little section of woods and investigate, have a garden that they can plant stuff,” the resident said. “When Warren called me back today and said that you guys offered to buy it, I was pissed off.”

The resident said he likes the land wooded so his kids can explore and asked what the township would do with the parcel if purchased. Officials responded, saying they didn’t have a plan and weren’t entirely sure if they were interested in moving forward at all.

Supervisor Dean Patches said he had talked with the owner and said they might be open to a purchase prior to the meeting, but he would have to talk with the other supervisors and township staff before going through the rest of the process, which would include getting an appraisal and then putting in an offer if the township is interested.

“Not realizing it may have been a contentious decision, it kind of caught us a little off guard,” Patches said after the meeting. “We’ll think it through.”

In other business, supervisors:

• Said they are getting a local construction company to come walk through the house at 48 Supervisors Drive to see if they would be interested in remodeling the existing building into a township office building. Kreitzer said the 68 Supervisors Drive building’s main room “just isn’t big enough for elections anymore,” and remodeling an existing building would be much cheaper than building new.
• Voted to increase the supervisor’s annual salary from $2,500 to $4,190. The new rate will go into effect at the start of each seat’s new term.

The Swatara Township Board of Supervisors will have its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. on June 12 at 68 Supervisors Drive.