The Kennett Township Board of Supervisors approved a new committee, provided an update on a drainage problem as well as the multi-municipal emergency services study, and issued decisions on four subdivisions, all in less than 30 minutes during its meeting on Wednesday, June 1.

Supervisors’ Chairman Scudder G. Stevens, Supervisor Whitney Hoffman, and Supervisor Richard L. Leff, who participated through teleconference, all voted to approve the Barkingfield Park Committee, created to help set up the first township-owned park.

The township purchased the 45-acre tract in February, and while Anson B. Nixon and Pennock parks are in the township, Kennett does not own them. Known as Barkingfield Farm, the new park is adjacent to the township’s maintenance garage at Bayard and Hillendale roads

The board applauded the fact that many of the committee’s members are residents who are not presently serving as township volunteers. “It’s really getting people involved,” said Hoffman, adding that many of the new additions are neighbors of the park. “I think it’s a good thing.”

Members of the committee will include Township Manager Lisa M. Moore; Public Works Director Roger Lysle; Tom Comitta and Erin Gross, the township’s landscape architects; Carol Taylor of The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County; Suzanne Geouque, a liaison for the New Garden Parks and Recreation and the Kennett Area Parks and Recreation boards; and residents Kate Wise, Leigh Ann Kelleher, Joan Phillips, Diane McGovern, Lori Stewart, Jenni Brand, Mike Pia and Joe Duffy.

The supervisors heard an update from Moore on a failing drainage basin in the Granite Ridge subdivision, an ongoing issue that has generated frustration from township officials as well as The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County. The basin’s failure – and the developer’s failure to fix it – have adversely affected neighboring properties. The conservancy has easements on two of them.

A remediation proposal from the developer did not pass muster with the conservancy, Moore said, adding that she is waiting to hear the developer’s response to the conservancy’s concerns as well as get additional feedback from the township’s engineer. In the meantime, the supervisors are withholding about $350,000 in escrow funds for the first and second phase of the project.

Moore also reported on the regional Emergency Services Study, a collaborative analysis commissioned by six area municipalities. Kennett joined with East Marlborough, Newlin, Pennsbury, and Pocopson townships and Kennett Square Borough to hire consultants to study fire and ambulance services.

She said the process is nearing a conclusion. She said that the consultants are writing an overview of their findings and that once that has been prepared, the township will meet with the three fire companies to discuss the results before making them public. She said it is not yet clear whether all of the participating municipalities would sign off on the report’s recommendations. If they do, the supervisors would then have to vote on whether to approve them.

The supervisors voted to approve an extension until July 16 for Cannery Row Properties, which is seeking preliminary plan approval for a commercial, mixed-use development on the nearly six-acre site of the former Kennett Canning Company. About three quarters of the tract lies within the township; the remainder is in the borough.

An extension for the Lord Howe/Speakman property on Burnt Mill Road, which has received previous extensions that go back five years, was denied unanimously. The supervisors noted that they granted what they called their “last extension” three months ago.

The supervisors also unanimously rejected an extension for the Robinson property, located on Pleasant Bank Lane off of Kaolin Road, a plan that dates back to 2005, as well as the Leeds property at the corner of Hillendale and Kaolin roads, which goes back to 2006. Moore noted that neither of the property owners was interested in pursuing the plans.