Birmingham Township supervisors
voted 3-0 Jan. 16 to help fund a project involving the Birmingham Friends
Meeting.
The Friends want visitors to a
small Friends’ Orthodox cemetery adjacent to Birmingham Hill Park — diagonally across
Birmingham Road from the Meeting — to be able to use the park’s parking area
and that there be a gravel walkway and a gate between the two properties. The
Friends wanted the township to donate to the project.
Recreation, Park and Open Space
Committee Chairman Michael Langer said the cost of the project was estimated to
be about $4,000. RPOS, at a previous meeting agreed to support the endeavor,
offering $1,000.
RPOS also agreed to provide the
grading and gravel to the gate area and to plant shrubs, Langer said. The cost
to the township would be about $1,075, including the cost of the shrubs. The
Friends would pick up the rest of the cost.
Supervisor Bill Kirkpatrick
said he was on board with the idea so long as it was supporting the access to
the historic area, not the meeting itself.
Supervisors’ Chairman John
Conklin said township solicitor Kristin Camp agreed that the donation would not
violate any church and state separation because of the historic nature of the
small cemetery. He added that it doesn’t seem to support religion in anyway.
This would not be the first
time the township has agreed to help the Birmingham Friends with an improvement
project. It most recently contributed money for the repair of the cemetery wall
at the Meeting itself.
Other business
• At the recommendation of
township Police Chief Tom Nelling, supervisors promoted Officer Michael
O’Donnell to the rank of corporal with a pay rate of $21.50.
• Kirkpatrick said the township
needed to replace a pump at the wastewater treatment plant. The price tag is
$1,200.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.