It was a moot point, but it took more than 20 minutes to discuss. At issue before the Chadds Ford Board of Supervisors Wednesday night was an application from Calvary Chapel for an outdoor event permit. The permit was for an event planned for next Wednesday, Sept. 14, but Calvary had already decided not to have the event.
Calvary originally applied for the permit for both last night, Sept. 7, and another event on the 14th. The supervisors were to have heard the request in August, but the regular meeting and the workshop were canceled due to illness and travel. But the event permit for the 14th was still on the agenda, even though Calvary had pulled the plug for that date.
The conversation centered around concerns some residents from nearby Harvey Lane have over noise from the church during those events. The residents, Eric Gartner and Allison Meyers, have expressed concerns before regarding the noise levels during the Wednesday night event during the summer. They’ve said the sound level intrudes on the peace of their respective households and disturbs their kids.
Al Panera, the operations manager for the church, said Calvary now has new speakers that project the sound at a downward angle instead of merely blasting it forward and outward, so the residents would not have the same concerns next year.
Other business
In a rare 2-1 vote, the board voted to pay another $107,000 toward the Walkable Chadds Ford project. The board voted to pay an additional $12,000 to Simone Collins, the consultant on the project, and an additional $95,000 to Kimley Horn, the engineering firm.
Board Chairman Samantha Reiner said the request for the fee increase is based on extra work needed to satisfy some PennDOT requirements. She added, however, that most of that $107,000 increase is offset by an additional state grant of $100,000 the township received recently.
Supervisor Frank Murphy voted against spending the extra money because he said the township should have known in advance about the extra work and what is or was entailed. He borrowed from an old expression, saying he never subscribed to the notion that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than to get permission first.
Neither the three supervisors nor the township engineer were sure whether the work in question was already done or was yet to be done.
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.
