Quarry decision overturned on appeal due to error

            With four applicants for the unexpired term of supervisor Charles Garner, including one from primary winner Keith Youse, the New Hanover Board of Supervisors selected former Lower Pottsgrove police officer Gregory Maskery to fill the seat at its meeting on Thursday, June 1.

            Maskery's term expires on December 31 at which time former township police officer Youse, the majority vote-getter in the primary election, will take the seat on the board (pending the outcome of November's election.)

            Maskery submitted his resignation from the township zoning hearing board at the meeting, since he cannot serve on both boards at the same time, according to state law.

            In development news, Ben Goldthorp of Select Properties attended the meeting to seek approval for preliminary subdivision and land development for the McGee Tract, a development adjacent to, and part of the New Hanover Town Center located on Swamp Pike near Dotterer Road. The development would consist of 51 single-family homes on approximately 14 acres.

            The township planning commission previously moved to deny approval. Township Solicitor Andrew Bellwoar noted that the plans were "based on zoning that doesn't exist anymore." The supervisors also rejected the plan, prompting Goldthorp to warn of potential litigation.

            In Gibraltar Rock news, solicitor Bellwoar reported the news that the township's win over the controversial quarry had been lost on appeal by the company to the Commonwealth Court. According to the online legal news website Law360, the "Pennsylvania environmental hearing board erred when it tied a company's ability to build a quarry in Montgomery County with the state Department of Environmental Protection's effort to clean up an adjacent property."

            The supervisors authorized Bellwoar to move forward with an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

            In public works news, all of the oil and chip and fog seal work has been completed on the township roads that were scheduled and milling and overlay will be done on Rosenberry and Reifsnyder Road starting on July 12 and will be completed that week.

            Solicitor Bellwoar reported that an executive session was held prior to the meeting to discuss litigation and would also be held following the meeting to discuss personnel and collective bargaining.