Memorial Field
Near Susquehanna and Old Huntingdon Pike
Next to  Sunrise At Abington, Horace, Eckart, Guernsey etc 

In a nutshell :  Memorial field properties will be leased by Penn State and improved by Penn State to the tune of about $5 million. The School District  will still   own the property, but the District, Penn State and the community will be able to use the fields.  A great deal of activity is planned on the fields.  The community will have limited use of the fields when they are not being used by the schools.

1-14-14   A great number of changes:   the bids came in high nearer to the $7 million mark instead of the anticipated $5 million mark that was budgeted. the bids were all rejected and they will advertise for new ones but not before making changes in the specs. the changes include that the lower fields will not have a storage building with the bathroom that was originally proposed and the perimeter fencing will possiblybe less expensive .the upper field may not be getting new bleachers sports lighting scoreboard or ticket booths.  And the walking track may be a less expensive one than originally planned with a rubberized surface.
also money will be saved by using a less expensive option  in the tennis courts area. 


5-9-13 7pm Ab Township  “Special  Code Enforcement Committee meeting “ 

 The issues at Memorial Field are not small. ( see grey highlighted area below  for one of the earlier run-downs ) Plans at that property not only include features which cover more of the pervious surface  in a seriously flooding area, but there are also plans in the wings for a possible school to be built there .  That feature, although part of a presentation to the school community, is nowhere on the radar  in this presentation to the community.  
Artifical turf & parking  and a school building & parking --- add the impervious surface up and talk to those downstream.

 

But the issue of having proper processes that are not abused is an even greater one to address. 

This item was withdrawn at the May Code Enforcement meeting - but another meeting was set up and announced just days in advance .

Multiple Fields & facilities for the fields will bring traffic noise lights and constant activity - pervious surfaces that will increase flooding,  traffic, noise, etc  ----  it is being quickly  set up for approval just minutes before the final approval meeting at 8pm.  

This will leave the publicwith no  time to research or to make calls.  In fact, they have up-ended the process entirely  by scheduling – perhaps as little as  days in advance (The Newspaper announcement was just 2 days prior in the Intelligencer)   a   with only a few select individuals properly notified .   (There was a newspaper adin hte Intelligencer - anyone get that? - It ran May 7th for a May 9th meeting .  Apparently that legally suffices)   The rest of the public apparently were supposed to log on every day and surf all over the website to try to see if there was anything new that might "amend" the Code Enforcement meeting they thought  had been completed for this month.  Outrageous.        

     The “Special meeting “ was not listed on the news page // The township email system was not used – (and never is )  //   my Commissioner did not correctly inform us, saying it would be  “discussed” & information  would be presented for  consideration –no reference to a VOTE .  Who knew they could do this ? But they can ....long as we allow it .

       Can any  applicant who would like to hurry their  issue to completion do this ?  Can anyone forego the properly scheduled meetings and pick a date convenient to themselves- even if to the detriment of the public interest?   This would be a bad precedent to set and is reflective of the way the WAWA  ordinance was just  jammed through. Rather than approving or
denying  their request, the WAWA had their plan  “developed  for them “ on the spot" at meetings  to avoid them coming back through proper channels.  No one even knew what was being voted on (included the confused voters)   Here we see that again. The public’s ability to respond properly is removed. 
         
 The “Public”  has not  been notified -----  no vote should take place.

Please use your voices and email those in charge .

 

 

9-3-12   WARD 7 -MEMORIAL FIELD - PSU to PUT $5  MILLION INTO FIELD
The development of the fields with future considerations of possible buildings in addition to these changes:

Penn State Abington has  a 25-year lease agreement effective Sept 1st for Memorial Field,  on Huntingdon Rd at Susquehanna. About $5 million in upgrades, taking possibly up to 4 years,  will be made and PSU Abington  teams will then be able to use the field which will get artificial turf for soccer, lacrosse and field hockey games, an  "all-weather"  track, fencing, renovated tennis courts, and bleachers.  Softball will move to  the lower field .  In addition, the school district would use the complex for boys’ and girls’ soccer teams, field hockey and possibly some  lacrosse with approx. 30 school district games per year.  Memorial Field is adjacent to  university owned properties on Cloverly Lane.  Games, to be  early afternoons or on weekends ,are expected to have  50 or fewer spectators so  parking was said to be  adequate.
   The community would also be able to use the facilities, and it is likely community groups, like the Abington Lacrosse Club, the Abington YMCA and Citizens and Police Together (CAPT) would be allowed  use. That folks -- is a LOTTA traffic and activity.
     What concerns me the most is that residents in this area were not alerted and made part of the conversation in these planning stations ( I did not say NONE were, and  I spoke to one resident who welcomed it - but none of the ones I called  had received  any  notice of the details or were told how their thoughts and concerns might be taken into account in the intial draftings. Perhaps a lease could contain a clause that gave neighbors an opportunity each year to have grievances addressed. Agreements are much harder to change AFTER the fact.
       The process still has to go through land development, so notification should be given for those meetings, but our School District, ( and our Township) when affecting properties and property values and quality of life issues. Notice in a limited circulation parents emailing is certain not to reach many affected.  There was apparently additional discussion that if another school is needed, the lease could be terminated with PSU, unless they were able to build  a school on the lower half of the area.

 

   USE  THE TOOLS AVAILABLE TO YOU
Ask your Commissioners and your Township manager (click here) specifically to :

1) ...post a SINGLE webpage on this with links to find meetings, updates & all the plans
2) ...tape  all meetings on this topic & air them on our public channel - the devil is really in the details
           -then  you can review or catch up on a meeting you missed . This is actually important .
3) ... post all the taped meetings on-line with time reference points and fast forward features
4) .. create an email list for all updates and - invite ALL residents via Township & Commissioners
            lists to be on it so they can receive updates in their box if they desire
5) ...provide a meeting space ( already paid by your taxes ) for neighbors to hold their own open
            discussions whenever they choose - not called by or moderated by authorities.
6) ... provide residents  a summary of  all changes  being proposed in  2 column/compare style
7)  Finally: neighbors, please make your own meetings open to all  - if you try to limit
             transparency hoping to benefit only your point of view, then you will find it limited
                for yourself  --- you will be part of the problem not the solution

Email me if you need help contacting others.   I also have a great deal of information about how our processes work and what is happening elsewhere in the Township that might be helpful to your situation.

      __________

  Our codebook is in 2 parts
Part 1   Township's Codebook    except for  zoning
Part 2 Zoning Portion of Township Codebook

or go to http://www.abingtonpa.gov/info/newcodebook.htm

   More Tools for residents

 

This site is a forum for information sharing and idea sharing.  Please feel free to send your  view  and please be sure to  tell us about any information you believe to be incorrect - write  lel@abingtoncitizens.com

 

 

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Abington Township, with John Spiegelman in charge, revamped the entire Township website at the end of 2015 and broke all the links to the information we had archived on this site for you.   In 2017, Manager Richard Manfredi arrived and assigned someone not qualified to redo the entire website again. They not only broke all archived links we had reinstated, but made everything as impossible to find as they could. Nearly all of our comments and recommedations to fix the Township website have been wholly ignored.

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