Ahhh East Goshen Township. A mostly beautiful township that historically likes to stay below the radar. Well below the radar. They might not stay so below this year, however.
For example here a potential land development things that affect both East Goshen and West Whiteland That weird sliver of acreage I wrote about a few days ago . A 15 acre parcel where 10 acres behind Old Phoenixville Pike are in West Whiteland Township and 5 acres are in East Goshen Township.
I have learned over the years East Goshen hates any kind of spotlight. That flawed and failed eminent domain attempt at the Hicks Farm which was referred to in a 2021 Daily Local op-ed:
Imagine a knock on your door, and somebody announces that they intend to purchase your home, and that you will need to vacate it shortly. Imagine, also, that you are told that the value of your home will be established by the purchaser, and that you must accept the offer without objection. Sounds like a nightmare scenario.
This nightmare has played out time again here in Chester County. It occurs when a local government decides that they want to take someone’s property for public use that is deemed more important than the rights of the property owner. It does not matter how long the property may have been owned, or how the owner feels about being forced to give up their land.
If the locality wants it, they can take it at a price that they feel they should pay. The process is called Eminent Domain, a somewhat gray area of law that has been in constant dispute for decades.
In the recent past there have been examples of localities using Eminent Domain to seize private property for values that owners have felt unjust, and for reasons the community has sometimes found inappropriate. In the view of the Libertarian Party of Chester County the use of Eminent Domain is nothing more than theft by forcing a sale to a government that cannot purchase property by accepted legal means. By taking property with a forced sale, the property is being stolen, and this is wrong.
The latest threat of Eminent Domain use is happening in East Goshen Township. The victim in this case is Goshen View Farm, owned by the Hicks family. The ancestors of this family settled in Chester County back in 1769. According to a family member, this farm was purchased by William Huey Hicks in 1909.
Hicks was interested in the land because of the new system of electrification along Paoli Pike. Hicks bought the farm from the Sharpless family the old-fashioned way, by offering the owner a fair price and having the seller agree to the transaction in a free and agreeable sale….None of us is allowed to knock on a door and force a sale of private property, and no politician should be allowed to do this either.
You may ask what the critical need there is for taking a strip of land from a farm along Paoli Pike may be? Is there a hospital being built? Perhaps some emergency access is needed for a fire department? In fact, this property is being seized for a possible walking trail no more than two miles long, according to some local residents.
Sometimes referred to as “The Trail to Nowhere”, this strip of property is supposed to meet up with other township trails that may or may not ever exist, or even meet with this section of the trail. Perhaps the prospect of millions in government grant money is affecting the decision to invoke Eminent Domain. By some estimates, the township is spending about $5 millions dollars per mile to build the trail, $10 million in total.
The family that owns the property is not only unhappy with the threat of Eminent Domain but is also concerned about how visitors may impact their valuable horse stabling business, and about liabilities that may ensue when bikers and hikers cross the vehicle traffic on the farm lane exiting to Paoli Pike.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania’s strong Sunshine Laws appear to require the local council to present the plan of Eminent Domain to the voters and allow them ample time to consider both this drastic action and accompanying expense before seizing property from the owners. The LPCC has no doubt that upon learning of this shameful plan they will insist that their politicians act in the same fair and proper way that the voters are expected to behave. Stealing is theft, no matter what law it cowers behind. It is time to debate the use of the unfair laws of Eminent Domain.
East Goshen now has a new Supervisor who ran based upon eminent domain. It was his property, after all, that they tried to take. Peter Hicks is a welcome addition to the board and so is the other newbie Barbara Emery. Cody Bright tries to do the right thing. BUT…it’s politics, so there is always a BUT isn’t there? I used to be glad Michele Truitt was a Supervisor and chair but I have to be honest, now the jury is out. That’s hard to articulate because I like her as a person, which is different than just liking a politician. And it has to do with the hanging chads of East Goshen issues and solutions the past few years. I just find it all confusing, so it makes it hard.
Michele Truitt is not going to like this opinion but can she really be surprised? I am not trying to be bitchy, but East Goshen needs to stand in the light. When Supervisor Truitt first told me eminent domain at the Hicks Farm would come off the table, I was thrilled. Then I kept asking for her to let me know when they were repealing it. It’s not that complicated, I consulted with the former Lower Merion Commissioner who wrote the language in the resolution to end eminent domain in 2006, Philip Rosenzweig. And basically it was a simple resolution to revoke the original resolution Lower Merion passed. But in East Goshen all I kept hearing was they needed time to “unwind” it. Why? No one has EVER answered that question really, so what took so long?
It makes anyone wonder why did it take so long, and why was it shrouded in mystery? Did it have to do with that trail to nowhere?
There have been questions whispered in shadows the past few years about money and this township haven’t there been? And they say the township budget is out of whack and what they still blame COVID? Perhaps it predates COVID in reality? How about a real forensic accounting that is finished and made public? Just rip the Band-Aid off, right?
And what is this latest thing about *supposedly* one Supervisor wants to eject all Democrats from various volunteer committees/appointments? And yet another Supervisor is working on this? I mean come on now Chair and Vice Chair, did you think these fissures wouldn’t show? What is wrong with BALANCE? One party rule doesn’t work, we are a country designed on a two party system and if East Goshen REALLY wants to put their money where their mouths are, then balance not dictatorship, please, right?
I know East Goshen Republicans didn’t like the plastic bag ban of it all. Even that reached my ears My question there of course with these bag bans is what about plastic trash bags? Don’t we think we use more of those? (But I digress.)
So East Goshen once also did big talking about an updated comprehensive plan, didn’t they? I believe the last one was 2015, so it’s not 10 years yet, but it’s just like another thing announced with much fanfare then fizzled out?
Of course one thing removed from that planning circus was the once upon a time grand plans circa 2019 for 352 and King Road, or how to freak people out with a PennDOT traffic circle that would have take private property from East Whiteland residents and East Goshen residents. Yep, they didn’t want to own that but I was at the Immaculata meeting that night and that is when I discovered how obnoxious a couple of former East Goshen Supervisors were.
So the rumor mill is still going fast and furious in East Goshen. They try so hard to be stealth over there and all Glocca Morra, but there is this undercurrent again, like an unpleasant, tainted underbelly, ok? They whisper and whisper and things drip out, don’t they?
What is going on there and did Madame Chairman’s former State Rep hubs whom I also like get appointed to some East Goshen Board? If so, perhaps that is a little too cozy?
Maybe it’s time to let something from 2022 out for an airing? It’s about that trail….
here is the cost of the trail. This finance guy found that NONE of the costs were documented! He had to do a forensic investigation, pulling invoices & bank statements, & tried to reconstruct what had not been documented anywhere. He found that out of the $8 million borrowed in 2017 for the 3 big projects-PPT, Hershey’s Mill Dam, & Milltown Dam-that “they” (Marty, Rick, Jon, other boards) knew that the HM Dam would be $300K SHORT, & that there was a distinct probability that Milltown would be short as well. “They” figured they’d find it somewhere. The $8 million loan was supposed to be like the loaves & the fishes!
Now that we voted to give the land back to the Hicks, segment B will have to be reconsidered & go in a different direction, if we want to complete the stupid trail. I’d rather finish at least ONE project before we start anything else, so that means we need to complete HM Dam (to be completed 1st quarter).
Again, please note that this was a forensic probe into PPT costs. Jon Altshul did not keep track of the costs. Dave Ware did a fantastic job of digging into this. And it’s NOT the only line item he has done this with.
I’d like your feedback. Michele
~Wednesday, January 5, 2022 3:05 PM
Michele, per your request, here is what has been spent on the PPT thus far…$5.4M, $2.4M out of EGT’s pocket.
Please let me know if you have questions or need explanations.
That document is a very interesting spread sheet of balance sheets if that is your jam. It will have to be downloaded to open.
Last thing are the meeting recordings and live viewing. I don’t think anyone has as bad a system except West Vincent Township. The meeting this week was vague and fuzzy to view and you could not actually hear the public comment from members of the public. Same with the replays.
That is not sunshine friendly either.
Time to play in the light, East Goshen, time to play in the light. You make it very confusing to understand what is going on, and why? You are a great municipality, you were my first municipality when I moved to Chester County, so I will always have a soft spot for you. But it’s time to play in the light again.
Newlin Township is even worse–no recording OR live viewing and no plans to add it. Minutes are sparse at best.