Sunday, November 28, 2010

NASD Withdraws Intersection Improvement Funds

The NASD School Board voted to remove $500,000 in escrow to improve the intersection of Friedenstahl and East Lawn Road/191 according to an article in the Express Times (read it here).

Upper Nazareth Township (UNT) required the NASD to improve the intersection as a condition of locating the new MS on Friendenstahl road. Recently, PADOT’s review of the improvement plan was rejected and that prompted the school to withdraw funds.

The article quotes UNT solicitor Gary Asteak: "If they take back the money, we'll just have to void their building permit after the fact," Asteak said. "It's just ludicrous."

The school coupled with increased traffic from the development in the surrounding area requires improvements to the intersection, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The NASD is currently in a legal battle with Lower Nazareth Township over solar panels and it looks like this situation could expand to the same.

Posted via email from Ross Nunamaker

2 comments:

The Battle Cry of Freedom said...

Read the story. Hope the District stands firm on their plan. Where does PennDOT get off telling anyone anything. To hand NASD a plan that costs three times as much is ridiculous. The district is in debt to the tune of $90million. They have willy nilly squandered our tax dollars for years. The new school is a joke and believe me they would do it again if they could. If the folks in the district don't stand up they will be overwhelmed with debt. Keep in mind that you must begin to think of governmental debt inclusive of all levels of government. If you get the big picture you will get off your posterior and show up at school board committee meetings. The budget meeting is December 1 at the senior high school starting at 6PM

RossRN said...

I have to disagree. The NASD said PADOT said it would cost that much, yet the PADOT spokesperson said it was unusual at best for PADOT to give a dollar figure.

NASD would not comment further than their news release. I searched for it on the NASD site and could not find it.

I question how the NASD could act without first discussing this with UNT?

The intersection was bad before, it is far worse now. The NASD is required to improve it as a cost of locating the building there. They knew this before they broke ground.

I think more information needs to be made available before you can defend the NASD decision in this matter.