READINGTON TWP. — Officials haven’t decided when they will ask voters if the township should borrow $22 million for land surrounding Solberg Airport.

They need to discuss it with the county Board of Elections and their bond counsel before setting a date, Committeewoman Julia Allen said.

But procedural regulations mean it probably won’t come before the summer, she said.

“(It could be) between mid-July and November,” she said.

Officials approved the bond ordinance in February with the intent to raise money for a potential purchase of open space and development rights on the airport.

“We have multiple goals for wanting to acquire the open space,” Allen said.

Those goals include protecting the natural state of that land, maintaining the airport at its current size and capacity and preserving the general aviation airport, she said.

Officials must wait at least 30 days after announcing the date before holding the referendum, she said. They plan to announce the date during either the April 3 or April 17 meeting.

And after any election is held county voting machines must be impounded for 20 days, she said.

That doesn’t leave “enough time between the April 18 (school) election and the June primary,“ Allen said.

Suzy Solberg Nagle, who owns the airport with her brother and sister, wants to see the ballot in November.

“We’re hopeful that they’ll be prudent and decide to put it just on the general election,” she said.

During Monday’s township committee meeting, clerk and administrator Vita Mekovitz verified that a petition to put the bond ordinance on a public ballot had gathered the necessary number of signatures, she said.

If 15 percent of the registered township voters who cast ballots in the last Assembly election signed it, a referendum must be held. Mekovitz tallied nearly 1,000 valid signatures before she stopped counting, she said.

Some disqualified signatures were duplicates, belonged to people who hadn’t voted in the last election or were illegible, she said.

According to officials, using a long-term bond with anticipated Green Acres grants and state Environmental Infrastructure low-interest loans, a township homeowner with an assessed home value of $400,000 would pay an additional $60 a year in taxes to help shoulder the cost of the acquisition.

Without those grants, that homeowner would pay $55 for the first three years and $165 annually for 17 years.

Reporter Andrea Eilenberger can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at aeilenberger@express-times.com.

© 2006 The Express-Times.

Date: March 22, 2006 Source: PennLive.com
URL: http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1143004312241520.xml?expresstimes?nnj&coll=2