Residents Raise Concerns Over Act 537 at Supervisors Meeting

NEWTOWN SQUARE–Newtown Township residents voiced their concerns about the proposed Act 537 Plan at a special Newtown Township Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 27.

Margaret Barnett, of Woolman Drive, requested a cost-benefit analysis be done for each individual area included in the plan. Barnett, who came with one of her neighbors, said that the majority of homes on Woolman Drive have working septic systems and that the residents do not want to add sewers that will cost them thousands of dollars. 

“This is not a cost-effective solution,” she said.

Barnett asked that Woolman Drive be removed from the plan. 

A number of residents living in the Echo Valley area also spoke about expenses and the type of sewer system that the plan has assigned to their neighborhoods.

Chris McCaughey, who lives in Echo Valley, said that this area is one of the only included in the plan that will be a low-pressure system rather than gravity.

“My concern is, looking at numbers and pricing, it looks like I am going to be paying twice as much as anybody else, and that’s a low estimate actually,” McCaughey said.

Bill Clark, a neighbor of McCaughey’s, also raised concerns, saying, “My point is that if Echo Valley is on the low pressure system, that I would assume is cheaper to put in, why are we then splitting the cost.”

Paul Evans, also of Echo Valley, raised similar concerns, saying he, too, would rather pay more now for a gravity system. 

Rich Sokorai, Township Solicitor, said that the engineers are doing a cost-analysis and the board will look into seeing how the township can accommodate those residents. 

There is a meeting about the Act 537 Plan scheduled on Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. primarily for residents of Springton Pointe Estates and Springton Pointe Woods, but it is also open to all Newtown Township residents.