Current Conditions
35°F - CLEAR
(145) (98) (11) (8) (7) (4) (4) (3)
The supervisors voted Oct. 21 to sell the 2-plus-acre property for $359,000 to Dr. Ernest Witbeck, a Lancaster dentist.
In July, the supervisors had turned down a couple's offer of $325,000 to buy the land for use as their private home.
In hopes of getting a higher price, the board had decided to seek other bids for the tract, which is at 2348 Harrisburg Pike, between Park City shopping center and Landisville.
In rejecting the earlier offer, the supervisors noted that the land had been rezoned by the suburban township for commercial uses and had been appraised at a much higher price.
Witbeck plans to use the property for professional offices sometime in the future, according to a statement from the dentist.
He intends to have a barn on the Harrisburg Pike property "removed and reconstructed elsewhere, with sensitivity to the environment and in a green way," the statement said.
No plans for the property actually were submitted, township Manager Bob Krimmel said.
For East Hempfield, the approval means the land will go "from a negative cash position (tax-wise) to where it's a positive cash position," Krimmel said.
East Hempfield has owned the site since receiving it — for a dollar — from builder D.R. Horton in late 2003.
Over the years, the complex has been everything from a working dairy farm to a real-estate sales office. It once was the Sylvan View Dairy.
The supervisors voted to accept Witbeck's bid during their 41-w-hour meeting on Oct. 21.
Also at the meeting, the supervisors discussed plans to add East Petersburg Fire Company — which is outside the township but serves a third of East Hempfield — to a township committee that addresses fire issues.
The supervisors took no action on the matter.
If approved, two East Petersburg representatives would be added to East Hempfield's nine-member fire services committee.
The committee includes two representatives from each of the fire companies, three at-large members, Krimmel and the township's finance manager, Joe Robinson.
East Petersburg and East Hempfield's Rohrerstown and Hempfield companies have been working together, especially on cost-saving measures, the chiefs of each department agreed at the Oct. 21 meeting.
Said East Petersburg's Jamie Rohrer, "We're looking at fire and emergency services as a whole. ... Volunteerism is declining, as we all know, so we're asking, 'How can we support each other?' "
The departments are doing things such as using standardized gear when they go to a fire and having a standardized membership application — "just things to help save costs for all of the municipalities involved," Rohrer explained.
"We're all here to do one job: ... To protect the community."
Joining Rohrer was Hempfield Chief Brian Rhodes and Rohrerstown's Dusty Dommel, plus more than a dozen firefighters.
The matter could be acted on at the next supervisors' meeting, on Wednesday.
The 11-year-old committee works at the behest of the township supervisors to develop financing plans for major equipment purchases, building improvements and other costly needs, and then works out the details with the available funds.
