The Conshohocken Recorder, May 7, 1964

              Sidewalks: What People Think
Whitemarsh Township is con-sidering
plans to install miles of
sidewalks to insure the safety of
children going to and from school.
Who should pay for these side-walks?
Where are they needed most?
Will the cost be too much for
the average taxpayer to handle?
Are sidewalks really needed?
These are some of the questions
the Recorder asked residents in
the area.
This is what they said:
Mrs. Joseph Langley,
924 E. Hector St.,
Spring Mill (housewife):
"I didn't know that the super-visors
were thinking of sidewalks,
but I think we should have them
if they are needed. They are cer-tainly
needed at the Spring Mill
School where there are none at
all and it is dangerous for chil-dren.
"We already have sidewalks
along Hector St., but I don't ob-ject
to paying for them if they
are needed.
"The fairest way to finance
them would be for the township
to go half with the homeowner.
That way it is not so bad on the
homeowner and it is still fair to
taxpayers who are not getting the
sidewalks."
Rev. William E. Garman,
364 Roberts Ave.,
Cedar Heights
(pastor of Cedar Heights
Community Church):
"I think it would be nice to
have sidewalks, but it would be
quite an expense and a real hard-ship
for some who have large
space in front of their proper-ties.
"Either the township should pay
the whole cost or they should go
half and half with homeowners.
But the individual homeowner
should not have to bear the whole
cost himself. We just got through
paying for sewers.
"I think it's more important to
have sidewalks in built-up settle-ments
rather than highways like
Germantown Pike, where nobody
walks."
Mrs. Sherman Barber.
4016 Briar Lane,
Lafayette Hill (housewife):
"I don't think sidewalks are
needed in the small developments,
but they are needed on the main
highways. It would save parents
a lot of trouble driving children
to all places. There is too much
traffic on our highways and a lot
of it is caused by car-hopping
the children.
"If sidewalks are only put in
certain areas I would be against
having the owner pay the total
(Continued on page 11)
SiulnMiid Ihr Che!.tuhi lull Vrraiil
Conshohocken - West Conshohocken — Plymouth, Whitemarsh & Springfield Townships
I
Chestnut Hill
Vol- 93 No. 52 TA 8-4600 THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1964 7« A COPY
II. Merion Gives
Sewer Facts
To W. Consho.
T//o important breakthroughs
that may possibly lead to the in-stallation
of sewers in West Con-shohocken
were announced last
night at a regular meeting of
Borough Council.
Robert W. Treddinick, borough
solicitor, first announced that he
had received preliminary infor-mation
from the firm of A. W.
Martin Associates, consulting en-gineers
for Upper Merion town-ship,
concerning several methods
of hooking up with outside sewer
systems.
"The report contained pre-liminary
figures on a plan to co-operate
with Upp^r Merion alone
and also '--xamlneu t.ie possibility
of a Joint venture with Upper Mer-ion,
Lower Merion, Radnor and
Tredyffrin townships," Treddinick
said.
Later Treddinick reported a
second breakthrough.
"It is my information that the
borough of Conshohocken would
not be adverse to accepting sew-age
from us," he said, indicating
that he had received the informa-tion
in a private conversation with
a high official of the Conshohocken
Sewer Authority.
Later he said that "we are now
in the process of" obtaining some
figures from Conshohocken."
After the meeting Treddinick
told a reporter from this news-paper
that he had received the
preliminary information from
Martin Associates within two days
prior to last month's borough
meeting.
"Since Martin Associates didn't
know at the time how many of the
five communities might want to
join in a cooperative effort, they
listed several different combina-tions,"
Treddinick said.
"The plan is based on the idea
of forming a drainage basin in
Chief Tarbutton Seeking 100 New Men
For New Plymouth Valley Fire Station
Sydney Bodnick
Plymouth Township took another
giant step toward establishing a
Plymouth Valley substation of the
Harmonville Fire Co. this week,
as company officials announced
that they are starting a member-ship
drive.
"We haven't set any limit on
the number of men we are looking
for," chief J. Donald Tarbutton
said. "I would like to see at
least 100 turn out.
"Anyone Interested can either
contact me at TA 8-2786 or any
member of the Harmonville Co.
After we solicit the membership,
we will automatically go into the
training of personnel.
"Most of the training will be
done in ttie fire house at Butler
Pike and Karrs Lane. The vol-unteers
will start out learning the
fundamentals required of all fire-men.
Then they will go into all
phases of fire fighting.
"The fire school will open on
May 15 and continue for 16 weeks.
"I'm going to head up the In-struction
group and I'll have a staff
Gavel Changes Hands
GAVEL CHANGES HANDS-James Overstreet (r), outgoing president of the Whitemarsh-piymouth Junior
Chamber of Commerce, hands gavel to Incoming president James Berray at annual installation dinner.
Grover C. Gauker, Jr., guest speaker, looks on. (photo by Anthony)
which the sewage is taken care of
by gravity and sent to the plant."
When asked If the borough is
now conducting a feasibility study
into the need for sewers, Treddi-nick
said that to his knowledge no
(Continued on page 11)
Objection Voiced to Charges
About Inadequate' Library
"Who is to say how many books
a library should have, whether it
has a quality collection or not and
how much per capita support people
in the community should give It,"
Miss Margaret Daly, a member of
the Conshohocken Library Board,
wanted to know after reading an
article last week in the Recorder.
In the article Mrs. Charles M.
Ogg, coordinator of the Mont-gomery
County Library Project,
said that the result of a two year
study of county libraries indicates
that the Conshohocken Free
Library is "inadequate" in quality
of books, quantity of collection,
per capita support and the number
of salaried staff members.
"I happen to be connected to the
library only because of my position
as a member of the Conshohocken
School Board," Miss Daly said,
"and it is not my place to give an
official answer to Mrs. Ogg's
statements.
"But Mrs. Ogg is wrong. I think
she has an ax to grind.
"There is an awful lot of good
about the Conshohocken Library
liiat outweighs much of the bad.
in fact, when members of the
library board first got the report
we thought that many of the re-marks
were complimentary alxnit
the library.
'The library is limited in ex-pense
money, but it is one of the
oldest libraries in the countv and
(Continued on page 6)
P-W Board Files Petition
To Fight School Merger
The Plymouth-Whitemarsh Joint
School Board last week filed a
petition of grievance against plans
recently finalized by the Mont-gomery
County Board of School
Directors to merge the Plymouth-
Whitemarsh school districts with
Conshohocken, under Act 299.
The petition outlined different
points in the law which show,
according to the local board,
that the Plymouth and Whitemarsh
school districts already meet the
criteria of Act 299 without having
to merge with Conshohocken.
Mrs. Edna Smith, secretary of
the joint board, said that
"basically these are the same
points that we made orally at a
hearing before the County School
Board In March."
The three major arguments
made at that meeting were:
1. The Plymouth and Whitemarsh
school districts already have the
minimum pupil population (4,000)
required to remain alone.
2. Plymouth and Whitemarsh
are continguous areas with no
natural barrier.
3. The P-W school districts
"already more than meet" the
minimum educational standards
established by the Department of
Public Instruction.
The petition will be attached to
the County Board's reorganization
plan which will be submitted to
the State Council of Education
by July 1.
The local board will then have
30 days to request an oral con-ference
with members of the
Council of Education.
The Joint Board has not yet
decided whether they will carry
their protest to the point of re-questing
the interview, according
to Mrs. Smith.
The State Council will then pass
on the plans to the State Board
of Education which has the final
decision on school district
reorganization.
of assistant chiefs at the Harmon-ville
Co.
"Actually, the instruction pro-gram
will be valuable training
which the men can use in their
private lives to protect their homes
and families."
The Recorder first learned of
the proposed substation in January
in an exclusive interview with
Bernard J. Hoffman, chairman of
the Plymouth Township Board of
Commissioners.
At the tltne Hoffman said that
the Board had authorized and in-structed
Tarbutton to draw up a
program for training the men and
operating the equipment.
Since then, the commissioners
have formed a special fire com-mittee
composed of board mem-bers
John Todd and Earle E.
Craley, who have worked closely
with Tarbutton, his assistant chief
Howard Foster, and chief engineer
Robert Wells.
The two committees met on
Thursday, April 30 in what Tar-button
described as "a very pro-ductive
session," although no other
information was released.
Last Thursday, at a closed meet-ing
of the Harmonville Co., it was
announced that a membership drive
had been launched for the "pro-posed"
substation.
The need for a substation or new
fire company in the Plymouth Val-ley
area had long been voiced by
local residents, who argued that
when Plymouth Valley was first
developed there were only about
600 homes and little traffic.
But now, they said, the area has
become very densely populated and
incoming fire engines have to fight
traffic.
With the coming of the Blue
Route, area residents expect traf-fic
to be further disrupted and say
that it will be much harder to reach
(Continued on page 11)
No Application
For 11-Acre Site
No application is presently pend-ing
before the Whitemarsh
Township Board of Supervisors
concerning an 11.8 acre tract of
land at First Ave. and Third St.,
owned by the Whitemarsh Invest-ment
Co.
But if there is an application,
only three members of the five-man
board will vote on it.
Supervisors William E. Mc-
Laughlin and Jesse W. Beeghley,
Jr., have gone on record that they
will abstain from voting on any
matters pertaining to the tract.
Both men have stated that they
have no interest in the ground
nor company. But McLaughlin is
the selling agent and Beeghley
is the solicitor for the developing
company.
'IIr