The Conshohocken Recorder, May 21, 1964

              COMPLIMENTARY
Plymouth Hill Withdraws Protest of New School
X complaint In Harrisburg
against the Plymouth Township
School Board was withdrawn today
by the Plymouth Hill Civic As-sociation
In order to avoid any
possible delay It might cause In
the construction of a new 30-room
elementary school to be built on
Plymouth Rd., near Johnson High-way.
But after the complaint was with-drawn,
James Martlno, president
of the Civic Association, told this
newspaper:
"We want to make it clear that
we have withdrawn the protest
only because of the tight con-struction
schedule for the school.
We are stiU not satisfied with the
final action that was taken by the
school board."
The final action was taken at
the April meeting of the school
board when it was unanimously
decided to use Red Rowen Lane
as a second entrance to the new
elementary school.
The Civic Association had fought
plans for the added driveway since
October when they stated that the
entrance off Plymouth Rd. is
"adequate enough" and charged
the school board with acting "as
if education is the primary thing
rather than giving first con-sideration
to the safety of 400
Plymouth Hill children."
Martlno said that the modern
trend is to channel traffic on
through roads, not into residential
developments.
"There are no through streets
in our development," Martlno said.
"Hundreds of Plymouth Hill child-ren
would be walking to and from
school every day and the added
traffic would be a hazard to pre-school
children who are used to
playing In a quiet, low traffic
community.
"With the coming of a second
entrance, we can expect three to
six buses a day going through
our community. This could result
In as many as 24 trips a day.
"We recently received a letter
from the school board In response
to our various requests for reasons
why they want to use the road
entrance from Red Rowen Lane
and their proposed uses for it.
"But we got no new information
from them except for a non-com-mlttlng
statement that 'it is highly
possible that most bus traffic would
be routed via Johnson Highway or
Plymouth Rd'."
The main reasons that the school
board had given for the Red Rowen
Lane entrance were:
1. A school of this size, one of
the largest in Pennsylvania, needs
a secondary access.
2. Since the State Highway Dept.
is sometimes slow In clearing
snow from Plymouth Rd., the
school might be opened earlier
by routing aU buses and traffic
through Plymouth HU1 to the Red
(Continued on page 2)
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Conshohocken -West Conshohocken — Plymouth, Whitemarsh & Springfield Townships — Chestnut Hill
VoL 94 No. 2 TA 8-4600 THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1964 "It A COPY
Dump
Ignite Ire
In Miquon
A sweeping accusation charg-i
lng the Miquon Development Co.
| with creating a health and fire
hazard In its "sanitary" land-fill
operation was leveled against
the company Thursday night at
the regular meeting of the White-marsh
Board of Supervisors by a
Democrat committeeman and a
former Republican committee-woman,
who live in the area.
Richard Burgess, 18 Hart's Lane
accused the company of:
1. Leaving refuse uncovered
at night.
2. Letting an open fire burn
continuously on the property.
3. Allowing "tremendous
heaps of paper and cardboard to
clutter on the property and doing
nothing to keep the papers from
blowing all over Miquon."
4. Allowing unsanitary condi-tions
to exist which have caused
the side of the hill to be "loaded
with rats and everything else."
Miss Marsha Simpson, also of
Hart's Lane, backed Burgess'
charges and added:
1. There are two spots there
that "I know haven't been covered
In a month."
2. "I have seen the headlights
of trucks leaving the property
at four in the morning.'"
3. There is a "fire the re every
night, all night long, which has
burned for a month.'
"Isn't there any ordinance in
the township which requires them
to cover refuse?" Miss Simpson
asked.
Willard E. Hargreaves, town-ship
secretary-treasurer said that
the requirement to cover refuse
"comes under the rules and re-gulations
of the State_Department
of Health which' 'requires a six
Inch fill after every day."
Jack Kendree, chairman of the
board of supervisors, said that
the problem is basicaUy the town-ship's
responsibility, and not the
State's.
He instructed William E. Light-kep,
township health officer, to
ask state officials to accompany
him on an inspection of the land-fill
operation. Kendree also told
William L. Huganlr, board soli-citor,
to take "Immediate steps
if the landfiU is not legal."
Consho. Residents
Against Merger
Conshohocken residents who at-tended
a special meeting on Monday
to discuss school district reorgan-ization
withPlymouth-Whitemarsh
voted 51 to 41 to remain an in-dependent
district.
Ministers SponsorBaccalaureate Service
For P~W Students Despite Board Ruling
By Sydney Bodnick
Despite a ruling by the
Plymouth-whitemarsh Joint School
Board that it cannot legally sponsor
a Baccalaureate service, the
program will be held as usual for
high school students on Sunday,
June 7, at 3 p.m. in thehlghschool
auditorium.
The Baccalaureate will be spon-sored
by the Ministers' Council
of Plymouth and Whitemarsh town-ships
which applied to the Joint
School Board to rent the auditorium
shortly after the Board ruled that
it could not be the sponsor.
Students, parents and friends
wiU be invited to the service on
a voluntary basis.
Rev. Harold F. Doebler, min-ister
of St. Peter's Lutheran
Church, will be speaker. Others
participating in the service are the
Rev. WaUace H us tad, minister of
the Messiah Methodist Church, In-vocation;
Rev. J. Dennis Williams,
minister of the Messiah Methodist
At 20th Anniversary Dinner
REV. JOSEPH W. KAVANAUGH, second from left, pastor of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Church,
Philadelphia, observes program prior to speaking at banquet In observance of 20th anniversary of St.
Matthew's Court 1363, Catholic Daughters of America. Others in photo are, Mrs. Watson Koldys, vice
regent and toastmaster, Rt. Rev. Msgr. George L. Murphy, and Mrs. Mary Rome, grand regent.
Church, prayer; Wayne Staley,
president of the senior class of
Plymouth - Whitemarsh High
School, scripture lesson; and Rev.
Otho Hoofnagle, minister of SU
Thomas Episcopal Church, bene-diction.
Music will be supplied by the
high school choir under the
direction of C. Marcellus Kuhn,
chairman of the Fine Arts depart-ment
of the high school. Kuhn will
also serve as organist.
"The decision to hold Baccalau-reate
services for Plymouth-
Whitemarsh high school students
is legal in my opinion," Dr. Allen
C. Harman, superintendent of
Montgomery County Schools, today
told the Recorder.
"I think that some other school
districts in the county plan to do
the same thing," Dr. Harman said.
"Some may hold the Baccalaureate
through 4the sponsorship of
ministers' councils and others may
do it through the sponsorship of the
school boards themselves."
Dr. Harman said that the
decision to hold Baccalaureate
services was based on a legal
opinion by Jules Pearlstlne,
solicitor of the Montgomery County
School Board.
Pearlstine's recommendation
was made on Nov. 19 to the County
Board of School Directors and the
information was promptly dis-tributed
to all school districts in
the county.
Pearlstlne said that since the
(Continued on page 2)
Priest Back
For Banquet
The Rev. Joseph W. Kavanaugh,
pastor of the Transfiguration
Church, Philadelphia and former
pastor of St. Matthew's parish
(1943-47) was guest speaker May 9
at the 20th anniversary banquet
of St. Matthew's Court 1363 Cath-olic
Daughters of America held
at the Valley Forge Hotel.
The Court was founded on June
25, 1944, with Mrs. John V. Botto,
Sr., the first grand regent. Father
Kavanaugh was the Court's first
chaplain.
Guests included: Rt. Rev. Msgr.
George L. Murphy, present chap-lain
of the Court and pastor of
St. Matthew's; Miss Blanche Pow-ers,
state secretary; Mrs. Peter
Galie, president, Auxiliary of the
Conshohocken Knights of Colum-bus.
Also Donald Moser, K of C
grand knight; Miss Eleanor Moore,
grand regent of the Mater Christi
Court, Philadelphia; Mrs. Clara
Sladek, financial secretary of the
Ave. Court.
Whitemarsh Starts Search
For Full-time Engineer
The supervisors of Whitemarsh
are looking for a fulltime engineer
to replace the office of consulting
engineer, presently held by George
B. Mebus, Inc., Glenslde.
How many more tax dollars will
the people of Whitemarsh have to
spend to afford a fulltime engineer?
In the opinion of township solic-itor
William L. Huganir, the local
taxpayer will hardly feel the pinch.
As a matter of fact, Huganir in-dicated
in an interview this week,
Whitemarsh may save money onthe
deal.
"I would say that a fulltime
engineer wlU save the township
approximately $5,000 a year that
is now being spent in other areas,"
Huganir said. "The new engineer
will probably save the township
$3,000 a year in legal fees alone.
"Add the $5,000 savings to
$6,000 that the township paid the
consulting engineer last year and
the sum is fairly close to what you
mieht exnect to nav a fulltime
engineer. (Bernard Pannone, the
only fulltime engineer whitemarsh
ever had, received $10,500 a year
from 1960 to 1963).
"Anything above this $11,000
will certainly be well worth the
increased efficiency that the town-ship
can expect as a result of the
new position."
Huganir indicated that a full-time
engineer would save the town-ship
money in four major areas.
They are:
1. Fees now being paid to the
solicitor; because he Is "over-burdened
with work that should be
performed by an engineer and not
a lawyer."
2. Retainer fee now being paid
to consulting engineer.
3. Higher hourly rates now
being paid to consulting engineer
for work over and above retainer
fee.
4. Work being done in other
government departments that a
fulltime engineer could perform as
part of his duties.
"As township solicitor lam
doing a lot of work on subdivisions
that should be done by an engineer
and not a lawyer," Huganir said.
"For example, I have to review
subdivision plans and see that they
comply with regulations. A good
engineer could do this much cheap-er
than a lawyer.
"The township is now being
deluged by applications from de-velopers
and this is really a critical
matter that requires engineering
services to process them.
"If an engineer is around all
the time it wiU be much easier
to get things done. At present we
have to call our consulting engineer
from Glenslde every time some-thing
comes up. He has to run
over here and that results in a lot
of wasted motion.
"Since a fulltime engineer would
be available all the time, his
hourly rate would be less than
that of a consulting engineer.