Municipal News
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 March 2016 23:57
By J.R. Brower
At their regular meeting on March 14, Peters Township Council agreed to hire legal representation to study and advise on purchasing a large portion 190-acre Rolling Hills Country Club on East McMurray Road, which closed last year. The township is interested in buying the land for public recreational use.
On March 21, Peters Township School Board agreed to share the cost of the legal research as it looks for state funding to build a new high school to replace the old one, which first opened in 1967 and has been expanded and recently remodeled extensively at a cost of over $500.000.
Attorney William Bresnahan had previously contacted Township Manager Michael Silvestri and School Superintendent Jeannine French saying that he would carry out the legal work for the “possible negotiation, acquisition, and/or condemnation of the Rolling Hills Country Club property on East McMurray Road for the construction of a new public park and high school.”
The country club property is in the process of being acquired by a group of developers that include Horizon Properties, a major developer of Southpointe. Rolling Hills is expected to be sold at a cost of approximately $10 million. The township will soon begin meeting with financial advisors to look at ways to finance the purchase of the country club property, which will most likely come in the form of a bond issue
Bresnahan will bill the township $385 per hour for the legal work, which will be split between the municipality and the school district. Their board hired Bridgeville firm Hayes Design Group Architects to initiate the paperwork necessary to apply for state reimbursement funding.