Franklin Township won’t pay to subdivide parcel

Franklin Township does not plan to pay the cost to subdivide Christman Field.

That was the stance taken by the township’s board of supervisors on Tuesday in response to a question posed to the board by resident and Lehighton Area School Board Director Gail Maholick.

Maholick asked supervisors if they were going to do the subdivision after the school board last month agreed to maintain a $1 per year lease with the township as it has for nearly 40 years.

The school board’s motion, which passed on a 7-2 vote, called for the baseball/softball fields to be subdivided, leaving the soccer field and school as a separate parcel.

The motion gained the school board’s support after two previous votes to transfer the ball fields outright to Franklin failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority.

The township agreed to pay the cost of subdividing the parcel, which currently also includes Franklin Elementary School and the soccer fields and track above the school.

However, on Tuesday, supervisors said they don’t want to do the subdivision.

“Year to year’s not going to work for us,” said Supervisors’ Chairman Jason Frey.

Supervisor Robin Cressley told Maholick it was a shame the school board couldn’t vote on the recommendation requested by supervisors and the Franklin Township Athletic Association which was an intermunicipal agreement.

Supervisor Barbara Beltz said it would cost a lot of taxpayers money to do the subdivision.

Frey, who attended last month’s school board meeting, said that while the transfer was the preferred means of ending the property debate, the township was open to keeping the same lease agreement that has been in place.

While leasing the fields for $1 per year, the township allows the athletic association to use them at no cost.

Maholick pushed for keeping the soccer fields and school on the same parcel while the district tries to sell the school, and identified at least four other places around the district that could be used for youth soccer fields.

The district left the door open to subdivide the soccer fields at a later date if it felt it wouldn’t adversely impact the value it could get when selling the school.

At its meeting held a week before last month’s school board meeting, supervisors agreed to hire an attorney regarding the Franklin Elementary School’s property pending the outcome of the school board’s meeting.

The property is 25.5 acres, with Christman Field being 11.8 acres, and the bottom soccer field about 5-plus acres.