Hopewell Township due to voteon Else tract funding tonight

Total purchase price could be as high as $2,725,000.

By John Tredrea
   Expected at tonight’s Hopewell Township Committee meeting is a public hearing and adoption vote on a measure that, if OK’d, would allow officials to buy 65 acres for preservation purposes.
   The proposed ordinance amendment calls for spending up to $200,000 more than originally anticipated to preserve 60-odd acres off state Route 31 as open space.
   If all of the additional $200,000 is spent, it would bring the total purchase price of the land as high as $2,725,000. The money would come from the township’s open space tax revenues. The committee voted unanimously to introduce the amendment Jan. 16.
   On Nov. 1, the committee voted unanimously to spend up to $2,525,000 on the land, owned by the Else family. The land is on the eastern side of state Route 31, just south of the county Route 654 junction. The Pennytown Shopping Village is just north of that intersection.
   The amendment introduced Jan. 16 states that, since Nov. 1, "appraisals obtained of the subject property have resulted in a value and purchase price of the property greater than originally anticipated."
   Hence the need for the amendment, which is scheduled for an adoption vote tonight (Feb. 6). Under state law, a public hearing must precede the adoption vote.
   The money spent by the township on the Else tract would include all engineering, surveying, title work and legal costs in addition to the cost of the land itself.