Committee OKs bond ordinance
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
Hopewell Township has moved another step closer to buying the Twin Pines Airport.
The Township Committee voted unanimously Monday night to adopt a bond ordinance needed to complete the purchase. The measure appropriates $610,000 and authorizes the issuance of $579,500 in bonds or notes.
The Weasner family, township residents who have owned the airport for decades, have agreed to sell the 50.05-acre parcel for $2,372,500, township officials say.
Hopewell Township, which would the hold the title to the property, will put up $610,000.
Because Lawrence residents also would use the facilities, Lawrence Township Council has introduced a bond ordinance that would allocate $225,000 toward its share of the purchase. The council introduced the bond measure at its Dec. 6 meeting. A public hearing is planned for council’s Dec. 18 meeting.
Lawrence officials had approved a bond ordinance of $250,000 toward the purchase price in June. The additional money is needed to help pay for the property.
Mercer County has agreed to pay $1.2 million toward the purchase price.
And, last week, the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders adopted a resolution to contribute $1.9 million toward the development of athletic fields and other amenities like parking lots on the land through the Mercer at Play grant program.
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP Administrator/Engineer Paul Pogorzelski has said the grass airstrip at Twin Pines can be turned into four to six full-size multipurpose fields almost immediately. Those fields could be used by organized soccer, lacrosse and field hockey teams from Hopewell Valley (township, Pennington and Hopewell Borough) and Lawrence.
”We’re very anxious to start the process” of turning the airstrip into fields, Mr. Pogorzelski said Monday night. “It’s very flat,” Mr. Pogorzelski has said of the airport. “We have very few tracts this flat in Hopewell Township.”
The flatness “lessens dramatically” the cost of getting the fields ready, Mr. Pogorzelski said. Another big plus, he added, is the top-flight condition of the turf on the airstrip. “The Weasners have done an excellent job” of keeping that turf up to the task of handling airplanes.
To comply with state environmental regulations, underground fuel and oil tanks and a small amount of contaminated soil will be removed from the airport. A semi-wooded area to the west of the airstrip probably will be used as a small park. First, however, the removal of heavy equipment and plane parts from the semi-wooded will have to be completed.
The Weasners are responsible for all cleanup work under the terms of the sale, township officials say.
The airport is bordered by Pennington-Lawrenceville Road and Federal City Road, near the Lawrence border. A house on the property will be partially preserved, renovated and used to display mementos of the airport portion of Twin Pines’ long history.
Lawrence Ledger Staff Writer Lea Kahn contributed to this account.

