The Sanatoga Post

This split image from Google Maps shows the Rupert Road bridge from a driver's perspective, above, and its mapped location below

SANATOGA PA – Attorneys working on behalf of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township said Monday (Feb. 6, 2012) they’re hopeful good things may soon happen in finding cash to fix the crumbling Rupert Road bridge on the municipality’s east side. As evidence of their confidence, the Board of Commissioners was asked to consider scheduling a special meeting on the topic next week.

Commissioners unanimously agreed. A date has yet to be set, pending Manager Rodney Hawthorne’s check of other calendar items. The Post will report the meeting date when it is announced.

The bridge carries Rupert Road across Hartenstine Creek, and is deemed to be one of six structurally deficient bridges in Lower Pottsgrove. During weekdays it bears a heavy load of traffic moving mornings from the township’s northwest end to the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, and back in evening hours.

It’s been on the township’s to-fix list for years, with $375,000 or more for the job intended to have come from developers responsible for building the housing community surrounding Raven’s Claw Golf Club on the road’s east side. The money, according to Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, sits earmarked for the purpose but untapped in a Wilmington DE bank.

Commissioners last April (2011) directed Holloway and their special counsel, the Furey & Baldassari P.C. law firm in Audubon, to file a lawsuit in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas against developer DHLP LLC. It bought the community from an earlier developer, and consequently assumed liability to pay for the bridge’s repair or replacement, Holloway said.

The township and DHLP had been negotiating over the total sum involved for some time. Those talks broke off earlier last year, and then resumed when the lawsuit was ordered. Now, Holloway explained, they seem to be headed toward a conclusion. “There’s movement,” the solicitor cautiously announced Monday, “and it’s my recommendation we try not to lose it if we can.”

Because the board won’t meet again until Feb. 23, Holloway advocated the special meeting. It will be open to the public, but likely will be preceded by a closed-door executive session during which commissioners would learn the details of any agreement and be able to ask questions regarding it. Such private talks regarding litigation are allowed by state law.

Related:

• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit
• Rupert Road Bridge Repair Funds ‘Wait’ In DE Bank
• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Report: Six Bridges In Township ‘Structurally Deficient’

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 6 meeting):

• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

Images from Google Maps

SANATOGA PA – Money to fix many of the problems plaguing the deteriorated Rupert Road bridge in Lower Pottsgrove PA, according to township officials, is waiting in a Delaware bank to be tapped. When the funds might be released, however, and if they will be sufficient to cover all of the repair needs and associated costs, are still unknowns.

A car speeds across the Rupert Road bridge

News that the township Board of Commissioners voted Thursday (April 21, 2011) to sue a real estate developer that, it claims, is legally responsible to come through with $375,000 or more for the bridge’s repair, has since been the talk of Lower Pottsgrove’s east side. The Sanatoga Post report of the decision, which also was publicized Saturday (April 23) by The (Pottstown PA) Mercury, was viewed across both publications by more than a thousand readers.

“Attaboy, Lower,” cheered resident Ed Cox, who was among those commenting to The Post. “Those attorneys can be useful.” “That Rupert Road bridge has been a disaster for years,” commenter Wolfgang Bayngor added earlier.

Special counsel hired by the township was directed to file suit in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas against DHLP LLC, and apparently related entities, that developed the residential housing community surrounding Raven’s Claw Golf Club in adjacent Limerick Township. The community in part fronts Rupert Road. Commissioners contend DHLP agreed to pay for the bridge’s repair during its land development process in Lower Pottsgrove.

That fix-up fund, or “financial security,” is part of a loan approved years earlier for DHLP by Wilmington Trust Bank in Delaware, Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway explained Thursday. “The money’s still there, or at least it’s never been drawn off the loan,” Holloway said, and DHLP representatives have twice offered up to $375,000 to address the bridge issue, he added.

The higher sum may no longer be enough, because of other costs accrued over the years, Holloway said. Township officials reported the suit was prompted by frustration of recent weeks, when DHLP stopped responding to their inquiries.

Although the bank loan was considered sufficient security by the township when its development agreement with DHLP was signed during 2004, subsequent agreements with other developers require similar security “in as liquid a form as we can get it,” Holloway said. Generally, that means developers now must furnish Lower Pottsgrove with a letter of credit, bonds or – best yet – a cash escrow that can be accessed more quickly.

The township lawsuit, if it proceeds, is sure to further delay repairs to the bridge, which is owned by Montgomery County. Meanwhile, Holloway hopes the board’s decision to pursue a legal remedy will bring the developer back to negotiations regarding the matter.

Related:

• Rupert Road Bridge Repair Funds ‘Wait’ In DE Bank
• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Report: Six Bridges In Township ‘Structurally Deficient’

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners meeting of April 21):

• Rupert Road Bridge Repair Funds ‘Wait’ In DE Bank
• Spend That Money! Sunnybrook Funds Get Last OK
• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Cooperation Agreement On Commissioners’ Agenda

SANATOGA PA – Frustrated by what it said have been years of unproductive negotiations, and then surprised in recent weeks when those talks appeared to end abruptly, the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night (April 21, 2011) to sue a real estate developer for its failure to pay for repairs to the crumbling Rupert Road bridge.

The Rupert Road bridge in Lower Pottsgrove, on its border with Limerick township

Commissioners authorized their special counsel in the matter, the Furey & Baldassari P.C. law firm in Audubon, to file a lawsuit in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas against developer DHLP LLC. It owns and markets a residential housing community surrounding the Raven’s Claw Golf Club, the west side of which fronts Rupert Road and which in part straddles the border between Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick townships. Homes there sell from roughly $350,000 to $450,000 each.

Its need for repair or replacment is evident at several portions of the structure

DHLP bought the community from an earlier developer about seven years ago, and with it assumed liability to pay for the bridge’s repair or replacement, according to township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway.

At stake for Lower Pottsgrove in the potential court battle is $375,000 or more it says it is owed by DHLP to fix the bridge. Beyond that, Holloway said, the township also plans to demand reimbursement for money spent since 2004 to make stop-gap repairs, as well as tens of thousands of dollars spent so far in attorneys’ fees and other costs.

Representatives of DHLP could not be contacted Thursday night for comment.

The Rupert Road bridge, built by the county in 1921, is one of six within the township identified late last month by a national transportation lobbying group as “structurally deficient.” Many area residents readily claim it is the worst of that lot, with cracked and scaling concrete walls and abutments, exposed and rusting steel reinforcements, and uneven pavement.

The bridge in recent years also has been subject to increasingly heavier traffic. It is crossed by residents of the decades-old Woodgate subdivision, located on Rupert Road’s west side; from the DHLP development, on its east side; and from drivers traveling Rupert from as far away as Boyertown to reach U.S. Route 422 at the Sanatoga interchange.

Holloway said the township has been “negotiating with DHLP for a number of years” over what it was due for the uncompleted bridge improvements that were part of land use plans approved in 2002 for the community’s original developer, Heritage Homes.

At various points in talks with DHLP after it bought the community from Heritage, Lower Pottsgrove received settlement offers of $300,000 and $375,000, respectively. They were declined, Holloway said, because neither was sufficient to finish the work. “The disrepair has been steadily increasing, while the price to fix it also has been rising,” board President Jonathan Spadt added.

Montgomery County still owns the bridge, which was built in 1921

Then, only weeks ago, DHLP went silent, Holloway charged. “Quite frankly, the conversation just stopped,” he said, between its lawyers and Furey & Baldassari, representing the township. “They (DHLP) have been non-responsive since,” Holloway claimed.

That prompted the recommendation to sue, which was discussed during a board executive session Thursday at 6:15 p.m. before the commissioners’ regular meeting began in the municipal building on Buchert Road.

The county owns the bridge, Holloway explained, but so far has chosen not to participate in the legal action. Instead, it will let Lower Pottsgrove proceed “for the county’s benefit,” he said. When filed, the suit likely will name other defendants as well, possibly including Heritage, which allegedly promised to draw plans for a new bridge but never delivered them.

Related:

• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Report: Six Bridges In Township ‘Structurally Deficient’

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners meeting of April 21):

• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Cooperation Agreement On Commissioners’ Agenda