The Borough of Palmyra council discussed several new redevelopment updates at its Feb. 3 work session, while also authorizing various resolutions and spotlighting upcoming community events.
First on the agenda were three redevelopment sites. The first one discussed was the Route 73 South redevelopment area, followed by the 620-622 Highland Avenue redevelopment area and the former Knights of Columbus redevelopment area on East Broad.
According to Borough Administrator John Gural, the Route 73 South project comprises a 182-acre property on the west side of the highway. The borough originally had a $300,000 lean on the property, but it has recently been assigned to the company Cherokee Equity. The borough expects the foreclosure sale on March 5.
For the former Knights of Columbus site, the borough is currently undergoing an Area in Need of Redevelopment study to determine if it qualifies for redevelopment. The borough also expects to have those results by March.
For the Highland Avenue redevelopment area — formerly PNC Bank — the borough will file a declaration of taking with Burlington County Superior Court. The borough received the appraised value of property in the amount of $135,000 from the redeveloper, allowing the borough to present the declaration.
The borough will own the property and ultimately transfer it to the redeveloper. According to Gural, the declaration and payment for the property will be presented to the superior court within the next week.
“Redevelopment is all about revitalization,” said Gural. “Revitalizing contaminated properties, and brownfield areas as in the Route 73 South project or properties that are underutilized like the PNC Bank.
“It’s all about revitalizing the community.”
Among the resolutions authorized at the work session, Mayor Gina Tait will execute a shared service agreement between the borough and Cinnaminson Township for the purchase of brine solution.
The borough also authorized the purchase of 13 desktop computer work stations to replace the Windows 7 Operating System with an upgrade to Windows 10 Professional. Related hardware, software and labor amounts to $23,792.00.
The borough also rejected all bids received for a sanitary sewer replacement as part of the road pump station elimination project, as they significantly exceeded the engineer’s estimate.
“We are eliminating one of our pump stations,” Gural explained. “We have a number of them throughout the community where sanitary is drained and pumped into our treatment plant. We are eliminating one on Public Road just because we found a more efficient and less extensive mechanism to get it to our sewage treatment plant.
“The engineer is putting it out for bids so it will not be a project until later this year.”
