It has been a long time coming but plans to create a 71-acre lake as a water source for Primrose Creek out of the defunct New Hope Crushed Stone Quarry pit on Phillips Mill Road are close at hand.
The Department of Environmental Protection ordered the quarry to stop mining in 2017 and mandated it post a $1.14 million bond (which has since been relinquished to the DEP) for restoration work.
Situated in the middle of Primrose Creek, the quarry pit is being turned into a lake.
The DEP has designed an outflow route from the lake to Primrose Creek, and is asking Solebury for permission to move ahead, explained Solebury Supervisor Kevin Morrissey on Tuesday.
Township engineer Wynn Associates will draft comments on the DEP plan and submit it for approval at the supervisors’ Jan. 17 meeting.
Other work needed at the 210-acre site, which is still owned by New Hope Crushed Stone, Morrissey said, involves landscaping. The property is in a residential zone.
The board of supervisors also reorganized Tuesday.
Mark Baum Baicker will once again chair the board — for the sixth year in a row.
The unanimous vote came at the board’s Tuesday reorganization meeting where Supervisor Hanna Howe was also unanimously elected vice chair.
“I take the responsibility very seriously and am again very appreciative of the board’s confidence,” Baum Baicker said.
“I have to admit that as we embarked upon 2022 I had real concerns about what the future would look like, since we knew that Township Manager Dennis Carney was going to retire in June. As everyone knows, Dennis did a great job ... for over a decade.
“But with the hiring of Chris Garges as Dennis’ successor, my concerns were almost immediately assuaged.”
Morrissey added, “Chris didn’t just drop from the sky,” noting “a lot of work and a lot of time” went into his selection.
In other business, supervisor liaisons were named:
Morrissey: Route 202 Property Advisory Committee, Land Preservation Committee, Park & Recreation Board;
Howe: Route 202 Property Advisory Committee, Farm Committee, New Hope-Solebury School District;
Robert McEwan: Environmental Advisory Council, Finance Committee, Lower Delaware Wild & Scenic River Management Council, Free Library of New Hope and Solebury;
John Francis: Historical Architectural Board, Planning Commission;
Baum Baicker: Police Pension, New Hope-Solebury Committee, Emergency Medical Service, Human Relations Commission.
Among other appointments, without compensation, were former Supervisor Noel Barrett of Carversville as chairman of the Vacancy Board, Scott Fleisher of Pipersville as fire marshal, and Curtis J. Jenner Jr., J. Peter Grover and Thomas J. Francisco to the Solebury Township Board of Appeals.
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