Vo-tech school's neighbor to be "made whole" after drainage project floods property

Though not personally affected, Bonnie and John Robinson were nominally aware of since the nearby (WMCTC, formerly known as the Western Center for Technical Studies) had installed a new retention basin during its renovations in 2009.

They noticed early this spring, when portions of adjacent residential yards that lay within the right-of-way were torn up to bury an underground pipe intended to relieve the flooding on Graterford Road.

In April, however, when a spill basin at the end of that pipe began depositing untold thousands of gallons of water onto their property, they abruptly crossed the line from awareness to personal involvement.

"It just showed up one day," Bonnie Robinson said of the spill basin, which had been placed with the intent of allowing the water to drain into a creek that runs through the Robinsons' property. A proposed easement on their property that appeared on the plans for the project did not actually exist. The Robinsons were never contacted about the proposed easement.

The joint operating committee of the WMCTC acknowledged Monday evening that the basin had been improperly located on the Robinsons' property. The committee unaninmously passed a motion to relocate the project off the property and restore the area to the condition it was in prior to the error. The cost of the repairs, which includes extending the underground drainage pipe beyond the Robinsons' property, is not to exceed $35,000.

The WMCTC serves about 400 students in the Spring-Ford, Pottsgrove, and Upper Perkiomen school districts. It is cooperatively administered by the three districts, each of which sends representatives from its respective school boards to sit on the school's joint operating committee.

Spring-Ford school board president Joseph Ciresi, who sits on the WMCTC joint operating committee, apologized to the Robinsons. For them, Ciresi said, "the fault absolutely lies with the joint operating committee."

Ciresi then qualified the claim of responsibility by noting that the committee was "told that things were being done the right way" by Cornerstone Consulting Engineers & Architectural, Inc., which is leading the project. Cornerstone principal John Anderson agreed to serve as the primary point of contact with the Robinsons during the repairs to their property.

Cornerstone is waiving its fees for the work associated with repairing the Robinsons' property.

Spring-Ford school board vice-president Thomas DiBello attended the meeting as a member of the audience. During public comment, he pointed out that although the money being spent on correcting the error had already been allocated as part of a $40 million bond for capital improvements at the WMCTC, it would no longer be available to help repay the bond.

"The taxpayers are paying for this [mistake]," DiBello said.

The Robinsons expressed satisfaction with the outcome. Bonnie Robinson said she had been prepared to propose that the affected property be condemned and purchased by the school under eminent domain law.

"If they make things right, I've got no problem with it," John Robinson said. After further consideration, he added a caveat.

"I don't know how they're going to put 200 feet of pipe in for $35,000," he said.