A Chester County commissioner is the latest regional politician to throw his hat in the ring to help the Octorara Area School District bring economic development and property tax relief to the district.
“The county has similar challenges,“ said Commissioner Terence Farrell, speaking to the school board Aug. 16. “If your requirement to fund PSERs is going to triple, if your taxes go up, then we follow. I‘m responsive to putting some political pressure on people and working with you.”
The rural district, with municipalities in both Lancaster and Chester counties, has been working with economic development experts to attract additional tax revenue by bringing in business and industry.
Administrators and board members are also working with state representatives Bryan Cutler and Tom Houghton to lobby for legislation which would return to the district tax revenue lost from Clean and Green.
“We had a hearing on the issue but it has not come up for a vote yet,” Cutler said in an email.
However, the district is receiving favorable interest from real estate and development consultants, according to Doug Brown, a legislative assistant in Houghton’s office.
Brown said the Octorara Regional Planning Commission and Chester County Economic Development Council hosted more than 60 realtors, development consultants and federal, state and local officials at a July breakfast in Parkesburg.
“The event made Octorara a name for itself to businesses and economic development players,” Brown said. “The subsequent response has been very promising.”
Brown also said the West Chester University Center for Social and Economic Research will soon be using student interns to pursue business leads and interview business prospects.
Farrell told school board members rural Octorara makes the county “a great place to live and raise a family.”
Board President Lisa Bowman told Farrell the demographics of wealth change as one travels west in Chester County.
“Some of our taxpayers really have a burden other people in Chester County don’t have,“ Bowman said.
Octorara homeowners are now facing their largest property tax bills in school district history.
In a related issue, board member Sam Ganow asked district business administrators to look into potential lost tax revenue from Wolf’s Hollow Farm in Atglen.
“There are a couple of private residents in there,” said Ganow. “Are they being taxed?”
The Chester County Department of Parks and Recreation purchased the 650-acre farm from Eugene and Joan Gagliardi in 1996. According to an Aug. 22 story in the Pennsylvania Equestrian, Reins of Life Therapeutic Riding for handicapped children is leasing five acres, a barn, an arena and pastures from the county at Wolf‘s Hollow.
In other business board member Bob Hume took high school principal Scott Rohrer to task during the meeting. Hume said he has been asking for data on high school drop-out and retention rates for a month.
Rohrer said he had the data, but wants to give a presentation in September, after students formerly at risk for dropping out or being held back had taken summer courses.
The school board also approved a new policy on searching of students, their lockers and cars. The updated policy allows an administrator,not any staff member, to search when there is a reasonable suspicion of stolen goods, weapons, illegal drugs, alcohol or dangerous materials.
Finally, the school board approved: spending $15,645 for asbestos removal at the high school; Robin Keevan as a middle school long-term substitute physical education teacher; Kathleen Dikin as a long-term substitute third grade teacher; Matthew Talley as a high school technical education teacher; Gina DiBenedetto as a long-term substitute intermediate school physical education teacher; Matthew Furlong as payroll/accounting supervisor; several classroom assistants; and child-rearing leaves for Sarah Callaway, Dana Coulter, Amanda King and Gwendolen Klotz.
-30-