With an eye toward creating a master plan for the borough’s assets, Quarryville Borough Council held a special meeting Feb. 22 and reached consensus on selling its Reed's Spring property, which is six acres on Sunset Drive.
“I’d like to see it liquidated and the money put away as we plan for the future,” said council President Robert Landis Jr.
The property, which council believes could provide a buyer with two or three building lots, is outside borough limits and council members said it would not be of use to the borough. Council directed borough manager Al Drayovitch to look into the procedure for accepting bids and selling the property.
The Reed's Spring parcel is one of several parcels which council either purchased or accepted through donation over the years.
The Herr Spring property was donated to the borough about 50 years ago by Robert Herr and has been considered a possible borough water source. Council members said they are unsure whether the water is suitable to used for public drinking, and it is time to do a drill test to check the water quality and flow.
Drayovitch said the borough purchases a million gallons each month from Pennsylvania American Water Company, a contract which costs the borough $75,000 annually. He said this represents about 15 percent of the borough’s annual water usage.
While council said it is unlikely they would ever replace that contracted amount with their own water sources, members said they would like to have additional flow capacity for times of drought.
Council asked Drayovitch to get a cost estimate for a water test at Herr Springs.
Council members, however, had several ideas for the home and two acres of land along Fourth and Saint Catherine streets which council purchased about two years ago. The home, which recently needed basic roof and other repairs, is now being used for storage, and Landis said it costs less to heat the house than it did to heat the previous storage space.
Council members considered either demolishing the house or renting it out, but the consensus was repairs to get it ready for the rental market would be too high.
Landis said council really purchased the parcel for the land.
“We do not have enough storage or facilities for what we do,“ said Landis. “My opinion is the land is too valuable to let it go. The southern end has talked about having a regional police force,” he said, indicating the property would be the ideal location.
Council members also said they plan to look into the cost of having a service go through, pare down and transfer to disc many borough records, to cut down on storage space.
Quarryville Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. Monday, March 7.