Residents will fight lot sale
SAXONBURG — About 25 residents turned out at Wednesday night's borough meeting to express their opposition to the sale of the original Roebling Park.
The council recently voted 4-2 to sell a one-acre lot on Aderhold Road in the Green Acres housing development off of Butler Road.
The lot was conveyed to the borough by George Aderhold decades ago when he divided his large property into lots for homes. Aderhold, a German immigrant, named the lot “Roebling Park” and intended it to be green space in the Green Acres development.
Councilwoman Pat Rinebolt, who lives in the Green Acres plan, said a covenant in the original deed used to convey the lot to the borough states that it may never be sold by the borough.
But borough solicitor Sean Gallagher told the council that a legal review conducted by himself and his father, attorney Mike Gallagher, determined that the borough was free to sell the lot.
Many Green Acres residents, both young and old, gave their impassioned pleas to the council to allow the lot to remain a green space.
Sandra Simpson, who grew up in the development and lives there now, presented the council with a petition containing more than 50 signatures of those who want the lot to remain a green space and not be sold by the borough.
Rinebolt read a letter by John B. Thompson, who served on the council from 1960 to 1996.
In the letter, Thompson recalled the subdivision of Green Acres in the 1970s.
“The council agreed that the forested area would remain undeveloped and at some time in the future would become a park for residents of Green Acres and borough residents,” Thompson said in the letter.
The Green Acres neighbors vowed to talk to an attorney and fight the action because the covenant mentioned by Rinebolt prevents them from selling the lot without the blessing of the Green Acres residents.
Read the full story in the Butler Eagle to see what other residents are saying and why some members of the council want to sell the lot .
